A common misconception in the series of Star Wars movies is--"Which one is the first one?" Episode I is the first movie in the series, but it is not the first movie that was released. The original Star Wars movie was released in 1977 and was later named, Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. Two sequels came after it named Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. These films were largely known by their subtitles.

Episode I was released in May 1999. This is the first attempt at a full-length movie using new digital effects available in 1997-1999. The main problem with the movie is Jar-Jar Binks, and the lack of an interesting plot. It is a lot of exposition on where everybody came from, how the senate works, and showing off the environments and digital effects.

The main plot is about Queen Amidala of Naboo and the fact that her planet has been blockaded by the Trade Federation. The Trade Federation did this because of the taxation and disruption of trade routes in the Republic. The Supreme Chancellor of the senate sent two Jedi to settle the conflict onboard the Trade Federation battleship.

The Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master, and Padawan learner, Obi-Wan Kenobi land on the Trade Federation ship and are ambushed. They attempt to capture the Viceroy but are forced to hide aboard a landing craft that lands on Naboo.

Darth Sidious urges the Viceroy to take control of the planet and make the Queen sign a treaty that will make their invasion legal. The Queen is captured, but is quickly rescued by the Jedi. They take her to Coruscant, but their ship is damaged while passing through the blockade. They decide to stop for repairs on the planet Tatooine.

Once on Tatooine, they meet Anakin Skywalker. He is a slave, who lives with his mother, Shmi Skywalker. Anakin does not have a father, his mother says there was no father, she became pregnant and then gave birth to him. Qui-Gon Jinn notices that the Force is strong with him. Qui-Gon has his blood checked with a midichlorian count. It is off the chart. Obi-Wan says that Master Yoda doesn't even have a count that high.

Anakin tells Qui-Gon about his dream of becoming a Jedi and seeing the stars. He is not able to because he is a slave of Watto. Anakin builds and repairs ships and other things. He built C-3PO and a Pod Racer. Qui-Gon needs money to repair their ship. Anakin volunteers to race his Pod Racer in the Pod Race and will give him his winnings so they can repair their ship. Qui-Gon, before the race, bets with Watto that Anakin will win and if he does Anakin will be freed. Watto agrees. Of course Anakin wins the race and is freed. He is reluctant to leave his mother, but he does and goes with Qui-Gon.

Darth Sidious ordered Nute Gunray, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation to kill the Jedi. Obviously they failed and Sidious sent his apprentice, Darth Maul to find the Queen and kill the Jedi. Darth Maul finds Qui-Gon and Anakin on Tatooine. Qui-Gon escapes the mysterious attacker.

Anakin is introduced to Obi-Wan Kenobi and others as he is venturing on his new journey. He meets Padme and supposedly falls in love with her. (He is too young, supposedly 8 years old, to have those feelings in my opinion).

Padme goes to the senate to convince them that she needs help from keeping the Trade Federation from taking control of Naboo. They all disagree and take forever to get anything done. Senator Palpatine, from Naboo talks with the Queen and says that she should make a motion to have a new Supreme Chancellor elected. She agrees and Palpatine is one of the leaders on the ballot for the office. Of course, he wins it.

Qui-Gon talks about the mysterious attacker to the Jedi Council and also mentions Anakin's affinity with the Force. They have the boy tested and agree he has the ability, but say he should not be trained because he is too old. Qui-Gon insists but the council talks him out of it. Supposedly, there is an old prophecy among the Jedi about a "Chosen One" who will bring balance to the Force. They theorize that the attacker is a Sith Lord and he must be met again to find out more information on why the Sith have returned.

The Queen, after moving for an election of a new Supreme Chancellor, decides to return to Naboo to stop more people from suffering under the Trade Federation's occupation. Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin and the rest go with her. She makes an alliance with the Gungans, (the race that Jar-Jar comes from), so they can bring their army to attack the Trade Federation army. This battle is a diversion to sneak into the palace and capture the Viceroy. The Queen, the Jedi, Anakin, and some fellow Naboo refugees attack the palace and get to the Viceroy and he is captured. The Naboo pilots get into their ships in the hangar and attack the Droid Control Ship that is orbiting the planet. Anakin gets into a Naboo Fighter to hide and accidentally starts it and flew out as well (with R2-D2 of course). Naturally a boy named Skywalker blows up the big starship that is causing doom for everyone. The Droid Control Ship is destroyed by Anakin, almost by accident, and all the battle droids are deactivated.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan once again meet Darth Maul and they duel. After quite a long fight, Darth Maul gives Qui-Gon a mortal blow. Qui-Gon falls and then faces Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan cuts Darth Maul in half and then goes to his master. Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan to train Anakin. He agrees. Qui-Gon dies. Anakin is to be trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

That is the abbreviated version (with as little mention of Jar-Jar as possible).

