In case you missed it, here’s the trailer you’ve been looking for.
I found it interesting that this trailer was officially rolled out at halftime of a football game. An odd mix, that. I’ve watched it eight nine times already. Fantastic. Can’t wait.
I don’t know if it’s that weird, considering ESPN and Disney are part of the same company.
While Star Wars probably has the most universal (no pun intended) appeal — for a Sci-Fi franchise — across the spectrum, I agree that releasing the trailer during a football game just feels strange. However, I’d be hard pressed to think of another televised event that would have as many viewers AND be geared more towards the geeks. Oh, and there’s also the 80% Disney ownership, as stated before.
What’s weird is the total absence of Mark Hamill from any of the trailers and sneak peeks. His image is not even in the poster (but his name is). Hope this is just a way of maintaining suspense and not a sign of dispute.
cough Macintosh 1984 Superbowl Ad cough
Yo ho ho, you have yet to see the Disney Juggernaut apply its merchandising and marketing prowess to a hyper-blockbuster like Star Wars. Comic Con, Battlefront and BB-8 are just a taste of what’s to come. There will be endless commercials on ABC, ESPN and the other Disney stations. Every ABC program will have an exposé or homage to the SW franchise. It will be the biggest halloween for SW costumes ever. And all this leads you up to the main event on December 18. Then after the new year you’ll see SW at Disney World, a SW Cruise extravaganza, SW on Ice, as well as SW t-shirts, mugs and mechanical pencils. Yup, you’ll be eating, sleeping and sh__ting SW for the next 6 months.
Not a sign of dispute. Mark Hamill is even involved in Episode VIII, as a few scenes were filmed in Ireland last month with him before principal production starts.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/mark-hamill-essentially-confirm-role-episode-viii-article-1.2364275
I hate to be “that person” (not really) but I think people have some serious rose-coloured glasses on here. Star Wars is a 40 year old concept that has never been updated, and at this point it’s just ridiculous nonsense. Worse, it’s repetitive, unoriginal, formulaic and nothing to do with real science-fiction.
Everything about the trailer and all the other promotional materials tells us that this episode will be the same as all the rest. It has the same characters (or near identical stand-ins), the same plot, and it even has a third “death star.” Harrison Ford as Han Solo looks particularly ridiculous. Someone needs to get grampa his cane.
With all the myriad science fiction stories, including most of the classics, that could be done, and have yet to be done as movies, why on earth would anyone care about this old muck?
It’s only nostalgia for your youth that makes you lust after this nonsense. To anyone not affected by that (myself) it’s revealed as the boring, unoriginal nonsense we all secretly know it is. Doesn’t anyone actually like sci-fi anymore?
Don’t tell other people what they really think or feel. It’s arrogant nonsense.
And if you hate SW, fine. Don’t watch it.
Because Star Wars has arguably the most iconic characters, character designs, worlds, lore, etc in all of film. Star Wars built an incredibly iconic universe of characters and designs that still influences films today. And you think the world is not ripe for new stories? Film is all about the storytelling. You can’t even begin to judge the storytelling off of a 2 minute trailer.
Not everyones excitement is based purely on nostalgia. That would be like the Android enthusiasts calling every Apple customer a fanboy. Complete nonsense.
Honestly, I never really understood the appeal of star wars. I felt entertained as a kid. But it never went beyond that level. For so many people it seems to mean so much …
I think Hamill is in the trailer and posters, but he is wearing a mask/helmet. That should get people’s knickers in a twist. 🙂
I don’t understand the “only” in “It’s only nostalgia for your youth that makes you lust after this.” Yes! The big movies of our youths will always hold a special place in our hearts, and reliving them with a crowd of people is fun!
We’ve got a discount theater in our area, a restored 1940’s theater, and during each summer weekend they play midnight showings of wonderful movies from the 1970’s and 1980’s. I’ve seen Jaws, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Blazing Saddles there the past couple of years. Why go, when I own all of them on DVD? Because it’s a communal sharing of nostalgia, a gathering of strangers with a shared (and positive) experience!
