Julius

Here we go again... itsfinallyhappening?.gif

It looks...kind of rough in spots? And only mentions next-gen consoles at the end now.

As had been rumoured: Should be fun! I don't play nearly enough indie games, but a lot of the ones I do have interest in have been mentioned in previous Indie World Showcases, so hopefully we get an update here on those (looking at you, Omori).

Don't forget folders and themes! Stares blankly at PS5

I can never feel too bad for corpheads, but I have to imagine they've been a bit shellshocked having to time and again reduce their sales projections for the PS5. I mean, their very first projection for the PS5 as that it would ship 15 million units from launch through to 31st March 2021, and here we are with the results for the FY ending 31st March 2022, and it's only at 19.3 million units sold. It's impressive given the components shortage, but it's pretty crazy that this time last year their projection was to have 50 million PS5 consoles shipped by 31st March 2023, compared to 40 million for the PS4 in a similar timeframe, and again, here we are with it tracking at - potentially under - the PS4's shipments. It definitely screws up their plans for exclusives, like you say it's a bit of give and take right now between having PS5 console exclusives and actually just getting these things out in the wild. With the components shortage I do wonder how it will impact their potential other SKU's - I feel like we'd normally be expecting a Slim right around now, but could be off in saying that? - but yeah, it's messy, and it ain't pretty to watch. Still crazy to me that they waited as long as they did to start selling plates, I feel like they need to grab what they can for the time being and run! And, I mean, it's no real reason to fret, but it does come at a time where I think the Series S being in stock consistently and Game Pass looking a better and better deal for an average player does swing some of that momentum away from PlayStation, even though they'd probably be destroying sales records otherwise. Part of me wants to say you're crazy - and, well, I still just might, just because if you do that it could be a bit of a hassle tracking a PS5 down for a while - but I completely get where you're coming from. At the moment within the next 12 months what is there in terms of true next-gen PS5 exclusives? Maybe I'm forgetting something but I think it's just Final Fantasy XVI (which, you know, I still feel could work its way onto the PS4) and the long rumoured The Last of Us remake (which surely has to be next-gen exclusive, but then is it being bundled with Factions, and if so aren't they completely limiting their player pool by having it be next-gen exclusive?). At the moment my PS5 is a very expensive blu-ray player and a way to get a boosted PS4 experience, it's very bizarre, but I do have a lot of PS4 games on my shelf anyways so it's tough to complain

PS5 sales are continuing to slip off the back of supply constraints, selling 11.5 million hardware units of the PS5 vs their initial target of 14.8 million hardware units for the fiscal year. Been rough for the PS5 since its launch. That's what, still shy of 20 million units in its lifetime now - 19.3 million hardware units I think? Wild, but clearly massively constrained by the components shortage. I'm curious now just how this will impact PlayStation's planned slate of PS5 (Console) exclusive releases, and I wouldn't be surprised (or really blame them) if titles like Spider-Man 2 ended up being releasing across generations; they need to cover their lost ground somewhere, and I think that's probably the most reasonable way to do so.