The story is pretty flat. Everything is very much linear. At the end there are some multiple stories going on, but the only one that is interesting is the Jedi fight. It is obvious that Anakin will win, Padme will win, and who cares what happens to the Gungans. The acting performances are very weak. Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon) does ok along with Ewan MacGregor (Obi-Wan). Jake Lloyd (Anakin)'s performance is not very good, and the lines given to him are pretty bad to start off. I'm sure all Lucas said was "faster and more intense" so that doesn't help you any as an actor.

It seems these three movies were a test bed for digital effects and digital photography. What is there as far as plot goes is about 10% in Episode I, 15% in Episode II and the rest of it is found in Episode III. The reason Episode III has so much, is because it has to get right up to Episode IV, and since not much of anything happens in I and II, so much more has to occur in Episode III.

The main problem with Episodes I-III is you know what must happen. Only those who have not seen it before have the chance to see them in order. If someone would do that, I do not see how they could make it past Episode I. I know people who were Star Wars fans and did not see Episodes II or III because Episode I was so bad. The element of surprise is an important thing in movies. Too many movies are put into series of movies and it loses the spontaneity. You know that the following characters must live into Episode IV: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Palpatine/Darth Sidious, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Owen Lars, and Beru Lars.

Jar-Jar Binks... what were you thinking? You can't understand what he is saying. Granted, I don't know what Chewie is saying but at least he sounds like a bear or dog and you don't mind it. But with Jar-Jar, you can almost hear what he is saying but you can't understand it. Plus, he is so clumsy and awkward. I wish he would have taken Qui-Gon's advice and got lost when they first met: "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. Now get out of here."

The chemistry of actors is is in stark contrast to Episodes IV-VI when you can tell that the actors seem to genuinely like each other. In Episode I, they all seem like they put up with it because it is their job. They do not gel as a group, but I think they want to be in it because some of them are fans of the old Star Wars movies themselves. I heard Samuel L. Jackson begged to be in the new Star Wars movies.

Giving some credit to George Lucas, it is hard starting out with many things to establish and knowing where you have to end. I think that Episodes I-III could have been condensed into about 4 hours. Just have some pauses for when Anakin has to grow up (say 10 years later) and then move into the next scene.

 

Several thousand star systems are breaking apart from the Senate. Now the Senate is arguing on the issue of creating an army to stop this crisis. Padme Amidala, now the Senator from Naboo, is trying to stop the creation of the army. She is attacked when she returns to Coruscant. Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to protect her and eventually find out who is attacking her.

Anakin and Padme are separated from everyone else and ordered to hide on Naboo. When they arrive, they fall in love. They finally decide that they can't give in to their temptations, so they just remain friends. Anakin is haunted by visions of his mother back on Tatooine. He sees her suffering and he decides to go and help her. Padme has to come along since she is supposed to be protected. He tracks down where she was. She was sold to Kleeg Lars and then he freed and married her. Kleeg Lars has a son, Owen. The Lars Homestead is the same one that will be home to Luke Skywalker. Owen already has Beru as his girlfriend (whom he will marry). Anakin finds out his mother was captured by Tusken Raiders (aka Sandpeople). He goes out to find her leaving Padme at the Lars Homestead. He finds her captured inside a hut in a small Tusken encampment. He talks with her for just a moment and she dies. He seeks revenge for his mother's death and kills all of the Tusken Raiders in the camp. He returns to the Homestead with the body of his mother. He then tells Padme that he killed all the Tuskens and wishes he was powerful enough to save her. It is obvious he began to turn to the dark side of the Force.

Obi-Wan is trying to find out who is trying to kill Padme. In finding out he meets Jango Fett who is the person who has been cloned to form the Clone Army for the Republic. This army was ordered about 10 years ago from a now dead Jedi Master Syphodias. The clones come from the planet Kamino. Obi-Wan concludes that Jango Fett is trying to kill Padme and tries to capture him. He fails and follows him to Geonosis.

