Yup Chewie looked weird. To me the eyes look really fake, which you'd think would look perfectly natural, being the only visible part of the actual actor, but I think they CGI-ed them. And let's not forget the token merchandise next to Chewie. What the heck is that... thing... pet?

The trailer makes it look like Leia also gets killed by Kylo Ren, which makes killing Han even more unnecessarily. I hate J.J. Abrams, hipster looking mother..., but I could at least avoid his incompetence by not watching films he was involved in. But then he had to get involved in both Star Trek and Star Wars.

Spolier Alert:

Phil Donahue is Rey's father!

I don't think he's supposed to be weighty or have gravitas. The Force Awakens made absolutely no secret of the fact that, indeed, Kylo Ren is meant to be a petulant child whose anti-authority leanings have been exploited by Snoke. Snoke is essentially supposed to be Al-Baghdadi or Richard Spencer, depending on your political leanings, while Kylo Ren is the adolescent who runs away to fight for a less-than-honourable cause with promises of greatness and glory. He's a puppet with delusions of saviourhood.

The Star Wars films have never shied away from political analogies - the prequel trilogy was a reference to the Nazis' grab for power (in fact, Palpatine does it in almost exactly the same way) as well as a number of unsubtle attacks on Bush-era republicanism, while the classic trilogy was one big Vietnam protest.

^
https://m.popkey.co/eb6d2c/l03o7.gif

My life is now complete.

Star Trek was a series of military reports. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, they sat around in a bunch of business meetings. It wasn't an idealistic vision of society, it was a job where they could be all that they could be: expendable somewhere else. At least Star Wars wasn't all military. Both of them had a ridiculous excessive amount of raw materials for spaceships. It's not like that stuff grows on trees.

but the thing is that he's portrayed as this incredibly powerful character. with power comes conflict and responsibility, and with that comes character. it's like for example, jaquin phoenix's character in gladiator was a good example of weakness, petulance and self-centred nature but you could take him seriously as the villain. this guy don't have that. in some ways he's too dumb to be his character, and in other ways he's too weak to be his character. the character he is right now just doesn't work as a major villain for me. he's like the guy that tries to imitate the hero and gets killed off. there was never a moment in the first movie where he really made an impact. there were no glimmers of greatness. he didn't fight a thousand dudes, didn't figure something out. there was the thing at the end but I saw that coming a mile away and I dunno it just didn't seem meaningful.

then there is his little struggle in the fighter cockpit in the trailer. it's like if he's so stupid and so petulant, what is this struggle of his ever over really? I dunno I just don't like the character.

You'd be surprised by how realistic that is. Forest Whitaker's Idi Amin Dada (or check Barbet Schroeder's doc for the real one) is an exemple of this. Mafiosi tend to be little jerks pathetically mimicking hollywoodian gangsters, which doesn't make them much less dangerous. Fascisms were basically collections of petty cretins with disproportionate power. And I won't even go into current US politics. Thing is, evil is a matter of banal stupidity in dangerous contexts more often than a matter of genius planning and twisted brainpower.

I was disappointed by that new Star Wars movie being an over-the-top remake of the original ("this time, our death star can destroy THE WHOLE GALAXY IN ONE SHOT - oooooh"), but I appreciated the points where it dared to be different. And one point is the lack of such cliché evil genius baddy, and its replacement with the more infuriatingly lame, less glamourous, less predicted, little-twat-in-charge. Nice subversion of hollywoodian standards. I first felt like a missing stair step, but that's precisely because we're so used to expect some conventions that we almost feel cheated when we're deprived of them.

It may be the one element that will keep me mildly curious.

It's called a Midichlorian.

It's a slugcat from Rainworld?

Am I the only one that was not all excited about the new trailer? I do love star wars to death but episode 7 felt very off to me and made episode 1 look 10x better. I will see this movie when it comes out but man something feels off about it.

Ok, guys, this has nothing to do with the trailer, but I just have to share it anyway. I just read the second collection of the Poe Dameron comics (which, I remind you, are canon) set before The Force Awakens and apparently C-3PO is running a galaxy-wide network of droid spies for the Resistance. I shit you not. He is actually considered an arch-spymaster by the First Order. Is that the most ridiculous and awesome thing or what? Am I the only one who'd rather see a whole movie about this then Episode VIII? The Droid Who Came in from the Cold? Tinker, Tailor, Droid, Spy?

As I said, I'm excited about Mark Hamil, but the rest, like you, I'm finding underwhelming.

Yup. That's Midi the friendly Midichlorian. Jedis have a lot of them inside their blood. This one got out to assist them on their adventures.

Did you picture them differently ?

I'm just hyped for that Finn vs. Phasma fight hinted at the trailer.
Also Looper director, fuck yeah!
Kinda wish Rey got a staff lightsaber (would love to see some more alternative/non-orthodox saber designs)
Like how Luke's placed on the poster, like father like son I guess.

I'm just gonna lie on the floor and pray to any nearby deity for a possible Season 7 of the Clone Wars.