Nintendo's earnings report for Q4 FY 2022 covering the period of 1st January 2022 - 31st March 2022 has dropped, and it's my favourite time of the fiscal year (is that a thing?), as it's the end of the fiscal year and the annual report! The Big Takeaways 4.11 million hardware units sold for this quarter between the Switch, Switch Lite, and the Switch OLED, bringing the total number of Switch consoles sold to 23.06 million units for the fiscal year (1st April 2021 - 31st March 2022), and bringing the total lifetime sales of the Switch to 107.65 million. It is the second year in a row that the Switch has surpassed 20 million hardware units sold for a fiscal year (achieving 28.83 million units sold in the fiscal year ending 31st March 2021), and marks the second-highest sell-through within a fiscal year for the Switch. This all means that the console just about surpassed the twice reduced sales projections for the year, which at the end of last quarter was put down as being 23 million units sold by Nintendo. Nintendo are projecting console sales of 21 million units over the next fiscal year due to end 31st March 2023, which if achieved, would bring the Switch's lifetime sales to 128 million hardware units, and if it does so, it will be tracking to likely surpass both the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 by the end of the fiscal year ending 31st March 2025. However, to achieve this, it needs to overcome an obstacle it has come across multiple times over the last two years, which is the components shortage; don't be surprised if we hear this initial projection get lowered once or twice over the next twelve months. Total software sales for the year are 235.06 million units sold, bringing the total to 822.18 million software units sold in the Switch's lifetime, a growth from last year's 230.9 million units sold in the FY ending 31st March 2021. As of this date there are now a total of 39 titles which are million-sellers, 26 of these being from Nintendo, and 13 others by third party publishers. Nothing has changed in terms of the Switch's position in comparison to the best-selling consoles of all-time: it is still fifth, and within the next fiscal year should successfully chase down the PS4 (117.2 million units sold as of today's fiscal year report from Sony) and Game Boy/Game Boy Colour (118.69 million units sold) to take third. Kirby and the Forgotten Land enjoyed shipping 2.65 million units this quarter, with a sell-through of 2.10 million units, a solid debut considering that it released less than a week before the end of the fiscal year on 25th March. Somewhat surprisingly, Pokémon Legends: Arceus does not instantly leap onto the Top 10 best-selling Switch titles, having sold a still stupidly impressive 12.64 million units since its release on 28th January, which is a feat Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl managed to do within its debut quarter (13.97 million units in roughly six weeks in Q3, now standing at a total of 14.65 million units sold, vs the approx. eights weeks of Legends: Arceus between its debut and end of the quarter). This can probably be explained by Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl debuting in the holiday quarter, however. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl are now the best-selling Pokémon remakes to date, having just edged out the Let's Go titles this past quarter. As expected at the end of last quarter, Metroid Dread has now clinched the title of best-selling Metroid game with 2.90 million units sold (the previous best-selling was Metroid Prime at 2.84 million units sold). Top 10 Best-selling Switch titles as of 31st March 2022 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 45.33 million Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 38.64 million Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 28.17 million The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 26.55 million Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield - 24.27 million Super Mario Odyssey - 23.50 million Super Mario Party - 17.78 million Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Pokémon Shining Pearl - 14.65 million Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu!/Pokémon Let's Go Eevee! - 14.53 million Ring Fit Adventure - 14.09 million

Tomorrow™ at 14:00 BST. Funny timing after that PS Store spot over the weekend. My expectations are in check and I'm expecting the announcement of only a 4 player mode.

In the early hours a few days ago there was the news about the deal being wrapped up for us to be sold to Boehly: One of those where once you get into billionaires it feels like pretty much everyone has a seedy past, but hey, at least it's not that racist American or someone from a country where executions are going down, and it's someone who has a track record of backing and maintaining a team at a top level. Some of the rumours going around at the moment are that Boehly and co. are ready to hit the ground hard on transfers as soon as the deal is through, which is definitely needed as we've been doing no work on this while all of this background noise around the sale has been going on, and also seeing as half of our defence is likely leaving us this summer (Azpi, Rudi, Christensen and Alonso) as well as potentially a few others (Lukaku, Jorginho). Going to be an interesting few weeks while we wait for the deal to go through, and then hopefully it's on to a busy summer! Scenes when they get knocked out at the semis of the CL next season Kidding aside, intrigued to see how this goes. Pep has only really worked with one other out-and-out world class no. 9 that he's let stay as a no. 9 - Lewa at Bayern - and while he was still a huge threat during Pep's stint there, I always felt like some of his stronger aspects at the time were dulled by not necessarily being part of a system which best suited his playing style (fast-paced and very direct play under Klopp at Dortmund, and Heynckes and Flick at Bayern). If Grealish really hits the ground running and Foden continues as he has been, I'm nervous for everyone when Haaland comes over with the quality of the service he'll be getting; a lot of times during the Madrid tie where it was clear that they were missing a presence in the box. Also! Fair play to him for coming to the Prem first. La Liga and potentially Madrid are always going to be there if and when he's ready (rumours that he wouldn't get paid as much seeing as Mbappé is their main target, and that he doesn't want to be playing third fiddle to Benzema and Mbappé) but it's great to see a world class player (when he's fit) coming to the Prem ahead of his potential prime rather than coming here after a stint in Spain, as I think his size, strength and explosiveness make sure that he'll be a threat wherever he goes.