Geonosis is where Count Dooku (the leader of the Separatists) resides. He is talking with Viceroy Nute Gunray and finds out that Nute Gunray is the one ordered that Padme be killed. Only then will he join with Dooku in the Separatists. The Confederation of Independent Systems (CIS) is formed and making a large droid army to fight the Republic. With this they hope to successfully flee from the Republic and make their own rules.

Obi-Wan is informing the Jedi Council (and Senators) about what is happening on Geonosis and he is obviously captured. Anakin and Padme see this message as well and they decide to leave immediately to save Obi-Wan. Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) decides to gather up the Jedi on Coruscant and go to Geonosis. Yoda then decides to go to Kamino to see the Clone Army that was created for the Republic. (Oh the Senate decides to give Chancellor Palpatine the power to create the Clone Army--big surprise).

Before Padme and Anakin are to be rescued, Padme admits her love for Anakin and they obviously will keep their love a secret, assuming they survive the upcoming events, which they do.

Oh and Jango Fett had a clone for himself named Boba. Jango Fett dies in the end battle and Boba is left on his own. His father's ship is likely the same one he uses in The Empire Strikes Back.

Many Jedi die trying to save Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme. It looks like all of them will die, but Yoda comes in with the Clone Army just in time and the Clone War begins. The Clone Troopers look like stormtroopers and follow the orders of the Jedi. They successfully defeat CIS. Obi-Wan and Anakin fight Count Dooku. Count Dooku injures Obi-Wan and cuts the right arm of Anakin off and escapes, after fighting Yoda for a little bit. Dooku escapes and travels to Coruscant to give the Death Star plans to Darth Sidious (Palpatine) and says the War has begun, just as they planned.

In a secret ceremony, Anakin and Padme are married on Naboo.

At its heart, Episode II has even less going on than Episode I. All that happens is Anakin begins his turn to the dark side, Padme and Anakin fall in love and get secretly married. Palpatine gets more power and the clone war begins.

Anakin's performance along with Padme's are bad. The love scenes are almost unbearable. Anakin gets overly dramatic spilling out his entire guts while Padme doesn't say anything. There is no action at all in the very long middle of the movie. Nothing happens (action-wise) after the chase through Coruscant up until the fight between Jango Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Yes the digital effects look even better. The only main reason to see the movie would be for the end battle and especially to see Yoda fight for the first time. About the only thing Episode II does, is set you up for Episode III. It seems like he was trying to put in a filler thing for the mystery of who is trying to kill Padme. It also gave him the chance to put Anakin and Padme together without Obi-Wan in the picture (since he was investigating this "big mystery"). :P

 

Ok it starts off with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine being kidnapped aboard a CIS ship. The battle is happening orbiting Coruscant itself. Naturally, Anakin and Obi-Wan are sent to rescue him.

They make it in the ship (along with R2-D2). They get to the Chancellor only to face Count Dooku again. During the fight, Obi-wan is injured again and is knocked unconscious while being pinned down. Now with just Anakin, Palpatine, and Dooku, Anakin fights with anger and hatred and has Dooku incapacitated with his hands cut off. Palpatine urges him to kill Dooku, and he does. Anakin fights with himself afterwards admitting it is wrong. Palpatine says that it was natural since Dooku cut off his arm years before.

Anakin sees that Obi-Wan is still alive. Palpatine wants him to leave him there, but Anakin carries Obi-Wan over his shoulder while they try to escape the ship.

The ship is being severely damaged and they have to scurry away in an elevator shaft. It is there that Obi-Wan regains consciousness and sees that Anakin succeeded in saving him and the Chancellor. They manage to get to the bridge of the ship and crash land on Coruscant.

The Chancellor returns to the other Senators and honors Anakin for his accomplishments. Obi-Wan urges Anakin to join his time with the Senators. He goes and of course meets Padme. She tells him that she is pregnant. He is excited and wants to tell people about it, but she urges him not to. She wants them to quit their professional lives and retire to Naboo to raise their child. Anakin doesn't give a clear answer on what he intends to do.

Anakin gets to talk with Palpatine some more and Palpatine gets Anakin a position on the Jedi Council. Anakin is delighted at this, since he has been waiting for a promotion for some time. Palpatine and Anakin agree this will give him the rank of Jedi Master.

He meets the Jedi Council and is given a position. He is not granted the rank of Jedi Master, however. Anakin is upset at this fact, but does calm to a point and takes a position.

Anakin is now having nightmares about Padme. He sees that she will die in childbirth. He wrestles with these visions for a little bit before telling Padme. He is now wanting the power to save her (since he doesn't want her to die as his mother did years before).

