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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-11-25, 14:01

I see where Abrams appeared on Good Morning America this...well, morning, for an early round of contractually-obligated turd-polishing.

While I'm staying spoiler-free (I'm not digging around for leaks, rumors, spoilers, visiting known "leak" sites, watching spoiler/leak videos on YouTube, etc.), I do consider officially-released trailers and clips/footage fair game because I assume(?) Disney isn't going to show or give away anything truly "big" or earth-shattering.

So here is Abrams' appearance, and, starting at the 2:00 mark there is a "sneak peak" in the form of a 30-second action sequence from the movie.

So if you're trying to remaining completely "spoiler-free", then please skip/ignore the link above and definitely don't click on the spoiler-tagged bit of analysis/thoughts below. And if that spoiler-tag feature is still hit-or-miss on iOS devices, then stop reading right here!!

**THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING**






Spoiler (click to toggle):
Interesting/funny how "flying stormtroopers" are only now making an appearance, in the ninth and final installment of the saga.

My initial reaction was "well, it's been 30+ years since the Battle of Endor, so in that time, that particular tech/hardware was developed and perfected, and eventually issued to the various "rocketeer" Stormtrooper squadrons. Then it hit me that this sort of thing existed well before now, having been used by both Jango and Boba Fett in two distinct eras of the saga...Jango on two occasions in Attack of the Clones, and Boba during the whole Jabba sail barge/Sarlaac execution sequence in Return of the Jedi.

So are we to believe that prior to the events of Episode IX, the Empire/First Order never had a need for such tech/hardware? Off the top of my head, not even trying, I can think of 8-10 places in the previous eight movies where such gear would've come in really handy...searching the dunes around the droids' escape pod, patrolling the mean streets of Mos Eisley, getting a better shot at the Falcon as it lifted out of docking bay 94, the skirmish on Endor with the Ewoks and Rebels, any of the Clone Trooper action sequences in the prequel trilogy, the pursuit of Finn and Rey through the Jakku marketplace and the lakefront battle on Takodana in The Force Awakens, etc. And, I imagine, a few sequences in Rogue One and Solo as well.

Nine movies (11 counting the two standalones), 42 years, at least 60-65 years of "in-story" time across the saga from The Phantom Menace to The Rise of Skywalker...and the bad guys are just now getting the ability to fly like this? Just out of the blue (no pun), and not even hinted at in 7 or 8? Who's the inept, no-vision-having sad-sack overseeing the First Order's military/tactical program? Nobody in a staff meeting said "hey, a few decades ago there were a couple of bounty hunters who were able to fly around a bit when situations required...maybe we should look into that for our guys? Having platoons of armed, flying Skytroopers may be something we want? We can probably get something drawn up and prototyped by the weekend!"

Also, after the same amount of time establishing that vehicles in this universe/saga float - landspeeders, speeder bikes, probe droids, interrogation droids, Cliegg Lars' chair, the little training remote Luke sparred with on the Falcon, Darth Maul's Sith Harley, the battle droid troop carriers on Naboo, Yoda's little chair in the Jedi temple, etc. - why are those chase vehicles used by the Stormtroopers using treaded wheels, like some WWII snowmobile? It looks like pretty rough terrain (rocky desert, shocking), where the ability to float smoothly over the surface might be quite an advantage (the skiff our heroes are on is floating, very similar to the thing Luke was supposed to plank-walk from in ROTJ).

I'm telling you...nobody's writing this stuff. They're just sitting in a room with spreadsheets, reshoot schedules, focus group polling data, dartboards and interns saying "hey, wouldn't it be cool if...".

This is one of those obvious "we gotta have some new toys!". There's a word for that sort of thing - writing movies/sequences for the sole purpose of toy merchandising - but it's escaping me right now. And I realize that's always been a part of Star Wars...believe me, I owned a significant chunk of them back in my youth. But, for the most part, they made sense and adhered to established, sensible parameters. Seeing the speeder bikes in ROTJ made perfect sense for getting around such an environment, and since the two previous movies had already established levitating vehicles/tech, you're just like "oh, cool...a neat, motorcycle take on a landspeeder!"

Here, they're pulling flying jet-packs and wheel-based vehicles, out of nowhere. No precedent, no reason why they were never used in previous movies, etc. Just odd stuff like that, no sort of grounded, practical connection from one installment to the other...which has been the hallmark of the sequel trilogy so far, top to bottom (and I'm certain Episode IX will be swimming in even further examples).

I can't wait for this movie to open!

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-11-25 at 14:57.
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