An empty stage...which is grey, meaning we're going to be diving into the ambiguity between the light and dark of the Force, and also: space whales Think we can also deduct that a temp or PA or someone probably spent 5+ minutes trying to balance Filoni's cowboy hat on the corner of that there director's chair for this photo

Ahsoka production kicking off today! Super busy month so far, loving it

For those like myself who didn't catch the Avatar trailer yet:

So I haven't seen Multiverse of Madness yet, and while I'm still planning to, just wanted to chime in as I've been feeling the same. While I've enjoyed Phase Four so far, it's definitely been with me taking a step back and just viewing these as nothing more than popcorn flicks, and nothing has been at the spectacular "YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS!" level to me so far outside of the second half of No Way Home. Everything I've watched so far of Phase Four has felt like a prologue to me: we're getting new sets of characters introduced (Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, The Eternals) while we're checking back in on the goings-on of already established heroes or getting their stories bookended (Black Widow, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and Thor is definitely giving me that vibe from it's trailer), and cool, they're ramping things up in terms of content (number of character and number of shows), but there hasn't really been a ramp up in terms of obstacles to overcome because it's basically been a check-in/introduction exercise. Because of this, we've ended up with five films and four shows (I still need to get back to What If? and Moon Knight, but I wasn't particularly feeling either) with, like you say, very little in the way of connective tissue. Compare this to Phase One, where we only had five films before the first Avengers movie - heck, there were only four between Avengers and Age of Ultron! - and you really start to get the feeling that they've gone for quantity over quality. Before going to watch Multiverse of Madness I want to watch What If?, but it's genuinely starting to feel like homework; I remember coming out of Black Widow and my friends who hadn't seen Falcon & The Winter Soldier being absolutely lost in the post-credits scene. While I thought it was clear from film titles (Multiverse of Madness) and the events of Loki and No Way Home, despite all touching on the multiverse, they don't really seem like they're connecting much (in No Way Home it's only a factor because of Peter not shutting up, it's not like there's some overarching threat present), and I don't think an introduction of a multiverse necessarily grants higher stakes, because that also comes with the burden of doing something with those other realities. It gets very messy very quickly, and I dread to think what exactly their plan is for an Avengers film with something like the multiverse at stake. We'll see what happens, I guess - I think it's obvious they've got a plan, but they're being extremely coy to the point that I question if quality is being sacrificed. The MCU will make bank regardless, but it's a growing sentiment that I'm seeing - it's definitely how I felt after Endgame - that there's just a bit too much which is saying too little in their films right now. I'll probably catch Multiverse of Madness one of the coming weekends and look forward to discussing that film once I do, but I didn't feel like it was worth rushing out to, and I've honestly felt like this through much of Phase Four so far (again, bar No Way Home).

Just finished rewatching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a film I haven't seen since I was a little kid. The entire film is great (and it's really funny going back to it after playing Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 and going "oh, so this is where that almost exact same shot/location is from"), but that final 30 minutes are just absolute cinematic perfection: the tension built within the meticulously selected dialogue contrasted against the powerful moments of silence, where Ennio Morricone's score takes centre stage and sweeps you away, is just pure bliss. So good that once credits rolled, I had to rewind 30 minutes to just go through that ending again.

