When I was 5 Star Wars came out.  I loved the movie so much that I saw it 52 weekends in a row.  My parents had just separated and all I would do with my father is go see Star Wars.  He ended up bringing books with him, sleeping et cetera probably after the 5^th or so week.  I had many of the toys, and the Force was almost a religion to me and many of my generation.

Then the Empire Strikes Back came out—arguably the best movie of the entire franchise.  Wow, I even skipped school to go see it with my father.  Then Return of the Jedi.  The first half—great—then the second half with those stupid Ewoks fighting the elite imperial jungle guard with rocks, that broke my heart worse than my first love.

Then the prequels.  I walked out of the first one (I don’t even know the title) and refused to see the rest.  Alas, another total downer.  Pretty disenfranchised I was really hoping for a home run and from what I was hearing this film may have been it.  Nope.

I was really looking forward to seeing the original group hoping against hope that the franchise could be saved.  I was wrong.  It takes a big man to admit he is wrong and I am not a big man.  That said I disagree with many of you in that I think Carrie Fischer has aged very well, and it was Harrison Ford that looked like he had one foot in the grave.  I love Fischer.

The new Star Wars looked to me like an amalgamation of the first three movies.  I almost knew what was going to happen before it happened in the film.  Take the “scavenger” who later turns out to be a Jedi candidate, those 10-15 minutes were right out of the sand people from the original movie.  At least that is what I thought.  Then there was the escape from the new “Death Star” with the deprogrammed storm trooper setting the best pilot free (just like Luke saving the princess) and it goes on and on.

Also the whole evil guy being Han Solo and the Princess’s son was not really that interesting.  What was a surprise was when Solo got run-through by his own child, but their repeated statements that there was still good in him sounded an awful lot like Luke telling Darth Vader that in Return of the Jedi.

The one thing I did like were the sound effects.  I thought they added some much needed grit to the film.  Other than that I was not at all impressed.