Star Wars Trailer review and Speculation

The trailers for Force Awakens leaves a trail….

1st round of trailers and what A New Hope I have for this movie.

Dunno why I’m doing this. First time ever for a “trailer review”. Saw some other sites/videos doing it and if a fan howling and showing amazement is enough, then I guess this is overkill.

            Firstly, it looks like J.J. Abrams is going to repeat his Star Trek system (as Marvel does to a degree) of some for the old and some for the new. New viewers get the new story and new characters and long-time fans will see shadows and head-nods to the classic trio. Dirt-poor girl from a dusty planet sets off on an adventure that changes the whole galaxy. She even has a similar garb to Luke and seems just as enthralled when hearing stories about the good ole days. In Star Wars [A New Hope] Obi-wan was explaining the force and Han was skeptical, now we see the grizzled Solo doing the ‘oh yeah, the force is really real, kids’. It’s makes for a nice twist and hints at more repeated motifs throughout.

Han hands over the story

Secondly, I say be careful with these hints and spoilers. Abrams and company [writers, Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back), Michael Arndt (Oblivion)] love red herrings. That is, misdirection, you think the story is going one way and boom- big surprise. For those that saw the trailers for Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) it hinted at being based on an original series episode Where No Man Has Gone Before. Trekkers saw the similarities and even that damn bob haircut on Elizabeth/Carol Marcus and just knew they had an inside track or trek. Wrong. It’s Khan and also a complete change of who does what in this alternate timeline. And although I see a similar fake-out here, I do expect the story to mirror the first three movies released. so far….

Carol…I mean…Elizabeth…

Had me fooled…even with the screaming for psychic powers.

The Millennium Falcon being chased through another ship (Return of the Jedi)

fastest by parsecs..

Luke’s landspeeder, Anakin’s Swoop Bike and Rey’s rusty red Norelco razor.

Finn’s first dark side encounter before he is ready.

Awakens with a nightmare…

Death Star, Starkiller and planetary weapon. I think you get the idea(s)

What I Hope to see…..A New

1) I thought the hand that touches R2-D2 might belong to Mace Windu and not Luke Skywalker since he had a better hand in ROTJ. Why would he go back for the Terminator metal-work?

Dyson wants his hand back

2) All the “my sister has it…” and references to force-sensitivity is probably also misdirection. Leia will probably not be shown as trained in any Jedi arts and will at most fire a blaster or two. And that is probably Rey being handed a lightsaber.

Far right alien head…

Hand off…hands off.

3) I’m still not sure if Finn is the Jedi and Rey won’t be. So far, she’s got the staff which hasn’t been shown to do anything yet and a funky looking speederbike that is rather bland. It is my hope that the bike opens to become the droid that follows them into the building in trailer 3. It would also explain how can she salvage anything (heavy enough or big enough to be worth anything) by herself.

I think that’s meant to charge something else.

Almost an ABC robot.

4) Rey is shown crying over a fallen comrade. I’m seeing the furry edge and the bandoleer so I’m really hoping that is not Chewbacca. I’m never a big fan of killing off major characters. I say… just… don’t…do…it. Unless there is some tribble-blood-mind-meld-force-resurrection by the end.

Don’t chew Chewie

5) I hope they explain where all the Clone troopers went and I do mean where the thousands of Jango Fett soldiers disappeared to.

Where did all the stray dogs in Greece go before the Olympics?

6) Luke is not in the trailers, only his voice as narrator and I believe that’s a sample from another movie- at that. I hope he is a Jedi master, incredibly powerful, but not a deus ex machina.

7) As I said about Finn looking late in the movie and not ‘very forceful’. I’m also worried that whole sequence could be a force-induced dream like Luke had in Empire Strikes Back. Wouldn’t be surprised since Finn seems to always be caught sitting up, sweaty like he just had a nightmare.

Trailer #2 is my favorite for the combination of sequences and music. Now it’s time to sit back and wait for all the TV spots. Some people are torn over Abram’s work on Star Trek. I accept it and am glad a new generation gets a Star Trek that is not embarrassing and self-indulgent. The movies really began to feel like episodes and Star Wars was on the edge of falling off.

Still menaced by a phantom

Every property gets to a point where the creator no longer owns it. You’ve fleshed out the characters and worlds so fully, that there are known rules in place. We, as an audience and hard-core fans know what X-character would do. We know how things usually work and understand the motifs at play. That leads to higher expectations and the hope that we, as moviegoers, see what we came to see. Phantom Menace was a disappointment because too many rules were broken. We understood the force. Now you say it’s all in the blood. You’ve shown us epic battles in space, on a snow planet, on a jungle world and now a race that lives underwater….and the final battle takes place on a baseball field. Hint: The final battle should have been underwater.

