The Force Awakens

On January 1 I finally went to see Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens. Only two weeks since it came out, yet it seems much longer. Too many people posting their comments and reactions to risk exposure to spoilers. Was there any big “Darth Vader is Luke’s father” type reveal in this movie? I better go see it for myself before I end up reading something I shouldn’t.

Two weeks after it opened I finally went to see The Force Awakens.

I didn’t wait so long when Episode VI Return of the Jedi came out. That was a long time ago and I was still in high school then. I skipped school to see it on opening day.

I was less enthusiastic about seeing the first movie when it came out. Now known as Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope; back then titled simply Star Wars.

I didn’t see that one until a year after it opened. Truth is, I was avoiding it. So many people were talking about it, and if it was popular it couldn’t be any good. Popular things suck. Pop music sucks. Therefore I wasn’t interested in seeing it. That was my logic at the time.

One afternoon a buddy invited me to go downtown to see a new movie called Battlestar Galactica. I went, I saw it, and I was thrilled. I decided I liked movies. On my way back to the house I ran into my sister with her friends.

“I’m coming back from the movies. I just saw Battlestar Galactica,” I told her.

“We’re going out to the movies. We’re going to see Star Wars,” she told me.

She asked if I wanted to go with them.

What the heck, I decided to go with them.

Although Star Wars had already been playing in the theatres for a year, there were hardly any seats available when we got there. The seat I got was broken and would shift awkwardly every time I moved. I needed to go to the washroom and I didn’t want to get out of my seat – and then the movie started.

When it finished I had completely forgotten that my seat was broken. I had completely forgotten that I needed to go to the washroom. I was just so engaged in the movie.

Episode IV: A New Hope was released in 1977.
Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released in 2015.

38 years in between.

On January 1, 2016 I happened to be in the neighborhood of the same movie theatre where I saw the first Star Wars movie. That theatre has closed down since then and has reopened since then. Since I really wanted to see The Force Awakens that night, I went to the same theatre. The same theatre where I saw the first Star Wars. There was something apropos about coming back to that place to see that movie.

Han Solo and Princess Leia have aged in the intervening years. So have I.

“Chewie, we’re home.”