Yesterday, during the Monday Night Football game, Disney released the official trailer for Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens.  If you’re one of the very few out there who haven’t yet seen it, here it is…

Not too bad, right?  Some of the special effects shots are impressive although the story/character stuff, to my eyes, hints at a Star Wars for this particular generation, one that’s inspired more by The Hunger Games than the original Star Wars.  Then again, maybe I’m seeing more into this than there is.

I’ve noted before my curious feelings regarding Star Wars.  To know me, you would figure I’d be a fanatic of the series.  I was 11 years old when the original Star Wars was released way back in 1977.  Before -and after!- the movie’s release I was a big fan of all things sci-fi.  I loved the original Star Trek.  I caught every science fictional show or cartoon I could on TV or at the movies.  I loved reading science fictional stories both in novel and comic book form.

And when Star Wars was released, like so many others my age, I was dying to get into the theater to see it.  I did so, perhaps in the first week or so of its release and to this day I remember the energy within that filled-to-the-brim theater.  The theater was teeming with with boys (for the most part) not all that much older than me.  When the movie began, they screamed and clapped and loved every single second…

…while for the life of me I couldn’t –still can’t– understand what it was that appealed to them.

As Star Wars played out, I found myself curiously detached from the experience.  While others were going out of their minds, I was unimpressed.  Sure, the movie’s effects were quite stunning, but the story didn’t engage me.  In fact, I found the whole thing rather…dull.  Toward the end, when we see Darth Vader flying away in his crippled fighter, a scene designed to clearly set up a sequel, I finally had some emotions regarding the film: I was livid.

How could the film’s makers (George Lucas was yet to become a household name) have the balls to make a movie yet clearly set up a sequel?

Bear in mind, back in 1977 movie sequels were an incredible rarity.  Other than the James Bond movies, there were very, very few sequels or series of movies.  Therefore 11 year old me expected a movie to be self-contained and, at the very least -and again, this was in my mind- not make reference to a continuation that may never happen.

So I walked out of the theater feeling rather odd.  Everyone around me loved Star Wars just as clearly as I did not.  And, being a sci-fi fan, I just couldn’t understand what it was I missed.

I would go on to catch the film again a month or so later when I took my sister to see it.  That experience proved to be a repeat of my first experience.  Filled theater, high energy, audience love.

And then there was me, still not feeling it.

Now please, don’t take my feelings regarding Star Wars as some kind of put down of everyone else’s.  My personal opinions aren’t any more “right” than the vast majority of people out there who obviously loved the film,

The bottom line is that Star Wars simply wasn’t my cup of tea even though, perplexingly, by all rights it should have been.

So unimpressed with Star Wars was I that I skipped the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, when it hit theaters.  The first time I saw it was when it aired on TV some time later.  As for Return of the Jedi, I caught that one in the theaters and found it to be a more entertaining experience though I felt Harrison Ford looked pained being in this film.  By that time he was quite the rising star and perhaps wanted to put these movies behind him.  Who knows.

I didn’t think all that much of the Star Wars prequels, none of which I saw in theaters, but in this respect my opinion probably falls in line with most others.

Which brings us back to Star Wars VII and its trailer.

Is it just me or does it seem obvious who the “big bad” is?

Used to be old time murder mystery films/TV shows would show us a hand holding a gun or some such to hide who the killer was.  In those instances the killer was obviously someone else in the film, someone we knew, and the shock of that realization was kept from us by showing a hand or feet or a back and not showing us the killer’s face until the very end.

So with this Star Wars VII trailer we see a villain who wears a mask (hiding his/her face) and also speaks with a distorted voice.  The voice thing is particularly intriguing: Here we have a villain we may know just by their non-distorted speech.

Add to the fact this villain carries around Darth Vader’s nearly melted mask and clearly has some kind of affinity for him.

By the way, which of the characters from the original trilogy don’t we see in this commercial?  Why…Luke Skywalker.

….Hmmmmm….

Is that the big reveal?

That Luke Skywalker is the movie’s villain?

Could these films, therefore, be something of a repeat of the original Star Wars trilogy but instead of a Darth Vader going from evil to, by the end, good, we have Luke Skywalker starting out as bad and, by the end, becoming good?  Following the path of his father?

It would be a gutsy thing to do, I suppose, given the way things were left in Return of the Jedi.

I suppose we’ll see in December.

UPDATE: I’ve read that Luke Skywalker’s role in this film is very limited and that the sequels to this film are meant to focus more on him.  Even if Luke isn’t the badguy presented in the trailers, he might still be the big bad of the series of movies that follows…or not.

For a movie/set of movies I’ve noted weren’t my cup of tea, its annoying how much I’m thinking about them!  Just goes to show: The power of advertising is mighty indeed!