Star Wars VII - Trailer Discussion

[Borgholio]

Could be a flat antenna, like a modern phased-array radar.

[Iroscato]

Minor trivia question: Is this the first time, in the films at least, that the 'Light side' of the force has specifically been mentioned by name?

[The Romulan Republic]

People keep talking about Cumberbatch being in it but I don't see him.

[Borgholio]

Minor trivia question: Is this the first time, in the films at least, that the 'Light side' of the force has specifically been mentioned by name?

I think Luke mentioned "Bringing [Vader] back to the Light Side" when speaking with Leia on Endor. But yeah it's not mentioned nearly as often as the Dark Side.

People keep talking about Cumberbatch being in it but I don't see him.

His voice was narrating. And I think that he's playing the Sith dude but since we never saw his face...

[Darth Nostril]

Given that it's only a teaser trailer but ..... ummm yeah to the best of my recollection there has only been reference to the Force and the Dark Side of the Force.
No specific mention of the Light side. Interesting this is, meditate upon this I must.

[The Romulan Republic]

Minor trivia question: Is this the first time, in the films at least, that the 'Light side' of the force has specifically been mentioned by name?

I think Luke mentioned "Bringing [Vader] back to the Light Side" when speaking with Leia on Endor. But yeah it's not mentioned nearly as often as the Dark Side.

People keep talking about Cumberbatch being in it but I don't see him.

His voice was narrating. And I think that he's playing the Sith dude but since we never saw his face...

He seems to be making quite a career out of villain voice-overs (he also did Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit as I recall).

[Borgholio]

He seems to be making quite a career out of villain voice-overs (he also did Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit as I recall).

Nothing wrong with that. Think about James Earl Jones' voice.

[Darth Nostril]

Minor trivia question: Is this the first time, in the films at least, that the 'Light side' of the force has specifically been mentioned by name?

I think Luke mentioned "Bringing [Vader] back to the Light Side" when speaking with Leia on Endor. But yeah it's not mentioned nearly as often as the Dark Side.

Luke actually says "Because, there is good in him. I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try."

[Borgholio]

Ah ok, my bad. Well then I guess it's really not mentioned at all in the entire series..since that was the only time I could remember. I do know Luke mentioned the Good side to Yoda once or twice.

[biostem]

I wonder if the flat-back to the stormtrooper armor is just the armor without the backpack - the round black circle could be a connection point/port of some sort.

I did not like the "soccer ball astromech" - Maybe the large sphere serves more of a purpose than just the droid's means of propulsion, (though you wouldn't want to spin any cargo around like that).

The X-Wings looked awesome. I hope they give a good reason why they are skimming the water like that. Other movies portrayed dedicated ground-attack craft, so to use X-Wings for this purpose implies either desperation or possibly a transition from space combat to ground which couldn't be avoided...

[SpottedKitty]

2. Stormtroopers preparing for a combat insertion - That gave me shivers. I never liked the idea that Stormtroopers were idiotic mooks who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door, but alas there was very little in the OT that made them seem dangerous. This one scene in the drop ship however, adds a whole level of badassery and implies you don't want to fuck with them. I can't wait to see more about that.

The fan film IMPS The Relentless went into this a good bit more than the original films, some of the setups are pretty impressive.

It might be worth it just to see a huge AT-AT backing into its parking slot with its reversing lights flashing, going <beep, beep, beep> ...

[Darth Nostril]

I did not like the "soccer ball astromech" - Maybe the large sphere serves more of a purpose than just the droid's means of propulsion, (though you wouldn't want to spin any cargo around like that).

Provides a better form of transportation over rough terrain than 'torso & legs with wheels'?. We've only got that few seconds glimpse of what the new style astromechs might look like. It could be that that sphere contains everything the old R2 chassis had, or it might be just a transport mode while the 'brain' of the droid moves between ground unit to starfighter unit.
Who the fuck knows? It's an 88 second teaser trailer and ten seconds of that is blank screen with momentous music welling up slowly.

[biostem]

I did not like the "soccer ball astromech" - Maybe the large sphere serves more of a purpose than just the droid's means of propulsion, (though you wouldn't want to spin any cargo around like that).