Please, please, please don't be a 4 player mode or an error (which...urgh, it probably is). The fact that it's only been announced as being 2 player previously has been something which has annoyed me and my friends and has made us collectively less likely to pick the game up at launch. Hopefully we'll find out what's up next month at Not-E3

David Cameron intensifies

In fairness, that would mean the game is pretty much complete (just not in those exact words), though that's something we kind of new anyways: it has been in the final phases/polishing phase for nearly half a year now (at the start of October the main scenario was complete and they were focusing on polishing the models). Now, just how much polishing they're doing is another question entirely - Yoshi-P cares a lot about nailing these things We'll know what's going on next time we see it. It's been under wraps for over a year and a half now, they've said before that when it does come back that they want a relatively short lead time to release, and we're expecting something within the next six weeks (by the end of spring). I think it would be silly for them to release it in Q4 of this year as things stand, what with Forspoken being right at the end of October, so I don't expect it to land until Q1 of next year. At this point, I'm genuinely more interested in seeing where it lands rather than knowing the date and being excited for that. The one thing that I know for certain: the next six weeks are going to be looooooong

Game is pretty much complete and the trailer is ready to go, let's goooooooooo Soon™. Very Soon™.

I think having to pull yourself out of the fight to realise what's stake and see the subtext is what makes it stronger than the other duels in the prequels for me, as it's more along the lines of what we got in the original trilogy in that way. Anakin loses what he needs most at the end of this duel - he needs a father figure, more than anything, which through his entire interaction with Qui-Gon is clearly the direction their relationship was going. There's just that added layer of depth, which, personally, I love when it comes to storytelling; it's a classic "show don't tell", but also, "please just look a little closer." Absolutely agree, think that's a wonderful duel, both in its brevity and it's obvious reverence for the massive influence samurai films had on George/Star Wars. Despite its brevity, that duel still manages to have so much additional subtext too, such as Obi-Wan changing his form from Ewan's in the prequels to Sir Alec Guinness's in A New Hope, or the fact that Maul straight up attempts to use the same move on Obi-Wan here as he did Qui-Gon in TPM (uppercut to the chin with the hilt of his lightsaber, which left Qui-Gon open to being speared through, whereas Kenobi slices through when it's attempted) -- both videos below are linked to specific moments I'm talking about. It's completely overlooked by most, but a similar thing also happens in the final duel of Revenge of the Sith. "It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!" has been meme'd to death - and out of context, I do think it's a funny line - but Obi-Wan is very explicitly warning Anakin here that he knows exactly what he's going to do here. Hell, he even straight up says "Don't try it." But why? Because he's done what Anakin is about to do himself once before, in TPM. Here, Maul is the one who has the high ground, and Obi-Wan jumps up and flips over him midair, catching Maul off guard before he divorces Maul's torso from his legs. Now compare this to Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel on Mustafar. "It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!", "You underestimate my power", "Don't try it"... ...and Anakin jumps up, flips over Obi-Wan's head like Obi-Wan did to Maul, but then Obi-Wan slices overhead and the duel is over. Say what you will about the length of the fight, it's really intelligent set piece storytelling which, let's be honest, goes above and beyond what is needed here: Obi-Wan totally could have just sliced Anakin up in a pretty boring way. The decision to purposefully handle the scene like this adds subtext to their relationship and to their characters - Obi-Wan knows that Anakin is as brash as he was in TPM (if not more so), and so can predict that he would attempt something like this. That it happens not once but twice (vs Anakin in ROTS and vs Maul in Rebels), and both based on his encounter with Maul, speaks volumes about the character of Obi-Wan. Losing his master absolutely haunted him - of course he's going to tear apart every moment in his head thinking what could have been done differently by his master for him to