Originally Posted by
marodi
I've been reading this thread since the movie came out. I've seen the movie. I have my opinion about the movie and I don't believe my opinion matters more -or less- than any of yours. So here it is.
It's a good movie; it' enjoyable, it's funny and sad. It's well made but it's not perfect. As movie goes: it's worth its ticket price. But to me, it's not Star Wars.
I've thought a good deal about this in the last few days. As I've said often, I'm one of those who saw what you all call A New Hope when it came out in 1977. The only privilege I believe it gives me is the lifelong right of calling it "Star Wars" since that was its title when I saw it.
Star Wars, to me, is a fairy tale with a modern twist. It's set in space but it still happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It the story of an ordinary kid who wants to become a mighty knight. In his quest, he meets new friends, old and wise mentors, a dashing "bad" guy with a heart of gold, an unconventional princess-in-distress who can take care of herself with a tiny bit of help thank-you-very-much and above all, he crosses the path of the greatest villain of all time. He gets a powerful sword and trains as a knight. He gets injured, physically and mentally. He learns devastating secrets. But at the end of the story, in Return of the Jedi, he is finally the knight he sought to become and he and his friends have save the day. And like in all good fairy tales, after that, they all live happily ever after.
So for now on Star Wars, at its core, will be episodes IV-V-VI. I'll look at everything else as glorified fanfiction: sometimes great to watch, sometimes painful (someone please erase Jar Jar from history) but I will see it as having no impact whatsoever on the core trilogy. I choose to ignore why Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and what became of Luke, Leia and Han after RotJ.
But that's just me.