Movie Review: Star Wars

 Last month a good friend picked me up from work with the idea that we'd have a quick bite to eat at a buffet and then catch a movie.

He knew of a theatre in Canyon Meadows that had cheap ticket prices and was even showing classic movies. You can imagine the gasp I made when I saw they were going to be showing Star Wars from 1977.

"Marlon, please," I begged. "We have to see it!"

"But...haven't you seen it before?" Marlon asked me.

"Yes!" I told him. "Many times. I could probably recite the whole movie."

"So...why do you want to see-?"

"Because you haven't seen it," I explained. "And...if you're going to watch Star Wars for the first time, you have to see it on the big screen."

Marlon grew up in Cuba and despite what some university students might tell you, it's not quite a heaven on Earth. But this isn't the time nor place for me to launch into how much communism and communists suck; I'll leave that for Marlon himself.
But suffice to say, he had never seen Star Wars and didn't know much-or anything-about it.

I told Marlon that I was going to cover the tickets and any drinks or beverages he wanted, that's how confident I was that he would enjoy the movie (Altogether, two tickets and a fountain drink cost under $15).

When the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." came up on the screen, I could hear Marlon gently reading them and knew he was about to be pulled into the phenomenon. 

When it was done and the credits started to roll, he looked at me with a smile and said, "Good choice!" He was very happy that we got to see this on the big screen.

This is the film that changed everything. Science-fiction had never been done on a level quite like this and had certainly never captured the imagination so quickly that even people who didn't see the film knew about it.

Steven Spielberg, who up to that time had made the biggest blockbuster in Jaws two years previously, said of Star Wars, "George Lucas put the butter back into the popcorn."

There's not much about George Lucas' masterpiece I can say that I haven't said previously. The tale of two robots who meet a farm boy, who in turn meet an old Jedi knight going off with a space pirate and a Wookie to save a princess from Darth Vader is classic. These are characters that have endured for over 45 years and will continue to endure.

I'm trying to think about what I don't like about the movie and...I used to have to really think about that. Best I had was that Carrie Fisher sometimes went back and forth between an American and British accent.

However upon seeing the 2011 edition and not the original...the flaws stick out a lot more to me. I warned Marlon about them going in and I wish we had watched the original version instead of George's latest attempt to somehow improve on perfection.

Now, I don't mind changes in effects like during the Death Star battle but the Jabba the Hutt scene is grotesquely unnecessary (Seriously, the dialogue is practically a repeat of the scene with Greedo), the scene with Greedo does not need him shooting first. Seriously, no one was traumatized by Han shooting first from 1977-97, you don't have to change it.

But this time I noticed that it actually seemed...louder. A lot of unnecessary sound effects were put in and I just kept thinking, what does this add? It didn't make the film better, them not being there in the original release didn't take anything away from it so...what's the point?

But I try not to dwell on those things. I think about scenes I do love, like when Obi-Wan explains the Force or when Luke first activated the lightsaber.

When that happened, I'm pretty sure Marlon gasped. He leaned over and said, "Don't touch that!"

And another scene I've really come to love over the years is the Binary Sunset scene. It's a scene that I think most studios today would say doesn't need to be in there but it tells you so much without saying anything. When scene came on and the camera focused on those two suns, Marlon leaned over to me and whispered, "That's really cool!"

And that is where the true strength of these films lies; not in CGI characters or added sound effects but rather in small character moments.
Marlon really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the day we watch The Empire Strikes Back.

For all the flaws this franchise might have, the Force is still strong with the original.