Trailer Trash – Star Wars: The Force Awakens

TRAILER TRASH – STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

“There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side, and the light”

This will be a day long remembered, the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens has finally arrived. It’s been a few hours and internet is still standing and has survived. This trailer was much more likely to break the internet than Kim Kardashians arse but all seems well.

The internet is already afire with fan speculation and reaction, so it only seems fitting that I add my thoughts too, so here is my breakdown of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser trailer…

We fade up from darkness to a shot of a familiar looking planet, could this be Tatooine? I’d be amazed if it wasn’t. The planet that is farthest from the bright centre of the universe has long been key in the Star Wars saga so far, surely it will continue to appear. “There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?” sneers an evil sounding voice. I’ve seen a lot of speculation that this is Benedict Cumberbatch already. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest its Max Von Sydow. If both sides of the force have awakened, where has it been? Did the force go into hibernation after Anakin brought balance to it at the end of Return of the Jedi?

Up pops a scared looking John Boyega, in what appears to be a stormtrooper outfit. It’s long been rumoured that his character had strayed from the good side and was looking to redeem himself.

Here’s a rather nifty looking new droid, a cross between an R2 unit and a space hopper, whatever it is, it seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere….

I love this shot of the funked up and redesigned Stormtroopers. They look slick, they look like soldiers. I wonder if these new souped up troopers trained at the Stevie Wonder School of marksmanship like their predecessors.

Here we are introduced to Daisy Ridley, long rumoured to be playing the daughter of Han & Leia She seems to be in a hurry too, zooming off into the distance. The design of her costume reminds me of the artwork of Ralph McQuarrie and it appeared in the recent comic book adaptation of The Star Wars.

 

Hello to Oscar Issac! Here he is appearing to be piloting an X-Wing. I like the design of his helmet and it’s great to see the original Rebel Alliance insignia on it.

Here’s a lovely shot of some X-Wings flying over a body of water. Their S-Foils are definitely locked in attack position. Are they about to engage with TIE Fighters?

We then cut to a snowy planet, which seems to be a hybrid of Hoth & Endor. Here is who I’m guessing is a new Sith lord, with a rather fancy lightsaber with a new hilt that lights up in three directions. “The Dark Side” the voice sneers again “…and the light”. I have a feeling that this character is going to cause a few issues for our heroes.

BOOM! Here’s the money shot! The classic Star Wars theme kicks in and we see everybody’s favourite starship pulling off some flyboy manoeuvres before taking on some TIE fighters. Just to see the Millennium Falcon again, combined with the classic Star Wars score gave me goose bumps. Amazing.

Summary

So, there we have it. When you break down the trailer into its component parts, there are only 10 or so elements, but that is plenty! It’s not called a teaser trailer for nothing. I think it’s a brave choice for the trailer not to include footage of any of the heroes from the original trilogy, but it works so well and of course leaves us all wanting to see so much more. I won’t lie, I really wanted to see Han & Chewie sitting behind the controls of the Falcon, I wanted to see Luke and his ‘contractually obligated beard’ but I don’t feel disappointed at all. This trailer has done its job, it has teased us, added fuel to the fanboy fire of speculation and left us all wanting more. Good job JJ.