Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (SPOILERS)

I think it's "Weapon Of A Jedi".
I haven't read it, saw a spoiler review on a podcast.

All right, when the hell are we going to see a new trailer?

I need my Star Wars fix.

Oct 19 is the rumour.

Do you think we'll get a "Rogue One" trailer with Ep. VII?

New full-length trailer hits today, all the fanboys and neckbeards are wetting themselves. Tickets also go on sale today.

Honestly, I have no desire to watch it. I want to walk into the theater on 12/18 with as little foreknowledge as possible. I feel like I already know too much. All the geek websites do these days is rip movies to shreds months before they're released, killing off whatever joy there may be in watching the finished product. I don't want that to be my experience.

I have no doubt it will be very entertaining, and a quantum leap beyond the prequels in terms of quality. The talent involved on both sides of the camera is just too good. If it at least rivals the quality of Trek: Into Darkness (which I enjoyed despite it's flaws), then I'll be very, very happy.

The new poster appears to have some kind of Death Star type object on it...

I've lost interest in the series because there are no good protagonists. You've got the Jedi on one side, a bunch of religious fanatics who run around hacking of people's arms and heads, and you've got government goons who use every weapon at their disposal against both Jedi terrorists and civilians.

It's like Syria: The Movie.

I'm fairly underwhelmed by the new poster.

Drew Struzan is an undeniably talented artist but there's a lack of originality in his posters; they're all just variations on a theme. Not sure if that's his fault or the studio's, but I've found his posters from the last 10 years or so to be uninspired at best.

It's apparently something called a "sun-crusher," a death-star like weapon that can make suns go supernova and wipe out whole galaxies.

They reportedly ripped the idea off from one of the expanded universe books. Of course, the author who came up with the idea originally will get no credit whatsoever.

But, yeah.....why do something akin to the Death Star for a *third* time?

I too found the treatment of the Jedis in the prequels to be very distasteful. They weren't real people, they were these otherworldly monks who weren't allowed to have human emotions, or relationships with women. Why was it necessary to conceptualize the Jedi as celibate Catholic priests? Anakin falling in love with a beautiful, intelligent woman and wanting to have a family were treated like a dirty secret taboo. I've never understood that creative choice.

If they could have made that aspect more explicit as an explanation for why Anakin abandoned the Jedi, it would have been interesting. The Sith offered passionate emotions and told Anakin that it was o.k. to feel anger, rage and a desire for vengeance for the enslavement & death of his mother. The Sith told him it was o.k. to want to save the ones he loved, even if it meant learning Dark Side magic. The Jedi, by contrast, were cold, repressed, and mirroring Scientology with the message that in order to evolve to the highest levels of the religion he had to separate himself from all human attachment that could potentially hold him back. Huh? That made the Jedi look like a wacko cult.

Really, isn't Anakin's choice the same choice Luke made in Empire? Yoda wants him to stay in hiding and sacrifice all his friends. Luke says "fuck that" and flies off. Did Yoda learn nothing from the mistakes of the prequels?

It's not one of his.

It's actually a photoshop composite done by a long term fan and graphic artist who was given the job over Struzan. I'd say that's even more disappointing when you consider that most posters are photoshop these days. Iconic art is seemingly dead.

And it displays the cliched orange-and-blue colorscheme Hollywood insists upon for all movie posters these days. Yeah, not impressed.

Wiping out a whole galaxy is more like a doomsday weapon, it's been a long time since I read that particular book. But I think it could destroy a solar system, not a galaxy.

Yeah, such a weapon should only take out a solar system. Since they have ubiquitous FTL travel, they'd have several years to evacuate the next nearest star system, and would only need to evacuate it for a short period.

The poster is interesting for who is missing.

Look closely. It actually uses a rainbow color scheme. Starting with Kylo Ren's red lightsaber, down to orange BB-8/Poe/stormtroopers, yellow title, green lasers, up to Finn's blue lightsaber/the Death Star-like thing, and into Han/Leia in purple. The triangular composition is well-executed.

I quite like it.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/19/9539109/new-star-wars-7-trailer-force-awakens

I think I just ejaculated a little bit.

A little bit.

So tell me WAB, did you like the trailer?

It was OK.

Anyway, I'm actually thinking the "death star" in the poster isn't man-made. I think it's a planet that Kylo Ren and the New Order have changed into a giant weapon.

So, does the planet have hyperdrive or what?

It's looking good. Surprisingly dark.

And you know what? That's o.k. This is space fantasy. We accepted in Episode IV that the Empire could make a space station the size of a small moon that could blow up planets. So it's not much of leap that the remnants of the Empire could somehow terraform a planet into some kind of mobile weapon. Big deal. There's always been a comic-bookish element to Star Wars.

At the height of his powers, John Williams's iconic scores became another character in the movie, just as integral as any other.

Nowadays, we just have hacks who provide background noise. Nobody comes close to what Williams was able to accomplish over and over and over. The Star Wars scores are complete pieces of work from beginning to end. At most these days we get a halfway decent main theme and then background noise.

It's what's missing from all the Marvel movies - an iconic score that could elevate the proceedings from good to great or great to transcendent.

A good score can help an audience overlook a lot of flaws. Take Tron: Legacy for example. That Daft Punk score is phenomenal and helps me overlook the mediocre qualities of the script.

The problem with the John Williams music is that it's always used to get the audience to cheer for evil.

"Oooo..... Yeah! Overthrow the duly elected government of a thousand worlds and put in a theocratic dictatorship based on violence and sorcery!!! Hell yes!!!"

Of course the real problem was George Lucas and his twisted idea of good guys and bad guys, along with plot holes that could swallow entire planets.