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Rarely does the man change in 90 seconds , but that ’s on the nose what happened with the release of the first house trailer forStar war : The Force Awakensexactly 5 years ago . TheStar Warsfranchise was in a very different place in 2014 than it is today ; still immensely popular , of course , but with an aura of uncertainty . George Lucas ' prequel trilogywas still largely utter of in derogatory tint and Disney had swoop in to buy Lucasfilm for a cool sum , immediately promising that a sequel trilogy lead up by J. J. Abrams was on the room . There was an air of hullabaloo , but also one of trepidation . After the disastrous prequels , could anything actually come tight to capturing the magic of the originalStar Warsmovies ?
To say there was a lot riding on first picture forStar Wars : The Force Awakenswould be a Death Star - sized understatement . Disney ’s investment , the future of the brand , and the careers of a largely unidentified cast all roost upon how well the fandom react to their first glimpse at footage fromThe Force Awakens . Most of the cast had been confirm in progress , but piddling else was known about the upcoming episode . Character names , write up item and potential returning faces stay closely guard secrets butThe Force Awakens ' first trailercaptured the involvement of even the most casualStar Warsfan .
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The house trailer itself is passably myopic , and arguably more of a vexer , clocking in at a mere minute and a one-half or so . However , heap was compact into those former reveals . Finn dressed as a Stormtrooper , BB-8 , Stormtroopers in reality see menacing , Rey on a speeder , beautiful X - Wing shots , theMillennium Falconand , memorably , Kylo Ren ’s grumpy - shaped lightsaber , all top off with a typically baleful voiceover .
How The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Was Received
J. J. Abrams could n’t have hoped for a better reception once the trailer forStar Wars : The Force Awakensbegan circulate in theaters and going viral on societal media . The reaction from both fans and critic was almost unanimously positively charged and hailed as a desperate return of thetruespirit ofStar Warsafter the perceived lament of the prequel era . First and foremost , the filming and plan was praised as harking back to the " feel " of the original trilogy , with sweeping shots of exotic landscapes and the Tatooine - esque esthetic ofJakku . With John Williams ' grudge , Finn drink down up out of nowhere and a jaunty rolling droid , a good sense of playfulness was apparent throughout the trailer , letting fans know in no uncertain damage that this was not a flick about barter dispute .
Nostalgia was a fundamental word thrown around following the dismission of the firstThe Force Awakenstrailer . The replication of XTC - Wings and the Millennium Falcon stir up fond memories , but commentators were flying to point out that the footage also focused squarely on the new cast , rather than the noted veterans , which was interpret as a pleasing residue between the original and modern trilogy era . This was countered with the threatening wickedness of theStormtrooperunit , who looked more militaristic than ever before , and the enigmatic man with the groovy lightsaber .
And it was this very weapon that rule discussion in the months after the trailer was unveiled . Everything from the circumstance and placement of the scene , to the cloaked figure and evidence of the Sith ’s return were analyzed , and the image of the lightsaber itself became the define consequence ofThe Force Awakensin those early stages of marketing .
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Why The Trailer For Star Wars: The Force Awakens Changed The Game
The laggard forStar Wars : The Force Awakensis perhaps the good example in recent memory of a trailer that sets the motion-picture show world abuzz withoutactuallyrevealing anything of importation about the film it ’s promoting . In addition to its glowing reception , the house trailer also broke records for YouTube views , shew how fully the footage captured imaginations and built anticipation for the full movie . Examining the poke with the welfare of hindsight , however , there ’s absolutely no solid information about the plot . The bragging story reveal is examine Finn in his Stormtrooper rig , but there ’s no telling whether this could be in disguise , just likeLuke and HaninA New Hope .
Traditionally , a trailer sets out the basic premise of the pic - the good guys , the bad guys , the problem in need of solving . The trailer forStar war : The Force Awakenstriggered a shift whereby major enfranchisement movies could be promoted with just a serial publication of standout " import " and therefore entirely hide the actual substantial content . Without knowing anything about the context of what they ’d consider , Star Warsfans had fall in love with BB-8 , thought the new lightsaber design look effortlessly cool and were scheme byFinn and Rey .
This poke structure has been ever - present throughout the sequel trilogy . The promotion forStar Wars : The ascension of Skywalkerhas demo a cute new droid ( calciferol - O ) and a cool new lightsaber inDark Rey ’s flip - out weapon . Again , however , sports fan are left with very little idea of what will transpire . Even seemingly pregnant shots like the Sith Rey and the destruction of Vader ’s mask could be illusions or comparatively insignificant in the grand strategy of the movie , and the fleeting look at Palpatine came long after the villain ’s return had already been support via other mean .
This approach to trailers took spoiler - guarding to a whole Modern level and has been adopted by other franchises . For example , compare the 2012 first teaser forMan of Steelto the 2015 trailer forBatman V. Superman : Dawn of Justice . Despite being almost half the length of the latter , theMan of Steelclip acts as a mini Superman origination story , chart his childhood , his former adult years traveling the world and , finally , his climb into a superhero . ThefirstBatman V Supermantrailer , however , ease up very little plot away , instead focus on individual consequence that get citizenry talking . There are shots of Affleck ’s Caped Crusader , Cavill ’s Kal - El , and the famous " do you bleed ? " line . However , the biggest actual fib reveal is that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne come to blows , something that fan might just have inferred from the picture ’s title .
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While it ’s backbreaking to say whether the winner of the laggard forThe Force Awakensis responsible ( and there are plenty of examples of minimalist trailers from throughout chronicle ) , there does come out to have been a world-wide shift in poke trend over the past few years , withDunkirk , La La LandandArrivalprime object lesson .
Was The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Hype Justified?
In terms of create hype , the dawdler forStar state of war : The Force Awakenswent above and beyond expectations but , await back , was that hullabaloo justified ? for sure , part of the buzz can be assign to the sheer joyfulness thatStar Warswas not only back but looking good . Back when mention ofmidichloriansand Jar - Jar Binks send shiver down spines , the thought of a " proper"Star Warsmovie was exciting enough ; the fact that Abrams clearly had something special plan was the icing on the bar . Now thatThe Force Awakenshas been around for a few old age , it ’s clear that the motion picture perhapsdidplay the nostalgia card a piddling too heavily - a feeling that fans were happy to overlook with the first lagger . It could also be argued that , given the anticipation surrounding the lagger ’s release , Disney were lucky to get away with show so little . Now that the novelty ofStar war ' return has worn off , the deficiency of content and detail provided in the preview is evident .
Compared to the current standard pressure around theStar Warsfranchise , the reaction to the firstThe Force Awakenstrailer demonstrates a dynamic of extremes . In 2014 , buff might ’ve become a little carried by with the excitement ofStar Wars ' grand riposte , losing their corporate mind over the most small-scale of original trilogy similarity . In 2019 , the prequels have not only undergo important reappraisal , but the divisiveStar warfare : The Last Jedihas multiply a current of badly - feeling towards the sequel trilogy that was absent forThe Force Awakens . This split in the fandom has resulted in some former criticism towards the upcoming terminal installment , where perhaps a little more of 2014 ’s optimism would be preferable .
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