This blog started as my movie marathon — watching a movie a day for a whole year — and has continued as a place for me to write reviews about movies, TV, and various other items.
This is still a work in progress as I migrate from my old platform at Tumblr. For now, you can still access the whole backlog of posts there at http://reelmatt.tumblr.com
In case you missed probably the biggest movie news story that happened over the Thanksgiving weekend, the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released. It clocks in at 88-seconds long and contains the first footage, a voice-over from Andy Serkis, and new music written by John Williams.
The release of the trailer was major news for a couple of reasons. First, and most obviously, a new Star Wars film is coming out! Second, the trailer played in front of every film, at every showtime, all weekend, at thirty participating theaters in the United States. If you weren’t excited already for this film, chances are your interest perked up after watching the trailer. From everything we’ve seen so far, The Force Awakens is shaping up to be a return to the original trilogy and not a repeat of the prequels. J. J. Abrams did a great job rebooting the Star Trek franchise and if these new films are anything like what he did there, it’s going to bring a new era of Jedi, Sith, and cool-looking lightsabers to old fans and new fans alike.
So what did I think of it? When I saw the theater I frequent on the list that would be showing the trailer, I decided to hold off on seeing it beforehand at home. While I didn’t do a great job protecting myself from spoilers (I saw the new lightsaber and the return of the Stormtroopers) I did preserve the experience. Seeing it for the first time on the big screen, surround sound blaring and lights dimmed, was what I can only call a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will only be passed when the actual film comes out. For me, this is the first time I can really remember seeing Star Wars in a theater. Yes, I saw all three prequels in the theater when they came out, but I was only six, nine, and twelve years old at the time and the memories didn’t really stick. Now, being much older, seeing my childhood pastime again on such a large scale was nothing short of incredible.
These films possess a deep meaning for me having seen them so many times on my TV or laptop at home, but I missed the opportunity to experience it in a theater. Hearing the Star Wars fanfare, feels otherworldly. When the Millennium Falcon soared across the screen and the iconic music started playing, it’s like I was transported somewhere else. My body sat firmly in my seat, but my mind was racing through distant memories, replaying the old films, and watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens fade onto the screen like a dream. I never thought the day would come when I could experience what my parents and so many others did in 1977 when the original film was released. That day is coming, and it’s December 18, 2015.