Trailer Dossier: "Star Wars: Episode VII--The Force Awakens" (J.J. Abrams, 2015)

BACK TO THE FRONTLINES by Bennett Campbell Ferguson

Above: Oscar Isaac takes the controls of an X-Wing in the next "Star Wars" film

 

“A well conceived plan.”  So said Qui-Gon Jinn in “Star Wars: Episode I” when Queen Amidala unveiled her anti-Trade Federation battle plans.  And so say I of Disney’s marketing strategy for the forthcoming “Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens.”   It’s brilliant, really—dropping a trailer the day after Thanksgiving was the perfect method for stoking the fires of “Star Wars”-friendly Christmas shopping (and more than a year before the movie premieres, no less).

            I’m not really that cynical.  It’s just that in the pantheon of my cinematic loves, the “Star Wars” saga is right up there with Christopher Nolan, the first Spider-Man trilogy, and the final scene of “Lost In Translation.”  And to me, Richard Marquand’s concluding chapter, “Return of the Jedi,” was the perfect cap to the series’ outer space war of good versus evil—a tragic, tender, and exhilaratingly emotional blockbuster.  Any attempt to go beyond such a meaningful wrap party can’t help but look economically brilliant and artistically unwise.

            Still, there’s much to love in the “Force Awakens” trailer.  The first shot of a young soldier abruptly rising into the frame may look cartoonish (the actor, John Boyega, wears a white uniform that looks like a Halloween costume), but that may be the point.  At its best, “Star Wars” had always had an anarchic comic book feel, and a mischievous blast of roguish fun—the spark best supplied in the original films by Harrison Ford’s heroic scoundrel Han Solo.

            Mr. Ford doesn’t appear in this trailer (even though he does star in the film), which disappointed me.  Still, it makes sense for director J.J. Abrams to save the best for last, and what he does offer here is promising—shots of familiar spaceships skirting over a watery planet; a round robot rolling across a dessert, making vibrantly squeaky noises; and sleek, gleaming-red sci-fi weaponry, promising the conflict that will inevitably fill the film.

            In other words, the trailer for “The Force Awakens” is a visually magnetic, tantalizing piece of pop art in and of itself.  That doesn’t bode either ill or well for the film (after all, plenty of bad movies have beautiful trailers), but it does give us something to salivate over until the film is released on December 18^TH, 2015. 

            I’m still skeptical.  But with “Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” Mr. Abrams did merge bright emotion and smooth special effects, creating two bombastically human adventures.  I hope he’ll achieve the same thing with “The Force Awakens.”  And either way, I’ll be there on opening day, ready to return to that galaxy far, far away once more.