Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Abrams may pull off an okay first entry but I am confident he will FUBAR the followup.

Do your research, my friend.

J.J. is only doing the first film. Rian Johnston, I believe is doing the other two episodes..

J.J. was hired to get the first film out the door, to re-establish the galaxy, tell us the stakes, and capture the feel of what we've been missing. The best reason, indeed, for some fan service.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I wonder how they will portray Chewbacca aged ~30 years. Same costume style cause for convenience, Wookies have longer life spans than humans? Or mild white fur? etc.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

J.J. gets it.

I was explaining this to a friend earlier today. How amazing the body language in the trailer is. The original trilogy had such great body language from all of the actors, and it was largely missing from the prequels. People standing in very iconic, heroic ways in the original films. The way characters use their hands and hold their shoulders. The way Luke Skywalker holds a light saber is unique among all characters in the series. You can spot it because it's so unique. It is fascinating to watch Harrison Ford every time he's in the Millennium Falcon in the original movies. He moves around that ship like he's lived in it for years. It's completely convincing.

And the prequels lost a lot of that. I felt like the character who had that the most in the prequels was Darth Maul, and that's no surprise given that Ray Park is a martial artist who understands his body and how it moves. There was an iconography to the original movies that felt sorely missing in the prequels. I think Abrams understands that. Everyone in that trailer feels like they're comfortable in their own skin. We didn't get that from the prequels.

I think one of my favorite shots from the new trailer is the first one, which seems like it sets the tone for the film and feels like a mission statement. It's not a CGI shot - it's of a physical, actual background - and we have a real person, in a Stormtrooper outfit... that's black. It feels very deliberate. Everything from the choice of shots to the framing of the actors to the music - new John Williams Star Wars music! - it all feels very deliberate and very big.

I always felt like part of the success of the original Star Wars trilogy was the pacing of those movies. Shit happens really fast in all three of them. The stakes are high and the audience goes in for a 2 hour ride. This editing of the new trailer tells me that J.J. Abrams and his crew know EXACTLY what they are doing.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Well, here's a shot of Peter Mayhew's Chewie makeup for Episode VII that was posted online back in May. Looks like they're more or less keeping with Chewbacca's general appearance during the Original Trilogy unless they changed details of the costume after this photo was taken.

 

[tomalak301]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I wrote this on Facebook, might as well post it here:

I thought it was a decent trailer, nothing really groundbreaking but whetting the appetite for more. There were two scenes that really stood out though. The lightsaber scene and watching the Falcon back in action. I wasn't around when the original trilogy came out so I honestly can't wait to see the Millennium Falcon on the big screen.

Still, right now I have to say I'm looking more forward to Avengers and Hunger Games: Mockingjay II than Star Wars. That's not a shot at Star Wars, but I've always been just a casual fan of it. Now if it was Star Trek, I probably would be there opening night.

 

[Saul]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Thinking about it more the trailer doesn't really need to show much since a film of this magnitude can carry itself by name only. Also, thinking back to the prequels it's going to be an absolute minefield of trailers, advertizements, spoilers and merchandise come this time next year. Enjoy not knowing anything while it lasts.

 

[tomalak301]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Thinking about it more the trailer doesn't really need to show much since a film of this magnitude can carry itself by name only. Also, thinking back to the prequels it's going to be an absolute minefield of trailers, advertizements, spoilers and merchandise come this time next year. Enjoy not knowing anything while it lasts.

Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to Weird Al writing a song based on Episode 7 that will be a mega hit?

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

By this time next year the Episode VII merchandise will outnumber even the shoppers in your average local big box retail store on Black Friday morning. If 1999, 2002 and 2005 were any indication, the one or two months before the movie's world premiere will see anything and everything that's big enough for the Star Wars Episode VII logo and/or an image of a major character stocked on retail shelves.

And once the movie actually debuts? Even the vacuum of deep space won't escape the promotional blizzard.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I was sold the moment John Boyega popped onscreen. Something perfect about that shot. The visual, the music, the fact that a Stormtrooper feels like a real character after three movies of clone troopers and droid armies, actual emoting from the actor... Nice.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

My friend, who is a big an of the franchise, was kind of put off by that. She is the kind of person who never wants to see the people beneath the helmets.. it's part of who they are .. a faceless army.

