Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2nd Teaser Trailer

Star Wars Celebration is in full swing down in Anaheim, California, and JJ Abrams has revealed a new teaser trailer for the upcoming film:

Watch it again.

And again.

The voice over of Luke Skywalker (reminiscent of his line from Return of the Jedi) as we see shots of Vader's burned out helmet:

Then the closeup on (presumably) Luke's robotic hand:

Then a shot of the iconic Graflex lightsaber that Luke used in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, being handed off from somebody to somebody else:

And then we get to the shot where the X-Wings fly past the camera. That's the coolest shot in the trailer, perhaps with the exception being the shot of Han and Chewie at the end.

The motion in the shot is epic. The sounds. The composition. I can't wait to see this battle played out in theaters in December.

After the X-Wings, we get a good look at who Kylo Ren is:

The mask is very reminiscent of the old Knights of the Old Republic games. He's obviously using the force in this shot. Against who, or what?

Then we get a glimpse of the new Stormtroopers on an ice/snow planet, that is guarded by turbolaser batteries:

And then, after a climactic chase, we get a nice moment as Han tells Chewie, "Chewie, we're home."

And that's the moment that did it for me. We're home. It feels like Star Wars, and it looks like Star Wars. I guess we'll see in December.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer!

Wow. Two years after LucasFilm was acquired by Disney and a new Star Wars film was announced, we finally have a teaser trailer for it! There has been a lot of speculation up until this point, but now we finally have some concrete moments from the film. What follows were the highlights for me.

First up is the soccer-ball droid. The design of its dome feel very 1970s inspired. Very minimalist in details and reminiscent of the droids from the original Star Wars. I think it's great!

Next up is the Stormtroopers. They're definitely not clones, because they're all different heights. This is a good thing. Shows that the Imperial Academy is still recruiting, even 30 years after the fall of the Empire. Also, the design looks futuristic enough, while still maintaining the resemblance to the original troopers. 

Next up is the X-Wing pilot. Apparently the pilot is Oscar Isaac's character, but I can't really tell. Haven't really seen him in a lot of stuff. But first things first. What's up with that helmet?! It looks like a bad fan-film, for Pete's sake! Almost like an old leather football helmet the way his cheeks are being hugged. I definitely would have preferred that they stick with the original design. But then again, a lot can happen in 30 years of design and use. I love the angle of this shot, though. It hearkens back to the original trilogy where you felt like you're in the cockpit with our heroes, rather that just observing from a distance, ala Prequels.

The reveal of the new X-Wings is awesome. The frame above looks like a great piece of concept art, but it is in fact a frame from the movie. I don't much care for how the wings split apart as they do, but it could grow on me. I do, however, like the blue paint jobs this time around. Red is awesome, but I prefer blue. The technology has evolved to the point where you can shoot a blue object on a bluescreen (who knows, maybe they used greenscreen instead?) I'm actually building a Blue Squadron right now, which I think is very timely. I love the composition of this shot as well. The layers are built up by the X-Wings themselves,  and to have them skimming across the surface of the water like that is great. Best shot in the trailer, for me.

And then we come to this shot. A dark-cloaked character stumbling through the snow, who then angrily ignites his lightsaber. We don't really know who this character is yet, but we know he wields the red, flame-like lightsaber that has a sort-of cross-guard on it, for some reason. Again, this shot feels like it was ripped straight from a mediocre fan-film, although the atmosphere in those woods looks pretty sweet.

 And lastly, we come to this shot. The good old Millennium Falcon, performing a high-G turn in the atmosphere of this desert planet, and getting shot at by TIE Fighters. You'll notice the radar dish is different in this film, because Lando knocked it off on their Death Star run in the Battle of Endor. The ship also looks proportioned a bit differently, as well. It looks like it's been on a diet, and is slimmer through the whole of the ship. Looks great though.

And that's pretty much everything that I liked about the teaser. This has definitely piqued my interest, and the interest of millions of people around the world since it came out yesterday. Stay tuned for more!