It’s a cultural touchstone, deeply embedded in the culture. I hear it mildly quoted or referenced all the time, even now, almost 40 years later.
There’s never been anything sci-fi about the original Star Wars trilogy. It’s pure pulp, a comic book movie before comic book movies became popular that’s not based on a comic book.
This will succeed or fail on those terms. If you don’t like those terms, don’t watch it. If you hear it fails on those terms, don’t watch it. I have some hope, but I think I’m going to be disappointed.
Indiana Jones is the same.
I don’t want to start a big thing here, but while you are entirely correct about Star Wars never actually being “Science-Fiction” (at least by any reasonable definition), and while I agree with that assessment, that wasn’t my point. My point was that this movie is “bad” because it’s a bad story. A repetitive unoriginal story, with bad dialogue and bad acting and huge plot holes.
It’s also true that most people would (wrongly) argue against the notion that it isn’t science fiction. It’s regularly hailed as a “science fiction classic” in fact. I’m a big Sci-Fi fan and I would just prefer to see some science fiction. There are lots of original stories to do as I pointed out.
The only value here is “entertainment” in the general sense of it being popular and pulling at peoples heart strings with nostalgic references etc.
“Interstellar” is a more recent example of this kind of thing. It’s a horrible movie, badly written, full of plot holes and all the science in it is laughably bad and inaccurate, but I teared up when I watched it and the guy was talking to his daughter through the fifth dimension from within the black hole on the other side of the universe the same as most people did. Ludicrous movies do sometimes have entertainment value. I also get emotional watching cartoons sometimes. That doesn’t make them great drama.
People should watch what they want to watch, and if you like this sort of muck then go see it. That doesn’t make it a good movie. It’s part of the essential disconnect we have in many things today over the difference between “popular” and “good.” Most folks think they are the same thing but they are simply not.
Anyway, enough from me. Apologies to all for ruining your nostalgia party.
I understand. This is more an argument for seeing the old originals at a late night showing than an argument for producing a new Star Wars movie though.
So you roll into a thread about Star Wars, rip on the new trailer, rip on the old movies, shout at the kids on your lawn that they don’t know what “good” is… and you “don’t want to start a big thing”?
Are you new to the internet?
i think you misunderstood me. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with pulp, a comic book movie not based on a comic. If that’s what you want to see.
If it isn’t your thing, that’s great.
Personally, it’s something I enjoy when done well. Star Wars did it fairly well.
Just bought my tickets for December 19th!
He is definitely involved. Just don’t know how.
We have Star Wars Night annually at a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game! Amazing to see all of the characters dressed up and walking around the stadium.
“My point was that this movie is “bad” because it’s a bad story”
Oh get over yourself. You’re one of those annoying self-appointed geeks who tries to dictate what’s acceptable and what’s not. You don’t even KNOW the story yet you consider it bad. Go haunt some gamergate hangout where they still buy that crap.
For me, the original movie was an excellent example of how great execution can surpass a formulaic Hollywood plot structure. It’s done well enough to make me forget how many times I’ve seen this sort of story before. That’s my hope for the new release, too.
Oh, look! Another person who doesn’t get what Star Wars and other movies, books, etc like it truly are. It’s not nostalgia or a bad story. It’s a universal story. It really goes beyond just bad and good. It resonates with many people.
“Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers Break Down Star Wars as an Epic, Universal Myth”
http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/joseph_campbell_and_bill_moyers_break_down_star_wars_as_myth.html
Dismissal of something as purely nostalgia is a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole phenomena. I’d say it’s likely a reaction to not being included in the main group or a reaction to not wanting to be part of the main group (and therefore proving one is better than them because one is more cultured and high class) — but I’m not a psychoanalyst. (And I only bring up that last because I’ve caught myself doing the very same thing with popular culture like Lady Gaga and Twilight. I don’t like myself when I see it in me.)
Enjoy all of that, though.