[Skoob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scarecrow

...JJ Abrams has a good eye for cinematography, which is honestly more important than a story with Star Wars.

You're saying that just to provoke, right? Cinematography is Abrams' weakness, with those infuriating lens flares and oblique camera angles, constant reminders of the fact that we're sitting in a theatre watching a canned product, shattering the immersive experience. Abram's cinematography is to be despised. But he's older now, more experienced, likely working with a different crew, under a different banner, with different rules and standards. One can hope.

Your dismissal of storylines seems outrageous to me. Have you never enjoyed a good book? Ask anyone who has ever sat around a campfire: even the best SFX is no substitute for good, imaginative storytelling! IMHO, Hollywood relies too much generally on technology and other elements and distractions to compensate for weak storytelling. Fortunately or unfortunately, the special effects goose is just about cooked, especially for graphic depiction of violence. You can only blow stuff up so many times and so many ways before it gets boring.

That's another talking point for the new movie: the biggest SFX in the original movie were the graphic destruction of a planet (Alderaan) and a big space station (Death Star). Abrams has likewise blown up a planet (Vulcan) and a starship (USS Vengeance) and a city (Starfleet Academy, future downtown San Fran). His MO suggests that something else will be blown up. I would guess that the destruction in this new movie will involve use of Force Power on a grand scale, like to move large objects and cause lots of explosions along the way. And if Luke has been practicing for 30 years to perfect his Jedi powers, including a stint on the Dark Side, then the biggest bad guy may well be Luke.

Maybe the movie starts out with that destruction during a dark period in Luke's past, and then someone SIMILAR to the Inquisitor is sent after Luke, living a pastoral life on the familiar Tatooine property that he inherited from his relatives, to bring him to trial: a kind of "Jedi Inquisition."

I agree with Catatronic (above) re: the droid ball thing and the speeder resembling a bar of soap. The point would appear to be an indication that the movie will include many similar novelties, likely leading to interesting licensed merchandise...!

I can live with the new helmet design for the stormtroopers -- not much choice (!) -- but I have reservations about the rest of the suit, which seems to make the wearer look fat. Militaristic armor should look daunting, not marshmallowy. And there's no denying that the original design is so iconic that they mess with it at their peril. Since this is set in the future, maybe we'll see a little old AND a little new. One hopes.

You have to admit that those 88 seconds have given us lots of food for thought!

I still think the narrator is Cumberbatch.