Thursday, April 16, 2015
Obligatory Star Wars Trailer Post
Officially, it's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser #2."
So. Many. Thoughts.
You can do frame by frame breakdowns and get excited about the details in each shot. Or focus on the voiceover and try to figure out if it is a new recording by Mark Hamill or audio lifted from Return of the Jedi (spoiler! It's the latter.) You can talk about how cute BB-8 (the soccer ball droid) is, or complain about that lightsaber with the crosshilt.
All of that and more will be available over the next week before the frenzy eventually dies back down.
I'm going to ask, no, beg that you not worry or pay attention to that stuff. At least not yet.
Instead, just watch the trailer. Just. Watch it.
Aaaaaaah...
Not everyone will have my experience. I get that. But my reaction to this is simple: it's Star Wars. And I am ridiculously excited.
See, Star Wars was the first movie I saw in a theater. It was the start of my cinematic journey. It's the first step on my journey to discovering the joy in watching Citizen Kane, Jaws or 2001. The original Star Wars is no longer my favorite movie, but it may be the most important to me.
So here's what's critical:
1) J.J. Abrams has captured the look and tone of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
2) It's the lived in universe of the original trilogy and not the artificial CGI sheen of the prequels.
3) Harrison Ford is smiling... and that has not happened for a long time.
Don't get me wrong. I still remember my joy in seeing the first Episode I teaser and the baffling disappointment that resulted from that. My irrational excitement is tainted just a bit by that and that sucks.
But I'm ready to fly again with the Millennium Falcon. I'm ready to let the exuberance of Oscar Isaacs as he flies an X-Wing serve as a proxy for the seven year old me imagining the same thing. I'm ready to glance at my own child's soccer ball in the backyard and imagine it rolling along and beeping.
I'm ready to be transported again. Christmas cannot get here soon enough.