 

[Mage]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

The only thing that put me of were the crossguards on the lightsaber. But that was all. Everything about it has me interested and curious. Looking forward to a longer trailer and more about the plot.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

It doesn't make sense really to have those kind of crossguards, but if I must speculate.

Look at how "rough" the glow of energy is on that saber...

Maybe lightsabers are in short supply, and this saber was constructed in a haste by the Sith, and the purpose of that crossguard is more to instill fear in his enemies...

 

[Kane2026]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Hmm, I am slowly starting to warm up to this new Sith ligthsaber with cross-guards. As for the crackling effect or rough glow, it could just be casual disregard from the person wielding it. Not bothering whether it is working properly. Sort of, 'if it works, it works' attitude.

 

[Ithekro]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I started calling it "light guards". I suspect that the training of new Sith (or just a dark Force user in general) will not be up to the levels of Darth Maul or Darth Vader. So he'll need something to face off against any light side users, or if it comes down to it, Luke Skywalker, the only known fully trained Jedi in the Galaxy. The hilt could be made from one of the few lightsaber resistant materials and the light guards are there to stop another blade from coming down his blade to cut off his hand (the hilt would be resistant enough to not just be cut off at the junction point). Or worse, that one material that suppose to shut down a lightsaber for a minute or so. Then this Dark Sider would want to catch the Jedi's saber at the hilt to turn it off, thus gaining an advantage.

The unstable crackling could be from forcing the crystal to not only split unevenly, but also perhaps to be extra long.

That's what I've thought of so far.

 

[DigificWriter]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I'm intrigued by what we saw from the teaser, but have a problem with the whole thing overall: we have absolutely zero context whatsoever in which to place what we were shown.

With the Prequel Trilogy, we knew at least SOMETHING about the basic storylines of the 3 films by the time their individual teaser trailers were released, but, here, we know virtually nothing more about The Force Awakens now than we did a week ago, and I find that rather frustrating.

 

[Tulin]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I was sold the moment John Boyega popped onscreen. Something perfect about that shot. The visual, the music, the fact that a Stormtrooper feels like a real character after three movies of clone troopers and droid armies, actual emoting from the actor... Nice.

Yup.

I wonder how all the kids are going to cope with actual actors, rather than their CGI animated cartoon characters from the PT?

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I'm intrigued by what we saw from the teaser, but have a problem with the whole thing overall: we have absolutely zero context whatsoever in which to place what we were shown.

With the Prequel Trilogy, we knew at least SOMETHING about the basic storylines of the 3 films by the time their individual teaser trailers were released, but, here, we know virtually nothing more about The Force Awakens now than we did a week ago, and I find that rather frustrating.

Keep in mind this is an announcement trailer. That' s it. The film itself is 13 months away.

When the Dark Knight did a similar teaser, there was no footage at all, just a logo breaking up. And it was brilliant

 

[Tulin]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I'm intrigued by what we saw from the teaser, but have a problem with the whole thing overall: we have absolutely zero context whatsoever in which to place what we were shown.

With the Prequel Trilogy, we knew at least SOMETHING about the basic storylines of the 3 films by the time their individual teaser trailers were released, but, here, we know virtually nothing more about The Force Awakens now than we did a week ago, and I find that rather frustrating.

Geez - I'm glad you live now and not in the 1970's and '80's when all we had was Starlog.

You kids would've died.

 

[tomalak301]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

I just rewatched the teaser, and at the beginning when the quote is "there has been an awakening, have you felt it", that sounded like Cumberbatch's Khan. Of course that line might not bin the movie now, a la "you think your world is safe".

 

[davejames]

Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII

Yeah it's funny after all that, we still know as little about the story as we did before. Other than the fact Boyega is apparently a former Stormtrooper. And that there's a new Dark Sith of some kind out there.

But that's fine. We did at least finally get to see some of JJ's vision for this movie, and how some of the action sequences might look. Which is at least more than we had before.