Fan-made trailers bite back against Star Wars 7 trailer

It was barely hours after fans got their first glimpse of the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens that the audience bit back.

First, by creating fan-made trailers for the film. And then, pointing out what looks to be a continuity error in the trailer.

In the speeder sequence featuring actress Daisy Ridley, a closeup shot of her at the controls includes what looks like a weapon, with a lightsaber-style handle, strapped to the side. She also has her goggles on her forehead.

In the next shot, which seems to follow on, the weapon is missing, and her goggles are over her eyes.

It is possible but unlikely that the sequences are unrelated. What is more likely is that the second shot is a digital effects shot which lacks some of the spit and polish it will get once the movie is finished.

Meanwhile, two fan-made trailers almost immediately began making noise in the social media echo chamber.

The first, the George Lucas' Special Edition, features over-cooked special effects and digitally inserted characters and aliens, a blunt comment on the Star Wars' creator's tendency to tinker in post-production.

The second, the Lego Edition, gloriously re-creates the trailer using Lego.

Both powerfully demonstrate the pressure on filmmakers in the genre space in 2014, when fans have access to film-editing technology and can, in a short space of time, deface, improve or provide stark comment on a piece of work.

And both erase any doubt that the release of The Force Awakens, the seventh film in the Star Wars cycle, will be anything less than a mammoth hit.

The world's first glimpse of the new Star Wars film - Episode VII in the long-running saga, and the first from Star Trek reboot director J.J. Abrams - has created a wave of discussion and rapture among fans.

In just two days, one YouTube copy has been viewed almost 30 million times.

 

In it, we find that the Galactic Empire - overthrown in the previous episode, 1983's Return of the Jedi - still looms large, despite the death of Emperor Palpatine.

The trailer's narrator then suggests there has been awakening, setting the stage for a new clash between "the darkness" and "the light".

 

But the trailer left us with more questions than answers.

Without even getting into questions like "Did that sound like an Imperial probe droid?" (It did), "Is that an E-11 blaster rifle?" (It was, with a few modifications) and "What are the symbols on the X-Wing pilot's cockpit harness?" ("Pull to inflate," in Aurebesh) here are 10 burning questions which still have us wondering.

Who is the narrator of the trailer?

Sounds like Emperor Palpatine, though it can't be. He was dispatched by a redeemed Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi. But this narrator speaks in Star Wars villain-voice, and he almost adheres to the Family Guy rule of great Star Wars dialogue: "Something, something, something, Dark Side." If he's a villain, is he the master of the one-master-one-apprentice Sith rule? (Which makes the cloaked, lightsaber-wielding figure glimpsed later potentially the apprentice?) In terms of a spoken voice, the internet is speculating everyone from Max Von Sydow and Andy Serkis, who are in the film, to Benedict Cumberbatch, who is not. Well, not officially at least. The most likely answer is Serkis.

Is the desert planet Tattooine?

That detail seems certain, for a couple of reasons. The first, obviously, is that each of the Star Wars trilogies - the "original trilogy" which encompassed episodes four, five and six, and the "prequel trilogy", which were episodes one, two and three - have opened their stories on the now iconic desert planet which was the home of hero Luke Skywalker (and, as we found out later, his father Anakin.) The second is that in several glimpses in the trailer we see in the distance what appears to be moisture vaporators, the principal tool of water farming, one of Tattooine's major industries, and what look to be burned-out pod engines, a mainstay of Tattooine's pod-racing industry.

John Boyega a stormtrooper?

Looks that way. Or does it? We only see him for a moment, and even then he looks uncertain, almost disoriented. The moment - in the trailer at least - is played for tension, as though he's being chased and he knows it. We're working with a couple of theories here. First, the era of stormtrooper "clones" appears long gone. Though we never really saw under stormtrooper armour in episodes four, five and six, it was inferred that they were recruits not clones, though they were noted for being weak-willed. (Exhibit A: "These aren't the droids you're looking for.") So, is Boyega's character a recruit who has gone AWOL? Or a rebel agent who was working undercover as a stormtrooper? Some behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt suggests the former, with the Empire's sinister agents in hot pursuit of him.

