But while my hopeful heart still wants to believe that Abrams is going to provide us with the Star Wars movie we’ve been praying for since The Phantom Menace opened to disappointment, something about the tone of this latest trailer unfortunately appealed to the more pessimistic mind in me. The footage chosen achieves the right kind of excitement in isolated chunks, but the atmosphere of the complete piece just feels a tad apologetic.
Quotes from the likes of Mark Hamill, for example, explaining how “everything’s changed but nothing’s changed” almost feel as though they are designed to offer hindsight’s explanation of the way intention doesn’t quite translate into the finished article. If the film truly ends up capturing the magic of the original Star Wars experience, then its fans will know it. It should not be the case that the film has to explain the direction it was trying to take, in response to it not quite hitting the mark.
But it’s also important to distinguish what would be considered a successful sequel, given the failings of the prequels. While recalling many of the old cast and characters seems necessary to allow this story to be a more direct continuation of the series, simply fleshing out a new story with a few cursory glances and nods to the old movies will not suffice. Although virtually nothing is known about the details of the plot at this point, we have to hope that the inclusion of the old cast has to feel organic after the thirty year gap since the events of Return Of The Jedi.