Provides a better form of transportation over rough terrain than 'torso & legs with wheels'?. We've only got that few seconds glimpse of what the new style astromechs might look like. It could be that that sphere contains everything the old R2 chassis had, or it might be just a transport mode while the 'brain' of the droid moves between ground unit to starfighter unit.
Who the fuck knows? It's an 88 second teaser trailer and ten seconds of that is blank screen with momentous music welling up slowly.

In ANH, Luke had a repulsorlift "hot rod" of his own - if it's a matter of transportation over rough terrain, that would be the way to go. I *hope* that they don't do some retarded transformers-esque rapid-reconfiguration into the sphere thing, though - it looked too masssive to just be the regular spherical body in another shape.

[SCRawl]

With respect to the lightsabre crossguards, I question its inclusion. In principle it makes sense, since even a glancing blow from one's opponent there would mean the end of either the sword or the sword-wielder's hands. On the other hand, the weapons have been in use for centuries; if it made sense to have crossguards on lightsabres, someone would have figured it out long before we ever met the Jedi.

My experience watching lightsabre combat has left me with the impression that the blades tend to "stick" to each other, not allowing one blade to slide along another. The only way to attack one's opponent's hands would be to directly attack them, and such attacks can be blocked and countered, etc.

On the other hand, it looks cool, so I guess that's why they did it.

[Simon_Jester]

The crossguard might actually be an offensive weapon. Because the blades bind to each other so easily, in certain styles I imagine it's fairly easy to end up corps-a-corps with your opponent. Having a pair of well-placed lightsaber blades that could eviscerate someone who got too close after binding your main blade would make for an interesting gimmick.

Although you'd have to figure out how to avoid eviscerating yourself.

[Anacronian]

I was just thinking Gwendolyne Christie (Brienne from Game of Thrones) is in the movie so perhaps she is the "Lightsaber Guy"

I have nothing to base it on other than it just struck me while seeing the teaser.

[Alkaloid]

Why are we assuming the soccer ball thing is an R2 unit? The cap part kind of looks similar, but that's about it. The thing looked tiny to me, like the actual size of a soccer ball. It's more like one of those boxy little things that run around on imperial ships than an astromech.

Anyway, what I really loved about was the implication we get actual heroes. The prequels were all ominous voice overs about the power of the dark side, which kind of makes sense because the Jedi have to fail. This does the same, but then is all "and the light" and BOOM, Millennium fucking Falcon soaring into the air. Proper, Death Star destroying, Empire fighting heroes in this movie.

[Grumman]

With respect to the lightsabre crossguards, I question its inclusion. In principle it makes sense, since even a glancing blow from one's opponent there would mean the end of either the sword or the sword-wielder's hands. On the other hand, the weapons have been in use for centuries; if it made sense to have crossguards on lightsabres, someone would have figured it out long before we ever met the Jedi.

It could be that the technology wasn't up to it - the standard lightsaber is a stick maybe eight inches long with a blade parallel to the stick. This one either needs miniaturisation for the crossguards or blades projected perpendicular to the emitter instead of parallel.

I imagine the crossguard would be more effective if the blades did not have to be perpendicular to the handle. If you could get the cross-blades pointing forwards and towards the axis of the main blade (or offset to either side), each cross-blade would protect the emitters from the enemy, and the emitters would protect you from the blades.

[Mange]

Has anyone ever thought for a second that the lens flare thing was added because they were always looking at fucking suns?

Bright light + camera lens = lens flare. This is beyond some people.

The thing with Abrams is that (with the ST movies and especially with Super 8, which otherwise is an entertaining movie) he shines powerful flashlights directly into the camera. It makes no sense to the viewer what the light sources are. Lens flare is typically avoided.

The lens flare in the teaser looks natural however.

[Adam Reynolds]

Was it just me or was the probe droid sound in the background with the stormtrooper in the beginning? As to his identity, my money is that he was one of the heroes given his demeanor and sense of desperation. Especially given that it was John Boyega, who was listed as one of the main actors. Though based on the other scene shown with stormtroopers, hopefully they do get a relatively good showing.

As a general response it was excellent. Everything that would be expected. I was wondering if the female character shown is Han and Leia's daughter. She does look somewhat like them. I am wondering if Han dies and she goes off to find Luke in an attempt to avenge her father's death. Mentors dying in the first movie of the trilogy is practically a requirement in Star Wars.

