#Star Wars:The Force Awakens

I went to see the new Star Wars movie, the seventh installment in the series. I would have waited a few weeks before going to avoid the crowds, but I went with my son and grandchildren and they were eager to see it.

I saw the six Star Wars movies that came before and I remember how thoroughly I enjoyed the first one. I can still see the huge Star Ship flying overhead on the big screen. I was impressed and full of excitement. It was something so new and mind-blowing. Of course, I was much younger then and still possessed that ‘Sense-of-Wonder’ that I seem to have lost somehow. I envy the kids who see something like that for the first time.

As I said, I would have waited to see the movie. We got there about ¾ hour before the movie started and already there was a long line-up of people waiting to get in. Many may have bought their tickets on line--if not all of them, the way we did. The four of us managed to secure seats in the last row. Most of the seats were already occupied when we finally walked into the theater. It was okay, though, because the screen was huge.

The movie has smashed all Box-Office hits, making a billion dollars in 12 days and it hasn’t even hit the Asian market yet. Obviously, the hype before the release had something to do with that, but it also proves that there are millions of loyal Star-Wars-Fans out there. I am one of them, but then I’ve been a life-long fan of Science Fiction, and movies like that are a dream come true for me. I am also a Star Trek fan.

What I’m going to say about ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ will probably anger some Fans, but this is my take of the movie. It was an okay movie. I’m not saying it was bad or that I didn’t enjoy it—I did enjoy it immensely, but there wasn’t anything that got me overly excited. It was more or less a rehash of the very first movie, only with new characters and a somewhat different plot. I wasn’t ‘Wowed’ by the story. Neither did I see something that was really new. The battles in space and on land were fine; the action was good, the characters likable—but nothing new. I've seen it all before.

As I’ve said, I may have lost that ‘Sense-of-Wonder’ and I miss that. Possibly, because I’ve seen so many movies, read so many books, and am writing my own stories may also contribute to the factor that I am more critical now. Will this stop me from going and watching the next installment of Star Wars? Absolutely not. I hope I live long enough and keep my wits about me to be able to do so, but I’m also waiting for a movie that brings new ideas to the screen.

Star Wars is also being presented in 3D. I might have enjoyed that more the way I did with the movie #‘Avatar’. That one blew me away. The story in that movie was not new, either, but the experience of 3D was wonderful and thrilling. Perhaps somebody will come up with the ability to show a movie as a #Hologram. Now, that would be an ‘Out-of-this-World’ experience and mind-blowing—to be right there with the action, like in the #Star Trek series and movies. Perhaps not quite so physical, because that would almost be scary. We haven’t reached that level of technology yet and may never reach it, but I read somewhere a long time ago: What a human mind can conceive is possible.

Not  so many years ago nobody ever thought computers would be so much a part of our daily lives, but look at what is happening: A personal computer is pretty much part of the way we live. We do our banking with a computer, book vacations, search for information, and even buy tickets for the movies on line. We have telephones that are used as cameras, as storage mediums and transmitters of information and pictures. They can be used to store and play music, used to text somebody and so much more. Not even Science Fiction writers predicted the world we live in now.

We don’t know where we go from here. It is exciting and even a bit scary, because what can be used for good can also be used for evil. The future may be wonderful or terrible, depending on how we use the things we discover. Let us hope that what the movie Star Wars entertains us with never happens in real life. Let it stay just a figment of somebody’s fertile imagination. Let it be fun and entertaining and nothing else.

May the Force be with you.