Obi-Wan talks with Anakin in private about his new position on the Jedi Council. He tells Anakin that the council wants Anakin to report to them on all what Palpatine is doing. This order is given in private so it won't be on the Jedi Council records. Anakin sees this as treason. Obi-wan reminds him that Palpatine has kept his power and is already given too much as it is--he has extended his terms in office, claiming that he is keeping the Senate together during this Clone War.

The war continues and various members of the Jedi Council split up to help in various parts of the war. Yoda travels to Kashyyyk (the Wookiee planet) to help them in their fight against CIS. Obi-Wan is tasked with capturing General Grevious (now the leader of CIS) on Uta Pau. He goes there and kills Grevious. This news will surely bring an end to the Clone War.

Anakin is tasked with informing Palpatine about this news and is to report the Chancellor's reaction to the Jedi Council (namely Mace Windu, who remained on Coruscant). While Anakin does this, he talks with Palpatine for some length. He knows that the Jedi Council wanted Anakin to spy on him for them. He also entices Anakin about the dark side when speaking about someone who could create life and keep someone alive through the force. Anakin is tempted by this, but finds out that Palpatine is indeed the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. Anakin does report this to Mace Windu. Mace then decides to arrest him and takes some Jedi along with him. He tells Anakin to stay in the temple and wait there until Palpatine is captured.

Palpatine uses telepathy to tell Anakin "If they kill me, Padme will die". So Anakin goes to the Chancellor's chambers and finds Mace Windu with his lightsaber drawn on Palpatine. Mace intends to kill Palpatine because he is too dangerous to be kept alive. Palpatine tells Anakin that the Jedi are trying to take over the Senate and convince him that the Jedi are now the enemy. Anakin struggles with what to do, but finally gives in to the Dark Side and cuts off Mace's hand. Palpatine then shoots force lightning through Mace so severely it launches him out of the open window in his chambers. At this moment, Palpatine is scared to appear as he does in the later movies (from the deflected force lightning) and Anakin becomes Darth Vader. He is ordered to kill all the Jedi, as they are now enemies of the Republic.

Anakin goes to the Jedi Temple with Clone Troopers and begin killing the Jedi--all of them including the younglings. Palpatine then informs the Senate that the Jedi have attempted to kill him and now he forms the Galactic Empire. The order of killing the Jedi (Order 66) is given to the troopers and they begin killing the Jedi on the battlefield, by surprise.

It seems that only Yoda and Obi-Wan escape this danger. Senator Bail Organa is horrified by what he sees when the Jedi are killed by the Clone Troopers. He escapes Coruscant and tries to find Yoda. He does and picks up Obi-Wan.

Anakin, after killing many at the temple--returns to Padme's apartment. She is worried about him and is glad he is alive. Anakin then says that they can now run away as they planned to raise their child. First though, he has a job to do. So he leaves.

Yoda and Obi-Wan agree that they must return to the Jedi Temple to see what has happened and warn the others about the ambush. They do so and see that Anakin has indeed turned to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan meets Padme and tells her what Anakin has been doing and that he must confront him. It is then that Obi-Wan realizes that Anakin is the father of Padme's unborn child.

Yoda is to confront Palpatine. He does so, but loses his lightsaber and must retreat. He admits failure and is picked up by Bail Organa.

Padme distraught by what is happening goes to the planet that Anakin said he was going. Before she takes off, Obi-Wan hides on the ship. Consequently, R2-D2 and C-3PO are on board as well.

On this volcanic world, Darth Vader goes to where the leaders of CIS are hiding. Sidious informs them that his new apprentice will "take care of them". Indeed he does. After they are dead, Darth Vader then deactivates the Droid Army of the CIS and considers his task complete. He reports this to Palpatine and then meets Padme.

He tells her that now they can control the galaxy. The war is over and he is now more powerful than ever. He thinks that in time he can kill Palpatine and control the galaxy. Padme is shocked because now she knows that Obi-Wan was right. She says "I don't know you anymore". Just then Anakin sees Obi-Wan get off of her ship. Now he feels jealousy and chokes Padme. She falls to the ground. Now the duel begins between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"You turned her against from me!" Vader says, Obi-Wan returns "You did that yourself!"

