Last week saw the release of a trailer for a movie coming out next year that got my cockles in a tizzy. It called upon some very basic, very child-like inspirations of excitement and wonder, and used musical cues to pluck at the most nostalgic of my heart strings. There was also a trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Despite the fact that it is likely you initially found this site because of my reworking of the abandoned Revenge of the Jedi, it might surprise you to know that I'm not that big a fan of Star Wars. I certainly enjoy the original trilogy, I respect the original for its importance to the history of film, and think that Empire is an impressive piece of storytelling. But I've never felt moved by the series in the way that so many have been. I'm just not as into space-wizards as others, I guess.
That Star Wars is, and has been for a long time, an excuse to print money rather than driven by the story really can't be argued. The best that can be hoped for now is that the writers and directors of these utterly unnecessary sequels put as much effort into making them as good as possible. Something that George Lucas hadn't been capable of since the early eighties. This year-early teaser was effective in demonstrating that all the most basic elements of Star Wars are present, and that Disney knows how to cut a trailer for maximum effectiveness. What it lacked was Lego, which the internet fixed barely a day after the trailer's release.