Kevin Smith recently spoke in Switzerland about having visited the set of J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars, Episode VII. He couldn’t say much due to having signed a non-disclosure agreement, but he said this much: “So we go to the set, and they’re actually shooting — and this is what I can’t tell you what they were shooting — but what I saw I absolutely loved. It was tactile. It wasn’t a series of fucking green and blue screens in which later on digital characters would be added. It was there. It was happening. I saw uniforms. I saw artillery that I haven’t seen since I was a kid. I saw them shooting an actual sequence in a set that is real — I walked across the set; there were explosions — and it looked like a shot right out of a fucking Star Wars movie.

Abrams is “building a tacticle world, a world you can touch. And he’s replicating it with all the love of somebody that has the world’s greatest collection of Star Wars figures. It’s like Field of Dreams, and if J.J. builds it, we’re all going to come hard because it’s amazing. It looks fantastic. So anyone out there wondering if he’s going to pull it off? He’s pulling it off. He showed me cut scenes. He showed me sequences, images, pictures. I cried, and I hugged that guy. And I’m sure as I was crying and hugging on him that he was thinking ‘time is money’ because they’re making a movie. But he got it. He was very flattered. And I was like, ‘Honestly dude, you’re doing it. You’re making my childhood again. You’re doing our Star Wars.’ What I saw blew me away.”

Too much love, too much gush. I’m glad about the “tactile” impressions. Smith is a right guy and a compassionate dude but you still can’t trust anyone who’s clearly invested in geek mythology, especially if he’s wearing an orange jersey. You need to hear from someone who’s more of a dry, even-handed, take-it-or-leave-it type. Someone like me, I mean.