Force in Focus: Force Awakens Theories

One more Force Awakens post before we return to the comic book Wheel saga, this one taking a closer look at two popular fan theories regarding the upcoming film that have been banging around the internet for awhile now (and gained additional traction/attention in the wake of the release of the final trailer for the film). Note: I'm mostly working only off of the teasers/trailers, some info gleaned from merchandise (like the toys) and some vague internet scuttlebutt (I haven't even read the big EW article on the movie, though my brother passed along a few details from it), but if you're a complete spoilerphobe or just trying to avoid any lengthy ruminations on the movie at this point, consider this your official spoiler warning and suggestion to not read below the cut.

Force in Focus: The Force Awakens Trailer

Unless you've been living in a cave on Mars with your eyes shut and fingers in your ears, you know that this week saw the release of the first (and likely last) full trailer for The Force Awakens. 

Not surprisingly, I had some thoughts.

The Music
I've seen conflicting reports as to whether or not the music used in the trailer was composed by John Williams, but either way, it's simply fantastic. The way it seamlessly transitions from tinkly and full of mystery as Rey explores the Star Destroyer, to a full-on funeral dirge as Kylo Ren (seemingly) addresses Vader's charred mask, to an ethereal chorus as the Falcon flies over Jakku is pretty astonishing. And I love that the Falcon shots sample the music from the very end of Empire Strikes Back (the "Rebel fleet" cue), which is a great little melody that doesn't get reused often enough.

Force in Focus: Force Friday

(Apologies for the back-to-back non-comic book review posts; Disney keeps throwing newsworthy Star Wars stuff at us...).

Yesterday was Force Friday, described by some as "Star Wars Christmas", the day in which an enormous wave of new and Force Awakens-centric Star Wars product was released, everything from new action figures and Lego sets to new Star Wars-branded clothes, books and games. Many stores were opening at midnight, with cosplayers present, creating something of a carnival atmosphere. In my younger days, I absolutely would have been one of those rushing the doors at midnight, even if, then as now, there wasn't a whole lot of product specifically I wanted or had to get right away.

Force in Focus: The Force Awakens Teaser #2

I honestly hadn't intended to interrupt the comic book reviews at least until we'd finished the adaptation of the film with issue #6, but then a new Force Awakens trailer was released at Celebration Anaheim last week, and while I wasn't going to push back the launch of the comic book reviews another week, talking about that trailer sure seems to fit the purview of this blog series. So here are.

Here, then, are five things that stood out to me in the second teaser trailer. Mild spoilers, but I don't know much more than what's been shown in the trailers.

The Force Awakens: Five Intriguing Things

Hey, remember a couple weeks back, when the first The Force Awakens teaser hit theaters and the internet and everyone was buzzing about it? Let's go back in time to then and pretend this post was written in a timely manner.

Back in the day, you had to actually go to a movie theater in order to see a new trailer, and so in 1999 I plunked down actual money alongside Paul Zenisek for a ticket to Wing Commander, just to see the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace trailer. The movie was pretty awful, but hey, the trailer was pretty awesome (arguably better than the movie itself), plus we got to see a couple of girls who were just there to ogle Freddie Prince Jr. walk out when they realized it was a sci-fi movie.

This time, I just had to pull up the teaser on my laptop the afternoon of Black Friday, and it's entirely possible that not having to watch Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lilliard mug their way through a terrible movie afterwards added to my appreciation of it. So here's five things from an 88 second teaser specifically designed to whet appetites and reveal nothing concrete that caught my attention.