Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Gandalf]

I wager it's how the main villain will have the "Chase Han and Chewie" scene.

[The Romulan Republic]

Another interesting thing: in the shot of the troops resembling stormtroopers standing in front of a building, there's a large emblem in the background. The emblem however, does not match the traditional Imperial emblem. Could this be a sign that what we're seeing is not the old Empire, but a new regime that uses similar equipment but is nonetheless distinct?

[applejack]

Another interesting thing: in the shot of the troops resembling stormtroopers standing in front of a building, there's a large emblem in the background. The emblem however, does not match the traditional Imperial emblem. Could this be a sign that what we're seeing is not the old Empire, but a new regime that uses similar equipment but is nonetheless distinct?

Some of the promotional materials at Anaheim Celebrations is referring to the villains as the First Order.

From i09

[Iroscato]

Ooh, unexpected, I was expecting a straight Imperial Remnant type thing. Looks like we might be getting some pseudo-religious offshoot of the Empire instead.

[The Romulan Republic]

Good. I was hoping for something other than simply rehashing the Empire and Sith as the villains.

[Vympel]

http://geektyrant.com/news/star-wars-th ... -and-ships

Lots of great photos of Flamethrower stormtroopers and the new Snowtroopers.

Also, not sure if its been mentioned, but the Falcon is clearly getting chased through the wreck of a crashed Executor-class (upside down).

EDIT: of course its been mentioned

[Skywalker_T-65]

What interests me is that Spoiler

Finn has Anakin's lightsaber in the concept art.

EDIT: Must remember to spoiler things if only to be safe.

[ray245]

One of my worse fears have come true. Disney is trying to remake the OT by having yet another story about a bunch of 'resistance' fighting a new 'order'.

Basically ROTJ is now pointless because the rebels lost the war despite winning the battle, and Vader's sacrifice is in vain.

[Vympel]

One of my worse fears have come true. Disney is trying to remake the OT by having yet another story about a bunch of 'resistance' fighting a new 'order'.

Basically ROTJ is now pointless because the rebels lost the war despite winning the battle, and Vader's sacrifice is in vain.

Possible spoilers indicate its a great deal more complicated than that.
Spoiler

The First Order != the Galactic Empire, I believe. The Empire and the Rebellion continued to fight after the OT. Then someone pulls a 'Hydra' within the Empire, creating the First Order - controlled by the Sith - causing elements of the Empire and the Rebels to team up against it.

[applejack]

One of my worse fears have come true. Disney is trying to remake the OT by having yet another story about a bunch of 'resistance' fighting a new 'order'.

Basically ROTJ is now pointless because the rebels lost the war despite winning the battle, and Vader's sacrifice is in vain.

This is just my own ideas about the new trilogy and I don't know if this is Abrams' intent, but the end of ROTJ left a couple of thematic cliff hangers that wasn't adequately covered by the end of Episode VI. The prequel trilogy was about the fall of the Republic, the fall of the Jedi Order, and the fall of Anakin Skywalker. The OT resolved the third, but at the cost of skimping over the meat of what should have been the redemption of the Galactic Empire and its transformation back to the Republic and the full restoration of the Jedi Order. We didn't really get that at the end of the OT. I mean, sure, we have people celebrating at the end of the Special Editions and Luke becomes a Jedi, but I don't think that's sufficient to constitute the conclusions of the thematic arcs from the PT. If the sequel trilogy is actually going to address these perceived shortcomings, then the Sith have to still exist as should the Empire in some (or various) form(s). The wrap up that you want should be at the end of this new trilogy, not the end of the OT or in the body of the EU.

I'm assuming Vympel's speculation is based on the various rumors about the plot elements on the web. If it's true, then I'm really hoping the new trilogy goes roughly along the lines above.

[Anacronian]

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 think it's the same type Tie Fighter we see in this released concept art.
Spoiler

I also think it's weapons are turreted and it's shooting aft in the trailer.

(possibly this is where Finn first defects from the First Order by napping a Tie fighter only to crash it on the planet Jakku ..and later run into Rey)

[Anacronian]

So I guess this works kinda like Germany in the first half of the twentieth century*, The old Trilogy was World War 1 and the Empire lost it and got thrown into Chaos for years, But then a new charismatic leader rise (perhaps Max Von Sydow) rebuilds the old Empire into the new First Order and launches an attack on the unsuspecting Galaxy.



*in very very broad strokes of cause.

[Terralthra]

What interests me is that Spoiler

Finn has Anakin's lightsaber in the concept art.

EDIT: Must remember to spoiler things if only to be safe.

We saw someone handing Anakin's lightsabre to someone else in the trailer. How it was retrieved from Cloud City's gigantic void is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Havok]

It's being handed to Leia, obviously.

And those are literally Luke's lines from ROTJ, just reordered.

[Anacronian]

Luke lines comparison.

Linky

[Havok]

Dude, same exact.

[Irbis]

So, we see 3 distinct groups of troops, Army, Stormies, and what looks like Snowtroopers 2.0. Hint of different factions using them? With Blacktrooper being possibly leader of one?

Is that falling Star Destroyer at 1:10?

Anakin's lookalike lightsaber - copy or original? Is that Leia giving it to someone? The receiving hand looks much younger than the giving...

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.

