Bob Rehak has a really good post at his blog, Graphic Engine, all about the odd CNN hologram that premiered a few nights ago. Like Bob, though, it’s hard for me to hear “hologram” without thinking of cinema’s most famous hologram of all — Leia asking Obi-Wan for help. But perhaps you didn’t see the new version on offer in Lucas’s 52nd rerelease of Star Wars: A New Hope:
A quick sidetrip into the Death Star / Time Warner Building the other day found me in trouble with the law …
until I straightened things out with the charming man in charge, and he helped me put an end to the problem
This is a fantastic teaser poster. First off, though, let’s realize the odd context surrounding its release. The world had many Star Wars fans, who had been living without Star Wars on film since 1983. We’d grown older and watched the originals again and again, often raising them to the status of religious texts. So, running with that analogy, a new trilogy evoked mixed feelings, as if you were told a new book of a religious text was about to be written—on one hand, there was the excitement and anticipation, and on the other the fear of blasphemy and sacrilege. So the poster needed to appeal to the former impulse while also giving some evidence that the sacred text had not been profaned. And succeed this one did. It’s remarkably simple, not too busy (as are most Star Wars posters, by contrast), and uses the icon that is Darth Vader wonderfully. Return of the Jedi’s ewoks had already concerned some of the faithful about the degree to which Lucas had gone all kiddy (and boy would Jar-Jar later prove them right!), but the idea of the Vader within the boy is dark and interesting, not at all kiddy. And, as an added bonus, we’ve clearly returned to Tatooine, and what Star Wars fan didn’t imagine themselves fighting stormtroopers, Jaba, Boba Fett, and others in the sands of Tatooine? Young Anakin’s home also looks somewhat moon-like (“that’s no moon, it’s a space station”), nicely merging Anakin’s first and last homes.
For this poster simply not to suck was an achievement, but to be this good was, as Vader might say, impressive, most impressive.
Tomorrow: King Kong
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