Re: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
With the exception of the DP-PD (Disney Product-Placement Droid available stores Xmas 2015 reserve now to avoid disappointment!!!) for a teaser trailer a year out from release I thought it showed us exactly what we hoped it would. That the series is in the hands of people that hugely loved the OT and who also wanted to demonstrate to the rest of us they know pretty much exactly where we all want to be going for the next three.
I hear what some people are saying about the odd thing or two so I ’ll give you my perspective.
The Broadsabre looks like its supposed to,exactly like an older ancient darkside weapon. Interestingly it also appears like Sith “lightning” is bound into the blades so it could give it a more powerful force effects. Using a broadsword is a hugely different style of fighting to that of a katana, so I expect a far more powerful and brutal type of scything stroke as opposed to the light touches of the “traditional” sabre, deep and circular rather than the Iaido like strokes of the Jedi.
The effects are broadly in line with what you would expect these days and pretty far ahead of where I expected them to be. They look very realistic rendered , like Star Trek- Into Darkness or CA- The Winter Soldier, as its easier now to do atmospheric lighting effects as opposed to just the stark simple black and white of outer space. The Falcon, had it been shot against that kind of harsh backlighting as opposed to a coloured desert with a blue lit horizon, would probably have struck a more truer note with the traditionalists. Personally I thought all the effects shots at this stage in production looked beyond what I had hoped for , and I felt a great surge of joy at seeing the Falcon in flight again. Thankfully the overall design was most definitely and immediatley identifiably Star Wars!!!!!
I also note there was not one bit of lense flare, so you see people obviously do listen!!!
We all know the old cast is coming back but I think its fair to say the story now belongs to a new generation of actors with the elder stars supporting their leads, so be prepared for that. They’ll be there ,no doubt about it, but perhaps not to the degree that we old schoolers might expect in a few cases. I was also struck by how much Daisy Ridleys character looked like Natalie Portman, she’s definitely got Skywalker blood in her!!!
Overall, at this stage in the production I think we were bloody lucky to get as much as we thought and I was thoroughly thrilled by it. Not quite a “Ten from Len” but definitely a nine from mine (-1 for the droid!)
