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.