New 'Star Wars: Battlefront' Trailer: Anna Kendrick Dies And Goes To Jedi Heaven

The last Star Wars: Battlefront trailer was a masterpiece of emotional manipulation. It was the lion lurking in the tall grass, watching your helpless nostalgia sneak away from the pack for a drink at the watering hole. It saw the weak spots in your armor, it knew how to break through emotional malaise, it was well aware that your defenses were already down because Star Wars: The Force Awakens actually looks like it could be the movie you've been waiting for. And then it struck. Even if you were prepared to see through its emotionally manipulative tactics, it forced a lump into your throat and a tear into your eye. You must play this video game. It's effective advertising.

The new trailer tries something, uh, a little different. Whereas the first trailer was all about the joys of Star Wars (the joys of childhood!) rescuing you from your adult responsibilities, this one seems to have a slightly darker tone. To be fair, that dark tone is probably unintentional, but it represents the exact wrong Star Wars iconography to borrow and the effect is really, really weird.

But hey, it also features Anna Kendrick. Watch the new Star Wars Battlefront trailer for yourself after the jump.

The trailer shares a similar theme to that first one: here comes Star Wars: Battlefront to rescue you from the humdrum real world! And the game does look good. A modern update of the best Star Wars video games ever made, Battlefront just lets you pick a side in the galactic conflict and flings you into battle. If you're lucky, you can eventually spawn as a hero and cut down your foes as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. This one will even give you a taste of the the Star Wars universe between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

But while the first trailer saw the central character drawn into his fantasies by leaping into the cockpit of an X-Wing, this trailer is all about fans all over the word getting Jedi-Raptured out of their clothing and into a colorful afterlife where they can endlessly respawn into a never-ending war between the forces of good and evil.

Let's think about this trailer for more than five seconds. Even the most casual Star Wars fan is familiar with the iconography being borrowed here. In the original 1977 film, Obi-Wan Kenobi duels Darth Vader, telling his old friend that if he's struck down, he will become more powerful than he can possibly imagine. And we know what happens next: old Ben is struck down, only to show up again as a Force ghost, guiding Luke from beyond the grave.

So what are we to make of this trailer, which features mass groups of people vanishing into thin air Kenobi-style so they can get a taste of that sweet Battlefront action? Either the Force really is the one true God and it's calling its faithful home, or large groups of people are willing themselves to death so they can play the new Star Wars video game. In either case, the suggestion here is that Star Wars: Battlefront is heaven, which is an awfully crazy thing to say about any video game. C'mon. The beta was really good, but it wasn't that good.

In any case, Anna Kendrick is apparently willing to die to play Star Wars: Battlefront. And that's an insane way to sell a video game.

Star Wars: Battlefront will be available on November 17, 2015. It will be available in stores. Do not take rash action. Force-assisted suicide is not the answer.