Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Adam Reynolds]

Looking at it in the longer trailer it didn't look quite like Tatooine, unless it was a different part of the planet.

Random notes.
- watching it at half speed, it was striking just how much blank space there was.
- They picked my favorite SW theme for this trailer. It gives a nice sense of optimism.
- Starting with a crashed star destroyer and X-wing was an interesting idea, it gave a sense of the death of giants(not to mention out with the old, in with the new). This does somewhat fit the idea of a slightly less mythic era, which might be somewhat interesting as starting point before the Jedi and Sith reemerge.
- I wonder if the crashed X-wing belongs to Poe(Oscar Issac's character)? Though it looks more like one of the older ones(full rather than half circle engines).
- When we see Vader's helmet, was it just me or did we see two robed figures around it? Given the darkness it was hard to tell.
- Is that Luke next to R2 on not Mustafar? That is interesting that he apparently has a new more mechanical hand. I was initially thinking it was Kylo Ren, but given the narration I think it is Luke.
- I was originally thinking it was Rey taking Luke's original(Anakin's) lightsaber, but I actually think it is Leia given the narration. Presumably that is Rey handing it to her.
- Was that statement of "you have that power too" to Rey?
- The fact that we saw a different sort of fighter than TIEs following a shuttle might actually mean that the Empire isn't working directly with Kylo. Or they could simply be a more advanced fighter as escorts.
- I liked the shot of the new X-wings, though I am disappointed that we have yet to see combat in space. In a Star Wars trailer.
- It almost appeared that the three bladed lightsaber only had the main blade going briefly, but I believe that was simply a side shot of the weapon.
- I wonder what the fiery planet is? It appears like not-Mustafar, similarly to not-Tatooine.
- The flag wasn't the standard Imperial flag.
- All of the Imperial designs are indeed new and actually look more clean than those of the OT. Implying that they are not in a state of war.
- The TIE fighter shown shooting up the Imperial base and the ones chasing the Falcon had different cockpits. The one shooting up the base had a more narrow viewport than those chasing the Faclon, which had the classical sort.

Based on this trailer I am almost tempted to take back my earlier misgivings.

[ray245]

I think the trailer is trying too hard to create a sense of nostalgia. For some reason, the film still feels too much like a fan film in terms of art style and cinematography.

[fractalsponge1]

WTF is wrong with them that they didn't hire you for this movie? I'm not kidding.

Sadly not. I'd have worked for cheap too

[Iroscato]

I think the trailer is trying too hard to create a sense of nostalgia. For some reason, the film still feels too much like a fan film in terms of art style and cinematography.

How could it not? This is picking up the pieces left behind by the OT and ushering in a new generation. The old guard are...old, and now mentoring the new kids on the block. I really don't see a way to avoid 'nostalgia' without alienating most of the fandom, and even the wider audience. Also, what's your beef with the cinematography? It looks frigging beautiful

[Adam Reynolds]

I'd love if it is Revan's mask if this Sith is collector of things that are nodding to EU left and right for we of the nerd collective while the average moviegoer says "oooh that looks cool" kind of like the Collector did in Guardians.

It doesn't look quite like Revan's mask. And I doubt there will be much in the way of EU references.

Nope. I could build that in a week though, I'd bet. It looks like a standard ISD that has had bits chopped off of it.

The bridge tower is obviously gone, and the module looks a lot lower and smaller relative to the original. The terraces are simplified compared to the original (looks like 3 stacked layers rather than the more blended structure in the original). The top of the prow has als obeen chopped away. Either a hangar bay or turret or more terrace in place of the tip of the dagger. No idea what'll be there until we see another shot.

The bow looks somewhat like the Sith destroyers in the Old Republic game trailer. They had a hanger bay as the bow.

Maybe we'll see that incident in those post ROTJ and pre Episode VII comics and novel then?

That does seem to be the idea based on what I have seen. I almost wonder if there are even references in earlier works like Tarkin.

Flame thrower troops... their the guys that appear mixed in with the normal troopers on the ice world base.

The flying black wing ship appears to be an imperial shuttle but its Imperial white in the art... maybe the Sith has his own black one?

