What is the plot of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”? Depending on what you believe from rumors online, either the entire story is already out there, and/or some elements of these plot rumors are correct and some of it is misinformation that J.J. Abrams, Disney and LucasFilm are happy not to clarify (which they’ve said so themselves in the past, even if some of it is correct, the off-base stories help preserve the mystery and keep the full narrative muddled).
Well, Oscar Isaac, who plays a Rebel pilot in the movie, says those who have been speculating on the plot based on the trailer and all the secret sources, drone plans and overall insane conjecture about ‘Episode VII,’ are wrong. “I can’t speak for the cast and crew, I can just speak for myself, but for me I thought, ‘Don’t you want to wait so you can get the real thing?’ But it creates excitement for it,” he told Yahoo Movies. “I don’t think these little leaks necessarily ruined watching the trailer. And also, the [plot theories] that get that formulated based on these things — they couldn’t be more far off-base.”
So does that mean early rumors unrelated to trailer speculation are off-base too? Isaac doesn’t say. The actor was obviously not able to say much about the movie at all — he admitted he had to read the script in a room with cameras in it — but he did remark on the emphasis of practical VFX and the lack of CGI.
"It was hard to believe that I was actually sitting in there and doing that," he said. "And it’s physical. You have to kind of get in touch with that child again that had a little X-Wing and would fly around his room making crazy sounds, you had to tap into that spirit again and that was a lot fun. There was a lot of practical effects. A lot of the stuff they actually made. There wasn’t a lot of green screen."
“Star Wars: Episode VII” director (and possibly ‘Episode IX’) Rian Johnson also has spoken about the prominence of practical effects he’s seen utilized on ‘The Force Awakens’ and he’s found it heartening. “They’re doing so much practical building for this one. It’s awesome,” Johnson said earlier this year on the "Girls in Hoodies" podcast. “I think people are coming back around to [practical effects]. It feels like there is sort of that gravity pulling us back toward it. I think that more and more people are hitting kind of a critical mass in terms of the CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific type of action scene, where physics go out the window and it becomes so big so quick.”
So a tactile quality like the original trilogy instead of the phantom soullessness of the prequels? Great. Meanwhile, as you might have guessed, a poll by ticket service Fandango says that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is the #1 anticipated film of 2015. Fandango chief correspondent Dave Karger said, “It’s been a decade since the last installment of the most beloved sci-fi fantasy franchise of all time, and kids of all ages are eagerly anticipating the revitalization of the series next December.” Duh!
Lastly, Maker Studios, the Web video network owned by Walt Disney, has been enlisted to produce short-form “Star Wars” shows that will be about “everything from fashion to games to help its new parent promote the next film in the space-adventure series,” according to Bloomberg Media. Maker also will produce short-form videos for characters and brands across Disney, including Marvel and Pixar, according to Bloomberg’s sources. What will these short-form “Star Wars” series be exactly? Zero details, but as marketing tools for the movie we presume it’ll be high on promotional value and low on narrative worth. At the very least it’ll give bloggers plenty to write about between now and December 18, 2015. Don’t be surprised if this was conceived to combat J.J. Abrams’ reticence to share much about the film — a second trailer apparently won’t be arriving until May 2015 when “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” is in theaters.
Why is Oscar Isaac playing a \’rebel pilot\’? I thought the Rebellion ended when they defeated the Evil Empire at the end of the Return of the Jedi?
So glad to hear the part about practical effects being done. I think we have Chris Nolan to thank for this, but it still takes filmmakers like JJ and Rian to run with it. Even though the Star Trek films obviously had a lot of CGI, it seemed they still wanted the appearance of realism. And Looper too used practical effects that is proud of.
I love Rian Johnson and his insistence on sticking to practical effects work but have to remember that this is the guy who had Joseph Gordon-Levitt tooled up in at times silly makeup to look like a younger Bruce Willis in Looper. I also have to remember that is Star Wars, for cryin\’ out loud, and that CGI is and will likely remain within the series no matter who bitches about it. I\’m reminded of the initial arrival on Tattoine in Episode IV where Lucas had to smear Vaseline on the lens to get the hovercraft effect and its debatable effectiveness at conveying that the vehicle wasn\’t just some prop-fitted nightmare with regular wheels beneath it. When he went back and made the ever hated "changes" to the first trilogy, that\’s one of the things I could openly support since the editing did in fact make it look like a craft hovering above the ground and not some conspicuous mound/glob in an effort to mask outmoded tech in a space-y landscape.