*shrug*

The teaser really didn't tell me much one way or the other. My main concern is the same: whether veterans like Kasdan can exert enough influence to prevent Abrams from turning Episode VII into another one of his plot-and character-free high-octane action fests. After he and his crew got done with Star Trek, I felt like my best friend had been dismembered before my eyes, so I'm not really happy at the prospect of him murdering the rest of my childhood.

The Force Awakens... sees that it's been reduced to silly gimmicks like lightsaber pistols and sith army knives... ...yawns, turns over, and goes back to sleep.

While I thought that the lightsaber was stupid, it was at least in a " stupid enough to be hilarious " way, and I consoled myself that it was only plumbing the depths of the EU instead of actually breaking through the floor thereof...

... on the other hand, at least presumably John Boyega's character is presumably Human and not Koruun . Relevant, as I still haven't forgiven whoever came up with " Epicanthix "...

Huh, so can we have someone armed with a gun that fires Cortosis bullets?

If that Sith can wield a lightsabre that gives it wielder maybe third degree burns on his hands then maybe someone should remind people about Outlaw Star...

Now the lead in that used a gun that fired special rounds the kind I can see the Artisan from the Beta making... parry this!

The cross guard is so you know which trilogy it is (in order they were made).

First trilogy: Villain gets one laser blade

Second trilogy: Villain gets two laser blades

Third trilogy...

That double bladed lightsaber rocked. When Darth Maul lit up that second blade the first time I saw it, oh man, that was awesome.

As said elsewhere: "It already feels like a Star Wars made by people that aren't George Lucas, and that's the best part! "

As said elsewhere: "It already feels like a Star Wars made by people that aren't George Lucas, and that's the best part! "

I will never understand this sentiment.

Yeah.....lightsaber cross guard that, at best, drive's the opponent's blade straight into your emitter assembly. And the over pantomime of 'hey, I'm turning on my badass lightsaber!' arm movement and yes......we have officially crossed in the realm of Marvel's "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if....." method of story telling. At least the starfighting scenes promise to be dynamic and gut twistingly awesome.

I don't like anything J.J. has made before, but I really liked the trailer. I'm 39 and very much in the "old trilogy awesome, new trilogy crap" camp, but I've seen many great looking trailers for crap movies before so I won't be suckered in quite yet.

I'll reserve judgement for December 2015.

As said elsewhere: "It already feels like a Star Wars made by people that aren't George Lucas, and that's the best part! "

I will never understand this sentiment.

While I don't necessarily want to speak for Chortles... I think the majority of people who express this sentiment feel that Lucas created something wonderful... then lost all faith in it and became obsessed with changing it (for the worse).

The original films (they will never be 'Episodes 4-6' to me) blended science-fantasy and classic movie tropes to create something that felt original and fresh (it didn't hurt that people like me were impressionable kids, but I saw a lot of bad sci-fi in the late 70's/early 80's and it never blew me away like SW did).

But it seems Lucas lost faith in what made these films great. He tried to rework them - some of which I understand, as he didn't have the technology at the time to do the big set-pieces like Jabba's Palace the way he envisaged them. But many of the other changes he made - Hayden Christensen's Ghost and Greedo Shot First - were revisionist obscenities that felt like they defiled the originals.

Likewise, for many, the prequels were full of empty spectacle and flashy gimmicks. We didn't need harder sci-fi explanations like midichlorians, we didn't need Twilight-style romance and 'Darth Vader: The Awkward Teenage Years'. The lightsaber duels in the originals told an episodic story, charting how the participants had changed. The ones in the prequels were showy, hollow and influenced by amine/manga rather than classic tropes.

So for many, Lucas lost the plot and should be kept well-away from the franchise.

That said, I think Abrams is a talentless, fourth-rate hack and I will be pleasantly surprised if the new movies don't suck. The trailer is full of nostalgia fluff - the only thing missing is Boba Fett and Slave Leia. I think they should have got Michael Bay or Uwe Boll to do the new films - at least then they would have been memorably bad (with ensuing fan meltdown) instead of Abrams stock-in-trade of 'unmemorably bad'.

Maybe it's just low expectations, but I'd expect the new movies to be a resounding 'meh'. Not rage-inducing obscenities like the prequels, but nowhere near as good as 'Guardians of the Galaxy', let alone the original SW films. Just the usual frat-boy action-flick with a Star Wars skin. It will please those who would like anything with the Star Wars motif on it, won't win too many new fans despite overt attempts to pander to the 'cool kidz', and the overwhelming feeling will be 'why did they bother?'. However, I may yet be pleasantly surprised

Sorry Maelora, thanks for taking the time to spell it out, and ya know I mostly like what you have to say, but on this one topic we might as well not discuss it, because all I see is a bunch of silly hyperbole and arbitrary love/hate over minor details. But then I've always said, what brings me back to Star Wars is the world-building, and nobody does that like Lucas. I think most people don't even realize that's the depth that keeps them intrigued, that's what makes the franchise so compelling unlike any other.

