3 Things To Love About The New Star Wars Trailer

1) Everything onscreen appears as if it was shot live not drenched in added-later CGI (save for the Millenium Falcon). Kudos to Kevin Smith for hinting at this during a Q & A a while ago after visiting the London set.

2)The human character in the trailer exhibits something called a genuine human emotion.

3) True to the JJ Abrams stylebook...although we see...we do not know.

And here's a bonus:

4) No.  Jar.  Jar.

From Cinema Blend:




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Why Theatres?

Why would I post a 16-second video clip?

For the sheer joy of seeing a classic movie marquee in my city again, and seeing people lined up in front of it.

I love new technology.

New technolgy is wonderful.

But it's nice to think back to a time when we watched a movie in a huge, dark room with a group of people.

And then maybe going to a coffee shop to discuss it afterwards.

And yes, I did see The Empire Strikes Back in the summer of 1980 at this theatre, the Paramount.

On a cold, rainy, probably-August day, in the same summer that my sister and I discovered cable TV (13 channels and not 4? What heaven!)

My sister convinced my mom to let us go by saying, "But Mom, we always play Star Wars at recess and lunch!"

So off we went downtown to the Paramount: me, my sister, Mom, my sister's school friend who's now a very well-regarded musician in Japan, and his mom.

As the movie unfolded, I immediately had two questions:

1) If the planet in the movie was in a galaxy far, far away, why the heck did it look so much like Edmonton in winter?

2) And why were the big loud guy and the lady with the thingy in her hair yelling at each other and then talking this mushy "I love you" stuff? (Boy, if I could only go back in time and explain that one to my nine-year-old self...)

Of course I was probably the only person alive in 1977 who hadn't seen the original Star Wars in its first run. But I saw the double feature in 1983, in preparation for Return of the Jedi, at the Capitol Square, just down the street from the Paramount. So it all made sense then.

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Yay Or Nay: Star Wars Edition

With the recent sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, there is much to celebrate. Namely:

1) Director JJ Abrams did a great job already shepherding a beloved franchise into reboot mode with Star Trek in 2009, and seems poised to do it again in May with Star Trek: Into Darkness.

2) Abrams knows how to keep a secret, a minor miracle in this Internet age. We still don't know what role Benedict Cumberbach will be playing. Will it be Khan? Will it not be Khan? I don't want to know until I sit down in the theater on opening night. And that's the way it should be. Hopefully Abrams will be able to keep up the veil of secrecy up until 2015.

3) Abrams has proven himself able to get actors in his films to express emotions, something that George Lucas was never quite able to accomplish, so focused was he on creating his (albeit) groundbreaking technical wizadry. And JJ is likely to make a filming decision, shoot it, and stand by it, improving on Lucas's inveterate tinkering. Jeez, are the original editions of the original 1977-83 trilogy even available anymore? I highly doubt it.

Now for the dark side (cue Darth Vader):

 At its best, Disney is a Magic Kingdom. At its worst it is a sausagelike marketing machine that spits out many permutations of prized properties. Imagine with me, if you will:

  1) The direct-to-DisneyDVD and BluRay exploits of Boba Fett and Yoda.
  2) Ditto for A Jar Jar Family Christmas, with accompanying ice show coming to an arena near you.
  3) While they're at it, how about a DisneyDVD/BluRay Special Anniversary Edition of the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, complete with optional Wookie subtitles.

And last but not least...

 4) Hello, My Little Friend, a musical revue starring C3-P0 and R2D2, now playing in the Orlando and Anaheim theme parks

May the Force be with the Mouse!

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