New star wars trailer, R2-unit bleep-boops. X-wing, Millennium Falcon, TIE fighter. Lightsaber. A deep voice, ominously rasping something about the Dark Side. If we were coming up with a checklist for a minute-and-a-half long teaser trailer for the next Star Wars movie, it would be pretty much the same as what you get if you watch the one that was released today.
Not that we can fault director JJ Abrams for sticking to the familiar. One of the challenges he faces in reviving the Star Wars movie franchise is winning over hardcore fans and washing away the bad taste of the critically reviled prequel films, and there's no better way to start doing that than by appealing to nostalgia. Everything in the trailer is changed just ever-so-subtly from the way it was in the original films. Remember R2-D2? Here's some kind of R2 robot that has a bouncy ball for a body. Remember those spaceships you like? Here they are again, with just a little more detail and a fresh coat of paint. Remember red lightsabers, the universal symbol for "a bad guy is holding this?" Here's one, but with a subtle fire-esque effect and little baby stumpy extensions sticking out of a hilt.
One alternate explanation for the excess of familiarity is that, unlike 2009's Star Trek, The Force Awakens is a true sequel and not a reboot. Abrams' first Trek film hit a big reset button for a franchise that was in much worse shape than Star Wars is now—even though reviews of Episodes I, II, and III were mostly negative and remain popular punching bags to this day, they were still big financial successes. The same cannot be said for Star Trek Nemesis and Enterprise, the final fizzling embers of the Star Trek revival that began with Wrath of Khan and The Next Generation. Abrams had a lot of latitude in reimagining Trek's most iconic elements, but The Force Awakens is sticking closer to the aesthetic established in the original 1970s and '80s films.
My favorite sign of this in the trailer might be the scuffed-up Rebel Alliance uniform, worn by a tired-looking guy who certainly looks like he spends his time fighting against a Galactic Empire with vastly superior equipment and greater resources. The original movies were full of this stuff—the Millennium Falcon was held together mostly by bubble gum, paper clips, and hope—and it's nice to see Abrams' film break away from the shiny and sterile designs found in most of the prequels.Of course, this trailer gives us just a glimpse of what we'll actually see in theaters in December 2015, and it tells us nothing about the stuff that really ruined the prequel movies—boring stories, wooden acting, and stilted, ridiculous scripts. We're inclined to be hopeful, given Abrams' track record, but we're still in for a long wait.
One alternate explanation for the excess of familiarity is that, unlike 2009's Star Trek, The Force Awakens is a true sequel and not a reboot. Abrams' first Trek film hit a big reset button for a franchise that was in much worse shape than Star Wars is now—even though reviews of Episodes I, II, and III were mostly negative and remain popular punching bags to this day, they were still big financial successes. The same cannot be said for Star Trek Nemesis and Enterprise, the final fizzling embers of the Star Trek revival that began with Wrath of Khan and The Next Generation. Abrams had a lot of latitude in reimagining Trek's most iconic elements, but The Force Awakens is sticking closer to the aesthetic established in the original 1970s and '80s films.
My favorite sign of this in the trailer might be the scuffed-up Rebel Alliance uniform, worn by a tired-looking guy who certainly looks like he spends his time fighting against a Galactic Empire with vastly superior equipment and greater resources. The original movies were full of this stuff—the Millennium Falcon was held together mostly by bubble gum, paper clips, and hope—and it's nice to see Abrams' film break away from the shiny and sterile designs found in most of the prequels.Of course, this trailer gives us just a glimpse of what we'll actually see in theaters in December 2015, and it tells us nothing about the stuff that really ruined the prequel movies—boring stories, wooden acting, and stilted, ridiculous scripts. We're inclined to be hopeful, given Abrams' track record, but we're still in for a long wait.
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