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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 'modern trailer' shows how different film trailers have become

'There is a great disturbance in the Force. I have felt it.'

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 29 December 2015 15:13 GMT
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There once was a time when film trailers were just fairly hastily-edited together montages, with minimal dialogue and plot hints and certainly no slow fade-ins with ominous warnings from characters over the top.

But now trailers have transcended cinemas and are poured over repeatedly online, they've become very carefully crafted devices designed to convey tone and occasionally hide Easter eggs.

The difference is particularly clear when you watch this fan-made 'modern version' of the trailer for The Empire Strikes Back, and then the original from 1979.

Much more sedate in pace, the modern trailer is full of long shots of characters, while the original looks quite alien as it darts from action scene to action scene with no narration.

The trailer was clearly made in the image of that of The Force Awakens, which has been obliterating box office records this week.

It is hugely reverential of the original trilogy (perhaps to its detriment), but the follow-up - Star Wars 8 - will be very different, with the screenwriter promising that the movie will be "weird" and unlike the Star Wars films that came before it.

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