You spent a lot of time establishing pod-racing and showing THAT as the supreme talent of the promised one. Okay, we end in space and the enemy ship is CIRCULAR like a racetrack and no…no relevancy to anything there.

Round-about the roundabout

Instead he does everything accidentally and clowns the entire way. Why couldn’t we see Naboo pilots trying to navigate the turns and twists and CRASH or not travel fast enough down the narrow corridors before the main generator’s internal shield closed. In this same movie, Obi-Wan raced down the hallway to assist Qui-Gon in his battle with Maul- and the shield bays closed up and he was separated. We would have gotten the point and as it is on the planet, so too in space. And, and then have Anakin step up and purposely take off to save the day. It’s as if Lucas is saying “no, no, it’s still all mine and I will show you stuff you’re gonna hate, nyah, nyah“. Abrams seems to get it- and more importantly respects the license and the big WHY we all go crazy over these franchises. There’s a reason why every cylindrical item looks like a light saber handle. Why every remote control is a phaser and every chair a captain’s chair. “Yours is superior.” I’ve got my fingers crossed that JJ Abrams can capture that old Star Wars magic and bring back the kind of movie experience we’ve all been waiting for. So far, it looks good. Can’t wait!

FREE MUSIC “M.O.P.H.O. The Last Analogue Transmission”

FREE MUSIC “M.O.P.H.O. The Last Analogue Transmission”

Battlestrux Year One: Captain of a Starship Track Spotlight

A lot of my earlier albums had songs called Captain Dynamics Plus and then a more specific subtitle like “Planet Industry” or “stardust Memories”. These are short stories based around the idea of Dynamics Plus being a starship captain and having adventures. I enjoyed making and listening to them, but I didn’t know how to expand the idea beyond an album interlude.

Enter the MOPHO

Whenever reviewing a piece of gear for Producer’s Edge digital magazine, I always crank out a good number of tracks to both explore the unit and to familiarize myself with its workflow and tendencies. The Dave Smith Instruments MOPHO is a monophonic analog synthesizer that I found to be a joy to work with. You can read the review here. I was using both the surface knobs and the soft-editor and generating a ton of usable sounds. That inspired me to start using the MOPHO to create entire tracks by itself. If you are unfamiliar with synthesizers, you can think of a monophonic synthesizer as only being able to generate one sound at a time. Not entirely true, but true enough to realize that it takes a lot of programming and recording in passes or layers to make an entire song. It’s the equivalent of having one musician play every instrument. Easy enough, but now add in the fact that the musician has to make the instrument (sound) first!

One of the tracks caught my ear with an arpeggiated phrase that sounded like something I would have used in a CDP interlude. I hadn’t made one in a while so I thought ‘why not?’ and began writing. I now had a song as full as “Cosmic Centipede Episode V” from Foresight Wars. That in turn inspired a full length album based in the Captain Dynamics Plus universe. I had a lot of fun creating this song and we can explore some of the lyrics in the following Track Spotlight.

* The samples used in this song and more are available for sale on the www.StudioAVX.com Website.

Product page = Griffin Avid presents: MOPHO Drum Kits and Samples

M.O.P.H.O. Last Analogue Transmission

Chorus:
And this composition (Captain of a starship!)
The Xodus Phoenix expedition (Blast off Rocketship!)
My Final mission (A-shaped spaceship)
The Captains’ last Analog Transmission (The Last Transmission!)

My survey ship
the Phoenix Xodus receives a transmission

Xodus Phoenix is the nick name for a Producer’s Edge staffer. Xavier said that his name sounds like a cool Lenzmen alter-ego so I used it here knowing he’d get a kick out of that.

-it’s a series of blips from a far distance
set a course for it
[here’s your mission:] Ascertain the source and maintain an orbit
Sir, I have visual, it’s a spaceship (of an unknown kind)
It’s sending us a analog signal (well, let’s reply)
We can’t respond in digital (we’ll have to go inside)

A small reference to the difference between analogue and digital synthesizers- that the signal coming from the spaceship is so old, our modern equipment can’t understand the message.

The line has died A magnetic storm has arrived
take the ship down planet-side.
Send an away team while we wait for the waves to subside

Part II [Down and Away]

Can you hear me captain? Yes barely, boost his chip
It’s clearly an earthship, buried up to its tip
fairly certain the ancient rocketship has real analog circuits
powered by Curtis chips.

Dave Smith Instruments, the company that makes the MOPHO, has used Curtis Chips in its analogue synthesizers.

