Wow, I just watched the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: the Force Awakens, and against my better judgement I’m stoked.

Most people seemed to hate the prequel trilogy. I have to admit, it was pretty bad. Starting with Episode 1, the only good performances were from Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Really, everything else was pretty horrible. As the prequels were churned out, McGregor’s Obi-Wan continued to be the only bright spot. Well, I’ll take that back. All the Yoda stuff was cool. Revenge of the Sith, with its darker vibe, was at least semi-watchable, but the horrendous performances of Hayden Christenson and Natalie Portman just about ruin it. I don’t blame either of the then pretty young actors. I blame George Lucas, who apparently decided to shoot everything in one take.  The editing is really bad too. One wonders if the actors had any idea what the storyline of the movie was.

So I’m glad Lucas is no longer involved in the films.

The return of Han and Leia really lends some gravitas to this trailer. It was the charm of Han Solo and cool toughness of Leia that people loved in the original series. I think people overlook Mark Hamill’s acting, but if you watch The Empire Strikes Back, you will see that it was his acting that allowed you to believe that Yoda, a puppet, was a believable character. The dude was good. Too bad Alec Guiness is no longer around.

So I guess we’ll have to wait until December to see if this is good, or an abomination. Fingers crossed.