What does one do when one is so bored?
One starts with Episode IV: A New Hope and works on from there.
It’s not like I’m going to watch the whole thing tonight — all nine of the basic movies. But I’ll get through this one. And that’ll be enough, I’m sure.
Star Wars is classic, no doubt. But it suffers from its inability to stay true to its origins…and by that, I mean, the solid foundation that was established before it became just another money-grubbing machine that lost sight of anything that could resemble a good story. Episode IV? Great. V? Yup. VI? Well, now we’re starting to lose it. And let’s not get started on 1, II, and III; which looked like absolute dogs until VII, VIII, and IX came out and we found out that they could, in fact, sink lower.
So I’m content with A New Hope. Or, as I would prefer to call it: Star Wars. That’s all we called it when it came out. Nearly half a century later, it’s still fresh. That’s because the original of just about any franchise is unstained by the cliches and predictable gimmicks that come later. This is especially true with the likes of Lucas and Spielberg — where they end up resorting to the same old garbage to get a rise out of viewers (Spielberg is the worst when it comes to this kind of thing). This is actually demonstrated with the later release of modified versions of the original trilogy, where they inserted a scene between Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt. Because it came later, it reeked of gimmickry — especially when Solo stepped on Jabba’s “tail.”
But the original (the original original). Still good. Exceptionally so. It’s still got that magic — that wonder and uniqueness that made it so good all those years ago. It’s utterly re-watchable. Like Jurassic Park. Like Jaws. (and before you think I just got done slamming Spielberg, those two movies were just like Star Wars — originals. With the accompanying magic). As with those movies, there’s moderation — I wouldn’t watch them even as often as annually. But every few years? Or, as is the case tonight, maybe a decade? It’s almost as good as new, and I would be just fine with it if they had stopped right there…