Hadn't noticed it was an ice world until you mentioned it, interesting.

If it is an Executor, then there must have been a hell of a battle over this world. I hope they go into the backstory of what's been happening since Endor.

That's what the EU is for. I doubt there will be much backstory beyond that of the characters. In many ways leaving it as a mystery within the films is better. Leaving the viewers with a sense of what could have possibly destroyed one of those?

It does appear to have the nine engine cluster of an Executor.

The stormtroopers being presented to are on an ice world base... Hoth? Also some of the troops at the back have backpacks - heavy weapons? Snow troopers? The Emblem on the big red flag is not the Imperial symbol... could be a successor state to the Empire as its got even more spokes than before.

The backpacks are presumably flamethrowers given the other art that has emerged as well as the various rumors.

The new Star Destroyer does have a command tower but it seem much smaller and set further back lower against the hull with a single dome - its bottom hull is much bigger than the top giving it a pretty cool bruiser look.

I wonder what the relative size is to a regular Star Destroyer?

Those ships we see escorting the dark wing like ship in the star destroyer scene also appear inside the hanger battle scene.

Hadn't noticed that. So much for my idea about a different Empire not supporting the Sith. Though given that we also see stormtroopers following Kylo, it wasn't a very well thought out idea.

The Chrome trooper appears to be more than just a storm trooper, he strikes me as a main/secondary villain or something.

It is also one of the few carbine weapons in SW with a stock. The only other example I can think of belonged to Boba Fett.

The 1:11 guy doesn't look that much like Revan to me but he seems to be fighting on a lava type world, the storm troopers with him seem to be normal new ones.

The assumption is that he is Kylo Ren, the new Sith.

Chewy doesn't seem to have noticeably aged...

It's not like he noticeably aged between ROTS and ANH.

The new TIEs seem to have their turbolasers mounted in a turret now.

The TIE in the landing bay scene fired backwards or at least it looked like the engine was pointed towards the camera.

That would be why it looks different. I hadn't noticed the turret. You're right about that and it was indeed firing backwards.

I think the trailer is trying too hard to create a sense of nostalgia. For some reason, the film still feels too much like a fan film in terms of art style and cinematography.

What is wrong with nostalgia? And the first shot of the trailer doing the opposite. Showing a downed Star Destroyer and X-wing gives a sense of the death of the OT and that this is a new era.

As for it being a fan film. It effectively is. JJ Abrams has stated that he was a massive fan of Star Wars and that it was one of the things that caused him to become a filmmaker. He also stated when he was taking over the new film that he was a bigger fan of Star Wars than Star Trek.

How could it not? This is picking up the pieces left behind by the OT and ushering in a new generation. The old guard are...old, and now mentoring the new kids on the block. I really don't see a way to avoid 'nostalgia' without alienating most of the fandom, and even the wider audience. Also, what's your beef with the cinematography? It looks frigging beautiful

He merely thinks Lucas would be involved. If the Lucas name were plastered on the trailer he would be praising it. He was in support of the effects of the PT as being better than what we see here

[The Romulan Republic]

Some thoughts on the new trailer:

Something about it still feels off to me.
The shot of what looks like a battle in a hanger with the exploding Ties was awesome.
There's a lot of focus on the new leads- I suppose the fact that, the old heroes aside, the most prominent characters appear to be black and female is good for diversity.
We see the black stormtrooper guy both in and out of stormtrooper armour. Is he an Imperial soldier who defects?
I like the scene of the tiny thing flying past the ruined Star Destroyer at the beginning. For some reason that shot screams Forbidden Planet reference.
Vader's mask. Could this film involve going back to Endor as well as Tatooine? And are getting new locations or just nostalgia-milking?
I wonder who Luke's talking to at the beginning.
Interesting hints about the plot- Luke's dialog all but confirms a new Force user related to Luke.
Its nice to see Han, Chewbacca, and R2D2 again and at least hear Luke.

Edit: Also, its a shame not to see a big space battle or so much as a glimpse of Leia.

[Darth Nostril]

Fuck the prequels, this is what I have been waiting for since 1983.