Isn't that just standard E-11 with what looks like modern assault rifle stock instead of TOT folding one?

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.

Uh, that was different era, different state. If PT was WW2, TOT Vietnam war, then what we see is F-16F and HK-416 to TOT F-16A and M-16. Makes far more sense than inventing stuff with all steam going into badly thought aesthetics plus form not function, like PT did.

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.

Can you say if the new SW was a good movie? You must have clearly seen it already if you're forming such far going judgements, like you said it would be stupid to harshly judge before doing so

[Borgholio]

Yeah they reused his lines exactly from ROTJ. So either they just got cheap about it, or they really truly did mean to imply that Anakin is still around in some form.

[jwl]

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.

If the original trilogy was really an original quartet and this was the fourth film, how would you feel about this trailer?

[Soontir C'boath]

Yeah they reused his lines exactly from ROTJ. So either they just got cheap about it, or they really truly did mean to imply that Anakin is still around in some form.

Yes, as a blue shade. Hell, Lucas did turn ROTJ Anakin into Christianson, so it wouldn't be farfetched to give him a cameo.

[The Romulan Republic]

One of my worse fears have come true. Disney is trying to remake the OT by having yet another story about a bunch of 'resistance' fighting a new 'order'.

Basically ROTJ is now pointless because the rebels lost the war despite winning the battle, and Vader's sacrifice is in vain.

Just about everything you've said about this film has been negative from what I've seen, and a lot of its been fairly generic criticism. Why not just admit you're one of the people who decided to hate this film the moment it was announced?

And it doesn't make Return of the Jedi pointless. Return of the Jedi had an enormous impact on the Skywalker family personally if nothing else, and the destruction of the Death Star deprived the enemy of a terribly powerful weapon, even if it wasn't a final victory. Also, we don't know the details of the galactic political situation yet.

[AniThyng]

@irbis where are these army troops you speak of? I just see stormies...

[ray245]

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.

Uh, that was different era, different state. If PT was WW2, TOT Vietnam war, then what we see is F-16F and HK-416 to TOT F-16A and M-16. Makes far more sense than inventing stuff with all steam going into badly thought aesthetics plus form not function, like PT did.[/quote]

The point is there is a even bigger gap between EP 7 and Ep 6 than Ep 3 and Ep 4.

Can you say if the new SW was a good movie? You must have clearly seen it already if you're forming such far going judgements, like you said it would be stupid to harshly judge before doing so

I never said the movie as a whole is bad. All I have said was from thematic point of view, it makes the whole battle of Endor largely irrelevant in the long run. What I have a problem with what I have currently seen so far is the approach taken by JJ and his crew. There seems to be an attempt to recreate the OT for the fans who grew up with the OT. For people like me who grew up with the PT, there seems to be a level of emotional disconnect.

It makes it harder for a person like me, with a much lesser sense of nostalgia to like the approach JJ is taking.

If the original trilogy was really an original quartet and this was the fourth film, how would you feel about this trailer?

Again, it still would make the ending of ROTJ less enjoyable for me. It's the fact that the rebels victory at Endor is not sufficient to overthrow the empire, or at least massively help them in retaking a huge portion of the Empire that makes it problematic for me. If EP 7 is willingly to feature very different foes, especially visually, it would make things a lot more interesting to me.

Just about everything you've said about this film has been negative from what I've seen, and a lot of its been fairly generic criticism. Why not just admit you're one of the people who decided to hate this film the moment it was announced?

And it doesn't make Return of the Jedi pointless. Return of the Jedi had an enormous impact on the Skywalker family personally if nothing else, and the destruction of the Death Star deprived the enemy of a terribly powerful weapon, even if it wasn't a final victory. Also, we don't know the details of the galactic political situation yet.

I have no problem with the idea of a sequel, as long as they can provide me with something fresh. It's when they decide to hire JJ and keep sending out messages about how they are going to recreate the OT that worries me. If I want to watch the OT, I would just watch the OT instead.

If the creative team decides to approach things differently, I would be more ready to accept the possibility that Ep 7 can be a film I can enjoy. As it is, there is a deliberate attempt by Lucasfilm to throw out as much OT stuff as possible.

What I like about the prequels is Lucas at the least made an attempt to avoid the simple rebel vs Empire paradigm in his storytelling. It's not about a bunch of underdog facing a much stronger empire all the time. We don't need more TIE, stormtroopers, X-Wings to make EP 7 a Star Wars movie.

It's just a very conservative approach aiming to please old fans as opposed to letting the film stand on its own.

[Lagmonster]

One of my worse fears have come true.

Just about everything you've said about this film has been negative from what I've seen, and a lot of its been fairly generic criticism. Why not just admit you're one of the people who decided to hate this film the moment it was announced?

Just let it go, dude. Some people are fans who want to feel joy, and some are cynics who just want to be right about something. Both will get precisely the value out of a new Star Wars movie that they intend to.

Me, I won't even notice that the movie has plot or character flaws until a week after when I read about them here. It took me months to learn that Ep. I wasn't that great because my inner child wouldn't stop going on and on about the theater experience of just watching a new Star Wars movie.

[The Romulan Republic]

Me, unless their's some obvious huge defect, I like to give a film the benefit of the doubt until I've seen it at least once, preferably twice, in a theatre.