Reaction: ‘Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens’ Final Trailer

“Who are you?”

For a few seconds after the latest and last Star Wars trailer, I had forgotten my identity! The first two trailers merely piqued my interest; the last trailer left me battered and bruised on the floor, wanting so much more! In many ways, it’s a perfect trailer. It’s doesn’t give away too much, either about plot or character. We see a few explosions and a few action shots, but nothing that will spoil the action scenes that the movie has to offer. There’s just enough nostalgia threaded throughout the trailer, but not too much. Most importantly, I’m more excited than ever about Star Wars Episode VII, thanks to this latest trailer! Here it is…

It still leaves plenty to the imagination, something that is often neglected in the modern final movie trailer of today. Pick a film and its last trailer, and you know everything about the plot, and a lot about the characters. Take any major blockbuster released this year and you can probably tell what’s going to happen by looking at its last trailer. Without a doubt, it will include shots of all of the big action scenes in the movie. Before Avengers: Age of Ultron was released, we’d seen two-thirds of the Hulkbuster/Hulk fight in the trailers! Hollywood heads obviously think that showing us key action scenes from films in trailers will make us more likely to see the film; but all they do is spoil most of the film for us! There’s a fine line between teaser and spoiler, and most trailers veer into spoiler territory (the most obvious being the trailer for Terminator: Genesys. Whoever thought to put the big twist in the trailer needs terminating!).

“I will finish what you started”

However, all of the trailers for Star Wars: Episode VII have been teasers, rather than spoilers. The last one is no exception. We see snippets of the new characters, from Kylo Ren to Rey to Finn, but not enough to spoil their stories. Kylo Ren wants to finish the work of Darth Vader. Rey is a scavenger of sorts. Finn is a Stormtrooper who has crash-landed on the desert planet (which isn’t Tatooine…but looks very similar!). Han Solo confirms that the Jedi legends are true. There’s a second of Han and Leia hugging. Conspicuous by his absence is Luke Skywalker…there are rumours that he is Kylo Ren, but I reckon they are just rumours.

There’s an ample amount of explosion and snippets of TIE Fighters battling X-Wings, but nothing that could spoil any of the major action set pieces of the film. I didn’t really need to see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation after seeing all of the trailers. The first set piece, with Tom Cruise dangling off a plane, was shown almost in its entirety in one of the trailers. Why should I pay money to see something I’ve seen over and over again, and not even out of my own choice? In the trailer for Star Wars, we don’t even see a lightsabre battle! True, we see Finn with a lightsabre ready to fight Kylo Ren, but it’s a fleeting moment.

“The Force…it’s calling to you…”

Thanks to the last trailer, I can hear it calling out to me, compelling me to pre-book tickets. Even without the throwback to the tune of The Empire Strikes Back, it would still be a great trailer. Nostalgic, slowed down tunes are the new Inception ‘boom’ of trailers: look back at the Jurassic World teaser, and the SPECTRE teaser, for example. But Episode VII contains perhaps the most effective use of a nostalgic tune. And of course, it reminds us of the best Star Wars film. Isn’t that what we all want? Something with the emotional resonance of Episode V? Something that’s tinged with equal amounts of bleakness and hope?

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens is over a month away…and it cannot come soon enough. Will it be the cinematic event of 2015? It has to contend with Jurassic World. But nostalgia, and a lot of good will for JJ Abrams, could push Star Wars into the stratosphere. Let’s be honest, anything has to be better than the prequels, anyway! JJ Abrams made a pretty much spot-on Star Wars film with his reboot of Star Trek, so the prospects look good. You can never judge a film by its trailer, but this trailer is surely the best of the year: a spoiler-free, tantalising two minutes that utilise nostalgia perfectly.