[The Romulan Republic]

Fuck the prequels, this is what I have been waiting for since 1983.

Don't get your hopes up too much. If your expectations are too high you're liable to be disappointed.

[The Romulan Republic]

Spoiler

Jakooie? Sounds like a word I've heard Ewoks say during RoTJ. Is this post-holocaust Endor? *ducks*

Edit - probably better spoiler even though it's just me being a smartass.

That could more or less ruin the film for me. Enshrining a horrible idea that fans came up with with no basis in reason as canon? Fuck that.

Edit: I get that your joking. Still, the thought disturbs me.

[ray245]

How could it not? This is picking up the pieces left behind by the OT and ushering in a new generation. The old guard are...old, and now mentoring the new kids on the block. I really don't see a way to avoid 'nostalgia' without alienating most of the fandom, and even the wider audience. Also, what's your beef with the cinematography? It looks frigging beautiful

I think that the visual departure from the OT is too small to make it feel "authentic". Visually, they feel too conservative and as a result, makes the visual aspect feel too artificial to me.

Everything we have seen so far is basically using a "slightly different" (Lightsabre, X-Wing, Star destroyer) rather than something that looks different from the stuff we saw before in the OT, but still retains a Star Wars visual style.

In regards to the cinematography, I just feel that this looks too much like a high-production fanfilm on a small budget (5-6 million) than something that looks massive in terms of scale. Everything just feels like it is another apple product advertisement for some reason. The use of chrome for instance, just makes the scene feels weird and artificial.

This new cinematography style just feels too saturated for me.

What is wrong with nostalgia? And the first shot of the trailer doing the opposite. Showing a downed Star Destroyer and X-wing gives a sense of the death of the OT and that this is a new era.

As for it being a fan film. It effectively is. JJ Abrams has stated that he was a massive fan of Star Wars and that it was one of the things that caused him to become a filmmaker. He also stated when he was taking over the new film that he was a bigger fan of Star Wars than Star Trek.

I'm just looking for something that looks different, yet retains a Star Wars visual style. Battledroids are very different from what we saw in the OT, but they still feels a part of the SW universe.

The ARC-170 looks very different from the X-Wing, but yet we can still tell there is some sort of common ground between the two design.

He merely thinks Lucas would be involved. If the Lucas name were plastered on the trailer he would be praising it. He was in support of the effects of the PT as being better than what we see here

I've never said the effects in PT is better than what we saw here. I just feel that JJ's visual style doesn't suit SW, despite being a fan. The conservative visual designs makes it more of a fanfilm as opposed to someone making a professional SW movie in place of Lucas.

Fuck the prequels, this is what I have been waiting for since 1983.

Then you better not be complaining about this movie being worse than the prequels when you actually see the movie. It's stupid to judge a movie before you have seen it.

[Lord Revan]

I'd love if it is Revan's mask if this Sith is collector of things that are nodding to EU left and right for we of the nerd collective while the average moviegoer says "oooh that looks cool" kind of like the Collector did in Guardians.

It doesn't look quite like Revan's mask. And I doubt there will be much in the way of EU references.

even in The Old Republic Revan's mask looks alot more simple in design, in the old EU Revan took his mask from mandalorian grunt. the mask in the trailer and the pictures looks similar in design but with more decoritive details so it could inspired by Revan's mask but I dout it's Revan's actual mask (which would be about 4000 years old when the new trilogy happens unless that been retconned).

[Iroscato]

I love what I've seen so far. It looks awesome, but doesn't appear overstuffed. I'll take a more conservative, trimmed down approach over a cgi-stuffed visual smorgasbord fuckfest like the prequels any day. The Battle Over Coruscant was undoubtedly a beautiful scene, but impressive visuals do not a good movie make, again as evidenced by the appalling turds of I-III.
Let the action speak for itself, and give us characters we actually care about again.

[Adam Reynolds]

I love what I've seen so far. It looks awesome, but doesn't appear overstuffed. I'll take a more conservative, trimmed down approach over a cgi-stuffed visual smorgasbord fuckfest like the prequels any day. The Battle Over Coruscant was undoubtedly a beautiful scene, but impressive visuals do not a good movie make, again as evidenced by the appalling turds of I-III.
Let the action speak for itself, and give us characters we actually care about again.

