Sunday, January 3, 2016

Star Wars

We are the Star Wars Generations.

The first StarWars movie was released in 1977. I was 33, and the mother of two young children. Jill was four and Jake was two.  We did not go to see it in the theater right away.  We waited about a year, I think. Of course it was still playing in the local theater, because that was before everyone had a VCR. Now of course, everyone has a DVD player, but most often gets movies on the Internet. But I digress.

Jake was probably three before we took him to see it. Having had ear troubles from early on, he was sensitive to loud noise, so he watched the movie with his hands over his ears, but he watched it, every scene.  We all did.  And we loved it.

We didn't go to movies often and I don't recall that we went to the theater for the next two episodes of the original trilogy, which eventually became Episodes IV,V, and VI. That got very confusing, as years later the "Prequel", episodes I, II, and III  were released.  We eventually rented the tapes for the original three, but never did watch the Prequel.

But the next generation, our kids Jill and Jake, saw them of course. Then when Jill had her own kids, the six Star Wars movies were on her list of required cultural literacy. In fact she owns the DVDs for all six movies.

With the release of Episode VII, we were ready to jump back on the bandwagon. To get ready, over the holidays, we borrowed Jill's DVDs and watched all six episodes. Then we were ready to go to the movies!
Here we are, waiting for the 4:00 showing at the IMAX on New Year's Eve, 3-D glasses ready!
 We were early to insure good seats, so of course we passed the time on our phones.
Episode VII is the next generation of Star Wars characters as well as the hook for the next generation of Star Wars fans. As much as most fans like the special effects and the noise and the battle scenes and the explosions, I am a character person.  I fell in love with Luke and Leia and Han, and even Chewbacca and R2D2 and C-3P0. It was good to see most of them again. We have all aged, some perhaps better than others, but are still true to who they were. 

The next generation of characters seems interesting too, especially the girl Ray, who appears to be the new embodiment of the Force. But I must be careful here, because "spoiling" is a sin and some of you are still planning to go see this movie. 

I had to wait a long time through this movie to finally see a character important to me, and the final scene left me teary eyed, and wanting more. 

Now I have to wait for another year or two. 

12 comments:

  1. You did well and didn't spoil it at all! I have to say I was thrilled to meet BB-8, who is a C3PO upgrade and present in the trailers, too. I don't think I'm telling any stories to say that. But I was tired out by all the noise. I had my earplugs firmly in place, but still. I would see it again and probably will. And it left my wanting to see where they go with it all. It was fun. :-)

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  2. Glad you had such a good experience. I'm afraid I am totally out of the Star Wars loop. I see Isaac is wearing his new Christmas cap and shoes. Looks like it was another good experience for your family.

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  3. I only ever saw the original movie, way back in 1977. Was it really that long ago? I did hear that the plan was to pump out a new Star Wars movie every year for as long as people keep buying tickets. Can't say I will make that kind of commitment, but I do plan to see the latest release.

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  4. After a Star Wars break of about 35 years, we went to see the new Star Wars in the theater yesterday. I must be getting old, because I'm not that wowed by special effects, and noise just makes me crabby. Too much action for me and not enough story. Showing my age... :(

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  5. I will wait to watch it here at home

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  6. You really did have fun , You have to be in this stuff and know all of it to enjoy the movie. I saw the first one. That's all.

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  7. my sons were star war fans, and I went but have no interest in seeing the new movie...but I just watched Downtown Abbey and that was good!

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  8. I even enjoyed the movie, and I'm not an action movie lover. I do see a future for the new characters.

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  9. I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. I love the new characters, and really loved seeing the older ones all these years later. A perfect ending, in my book, and like you, I can hardly wait for the next movie. Love the pics with you and the grands. :-)

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  10. It seems to see THE MOVIE was the New Year's thing to do. I don't think I have ever seen any of them. Well just bits and pieces because I do knw some of the characters but not the story. Oh well I will survive.
    MB

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  11. Glad you enjoyed. I wish I had, but the first movies were the originals and I guess it is hard to live up to that. Sequels usually disappoint for me.

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  12. Part of my post tomorrow will be about the movie, but I'm pretty much echoing what you and DJan said. We did not see the 3D version, but it was fine the way it was. i got teary at the end too. I didn't see it coming, but now that I've seen it, it's supposed to be ironic, huh?

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