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The Force Awakens trailers - So much hope

YolkFolk

YolkFolk

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,212
The North, England
If you're a Star Wars fan then do you remember the unbelievable hype from watching the trailers for The Force Awakens?

So much hope, so much potential. With George out of the way then there was no way these new movies could be anything but top tier right?

What stands out to me was just how much mystery surrounded the new characters. Who were they and how did they fit in with the established universe?

To this day I'm convinced Rey was going to be related to Luke in some way and that the main story was meant to be a family feud between the offspring of Leia/Han and whatever relation Rey was to Luke. I swear there was a leaked action figure with real dialogue where Kylo Ren referred to Rey as his cousin but no one ever seemed to mention it again.

Seeing Finn take off his helmet and feeling the potential of a character who used to be a stormtrooper and all the conflicts this could create is another standout memory I have from the trailers.

What do you remember thinking the story might be and who the characters were?





 
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Chip Chanceworth

Chip Chanceworth

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,356
I absolutely love this movie and my memories of it coming out. I had no interest in Star Wars going into it as i had only seen the original trilogy and barely cared about it after the fact. This movie marks star wars coming back into my life. Still havent seen the prequels or the mandalorian.
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
Seems like Disney is trying to get out ahead of the extended universe this time with all their shows. This way, they can ride the wave of fans burnt by TRoS who are looking for decent SW content
 
brenobnfm

brenobnfm

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Sep 28, 2019
1,695
Film was disappointing but nothing close to the trash sequels it got, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker are between the worst films i ever watched.
 

Spine Crawler

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,228
no george lucas was a huge redflag. unfortunately the sequel triology was shit.

also finn and rey was a thing. finn jedi was a thing. disney for shame.
 

rude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,812
Mandalorian is going to end up making more of a lasting impact in pop culture than these movies are...that's kind of crazy when you think about it.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,499
Nothing compared to the dissapointment in 1999 for episode 1. At least the sequels were mostly decent films, if a bit cycnical and formulaic. I would like to cinema again and watch an ok movie.
 
Fj0823

Fj0823

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Oct 25, 2017
26,738
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I knew it was going south the moment the "Star Wars just like YOU remember it" anti prequel/EU/Lucas narrative started forming in marketing and online.

I hated this film, absolutely shallow and reactionary. TLJ is the only sequel worth a damn.
 
Garlador

Garlador

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
14,131
For a brief, shining moment, we felt pride and joy seeing a black man rise up from slavery to wield the weapon of one of fantasy's greatest heroes, thinking it would be a watershed moment for minority representation in a major franchise.

... Dagnabbit, JJ.
 

VAD

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,591
TFA set up the hype, TLJ made it grow and TRoS took a big shit on it.
 
OP
OP
YolkFolk

YolkFolk

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,212
The North, England
I agree that a couple of the films aren't too bad, but the overall story they told as a trilogy wasn't really any good, especially with how it folded in the third film and brought back Palpatine.
 
Mr_F_Snowman

Mr_F_Snowman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,957
I still think this movie delivered - it just had the right feel, right mix of comedy, right mix of old and new characters coming together - and it just felt like Star Wars. Pretty much hated TLJ and yet to even bother with TRoS
 
Lazlow

Lazlow

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,171
So much hype, looked like they really knew what to do with the franchise...then it went so horribly wrong. Regardless of your feelings on the following films I don't think anyone could predict how divisive the whole trilogy would be.
 
Ouroboros

Ouroboros

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,262
United States
I enjoyed all three. It became a tradition that I went to see them opening day with my brother in theaters. I'll keep these three films very close to my heart for that.
 
jett

jett

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Oct 25, 2017
44,707
All those trailers were vapid and lacking in any substance, just like the movie itself. I always thought it was odd how they didn't give you an inkling of what the movie was about. They're all just nostalgia-inducing imagery and music.

It was less odd when TFA came out and it turned out to be a regurgitation of the original Star Wars, they seemingly tried hard to keep that under wraps. I guess in the end they actually were accurately portraying what it was about. :P
 
Relix

Relix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,268
It was fun and interesting. Then came TLJ and it began to splip. Then came ROS and well.... it retroactively made other movies bad. That's how bad it is.
 
Metallix87

Metallix87

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Nov 1, 2017
10,533
I thought the trailers for TFA sucked, but the film was great. The inverse of my feelings for TLJ and TRoS.
 
FeD

FeD

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Oct 25, 2017
4,285
It gets a bit messy in the third act, but the first act is still wonderful.
 
Blader

Blader

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Oct 27, 2017
26,704
Lazlow said:
So much hype, looked like they really knew what to do with the franchise...then it went so horribly wrong. Regardless of your feelings on the following films I don't think anyone could predict how divisive the whole trilogy would be.
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People getting heated about Star Wars on the internet, who would've thought!
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

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Oct 27, 2017
19,904
Hyper said:
At least we got one top-tier movie (TLJ).
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I can't articulate why, but there's something about Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that prevent them from being good standalone movies for me. The Rise of Skywalker really affected my enjoyment of the previous two movies in ways I haven't experienced before. As much as I enjoyed TFA, in retrospect it seemed like more of a just a decent starting point. Similarly with TLJ, a lot of its story beats feel like they're only setting up what comes next. All the stuff that wasn't followed through with is too evident when going back to those movies.

To contrast, I don't like the Matrix sequels too much, but I can still fully appreciate the first Matrix without feeling like it was squandered potential.
 
Birbo

Birbo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
885
I'd lost my mom after a long illness the month prior to the teaser trailer dropping. I remember sitting on my couch watching it and actually crying tears of joy. It was so nice to have something positive to look forward to after such a sad time in my life. I felt so silly that it affected me like that but it couldn't have come at a better time.