The feeling of Force powers also does make me thing that the main concept will be the return of Jedi fire to the galaxy for good after Luke left over fears to turning to the dark side.

As to the mystery desert planet I would say it is almost certainly Tatooine. Why would they create a new one when there is already a logical one that seems expected? Especially if Luke went off into hiding. While it does decrease the vastness of the universe, it does seem rather fitting. This is also somewhat negated by the fact that the other two locations we saw did appear rather original. One random idea that I had with the forest in winter is that it could be Endor post Holocaust, though that would be unlikely given that it would hurt the originals and force them to likely include Ewoks.

I also rather liked the new X-wing models. They managed to feel just enough like the originals to be familiar while also appearing new. The same for the changes to the Falcon. One would expect it to be updated in the 30 years, especially given that the Rebels seem to have somewhat won and thus they would likely have proper resources to keep it in better shape.

Anyway, what I really loved about was the implication we get actual heroes. The prequels were all ominous voice overs about the power of the dark side, which kind of makes sense because the Jedi have to fail. This does the same, but then is all "and the light" and BOOM, Millennium fucking Falcon soaring into the air. Proper, Death Star destroying, Empire fighting heroes in this movie.

This is generally a problem with prequel stories, especially Star Wars ones given that they must have a negative ending with the Jedi dying. The fundamental problem with the prequels is that there really could never be a proper hero's journey for Anakin given that we knew he had to end up as Darth Vader.

This sort of issue is quite common with prequels. Especially in more mythic stories. The OT had such a strong sense of mystery with Vader's fall and the Clone Wars that what was built up in the minds of fans could never be topped by what was shown. It's the same reason that horror movies generally avoid showing the monster, because the idea of the monster is far more scary than the reality in the overwhelming majority of cases.

The EU was even worse. Look what they did with something irrelevant like the Kessel Run and parsecs.

[LadyTevar]

The fan film IMPS The Relentless went into this a good bit more than the original films, some of the setups are pretty impressive.

It might be worth it just to see a huge AT-AT backing into its parking slot with its reversing lights flashing, going <beep, beep, beep> ...

Like in this failed anime?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGl6r5tQYPM

[Iroscato]

After watching the trailer a dozen or so more times, I'm 99% certain the voiceover isn't Cumberbatch. It's Andy Serkis. I've only heard his 'normal' voice in King Kong where he played the sailor (as well as Kong himself of course) but it sounds more like him than ol' Benedict.

[Irbis]

Bright light + camera lens = lens flare. This is beyond some people.

One, it's error in the art. Unwanted effect. That's why so much skill, time and money is invested into eliminating it. Sure, there are places where it's warranted but Abrams seems to know nothing about these.

Two, it ruins illusion we're invisible observers of important events and bashes us over the head with 'Hey, camera! It's only a movie!' ruining immersion. I am not that phased by it, but I find it irritating and I see why some people might hate it.

Three, just look at this and tell me it's in any way normal

[Irbis]

Since edit window closed:

Like in this failed anime?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGl6r5tQYPM

Oooh, that is very cool

Wish there was more though.

Luke actually says "Because, there is good in him. I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try."

It happened even earlier, in ESB:

LUKE
But how am I to know the good side from the bad?

YODA
You will know. When you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses
the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.

Either they hammed it up for public or Yoda colored the truth a little for Luke.

Provides a better form of transportation over rough terrain than 'torso & legs with wheels'?.

Eh, not sure about that. Not only tracks offer much better traction than loose ball easily affected by gravity, trying to roll one in sand will quickly lead to ball caked in sand-like concrete or, with looser one, quickly eroded from outside. Sand is used to polish even hard gemstones, so...

Either way, I am willing to wait for more footage but I am not sure if I like new designs. They appear... slimmer, rounded compared to boxy TOT stuff. They would make sense between prequels and TOT more, IMHO. Albeit I will admit the 'cross-guard' being just vents explanation some fans did makes the sword design a lot more forgiveable.

[Havok]

In the testing thread, someone mentioned that someone from the production said that because of the crudeness of the lighstaber design, that the hilt has vents to let off the excess heat. Not sure as to the actual validity, but it is a pretty good reason.