Movie #32 - Star Wars

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Star Wars for the first time.  One friend is adamant that I've seen this before.  I maintain that if I fall asleep in the first scene of a movie and have no recollection of the rest of the movie, that doesn't count as having seen it.  This wasn't even my second attempt - it was at least the 3rd.  I'm not sure why I was so resistant to seeing this until now.  That said, a lot of it wasn't really new, thanks to The Simpsons and countless other references in popular culture.  Some things that would have been such a question mark when it first came out were no mystery at all.

I have a friend who really wanted me to see Star Wars.  It was only a matter of time before I caved.  That, and the promise of dinner.  I was advised to watch this with the mind of a 7-year-old boy, forgetting all the movies and the advances in movie technology that have occurred since 1977.  That might sound really weird, but it worked.  I stayed awake for the whole movie!

One of the aspects I found off-putting before was the unknown.  The whole space ship thing is just not for me.  Determined to stay awake this time, though, meant I made it to the Tunisian planet, and more familiar (just) territory.  And by then, there was enough character development and storyline happening that I wanted to see what happened next.  And to find out when the whole Luke/Darth Vader thing happened, and all that jazz.  And I got used to the weird creatures.

I'm going to assume that most people have already seen this, so I won't go into plot intricacies and such.  A few things I enjoyed: 

Well, intricate plots.  It's simple enough on the surface, but enough going on that you don't get bored.  And a whole lot of different characters to remember and follow. 
As mentioned before, finding out the origin of all those references in popular culture.
The Shakespearean element - I almost expected a 'poor Yorick' moment or something similar from C-3PO.
Seeing all these actors much younger!
Music.  It's so good!  Really full, and dramatic, and a part of the movie instead of being a flimsy add-on.  Not to mention the bonus effect of full symphony in context.   Rather different from many of my experiences (think, 10-yr-old boy who begs to learn how to play it on the violin...).

I cheated - I got to see Episode V only a week or so later.   Nothing like the 3 years between releases.  More on that, soon.