Example: one of the best scenes in all movie-dom is in E3, towards the end when Padme is looking out towards the Temple and Anakin is looking back, the sun is going down and all the billions of people of Coruscant are going about their daily lives...it's transporting and compelling, it conveys a lived-in world in a way that no other franchise achieves. And nobody else but Lucas would have spent the time and effort, the work hours and budget, to develop that scene and the myriad others like it, and to give them the necessary space in a 2-3 hour epic where every moment is critical.

This is why it's such a huge hit *despite* the crappy dialogue and all your complaints, and it's why we're here and not scattered around playing something else. The KOTOR team was the only creative team to come close to this level of world building, everything else, Zahn included, is basically just glorified fan fiction. Celebrating Lucas being gone from Star Wars is not just throwing the baby out with the bath water, it's not even being aware enough to know there's a baby in there in the first place.

nobody does that like Lucas

Then may I interest you in Lucas' next project?

I wonder when the RPG is coming out?

I think what people are forgetting, or just don't know, is the influence of George's ex-wife on the original films. This is understandable because their divorce was quite acrimonious and she said at the time that she wouldn't talk about her role in the writing, or rather re-writing, of some of his work. In any case she was responsible for a lot of the dialogue and the fine tuning of the character relationships. Had she been part of the prequels I would guess that the love story, at the very least, would have been quite different and not so paper thin and juvenile.

It's a shame she never received the credit she was due but apparently she was uninterested it getting it so i suppose she's okay with it.

Nothing will ever compare to the original Star Wars, or even the original trilogy. It just won't.

I just hope it's better than EP1, which is a bar so low that it's next to dinosaur bones.

Looking forward to the movie.

There is a history of hilts with multiple wierd, short protrusions of light (multiple emitters) in the comics during the old republic. I can't remeber the issues offhand, but there was a picture of a lightsaber with a major blade along the axis and at least one minor blade exiting about 30 degress off-axis. The extra blades idea is not new. Some of the early force using aliens are 'really' alien.

I believe the idea is that by the time of the movies, Jedi have been homogenized by time and the council. During the sith war, there was the library on Ossus with some respected elder masters, but no formal council. Most jedi look like some kind of wierd shaman and there are many more strange alien jedi shown. I assume the styles of lightsaber creation were also homogenized by tradition and practicality along with the robes and training programs.

I'm not sure I like the 'braveheart in space' vibe of that particular blade, but I like the creativity.

Sorry Maelora, thanks for taking the time to spell it out, and ya know I mostly like what you have to say, but on this one topic we might as well not discuss it, because all I see is a bunch of silly hyperbole and arbitrary love/hate over minor details. But then I've always said, what brings me back to Star Wars is the world-building, and nobody does that like Lucas. I think most people don't even realize that's the depth that keeps them intrigued, that's what makes the franchise so compelling unlike any other.

Example: one of the best scenes in all movie-dom is in E3, towards the end when Padme is looking out towards the Temple and Anakin is looking back, the sun is going down and all the billions of people of Coruscant are going about their daily lives...it's transporting and compelling, it conveys a lived-in world in a way that no other franchise achieves. And nobody else but Lucas would have spent the time and effort, the work hours and budget, to develop that scene and the myriad others like it, and to give them the necessary space in a 2-3 hour epic where every moment is critical.

This is why it's such a huge hit *despite* the crappy dialogue and all your complaints, and it's why we're here and not scattered around playing something else. The KOTOR team was the only creative team to come close to this level of world building, everything else, Zahn included, is basically just glorified fan fiction. Celebrating Lucas being gone from Star Wars is not just throwing the baby out with the bath water, it's not even being aware enough to know there's a baby in there in the first place.

Agreed 100%. Well said. I've said similar since the sale to Disney was announced.

Disney isn't going to do it. They'll look at the cost of a 2 minute scene, mapping an entire 100 square kilometres of Coruscant and adding textures and shading and traffic and other movement, and they'll make the bean counter decision that it doesn't matter. They're already *not* doing it with Rebels. When you compare the loving detail in every TCW episode even in the first season, Rebels doesn't remotely approach that, and I don't think they are even going to try.