We’re stopping the rover and walking closer
There’s lettering on the hull, but its’ covered over
It reads MOPHO what?
M.O. in Code
Mike, Oscar, Papa, Hotel, Oscar
come in over?
Mopho. Find me a reference
the storms too intense
We’re losing communiqué
there’s too much interference
Captain, we’ve entered the main bay
proceeding down main passageway into the command gangway
Captain, the signals split
I can’t receive you but I can still transmit
I hope you’re getting all of this
Look here, we have a dead astronaut slumped over holding a yellow box.

The MOPHO looks like a yellow box in appearance and the dead crew member is holding one in his hands.

Sir, data package, live feed, it’s the ship’s ID
This doesn’t make sense; it’s logged under military defense.
MOPHO the letters meant Mass Obliteration Planetary Heavy Ordinance
There’s a red button sir.

The MOPHO features a red “Push It” button. Before the unit was released, many of us synth-heads were speculating what the button does. It starts the sequencer running and in context of this song, it’s the Red Button that arms/ detonates the MOPHO bomb.

I’m sure it’s a control
Yes, wires leading to the console.
No! Don’t press it.
I’m sure this resets it.
Blast off, emergency Lift-off

The Hull is peeling away!
Atomic yield phase shields raised
Planet Surface giving way.
massive waves of radioactive rays
displayed in an azure haze of Fallout blaze
(planetary shockwave!) gaining a range, mass action engine engage
burning inertial stage, surfing immersing in flames

The above section describes the scene of the starship Phoenix Xodus pulling away from the planet as it breaks apart after being destroyed by the MOPHO device.

Part III [Doctor Atomics sees the Light of Destruction]

The Ark is part of the pardon of Cain

Biblical and religious references abound. The flood, in this case, is a flood of flames and destruction. The Ark is Noah’s Ark which is the spaceship ferrying the crew members away.

the arc is part of the stay from acidic rains in face of his reign

This arc is the rainbow, a promise that the world would not be destroyed again by flooding.

shaping the plane and breaking the chains lights fade in the age of half-life decays
awaken a wraith and awaiting his rage

Describes the anger in using a weapon of this nature to wipe out a planet and its entire civilization. If our concept of God can wipe out the surface of a planet, what kind of terrible entity (us) would use a weapon to destroy an entire planet?

We become gods ourselves based on our destructive abilities.

[it’s the God]
birthing and cursing in his domain
[insert control rods]
the world spins on his lathe
action reaction a vain
attracting your acting a play
a pact to enact a delay
it’s an act of faith

The chance for a few humans and animals to survive gives us another chance to live properly.

we wait as he pulls the reins
plays the strings of fate
it’s the endgame of your ways

There is a pause while we wait. The reins hint at the four Horsemen.

But yet, there is a warning, which is about a coming Judgment Day. That’s considered the Endgame of our Ways.

Sir the gravity gauge
well, check the display
It’s confirmed we’re pulling away.
We were almost burned
Set course for return
Close mission.
Coded: Analog Transmission

Summary

A ship receives a mysterious transmission and investigates. They find a powerfully destructive device at the source of the signal. The explorer group triggers the bomb and escapes as the planet breaks up. This is a song inspired by the DSI MOPHO, I hope you enjoy it.

-Dynamics Plus

www.TheDynamicUniverse.com

Dynamics Plus new album- Battlestrux Year One: Captain of a Starship

THE LENZMEN DYNAMICS PLUS
PRESENTS:

Battlestrux Year One
Captain of a Starship

The Lenzmen Dynamics Plus and the Battlestrux comic series merge into Dynamic Universe Volume 12 Battlestrux Year One: Captain of a Starship. The full length album chronicles the earliest adventures of the Mantis One starship crew.

The Album synopsis:
It’s a mission to investigate the mysterious disappearances of ships near the edge of a Gravity Well. You will follow the first voyage of the newly appointed captain. It’s Time for Action as you man your battle-stations and make ready for sci-fi hip hop. When you put a masterful lyricist over out-of-this-world beats, you get Battlestrux Year One.

Video Trailer for album:

Read and hear more about this album and the lyrics at http://www.TheDynamicUniverse.com

Robotica; a still-frame-animated series based in the Battlestrux Universe

Robotica: Still-frame animated movie featuring music by Lenzmen Dynamics Plus.  It happens in the Battlestrux Universe. Basically it’s about the robots that followed in the footsteps of long extinct humanity verse the aliens who wiped humankind out.

http://www.TheDynamicUniverse.com

Thanks for checking this out. I’m been toying with idea of reviving this series or converting it into a straight comic book series.