We finally got what we wanted, and a new official ‘The Force Awakens’ trailer is here. Without further delays, let’s take a look at it.
It seems like the creators are not holding back in terms of epicness, not in the slightest. And that is important, epicness is one of the main things about Star Wars. What else can we learn from the trailer – if we are still capable of focusing after the mighty impact of it?
The beginning of the trailer shows us what we can presume to be Rey’s daily life as a scavenger, the whole sequence before the first credits captures very well the atmosphere of a backwater corner of the galaxy. A parallel with Episode IV is more than obvious, but the atmosphere seems just right, if not even better. We may be as far away from the bright center of the Galaxy as it gets, and some bits of the voice-over dialogue we hear later underline the fact that Rey has very little information of the actual state of the Galaxy. Just as we do, now. Meanwhile, it is clear that the Rebellion did not end in a beautiful restored paradise, but that the ideals of the Galactic Empire live on, and that battle is far from over. And are the old heroes all but forgotten? Not completely, however, and that goes for both sides – Darth Vader’s legacy, it seems, is a powerful inspiration for Kylo Ren, the new apprentice of the Dark Side. And, if we put together all the rumours (including the official Star Wars databank) and the shot of The First Order control room (the infamous Starkiller Base itself, presumably), we might have just glimpsed something of the new destructive superweapon that poses a threat to the Galaxy. The Force, which features so nicely in the title, was perhaps a bit pushed back, but it was nonetheless importantly mentioned in the end – along with the nice shot of Finn facing Kylo Ren with a lightsaber. And it is also nice to see Han Solo, the eternal Force-skeptic, finally admitting (after thirty years), that the Jedi might be a thing.
Despite all the amazing stuff we have just seen, we have to keep in mind that a trailer is just a trailer. But I have to say that visually everything looks just right. The scenery of the different planets, the ships, starfighter battles, the costumes. Even the clearly “new” things are reminiscent enough of the “old” things, and it actually seems that the makers have managed to create the sense of time that has passed and of a Galaxy that has changed. A very typical mistake with many films which have sequels set years later, is that everything somehow remains the same; here, it really feels like there is a timeline and things change, just like in real life. Another thing about the visual continuity, despite the focus being obviously primarily on the old trilogy, is also not forgetting episodes I-III – for example in the one shot of Finn walking through a compound (of the Resistance?), we see a droid which more akin to those from the new trilogy, yet somehow still more reminiscent of the old trilogy in style.
All in all, the trailer is magnificent, and all we need to do now is to arm ourselves with patience until the actual movie comes out.