Really enjoyed the movie and eventually came to like TLJ as well. RoS was such hot garbage it's made me never watch any of that trilogy since.
 
Ahti

Ahti

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Nov 6, 2017
9,383
It`s my favorite movie from the new trilogy, I really enjoyed it.
 

Deleted member 7051

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
14,254
The Force Awakens promised us so much and the sequel trilogy failed to deliver in every conceivable way. I don't think I've ever been as disappointed in a movie or series of movies after seeing the trailer as I was in what we got from the sequel trilogy.

And yes I'm still pissed off that the Stormtrooper-turned-Jedi tease was a big nothingburger. They did Finn so damn dirty it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and don't even get me started on having Luke talk in the trailers when he literally says nothing at all in the movie and shows up at the very end for like two seconds.
 
jett

jett

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Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,707
Lazlow said:
So much hype, looked like they really knew what to do with the franchise...then it went so horribly wrong. Regardless of your feelings on the following films I don't think anyone could predict how divisive the whole trilogy would be.
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Lucasfilm's mistake was hiring JJ Abrams in the first place.
Spring-Loaded said:
To contrast, I don't like the Matrix sequels too much, but I can still fully appreciate the first Matrix without feeling like it was squandered potential.
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That's because The Matrix stands on its own without the need for anything else.

TFA is filled with JJ's patented mystery bullshit boxes that never went anywhere.
 
HStallion

HStallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
62,533
To be fair TFA got a ton of well deserved criticism for just redoing the same tired planet killing super weapon plotline among other issues like totally wasting the actors from The Raid movies so they could get eaten by a CG hentai monster with a terrible pun name. Movie might have been a better product than what came after but it had a lot of issues.
 
brenobnfm

brenobnfm

Member
Sep 28, 2019
1,695
Spring-Loaded said:
I can't articulate why, but there's something about Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that prevent them from being good standalone movies for me. The Rise of Skywalker really affected my enjoyment of the previous two movies in ways I haven't experienced before. As much as I enjoyed TFA, in retrospect it seemed like more of a just a decent starting point. Similarly with TLJ, a lot of its story beats feel like they're only setting up what comes next. All the stuff that wasn't followed through with is too evident when going back to those movies.

To contrast, I don't like the Matrix sequels too much, but I can still fully appreciate the first Matrix without feeling like it was squandered potential.
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Click to shrink...

That's because Matrix it's a top tier movie, one of the best sci-fi of all time. I would even say Matrix Reloaded is much better than any movie from the SW sequel trilogy.
 
Fj0823

Fj0823

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Oct 25, 2017
26,738
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rude said:
Mandalorian is going to end up making more of a lasting impact in pop culture than these movies are...that's kind of crazy when you think about it.
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Ahsoka and Boba
showing up created more positive online buzz from regular audiences than TLJ and TROS combined.

Crazy times.
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

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Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,952
xwBG4x2.gif



I think if the trilogy had been done by a single person instead of passed between two, it would've been better.

TFA felt like a proof of concept that a good Star Wars film could be made, then TLJ tried to do its own thing and while I like a lot of what happened (Rey's parents are nothing and no one, tired Luke), there's also a lot that I didn't like (killing Snoke immediately, slow speed chase, space casino, cutting the small shred of Phasma's character). Then TRoS came and basically tried to please fans who hated TLJ for all the wrong reasons by retconning a lot of it.
 
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MasterYoshi

MasterYoshi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,116

I don't give a fuck, this is the most emotional I've ever been for a moment in Star Wars. Seeing Rey hold the lightsaber after the pre-release marketing tried everything to hide the fact that she's the one, it was absolutely moving to me.
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
Garlador said:
For a brief, shining moment, we felt pride and joy seeing a black man rise up from slavery to wield the weapon of one of fantasy's greatest heroes, thinking it would be a watershed moment for minority representation in a major franchise.

... Dagnabbit, JJ.
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YolkFolk said:
Then it turned out he was a janitor.
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What was done with Finn is easily among the most disappointing aspects of the trilogy. Having co-leads, and having them each enter the story on their own accord was refreshing, and the potential for a child soldier merely deciding to no longer do evil was enticing

His abandoned arc could've still been salvaged at any point. I expected him being a janitor would be be framed as him purposefully trying to avoid going on raids—a single line of dialogue could've been added to address that.
 
Aurongel

Aurongel

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Banned
Oct 28, 2017
7,065
I enjoyed the film for what it was but the writing was always on the wall as far as what would eventually sink the trilogy. I remember coming out of TFA on opening night being VERY critical of the repeated beats this film represented.

I don't know if I can ever forgive a Star Wars film that literally has a line like this:

"It's another Death Star!"
"I wish that were the case, Major. This was the Death Star..."
"...And this, is Starkiller base."
"So it's big!"

It's literally a RedLetterMedia joke wrapped around the laziest form of upping the stakes in a narrative. I literally chuckled at how hamfisted it was when I saw it opening night. It's kind of a microcosm of both JJ films in general. They repeat beats from the original trilogy's narrative, condense them by speeding up the pace to a ridiculous degree then just inflate the size/stakes/noise of everything in between. It honestly repeats the frequently mocked philosophy of the prequel trilogy where every frame must be "so dense with information and visual stimuli".
 
FTF

FTF

Member
Oct 28, 2017
28,906
New York
TFA completely delivered though. It's not the highest grossing (dom) movie of all-time for nothing. It's also highly critically and fan reviewed.
 

kVH2LpZd

Member
Apr 3, 2019
958
Yes, the trailer was dope. Maybe one of my favourite trailers of all time. Still getting goosebumps watching it even though I don't like the movie itself.
But I just imagine the movie that could have been... :D
 
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