By Pat Tintle
Sports Editor
Geeks, nerds and enthusiasts rejoice: a new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” trailer has finally hit the web.
Following the release of the November, 90-second teaser trailer, Lucasfilm and Disney premiered the full-length teaser last week. The trailer already has 41 million views on YouTube and has been scrutinized by everyone from middle-aged basement dwellers to George Lucas himself.
Without giving much away in terms of storyline, the new two-minute trailer has at least confirmed the style and direction of the insanely lucrative franchise. Director J.J. Abrams has taken the bold route of combining the nostalgic and iconic practical set pieces with modern—and highly effective—visual effects. “The Force Awakens” looks like a “Star Wars” film, but without the overindulgence of unnecessary visuals that poisoned the screen in last decade’s trilogy.
Yes, last decade’s trilogy will be Abram’s biggest problem to address. After all, Episodes I-III are all “Star Wars” canon, and Abrams and his team are the ones called upon to clean up the mess (and to not create a new one). Can the franchise survive another Jar-Jar Binks? Or another boring plot revolving around space taxes? Probably not, but then again Abrams is not the self-centered filmmaker Lucas was back in 1999.
So the new teaser trailer has proved that “The Force Awakens” will hold the same visual values as the original trilogy, but it also shows that the franchise is also taking a contemporary angle in the new film. For once, an African-American actor will be front-and-center in the “Star Wars” universe (Lando Calrissian doesn’t count and Mace Windu got thrown out of a window), and the apparent new heir to the Force is not a 5’10″ white male—it is a woman. That’s another bold move for the franchise, considering 99 percent of all heroes in the previous films stuck to the irritatingly consistent male/Caucasian formula. Perhaps the galaxy far, far away had a Civil Rights movement of its own following the collapse of the Empire in Episode VI.
Focusing on the other half of the cast, the film has certainly gained buzz with original cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford returning to intergalactic space battles, but do these three actors still have the chops to lead (or at least have prominent roles) in a film anticipated to break the billion-dollar mark?
Hamill and Fisher have been virtually invisible from the mainstream since the 1980s (not to mention Fisher’s drug and alcohol problems) and Ford, after having an extremely successful career, has turned into that bitter, old man next door who you want your kids to stay away from. However, in fairness, the three actors have reportedly been undergoing vigorous diet and exercise routines in preparation for the film; a small, but encouraging, sign that Luke, Lea and Han will look more like themselves rather than three washed-up actors who just got out of an intense AA meeting.
But the new “Force Awakens” trailer put all those senior-citizen jokes to rest with its final shot: a smirking, wide-eyed Han, accompanied by his pal Chewbacca, inside the Millennium Falcon.
Welcome home Han. It’s good to have you back.