What's with the rolling ball droid?

OK, it does bear more than a passing resemblance to Vincent, the cutesy droid in the 1979 Disney Star Wars knock-off The Black Hole. And Disney has bought Lucasfilm. (Which means this will be the first Star Wars film released without the iconic Fox fanfare at its start.) The scene even looks like it's intended, at first glance perhaps, to elicit a smile from the audience. But let's not panic. First things first: the head of this droid looks more (or less) like the head of an astromech droid - the manufacturing series which the iconic R2-D2 belongs to - which suggests perhaps this is what astromech droids look like 30 years down the track. And according to rumour the droid belongs to Kira, Daisy Ridley's character. Which brings us to ...

Is Daisy Ridley's character Princess Leia and Han Solo's daughter?

Difficult to say, though there is a clear similarity between the shot used in the trailer, in which Ridley's character mounts a speeder bike, and the sequence in Return of the Jedi in which Princess Leia does the same. The style of Ridley's clothing is even reminiscent, which cannot be coincidence. In the Star Wars "expanded universe", the Leia-Han marriage does produce children - twins Jaina and Jacen, and Anakin - though Abrams has said the "expanded universe" is no longer considered "canon" with regard to the films. (Historical note: in the expanded universe, Jacen Solo becomes a Sith Lord named Darth Caedus.) Reliable rumour suggests her name is Kira, and she's the film's heroine, based on Tattooine and, like Luke Skywalker three films earlier, is forced to leave her life behind when the Empire razes it to the ground.

Is that new stormtrooper armour?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: oh my heavens, lordy yes. Few things in the Star Wars universe touch the geeky heart of the fans more than stormtroopers, the Empire's front line in quelling planetary revolutions and other intergalactic revolutions. These are post-Clone Wars troopers, apparently on an assault mission. Translation: the Empire is far from finished, though its grip on the galaxy may be failing. Star Wars has made good use of stormtroopers in stylistic terms, notably the sleep snow troopers. The new design is stunning. What is even cooler is what we don't see in the trailer. According to leaked production art, there are chrome-plated troopers, a sort of elite guard who serve the film's major villain, and, in one beautiful image, what looks to be a chrome-plated stormtrooper with an exposed mechanical hand cradling the burned mask of Darth Vader.

Who is the lightsaber-wielding villain? (And why is the blade of the lightsaber so coarse?)

Striding forcefully through a dark, icy wilderness, this figure is unequivocally the film's villain, though not necessarily the trailer's narrator. What we know is this: the film's villain is most likely played by Adam Driver, though his identity is still unknown. While much of the chatter about the "crossblade" lightsaber has focused on its somewhat impractical structure - a single blade flanked by two small hilt-blades - there is one other distinct characteristic it possesses: a coarse edge. Lightsabers in Star Wars, even those used by the Sith, have historically been smooth bladed weapons. ("An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age.") One theory: it's a crudely made lightsaber, suggesting its wielder isn't a trained Sith Lord but rather someone who is tampering with forces (did you see what we did there?) he cannot control.

Is that a new Millennium Falcon?

Come on, there is only one Millennium Falcon. Though there is a noticeable change to its exterior - the old circular sensor dish on the ship's roof is gone, replaced with a rectangular one, which suggests that there have been some improvements. (Small historical note: the original dish was damaged in Return of the Jedi.)  The ship, a modified YT-1300 light freighter, appeared in the original trilogy films but was only glimpsed in the prequel Revenge of the Sith.

Why are there no original cast in the trailer?

Maybe J.J. is saving them for the next trailer? OK, the short, tough answer is this: because they're not going to be the stars of the film. Even the official press release from Disney lists John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow at the top and then says "they will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker." So, realistically, we should be expecting something more than a cameo, something less than a lead role. Which isn't so bad. You don't want this to turn into Star Trek XII: So Very Tired. ("Again with the Klingons.")