Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Trailer review

Details of the new Star Wars film are a heavily guarded secret, so much so that JJ Abrams hangs posters on set reading ‘Loose lips, sink starships!’ and if you’ve ever seen his TED talk about the mystery box then you’ll probably understand why.

Trailers have a nasty habit of oversharing and while this isn’t a new problem, it is becoming more prevalent; recent examples like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Terminator: Genisys have fans complaining that it’s spoiling the movie and with good reason too (at least in TASM2’s case anyway), so it’s refreshing to see that the vast majority of The Force Awakens is being kept under wraps. If you wish to avoid spoilers it’s easy to do so and you can continue to speculate wildly on the film without really knowing anything. My best guesswork is below…

The second Star Wars teaser does almost exactly what the first did, we get a collection of random clips sewn together that in and of themselves mean very little but they do give us something, and that something is hope. The aesthetic feel and tone of the film are no great secret; it’s been said many

We’re being transported back into a universe that we left in 1983 and after the poorly thought out, rushed, and generally pointless prequels left us cold we can now bask in the warm glow of a new trilogy that returns us to the gritty, dirty, worn out world that we fell in love with. It’s not just Chewy and Han that are home, Star Wars is too.

So we know it looks great, it’s just the story, acting, directing, editing and sound to go… easy right? This new teaser does give us a little more to allay any fears we might have, we see all the original cast in this one even if you can’t tell it’s Luke and Leia (trust me on that one!) but we also get more from our new heroes, namely Poe, Finn and Rey. Finn’s (John Boyega) small moments in both teasers are frantic and his character is clearly nervous; he’s a stormtrooper who appears to be defecting after a huge brawl on board (what looks like) a star destroyer that leaves his helmet bloody and his head full of questions and regret. Further scenes show him literally running from the Empire and teaming up with a new friend who we know as Rey (Daisy Ridley). This character is widely believed to be a Skywalker or Solo and (like Finn) is very likely to be force sensitive.

We’re also treated to more from BB-8, the unbearably cute and technologically astounding live prop that is the latest droid vying for our hearts (and probably winning it too). We get teased a little more with Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac who describes the character as the best damn pilot in the galaxy) as he flies his X-Wing expertly and even menacingly over water again; he lets out a satisfying “woo-hoo!” and generally just look badass in his pilot gear as well.

Our bad guys are given less screen time and again, I’m happy with that decision. I don’t actually need to know who is playing who and what their motivations are, I’ll find that out in December but for the record, the ‘Chrometrooper’ you see is reported to be played by Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones - if there’s more information about this out there then I’m not interested enough to look it up!

Stray observations from the teaser:

-The new Empire logo (see stormtrooper pic)… it’s different isn’t it! Apparently the Empire is split, dividing into two factions, the most dangerous being the ‘First Order’. This may explain the slight changes to the stormtroopers and the insignia.
-Who’s that standing under the new insignia… could it be an inquisitor as shown in the recent (and excellent) ‘Rebels’ TV show?
-Rumour has it that the Rebels are now called the Resistance… Fair enough, not sure that matters… yet.
-Han and Chewy: ‘We’re Home’ - I guess that means they lost the Falcon and have just got it back, should be an interesting sub plot if explored.

-Luke and R2-D2 are at another funeral, unless this is a flash back to Jedi then there will be someone else to mourn. I heard a rumour that it’s C3PO but that sounds so utterly stupid to me that I can’t believe it.

-The alien like creature handing Leia the Luke’s old lightsaber could be Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong’o) - this lightsaber is the one Luke lost (along with his hand) on Cloud City
-If you listen closely to the opening voiceover (taken from Return of the Jedi) you’ll hear a re-read of the lines by Mark Hamill, they are much darker and sinister in tone than the original and could hint at a more troubled and tortured Luke Skywalker.

So to recap, we know most of the characters names though not their relation to the story, other characters or indeed in some cases which actor is playing them, and we have no idea what the story is or how the original cast fit into it. I, for one, am very happy about that and I really do hope that future trailers don’t give too much away because I can’t help but analyse everything and I’m desperate not to ruin it… Help me JJ Abrams, you’re my only hope!

See you all next time there’s a new trailer and happy Star Wars day everyone!

Guest Blog by @michaelsft (Twitter)