Lucas created such depth they'll be able to continue to milk it for all the shallow stories they want.

Really? I thought the TCW animation was all right. Nothing fantabulous though. I found fairly dark tor the most part, which may have been intential consudering the stories. Other than brighter images I am not see much difference in Rebels. Mind I am no expert so I'll defer to those that know "better".

So for many, Lucas lost the plot and should be kept well-away from the franchise.

That said, I think Abrams is a talentless, fourth-rate hack and I will be pleasantly surprised if the new movies don't suck.

Ehhhh, even if Abrams' product sucks it's at least exchanging Lucas' suck for Abrams' suck (a different sort), devil you know vs. devil you don't style, and I soured so hard on Lucas' vision that I'm willing to give Abrams' product a chance, or at least a chance to suck in a different way . Then again, while obviously the original trilogy owed far more to others than just Lucas as per FuriousGreg, I think Lucas had a reputation for iffy dialogue, period , which showed up even in the original trilogy (see the alleged improv of Han's famous " I know ")... and there's this send-up of what almost became A New Hope (namely, deleted scenes that are allegedly self-evident about why they got cut).

Had Lucas done Episode VII instead though...

I will nitpick though -- Greedo Shot First stood out more than anything because it was the most obvious example of " grew older and changed his mind about what he'd done decades after the fact ", otherwise I think fans were willing to give a pass on a lot of other stuff as possible " technical limitations overcome ".

Also, when you spoke of " showy, hollow and influenced by amine/manga " swordplay versus episodic, storytelling swordplay, I was immediately left thinking of " high spots vs. storytelling psychology " in pro wrestling ... see any parallels?

As for Episode VII otherwise, thanks to the trailer we managed to get:

(Artist's Tumblr here .)

(This, frankly, is in regards to this ... the quote is from here ... though as per the link I posted earlier, Star Wars in general has tended to be horrid about " default Humans are white, ethnic-minority actors end up being cast as near-Human or non-Human ", and Lando ended up as the sidekick as far as the plot was concerned, so John Boyega front and center baby...)

... and best of all, this !

Disney has done right by Pixar, Marvel and (to a lesser extent) the Muppets.

I see no actual evidence that Disney will suddenly fumble with 'Star Wars'.

There are worries and matters of personal taste, to be sure, but Disney is giving Lucasfilm what it needs to do their thing. Any failings will be on Lucasfilm and the team they assembled.

If anything, Disney has a reputation for over-spending, not the opposite.

Disney is a scary monster of a corporation, make no mistake, but in the modern era not supporting their various divisions isn't among their sins.

I have to say that I am absolutely loving Star Wars Rebels. And if that's an indication of what Disney is willing to do with the franchise then I am hopeful that Episodes 7-9 will be fairly decent. I'm not a fan of Abrams' storytelling by any means, but as a director he's decent. We'll have to wait and see until more of the plot is revealed.

To you naysayers out there, about the new lightsaber:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TiabUnjU84w

I don't like the three-way lightsaber. I don't like the spherical droid. I don't like JJ Abrams. I have no problem with showing new technology 30 years in the future. But why does it have to be stupid looking? JJ Abrams will always pick over-the-top CGI over having the plot make sense and that does not bode well for this movie. The only cool things that were in the trailer were recognizable from the first trilogy. Of course, if the guy with the stupid lightsaber actually pulls off the scene like Ray Park did with the double lightsaber than I will be happy. I just have little faith that JJ Abrams can make a good movie.

To you naysayers out there, about the new lightsaber:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TiabUnjU84w

I liked that the sarcastic tweet from one of the MST3K/Rifftrax guys was put in there.

In regards to the handguard, I definitely see the defensive (see Gif Below) and offensive possibilities, but I'd personally prefer it designed another way. Though admittedly, this is more coming from a "Hey, it's all fictional, why can't it be designed better" standpoint as opposed to a "Well, perhaps this is the only way it can be made to conform with technology in Star Wars" standpoint. I'm sure it'll all get explained out in the film or one of those Visual Guide books they put out that show the innards of the lightsaber though.

EDIT: I don't want to clog the thread up with too many pictures, but here's some fan-made ones I found that fall under the better general design category, even if they don't conform/fit to Star Wars tech as they should: Number 1 , Number 2

Can imagine the Sith take one look at this and say,"What part of cortosis don't you understand?!"

In which case, why not just have cortosis guards without the lightsaber blades? The blades will just make it more deadly to the user, and doesn't assist with defence or parrying any better than a cortosis crossguard would.