You never know what’s going to arrive from a galaxy far, far away.
Whereas previous trailers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens were presented with ritual fanfare not unlike the arrival of the emperor himself, today, surprising everyone, new footage of the year’s most secretive film crashed down on the internet with the blunt power of a Hoth wampa. This new one comes from Japan, and considering how much George Lucas nicked from Japanese movies when he first created Star Wars, it’s fitting that even more should come from that direction.
The trailer, with Japanese subtitles, is in line with the others, in that it coyly doesn’t quite reveal a storyline. However, there are individual moments making their debut. For starters, we get to hear Daisy Ridley (Rey) and John Boyega (Finn) introduce themselves.
“I don’t know your name.”
“Finn.”
“I’m Rey.”
OK, so Robert Bolt it’s not, but let’s move on to the new images.
We open, yet again, with Rey out on the desert planet of Jakku. Previous trailers have shown her scavenging an enormous downed star destroyer, but this extreme wide angle goes even further to show the impressive size of this structure. We’d say that these framings maintain an Antonioni-esque quality, but we don’t want to risk an atomic wedgie from the sizable jock community within the Star Wars fanbase.
BB-8 speaks! Well, BB-8 blurts.
The biggest reveal in this new trailer is hearing the cutest li’l robotic volleyball make noise. Unlike R2-D2, his noises don’t sound quite like electronic tones mixed with a baby’s voice. Instead, he almost sounds like a duck put to tape, then flanged and rolled backward.
There is a lot of BB-8 in this new trailer, no doubt playing up the kawaii (cuteness) factor for the Japanese audience. This shot comes from later in the clip, amid a battle of some sort. BB-8 observes from over a hill, and flames are seen reflected in in his “eye”.
We still don’t know how or why Imperial Tie fighters are in this movie, especially since Episode VI seemed to be the end of the Empire, but here they come and, backlit by a sun (just one), they look impressive and terrifying. If you want to instill panic in a Star Wars fan, show her this image.
Now we’re seeing something truly new. The original trilogy never went in for action trope close-ups like this before. This is director JJ Abrams incorporating a little bit of his own style. We’re looking at baddie Kylo Ren’s cruciform lightsaber, and, based on the lit-up dials in the background, it looks like he’s on his ship. This shot is purely a bit of gadget pornography, a tumescent display of the weapon bursting forth, encouraging every kid to race to the toy store and buy one as quickly as possible.
Chewbacca does more than sit in the co-pilot’s seat in The Force Awakens. This image, frankly, is something I wish I hadn’t seen. I can only imagine the opening night audience’s reaction when the world’s greatest Wookiee uses a thermal detonator to blow something up. (The previous shot is of him growling; the one following is of an explosion and flung villains.)
Other than with my own action figures, I’ve never gotten this close of a look at Chewie’s anatomy before. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised he’s got a thumb like that, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.
You get your lightsaber away from Rey, Kylo Ren!
Is this image meant to be something of a mirror to the original, with Darth Vader assaulting Princess Leia with a truth injection? What does Rey know that has made Kylo Ren threaten her so? How is it that, after all this time and all this scrutiny, we don’t actually know what the heck The Force Awakens is about?
