After weeks of speculation, the first footage for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now available for viewing. Was it worth the hype? Did it make us turn from the comfortingly dismissive cynicism of the Dark side toward the fanboyish optimism of the Light? The consensus: yeah, pretty much. Which is a little surprising, considering how little of a trailer it actually is. Unless Abrams plans on breaking up every other shot with a black insert, just half of the 88-second trailer has any actual footage in it. At only 11 shots long, is there much of anything that we can infer about the new movie’s plot, or how good it’s going to be?
Nostalgia Bait: 20/100
Neat New Stuff: 10/100
There’s a reason this shot is smack dab in the middle of the trailer, and following on the heels of one of the biggest reveals: it’s boring as sin. Not only do Stormtrooper leggings make for the least indelible part of the uniform, but a dropship door opening sequence has a lot to live up to in a year that gave us Godzilla. If there’s one microsecond in this trailer where it’s okay to blink, it’s this one.
