A Trailer and a Full Load of Meh
As you guys doubtlessly already know, the teaser trailer for the forthcoming Star Wars flick, The Force Awakens, debuted today. I've watched it about a dozen times and I gotta say... I'm not really moved.
I'm on record as not being in favor of more Star Wars flicks. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan. For a long, long time, Star Wars (Episode IV if you wanna get over-nerdy about it) was my favorite movie of all time. I'm one of those people that can quote the first three movies pretty much start to finish. I don't even hate the prequels and I think Revenge of the Sith was actually pretty damn good. However, I feel like that story was finished and doesn't really need to be added to. The only reason to make new movies is so Disney can make get a return on their investment in buying Lucasfilm.
However, as things wore on, I kinda started thinking "It IS a Star Wars movie. Maybe I should give it a chance." I'm not a fan of the title, which seems more appropriate for a cheap pulp novel than a Star Wars film. But I kept reminding myself that I hadn't yet seen any footage. J.J. Abrams has made stuff that I like quite a bit. Disney seems to be keeping out of things, which, for me, is a very good sign. Maybe it'll turn out okay. It was no time to be making uninformed decisions or opinions. After all, I hadn't seen anything from the movie yet, right?
Well, I have now and I'm a little worried about how unimpressed I feel. This is a Star Wars trailer. I should be bouncing off the walls. That how I was for the Special Edition Trilogy trailers. That's how I was for each of the prequels. Hell, I sat through The Water Boy a second time a week after I saw it just to see the Phantom Menace teaser. And I ran out of clean underpants, I was so damn excited.
This time around, nothing. I'm not excited. I'm not disappointed. I'm just kinda like "Oh, this is what this is gonna look like". Even the shot of the Millennium Falcon twisting and looping over a landscape covered in sand dunes while pursued by TIE Fighters while the strains of John Williams of majestic score wells up on the soundtrack. Even that didn't do too much for me. It looked like a shot from a Michael Bay flick that just happened to have the Falcon in it.
It didn't help that this trailer is more about introducing the new instead of bringing out the old favorites. I understand why they'd do that. This is a new Star Wars movie for new fans, not people like me. They wanna intrigue them, not me. Hook the young. I get that. But you can have all the shots of X-wings that you want, and if I don't see R2-D2, you're not gonna get me excited.
So, in the end, all I can really say is "Meh". There's nothing in the trailer that really turns me off but there's nothing in the trailer that jacks up my excitement. And the fact that I'm feeling this way about a Star Wars movie makes me really quite sad. I'm still probably gonna go see it. I'm hoping that it'll surprise me and that'll love it. But my stoke factor is pretty low and I'm afraid it may be sinking.
I'm on record as not being in favor of more Star Wars flicks. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan. For a long, long time, Star Wars (Episode IV if you wanna get over-nerdy about it) was my favorite movie of all time. I'm one of those people that can quote the first three movies pretty much start to finish. I don't even hate the prequels and I think Revenge of the Sith was actually pretty damn good. However, I feel like that story was finished and doesn't really need to be added to. The only reason to make new movies is so Disney can make get a return on their investment in buying Lucasfilm.
However, as things wore on, I kinda started thinking "It IS a Star Wars movie. Maybe I should give it a chance." I'm not a fan of the title, which seems more appropriate for a cheap pulp novel than a Star Wars film. But I kept reminding myself that I hadn't yet seen any footage. J.J. Abrams has made stuff that I like quite a bit. Disney seems to be keeping out of things, which, for me, is a very good sign. Maybe it'll turn out okay. It was no time to be making uninformed decisions or opinions. After all, I hadn't seen anything from the movie yet, right?
Well, I have now and I'm a little worried about how unimpressed I feel. This is a Star Wars trailer. I should be bouncing off the walls. That how I was for the Special Edition Trilogy trailers. That's how I was for each of the prequels. Hell, I sat through The Water Boy a second time a week after I saw it just to see the Phantom Menace teaser. And I ran out of clean underpants, I was so damn excited.
This time around, nothing. I'm not excited. I'm not disappointed. I'm just kinda like "Oh, this is what this is gonna look like". Even the shot of the Millennium Falcon twisting and looping over a landscape covered in sand dunes while pursued by TIE Fighters while the strains of John Williams of majestic score wells up on the soundtrack. Even that didn't do too much for me. It looked like a shot from a Michael Bay flick that just happened to have the Falcon in it.
It didn't help that this trailer is more about introducing the new instead of bringing out the old favorites. I understand why they'd do that. This is a new Star Wars movie for new fans, not people like me. They wanna intrigue them, not me. Hook the young. I get that. But you can have all the shots of X-wings that you want, and if I don't see R2-D2, you're not gonna get me excited.
So, in the end, all I can really say is "Meh". There's nothing in the trailer that really turns me off but there's nothing in the trailer that jacks up my excitement. And the fact that I'm feeling this way about a Star Wars movie makes me really quite sad. I'm still probably gonna go see it. I'm hoping that it'll surprise me and that'll love it. But my stoke factor is pretty low and I'm afraid it may be sinking.
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