The problem with a prequels, was that they had to show the fall of the Old Republic. Thus relatable everyman characters in the style of Han Solo would not fit the setting. Which is why they had Jedi and politicians as the main characters.

As for the visuals, it was the same problem. In the prequels we saw over the top visual that fit the end of an era rather than the smaller in scale struggle of the heroes against the Empire.

[Anacronian]

The problem with a prequels, was that they had to show the fall of the Old Republic. Thus relatable everyman characters in the style of Han Solo would not fit the setting Which is why they had Jedi and politicians as the main characters..

Why not?

You need to qualify this statement.

[Iroscato]

The effects were undoubtedly the best element of the prequels, and fit the more archaic, grandiose atmosphere of the Old Republic. The coldly utilitarian feel of Empire and the clunkier, rinky dink look to the rebels also fit the OT well. But of those two, the more interesting and engaging experience will always be the latter to me at least, because the characters have more of a chance to shine, and are not lost against the admittedly impressive backdrops. This is all for nothing of course, if the script and acting suck.

[Channel72]

Holy shit oh my God this looks FUCKING AMAZING. I can hardly wait until it comes out.



All kidding aside... this new Episode 7 trailer really does look awesome. The only thing you can really reliably infer from a trailer is the visual style and tone - everything else is basically just marketing lies. But the visuals, at least, look incredible, and the tone looks a lot closer to the OT than the glossy visuals from the Prequel trailers (and the movies themselves.)

[The Romulan Republic]

This is going to be the most significant movie, at least in popular culture, of 2015. Possibly of the decade. I hope it can live up to the hype.

[Channel72]

Nothing can ever live up to the hype. Let's instead hope that this movie manages to create some new characters that we actually care about. That would be enough, and a great accomplishment on it's own. We already know the visuals are going to kick ass.

[The Romulan Republic]

What I ask for is a clear and believable plot, likeable heroes, menacing villains, and a great space battle scene, set to that glorious John Williams music.

[FSTargetDrone]

(TPM trailer snippage)

Holy shit oh my God this looks FUCKING AMAZING. I can hardly wait until it comes out.

Oh you had to bring that up. That damn trailer. This was back when just a few years earlier, we saw honest-to-goodness live action scenes filmed for a video game (Rebel Assault II) and that seemed like a huge deal at the time. So the movie trailer was an enormous event. People were going to the theaters just to see the trailer! I remember downloading that TPM trailer from StarWars.com or wherever and watching its relatively low-res goodness over and over and over again. Dozens of times. I may even still have it somewhere on a disused drive.

[The Romulan Republic]

The warning signs were in that trailer. Little kid Anakin and annoying Jar Jar antics plus crappier Yoda. All the main problems of the film are on display.

[Gandalf]

That trailer was awesome, but needed more Threepio.

[FSTargetDrone]

The warning signs were in that trailer. Little kid Anakin and annoying Jar Jar antics plus crappier Yoda. All the main problems of the film are on display.

Indeed.

So about that weird-looking TIE in the hangar massacre scene. I think it's definitely a different model than the others:



To me, that is a heavier variant. I'm seeing a narrow, front-facing cockpit (or a rear cockpit? I dunno) with possibly cannon or whatever to the sides (though I am willing to accept these are idle engine exhausts and we are indeed looking at the rear) and the obvious turreted weapon below. Notice also the bulkier structure joining the cockpit ball to the wings, almost like a heavy collar around it, as well as the antenna-type structure above the cockpit.

Compared to the other TIEs seen in the trailer. These appear nearly identical to the classical TIE Fighters, or so it seems to me:





I didn't bother with the one chasing the Falcon, but it appears to look identical to the second and third ones above.

[The Romulan Republic]

The fancy Tie probably belongs to a high-ranking individual, just like how Vader had his own special Tie.

[FSTargetDrone]

The fancy Tie probably belongs to a high-ranking individual, just like how Vader had his own special Tie.

Certainly possible!