They fight for some length of time across lava and Obi-Wan is up on a high shore of rocks and Vader is below on a hovering piece of metal. Obi-Wan admits "It's over, Anakin. Don't try it." Vader returns "You underestimate my power." and jumps up. Obi-Wan cuts off Vader's legs and left arm. He lies on the ground close to the lava and then gets caught on fire with the nearby lava. Obi-Wan cries out "You were the chosen one! You were supposed to bring the end of the Sith. Not become one of them." Obi-Wan leaves him lying there, most certainly to die.

Some time before this, Palpatine sensed his new apprentice was in danger and headed towards him. He found him after Obi-Wan left and had him sent to a medical facility immediately.

Obi-Wan after getting to Padme's ship finds C-3PO and says she is alive, but they must hurry to a medical facility, she is fading.

They go and meet up with Yoda and Bail Organa again and get to a secret medical facility. The medical droids say that she is ready to deliver--twins. But for reasons they cannot explain Padme is dying. Obi-Wan is there with her at childbirth and she names the first child, a boy, Luke and the second, a girl, Leia.

She then says "There is a still good in him. I know there's still--" and dies. The babies are fine. Yoda, Bail, and Obi-Wan decide that the twins must be split up. Bail agrees to take the girl. He says him and his wife always wanted to adopt a daughter. So they do. Obi-Wan says he will take the boy. Yoda says that he should live with his family on Tatooine (as close as he has with his step-uncle and step-aunt: Owen and Beru Lars). Obi-Wan says he will watch over him on the planet from a distance. Yoda then says to Obi-Wan that someone has returned from the dead to communicate with him--Qui-Gon. Yoda says there is a way to commune with him in private through the Force.

Bail gives R2-D2 and C-3PO to Captain Antilles of the ship and tells him to erase 3PO's memory.

In the (now) Imperial Medical Facility, Darth Vader is treated and put in the suit and mask that we all are familiar with. Palpatine is there and Vader asks about Padme. Palpatine tells him that she died when he was choking her. He said it wasn't so because he could still feel that she was alive and lets out with a big: "NOOOOOOOOO!". You see Palpatine smiling while standing behind him.

There is a funeral ceremony on Naboo for Padme Amidala. As her body passes on the casket they show it to look like her unborn child died with her. She is holding the good luck charm that Anakin gave her back in Episode I.

We see Leia on Alderaan with her foster parents and Obi-Wan delivers Luke to Beru Lars at the Lars Homestead on Tatooine.

Episode III didn't leave any loose ends to tie up. It leads right into Episode IV (the first Star Wars movie). Many things happen in III, which automatically makes it better than Episodes I and II. Jar-Jar has only one speaking line "scuze me". That helps dramatically. Still, the love scenes with Padme and Anakin are terrible. Anakin's turn to the dark side is convincing and it helps to see that he still has an inner conflict at the beginning of the movie.

I was expecting more dialogue between Obi-wan and Anakin to see where their differences lie. This would better show the inner conflict in Anakin, and the conflict that develops between Obi-Wan and Anakin. It might have been written, but that would have made the movie 3 hours. It was already 2 hours 13 minutes, so it probably wasn't considered because of movie length.

I seriously think the prequels were done because digital technology was there and George Lucas wanted to try it out with Star Wars. He said telling the back story would be interesting. Certainly this was not enough to fill into three movies. The movies themselves would have been better done with someone helping him write the screenplays and someone else directing. But of course, with the position George is in now, that obviously wouldn't happen. It would be difficult for someone else to step in and direct three blue-screen movies.

I am amazed at the digital effects. But that doesn't make a good movie. You still need interesting characters and a good plot. The Jar-Jar Binks character killed Episode I. The interaction between the characters in the prequels isn't quite there compared to what you get in IV-VI.

He did show us what the Clone War was. Of course nowadays the idea of a clone army isn't as far-fetched as it was in 1977. I would still like to see a real lightsaber and X-Wing before we are raising clone armies.

We got to see a digital Yoda character fight with his lightsaber. That was great and the duel between Yoda and Palpatine was great as well. I wanted to see that since I first saw Episodes V and VI.

The most important problem that the prequels had at the very beginning is the fact that they occur BEFORE the movies that we have already seen. This is why prequels are not done and shouldn't be done again. Think about what you want to tell first, and then go on from there. It hurts the story when you know certain things must happen to lead up to the movies that are coming up later. Like the assassination attempts on Padme didn't have any drama or threat, because she didn't have Luke and Leia yet. That's like watching Terminator 2 and then watching The Terminator. When you watch the first one, you know she is going to live.

