I'm not what you'd call a rabid Star Wars fan - I can take it or leave it, though there was a time.....
A long long time ago...
I was 11 when Star Wars first hit cinemas and I was immediately captivated. We'd never seen anything like it - it was like the way those Saturday morning Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials they used to show on TV played in the young mind. On the screen those shows were black and white, with ropey special effects too basic even for Doctor Who, but when filtered through a young imagination they looked amazing and that was 1977's Star Wars - It looked absolutely amazing straight out of the box.
It had it all - adventure, a touch of light mysticism provided by the jedi knights and square jawed heroes like Luke Skywalker. It also had the lovable anti-hero in Han Solo and cute comedic robots. But it seemed so real, so vital - it even took the studio by surprise - shooting went millions over budget, so much so that 20th Century Fox even gave George Lucus the merchandising rights if he took a cut in his directors fee, it initially only had a limited release - it was huge, though and alongside the previous year's, Jaws heralded the age of the Blockbuster.
Back then I was a rabid fan - I had the lunch box, I bought the comics and the spin-off paperback novels and I had a few of the action figures. I loved it and my love continued through The Empire Strikes Back and to some extent the far too childish, toy spin-off centric, Return of the Jedi.
Years went by - we all got older and I saw the prequel movies - though only on DVD. I didn't go to the cinema - my Star Wars fixation was part of my childhood. The prequels left me cold - especially the first one which looked like a cinematic computer game, but the other two were entertaining enough.
And then came the new movies, The Force Awakens (2015) - I went to the cinema for that one since it was billed as a genuine sequel to the original trilogy and brought back beloved characters. Yeah, I was disappointed.
And so it was only yesterday that I sat down to watch the second sequel, 2022's The Last Jedi - presented in a lovely looking 4k Blu-ray.
I was once again sucked into the world I'd first witnessed back in 1977. I know the rabid fans dislike this one - because it dares to be different, much in the way Empire Strikes Back did.
This time Luke is an aged, washed up Jedi who had lost his belief in the force. He has become Obi Wan Kenobi - well, if Obi Wan was a hopeless loser. He spends his days drinking milk directly from the teats of some strange looking creatures and living within his own mind while he awaits his inevitable demise. Cue role reversal and it is a young lady, Ray (Daisy Ridley) who is the young Jedi, the person whom Luke once was, seeking guidance from the reluctant master.
While all that is going on we have the usual spectacular space battles to cut to when the sight of a pouting aged Jedi slows the story too much, and it all leads to a great ending that is, for once, not totally positive. Much in the way the ending of Empire Strikes Back was not totally positive.
I really enjoyed that - An intelligent, complex fantasy movie and that's not something one can say about most of the Star Wars output.
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