Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer

After a week of side-splitting and soul-crushing fake parody trailers comes the official teaser trailer for the J J Abrams/Disney Star Wars reboot/sequel, The Force Awakens. Here it is from MOVIEClips Trailers on Youtube :Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer.

A few things to note. Lens flares aside, this trailer and the footage within certainly appear within the visual and tonal styles of J J Abrams. The lateral tracking shot of the ball-droid racing across a Tatooine junkyard and the X-Wings low across the water. The close-up and subsequent wide shot of the speeder (reminiscent of similar shots in the Star Trek movies). The almost certainly opening shot of the film with John Boyega suddenly jumping from below the screen, panting heavily on Tatooine is similar to the opening scene of Star Trek Into Darkness. He was keen to show off the new lightsaber with twin mini-burst to either side of the hilt, possibly to be used like the hilt of broadsword to catch and parry enemy strikes, and being held by a new villain. The blue-tinged handheld quick-cuts of Stormtroopers in a dropship. And the almost orgasmic reveal of a new, beautifully rendered CGI Millenium Falcon dogfighting TIE Fighters inches above the surface of Tatooine, the camera racing and twisting in an attempt to catch up to the iconic ship as the heroic theme blasts onto ones eardrums. Oh, and it's at this stage that the signature lens flare appears, but with considerably more justification that the Apple Store design of the Enterprise bridge. The musical tone for the majority of the trailer is very similar to the Sarlacc Pit scene from Return of the Jedi. Darkness, tension, and ultimately a heroic climax. Oh, and that dark ominous voice reminds me of something...but not quite.

 Honestly, aside from the basic production design, I suspect the Abrams Star Wars films will be difficult to distinguish visually from the slightly sleeker and shinier Star Trek films. But certainly these will be competently-made, though flawed action films. There appears to be a decent amount of variety in locations and characters, with Boyega likely to be a disguised Rebel a la the infiltration of the Death Star in the original Star Wars, or to be a sympathetic Stormtrooper likely to find redemption in some way. It's no secret that some of us here at TOMB are very, very excited for the new series of Star Wars to come out but with more than a year until the December 15 release of the film, there'll be plenty more time to speculate.