survive, and likewise, he would have realised how lucky he was that Maul was overconfident when in a winning position, and so learns to keep his cool. I actually think it's this duel in TPM which informs so much of Obi-Wan's character: he goes from being pretty brash in TPM to being much wiser by AOTC. Not to mention, too, that he was never anywhere near as great a swordsman as Anakin, or even Maul - so it's natural that his duelling style became increasingly defensive and calculated. Generally, I think the best moments in the prequels are where there's very little going on in terms of dialogue and more what is being presented on the screen. George always had that, though -- I mean just look at Luke staring off into the binary sunset in ANH. I don't think it goes anywhere near improving the films as much as I would like it to, but I do think it's things like this which are often overlooked. Unfortunately, I really do think they were. I think it's absolutely awesome that girls have a female lead to more directly relate to (I don't think Padmé was that for my generation, or at least as much as she could have been, because there's just that not much to latch onto), but I do just think there are times in the sequels where I question if certain scenes would have been handled the same way if the lead had been a male. The scene in particular which always comes to mind is when Finn and Rey are on Jakku and are fired upon by those TIEs and running through the market, Finn grabs Rey's hand to help her as they're running and she straight up says "Let go of me! ... I know how to run without you holding my hand!" It can be explained away by her solitary upbringing and independence, but it's one of those moments where I don't think you'd get the same if a male character were in her role (and, in fairness, they wouldn't hold hands to begin with I feel if the genders were reversed). Not as egregious as that all-female scene in Endgame (there was a similar and better scene in Infinity War), but I remember it taking me out of the movie a bit whenever I watched it. This is the same company that hired a black man to be one of the leads and then removed him from marketing in China, though, as well as the kiss between two women at the end of ROTS, so you know Yeah, unfortunately that's the case for pretty much every Star Wars soundtrack out there, and the current "remastered" releases of the original trilogy soundtracks are no exception. The most notable track missing from those that comes to mind immediately is Funeral Pyre for a Jedi from ROTJ (ironically, it's the alternate and unused version of this which is plastered over trailers/video game endings/etc.). While I didn't listen to the TROS soundtrack too many times, the thing that struck me immediately is that so much of the music on the soundtrack itself isn't in the movie at all...which I think is heresy, considering it will most likely be the final Star Wars score completely worked on by John Williams. As for locating the particular use of the Resistance theme on the soundtrack, I probably won't be of much help not having watched the film for so long, but have you seen if you can find it in the For Your Consideration soundtrack for the film? These are soundtracks put together specifically for Oscars consideration, and often include extra tracks not featured on the official OST, so you might have some luck locating it there. If you haven't had any luck by the time I get to TROS, I'll be sure to track it down Bit of a side note, as I don't think I've been as clear as I need to be on this before: I do love the score to the sequels, and I think it has some amazing original stuff in there -- March of the Resistance, Rey's Theme, Kylo's Theme, Rose's Theme, a lot of it is wonderful. It's just one of those where I (admittedly unfairly) compare it to the prequels, which just have layer upon layer of musical subtext which the sequel score generally lacks. As I have said before, though, I do think it depends a bit too much on returning themes and cues from the original trilogy which can make it feel like it's more derivative than it is. Look, I love John Williams and his music to pieces, and obviously Star Wars is the absolute pinnacle of his music for me, but for me I think the prequels is where Williams basically said "okay, this is where I prove that I'm a musical genius." I'll try to cover some of the highlights of it when I get around to rewatching the films and listening to the scores, but the guy went beyond the realm of stupid talent for me when I gained a better understanding of the genius that he'd put into those scores, and so the sequel soundtracks were always going to have a tough time by comparison.

