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‘The Force Awakens’ teaser trailer gets a ‘Special Edition’ edit

This is not the trailer you’re looking for.

Photo of Dennis Scimeca

Dennis Scimeca

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George Lucas has finally stepped back into the Star Wars universe and released his own teaser trailer for The Force Awakens.

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We kid, of course. The latest riff on the new teaser trailer is fan-made, just like the rest of them. (George Lucas sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney lock, stock, and barrel.) For that reason, this fan trailer only imagines a great disturbance in the film industry where Lucas gets his hands on the new, 88-second trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

 The Special Edition versions of Episodes IV through VI were released in 1997. Lucas said they represented the versions he always wanted to make, but couldn’t, due to the limitations of special effects technology in the late 1970s and early 1980s. To some fans, the Special Editions represented a series of superfluous CGI additions to movies that had been just fine the way they were. Others recognized that, as the artist, it was Lucas’ place to refine his work to best reflect his initial goals. Regardless of your stance on the Special Editions, see how many references to those additions you can spot in the YouTube video above. 

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The Special Editions, of course, turned out to be preludes to the CGI orgies that were the prequel trilogy, which used special effects more often than character development, as the epic seven-part Red Letter Media takedown of Episode I readily pointed out.

This George Lucas Special Edition of The Force Awakens trailer is like an expression of the psychic pain some Star Wars fans felt as Lucas plastered CGI all over their childhood remembrances. The difference regarding the impending JJ Abrams-helmed Star Wars movie, however, is that heavy use of CGI is par for the course in modern science fiction films.

In other words, filmmakers today usually know how to use CGI more appropriately than some Star Wars fans felt Lucas did. Even in the spoof trailer, those X-wings streaking over the water look pretty damned cool.

Screengrab via timtimfed/YouTube

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