George Lucas said he wrote a little back story when he wrote the original script for Star Wars. He did this so Star Wars jumped you in the middle of a story. That is a good idea, but trying to stretch out a back story into three 2 hour movies wasn't such a good idea. In retrospect, Star Wars sequels might have been more interesting (if he got some help in directing and writing). The problem with more sequels could have been the books and how many of those got dashed because of the new movies. Another problem with the post Episode VI timeline is the fact that the Empire has fallen apart. So where does the threat come from? The Rebels are not underdogs anymore.

 

The Star Wars trilogy, as it was known before 1999, is one of the best series of movies ever. (In my own opinion the best movies ever made). The reason why I like them is the story of the beginnings of a farm boy who eventually realizes he is the son of the most powerful person in the galaxy (I consider Vader more powerful since he took the Emperor out of the picture). I grew up on a farm, so I guess that is what made it more relatable for me. The huge spaceships and action going on certainly fascinates me. The first Star Wars movie I saw was The Empire Strikes Back. I was fascinated by the Star Destroyers, especially Darth Vader's huge Star Destroyer.

I saw the original trilogy when I was 8 years old, so that certainly helped me to get fascinated by it.

I received word that LucasFilm Ltd. is going to release the original version of the original trilogy on DVD September 12, 2006. The article. Each movie will be individually released in a two-disc set with the original version and the 2004 version available. This will be released along with Lego Star Wars II - the original trilogy. Finally, all of us Star Wars fans have complained long enough that they will finally do what they should have done eight years ago. Releasing the original version of the original trilogy. These should have been released in 1998 or so, but better late than never.

Now there will be many versions of the original trilogy out there. The original theatrical version will please us old timers who remember the original version in theatres or the slightly altered version on VHS tapes in the 1980s. (I was one of the latter--I'm not THAT old!) hehe.

It makes sense since the old timers are the ones with the money and will demand that they be sold. (By demand I mean we will actually buy them). Now I won't have to convert my VHS tapes to DVD+R. At last-Han Solo will shoot first! I didn't like that change ever since I saw it in 1997 at the Special Edition release of Star Wars.

What's next? I think Star Wars will be one of the first movies to be displayed in 3D. The Star Wars TV show will be in 3D. Maybe the kind of 3D I'm thinking about won't require everybody to wear glasses. Holograms maybe? Or a holodeck version? Who knows. All we can do is wait and see.

More than the movies--the marketing of Star Wars:

Star Wars was the first movie to be mass-marketed with tons and tons of other "stuff" you can buy with the movie's name on it. Not just posters, books and T-shirts, but PEZ dispensers, breakfast cereals, pajamas, blankets, toys, arcade and video games, etc.

First seeing the movies as a kid, I naturally wanted to have about anything with the name "Star Wars" on it. Since there was so much, I picked what I wanted the most and requested those things for my birthday or for a Christmas gift. I wasn't a spoiled kid, so almost everything that was given to me (other than the essentials) was for my birthday or Christmas. These things tended to be the movies on VHS, model kits and video games.

 

Best things about the Star Wars movies:

• Darth Vader
• The soundtracks
• best film: The Empire Strikes Back
• lightsabers
• Star Destroyers

Worst things about the Star Wars movies:

• Jar-Jar Binks
• prequel love scenes
• prequel dialogue (especially Ep I Anakin)
• lack of space battles (especially Ep II)

 

I got onto the Star Wars bandwagon around 1988, so there wasn't much in terms of action figures for sale, but I did get into the video games and plastic model kits. Star Wars for the NES was the first Star Wars game I bought. Not too long afterwards was this game called X-Wing for the PC. I played it at a friend's house when I was in Junior High School. My parents had a computer, but it was kindof old and I knew that I would have to get a computer that could play that game. I did, thanks to some U.S. Savings Bonds my Grandpa gave to each of the grandchildren. I didn't spend all of it on that computer, but it was nice to be able to get a computer of my own when I was 15 years old. Along with the game, I was able to learn about computers and realized that what I want to do for a living is make web pages. I got my Associate's Degree in computer programming. (I'm working on my Bachelor's now).

Perhaps, I liked and identified with Star Wars so much is because it is a modern fairy tale. The concept of good and evil are clearly defined. The heroes conduct themselves in a manner that has moral rules to be followed, and if one disobeys such rules, they will pay consequences. The characters are memorable and the movies' popularity has infused itself into the culture. I am intrigued with the notion of space travel, and it is not a far stretch of my own imagination to believe in a galaxy far, far away--even if it is just on the silver screen.