Hoo boy: this is another deal the FTC are taking a look at. Doubt it will have any surprising outcome, but it's going to be a long year of deals being followed by outcry being followed by probes. Oh well, at least we have Not-E3 to look forward to

Summer Game Fest Live is taking place on Thursday 9th June at 19:00 BST, and will be shown at some IMAX screens across the US (and so will The Game Awards in December). Non-E3 slowly building up. Just...please, no Gearbox

Review scores all over the shop:

Cool, thanks. I probably should've figured as much.

Just seen a line floating around that I just had to share...

Haha no worries, as soon as I started reading your response I knew I should have been a bit more clear and can definitely see why you might have thought I was talking about the prequels and while I generally though the lightsaber duels in the sequels were lacking by comparison, I don't disagree with some of your points, and I think it made sense to go back to the heft and reality of some of the original trilogy duel moments with the sequels like they did. My favourite lightsaber duel moment in the sequels might be when Rey is backed against a corner, like an animal that's been hunted, but then becomes the hunter: the way that she's almost circling Kylo and toying with him once she gains confidence and feels like she's gaining the upper hand might be one of my favourite Daisy Ridley acting moments in the sequel trilogy. I think for me it's not so much that the story is based on the lightsaber duels, but that it's just so informative about the relationship between the characters duelling without having to say much if anything. Luke's overconfidence in TESB against Vader after being warned by Yoda that he's being an idiot and that it's a trap is both informed by the story up to that point and is clear in how he duels; counter to that, in ROTJ Luke acts like he has everything under control through much of the film (the plan to rescue Han at the start of the film and then the plan to bring his father back to the light) and yet in the end is easily toyed with and manipulated into flying off the handle, beating down his father to the point of submission, and giving into the darkness that's inherently (and unfortunately) human -- his only true moment of maturity in the entire duel is arguably the decision to throw away the lightsaber at the end. You're right though, they both have things that they do that the others don't, I just think for me for a lightsaber duel to be more meaningful that there has to be a bit more thought behind it from a storytelling perspective than "well, I guess they duel now?". I don't have much of a problem with Obi-Wan vs Anakin on Mustafar being as long as it is because there's something at stake and it makes sense why the fight is so long and so grueling at times, but personally in terms of storytelling I think the best in the films post-OT is that duel on Naboo, there's just so much more going on from a narrative perspective - the title of the music used literally stating that the fate of the galaxy and this young boy, believe to be the Chosen One, is what is at stake! - that I thought was lacking a bit in the sequels. I guess the way I'd put it is that I think they lack the subtlety and depth of some of the other duels in that way: the sequels are very overt in what they are trying to say pretty much all of the time, and that carries over to their duels. I don't think there's a problem with that, and I don't think that's the case all of the time (again: Rey going from hunted to hunter), and I don't think there's a problem with like that at all, I just personally love when a scene or a duel has more going on than meets the eye. Total aside: I remember when Star Wars Oxygen covered Revenge of the Sith, and David Collins was talking about how some pompous art connoisseur or whatever basically said Revenge of the Sith's final duel is one of the greatest pieces of modern art ever made. And I mean, if you think about it, while I wouldn't go that far with it, she has a point: everything from the combination of miniatures, to CG, to the long and choreographed duel, to the fact that these two brothers are practically fighting in hell...I can totally see why a pompous art connoisseur might feel that way. Re: Rey having a flat character arc, all of your points are ones I've recognised and thought about, I think my stumbling block with her personally is that while her arc tries to be one of identity, that's a lot of where her challenges lie. Thinking about it I guess she is a cool inverse of Luke (stuck in her past where he was always stuck in the future, very powerful whereas Luke needs to learn a whole lot), but it feels flat to me in that while she does make progress with her identity, she doesn't really make too many wrong decisions regarding her identity (at times, like in TLJ, it seems like she's about to...and then doesn't). It has admittedly been a while since I've seen the sequels though, so once I rewatch them - and especially given the gap - I'm sure I'll have a better idea of where I stand. And to be clear I am a big fan of her issue with identity, I just think it needed to be challenged more and for her to make wrong decisions around it more to push it further -- for me, at least. It's not that he doesn't go anywhere, but flat arc or not, I think Rey's arc at best is pretty simple and overt, which I think gives a greater space for more complex work with Kylo in doing something we haven't really seen before. He's my favourite part of the sequels by a long shot - because, unfortunately, he's the character I identify most with in the entire saga; same goes for Zuko in The Last Airbender - I just think they needed to do anything with him but have him be the redeemed martyr like Vader, as I think it just retreads over some