Abrams IS a hack. he never even liked star trek but repeated all the old images with added lens flares and fake looking shiny CGI bullshit.
Expect the same.
There is no love or inspiration here, just the product of a billion dollar business deal between fat cynical capitalists and later their mercenary artisitically bankrupt stooge for hire.
Doing anything interesting is the only way to get fired for him (see Antman).
Also, that doesn't look like han solo, anymore than the crystal skull oldie looked like indiana jones.

What's left of the child that I once was, rooted heavily in Spielberg and Lucas nonsense, emaciated and beaten with wire hangers, what's left of that child just let out a great weep of joy --

And was suddenly silenced, because of the emotional abuse that child had received at the hands of the very creators...

And I still don't forgive JJ for Lost... nor Super 8, which should have celebrated that child within, it was a poor imitation of this child of the '80s experience. It was lacking in authenticity. Almost. But no.

The important thing here is that Lawrence Kasdan is one of the screenwriters. His involvement makes this project legit, and he's working on a stand alone star wars screenplay. Though I haven't read much into it, it's likely the Han Solo film. Kasdan was a screenwriter for Empire, Jedi, and Raiders of the LA. That's what gets me excited despite my south park like reaction to the raping of Harrison Ford. Kasdan won't rape Ford... no, he couldn't!

I was a massive SW fan. I was one of the last people to admit that the prequels were terrible. I kept lying to myself that they were good.

Also, I am on record as hating JJ Abhrams... especially the 2 new Star Treks. So I wasn't happy at all when he got this gig.

So I kinda want to hate this. I've been disappointed before, and I want to get my scorn in early.

But I just can't.

THAT TRAILER IS GODDAMN AWESOME.

And when Han and Chewie appeared, I nearly shed a tear. I really hope the movie is *quality.

Han!!! Chewie!!!

As much as I loved the sound track for it, I had to laugh, it does sound like hans zimmer fell asleep on his organ at some points.

Anyone else read this as "Breathtaking Han Solo"?

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Meta-Physics-Hans-Halvorson-and-Sean-Carroll-at-Caltech

(Meta)Physics: Hans Halvorson and Sean Carroll at Caltech has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579.

If only it had been Han Solo sitting across the table, Leon could have gotten an early retirement.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.

@gorillaman @ChaosEngine

Fast & Furious (which is part 4) was the first step in the right direction as the first in the series to start a transition, although only marginally, out of a fun-but-really-stupid category of action flick. Tokyo Drift was definitely the worst of them. (I'm just hoping the tie-in with part 7 and the return of Lucas Black will somehow make up for its existence; introducing us to Han's back story in Fast Five helped.)

Fast Five was the first good flick on its upswing toward world domination because it was much less dumb, but had a much richer story, better characters, incredible practical effects, a huge, diverse cast, and awesome international settings. This was the first time it was much more kick-ass than pure roll-your-eyes-and-sigh maximum-dumb-shitatude accompanying the action.

Fast & Furious 6 continued to prove they were onto a winning formula and continued that trend. (However, there's a fucking-stupid ~9 minute fight on an airplane WHILE it is driving at near-takeoff speeds on a runway. I did some calculations the last time I watched it and remember thinking they had to be on like a 20-mile-long runway. Come on guys, it's called editing; or at least have some phony excuse for that bullshitestry. But I digress.)

One of the most compelling parts of both parts 5 and 6 were some kick-ass (though of course impossible) practical stunt sequences that may have been the first I've seen as a fully-grown man to earn me a visceral ear-to-ear grin and cause me to unintentionally, audibly say "Holy shit!" in the movie theater.

Can't wait for part 7 and I hope they are able to just keep churning them out, despite the unfortunate loss of Paul Walker because these are some seriously ass-kicking action flicks.

I don't particularly like O'Reilly's conservatism and warmongering, but about this, Colbert is simply ignorant or worse. "OMG, mercenaries going rogue!" Because, y'know, the state's armies never go "rogue" or cause any "mayhem." Nope! Not in WW 1. Not in WW 2. Not in Korea. Not in Vietnam. Not in Latin America. Not in Iraq. Not in Afghanistan, or anywhere else!. Nope. Not ever.

The American forces never goes rogue and Bradley/Chelsea Manning is not being locked up for exposing the never-rogue nature of the American forces.

I don't think Colbert is an idiot. So I'm inclined to think that Hoppe may be correct and Colbert is just part of the "intelligensia," paid to promote stupidity among the masses. (OMG, I'm beginning to sound like "OMG Bernays!")

I agree, but to play devil's advocate here are two counterpoints:

1) The YT-1300 was designed as a freighter, and the Millennium Falcon only became a capable warship after pretty extensive modification by Lando and Han Solo. So, perhaps some of those flaws can be justified with "not really intended to be a combat vessel" rationale.

2) Or even ignoring that, shielding seems to be established as being much more important than armor plating around wires and pipes in the Star Wars universe. TIEs (at least the lower models) have no shielding whatsoever, and the only thing that separates them from just being pure cannon fodder is size, agility, and numbers.

But even in medium fighters that DO have shields, it seems like they at best protect against a very low number of glancing hits -- we see X and Y wings with shields go down after 1-2 hits a LOT in the movies. In that scenario, I guess there isn't a whole lot of need to slow yourself down with heavy armor plating that might let you survive another hit if you are lucky. Kinda like how modern police officers and soldiers don't wear heavy steel plate armor; they either wear kevlar (think "shields") or nothing but clothing/uniform.

So, maybe the larger ships in Star Wars stock up on shields and aren't too fussed about physically covering up systems -- once the shields are down you're pretty much toast anyway.

I actually like Hans Rosling, has he helps put a lot of things into proper perspective, but I just realized, that first graphic with the deaths from natural disasters is completely wrong.

At around the 2000 there's a slight bump, that seems to rise up to about 50,000 death/year, and then it lowers again...But in 2004 is when the Indian Ocean tsunami occured. At least 250,000 people died, which should have jumped the graphic way past where the "C." is.
Something is not right.

The A10 may not get to combat as quickly as an F35 - but when it arrives, it's tailor made for the job. Not a "square peg in a round hole" F35.

Designed with input from Hans Ulrich Rudel - best ground attacker pilot to have ever lived. The man was a prodigy in the air.
(note : the Ju-87 G2 that he flew, had ammo for only 24 cannon shots total. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-655-5976-04,_Russland,_Sturzkampfbomber_Junkers_Ju_87_G.jpg)

I really recommend reading his wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulrich_Rudel

-scheherazade