By Dan Moren
November 28, 2014 8:22 AM PT
Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
Okay, I’ve only watched it twice so far. But I’d suspect more viewings are in the offing.
A few general words, first: I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers about Episode VII. Hell, I’ve been considering not visiting my customary movie news sites for the next year or so, just to head off accidents like the Phantom Menace soundtrack debacle. So I don’t have any particular information about the plot of this movie, who the characters are (aside from the original trilogy members we know are returning), or anything else.
But I’ll say this: It’s a weird experience, watching something that seems both old and new. Every shot brings more questions: Wait, there are still stormtroopers? TIE Fighters? X-Wing pilots with Rebel Alliance insignia? Are we back on Tatooine? And yet there are so many new, unrecognizable things: a rolling droid, an unfamiliar-looking landspeeder, worlds that we haven’t seen before.
But if I had to encapsulate it all, there’s a moment right towards the end of the trailer—I won’t spoil it—but as the iconic music blares, something familiar makes an appearance. And I got goosebumps. Not just to see its return after so long, but because J.J. Abrams seemed to have plucked the scene directly from our collective imaginations. It just fits. It’s Star Wars.
Look, I know we’ve been burned before. I was a freshman in college when The Phantom Menace trailer arrived, and we watched it innumerable times over the next months. But despite the ultimate let down of those movies, I will never not be excited about the potential for more great stories in this universe that I dearly love.
Later, there will be time to break it down frame-by-frame, obsess over the minor details, and speculate on the whos, whys, and wherefores. But for now, I’ll sit back and revel in the pure atavistic delight of it all: after so many long years and so much disappointment, Star Wars is coming back to the big screen.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His latest novel, the supernatural detective story All Souls Lost, is out now.]
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