threads we've already seen before in the Saga about redemption, where something new and more important could be told to the audience: that there are repercussions for your actions, even if in the end you do make the right choice (for me, this would have been him surviving but getting a melancholic rather than a happy ending and being exiled). Carrie's passing definitely had an impact, though, you're right. Yeah, absolutely, and given the MCU's success and that it was acquired and put under the Disney banner, you'd think they would have known better. That's the thing for me with the sequels that's different to how I see it when compared to the prequels: with the prequels, I see great ideas with poorly executed scenes, whereas with the sequels, I see great scenes well executed but lacking an overarching purpose or idea. Kind of makes it funny that they're either side of the original trilogy, which most in the community would agree is the most consistent and achieves a balance somewhere between the two I actually think The Force Awakens being as rock solid as it was is what didn't help and only set TLJ and TROS up for further backlash, in that it was rushed out and not only were they handsomely rewarded financially despite that, playing it safe got everyone going "Hell yes, Star Wars is BACK". I really enjoy moments of both, but in TLJ's case, I can totally see why some people got whiplash as we went from "Here you go, Star Wars is back!" to the most purposefully subversive film in the Saga. TROS for me just landed flat at the time as I think ROTS did a better job of feeling like a true finale to the series, and it was the sourest of notes for them to wrap the Saga up on from my perspective. I'm really excited to rewatch The Force Awakens, certain scenes of The Last Jedi, and bits and pieces of The Rise of Skywalker. I'm curious to see how my perspective has changed, if it has at all. Actually, might as well post this for posterity now, this is how I'd rank the films having been away from them for so long: No particular order in those lines by the way I'll post an updated one after I've rewatched them, but I'm curious how you would rank them? (TierMaker here) Absolutely, I think the final official trailer for The Force Awakens might be my favourite movie trailer ever. I watched it hundreds of times, I watched it on every device imaginable to see it in different ways...gah, while the second teaser trailer dropped during Celebration that year was definitely magical, nothing will ever get me more than: Poe screams into a fade of Starkiller Base firing it's laser Han Solo and the Princess kicks in, the first bit of Stat Wars music in the trailer, as we get sweeping shots of the Jakku chase "There were stories about what happened..." "It's true..." Cut to the gang with Han in the Falcon ...all of it" T H I S C H R I S T M A S Percussion slamming down with the nostalgia of a thousand suns in the Force theme timed with flashes of the Knights of Ren Just...hnnnnnng, just watching it now still gets me all these years later -- still remember YouTube crashing on me for a split second after it went up! The others are fantastic too, but man, those 20-30 seconds of that trailer get me. Also, shout out to the international trailers for TFA, which were also stupidly excellent. Gah, okay, I'm watching the trailers again before I hop into these films, it's definitely getting me hyped And yeah, for me I thought today's trailer was fine, but it was kind of in line with the other Disney+ trailers so far (bar maybe The Clone Wars S7 for me) where they've all only really been fine. Well, that and the first trailer probably being my favourite outside of the sequels, just for the shots used and the music specifically (I said I'd cry if we got Duel of the Fates or Battle of the Heroes, and we got both!). I don't really know what could get me as hyped as that in terms of new original stuff from Star Wars, though, when it comes to trailers? Maybe when they eventually tackle the Old Republic stuff? Yeah, this is why I'm really curious about where I'll stand on it, and it's the soundtrack I've dug into the least too (I listened to TFA's and TLJ's hundreds of times) so I'm looking forward to really giving it a proper listen. I thought the story was about as basic and macguffin-y as it could be in my only watches so far back when it released, and poorly executed on top of that, and on top of that, again, just felt like it didn't go as far as it could have (in fairness, I think the MCU ending the Infinity Saga as strongly as it did with Endgame that same year definitely made so much of TROS feel lackluster by comparison). And too many lines made me cringe too -- talking about Endgame, "I am all the Jedi" after having "And I...am...Iron Man" just...gah. It's very frustrating! And yet the pacing was absolutely the worst part. I think Rogue One has pretty much the same problem in its first 5-10 minutes, but it then calms down, whereas to quote myself about TROS back after my first watch: Man, reading back through that post, while for now I still agree with a lot of it, I was absolutely brutal. This killed me: Not in the slightest! It's always fun to talk Star Wars with you, and more important than I think "agree to disagree" can sometimes be - not just in Star Wars, but in day-to-day life - I think any opportunity to learn from others with different perspectives is both challenging (in that you have to come to terms that maybe you're wrong about something or trying to understand someone else's opinions) and rewarding (see: last set of brackets ). So long as no-one is getting hurt by those perspectives (in which case shut them down faster than the Death Star eviscerated Alderaan), I think people miss out on a whole lot of the human experience by not seeking those other perspectives out.