more than effects

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 1999)

Any Star Wars episode is a movie of multiple layers, with things built in to please almost anyone; there are stories developing on all levels at the same time, and no matter what you came to expect from the movie, you will probably get your part. Breathtaking chases and high speed rides on powerful pod racers; the magnificent views and buildings in the galactic cities; the innocent and majestic queen, cowardly opponents, scheming politicians; the military might, innumerable troops and spacecraft, and great daring which wins an unexpected victory for the few against many. There is friendship and love, resolution and hesitation, hope and despair - a set of emotions to suit almost anyone willing to look beyond the surface. But that is only the beginning of the true movie.
It is really simple - the way it happens. First time, you go and see the characters; since you are not familiar with the plot you listen to the things they say; you watch the things they do. You watch the background carefully and duly notice all faults which make themselves obvious. In the end, as the main ideas of the movie become known, you are still weighed down by the burden of the characters and the things they said; the situation is an exact equivalent for 'not seeing the forest for the trees'.
Personally, I do not like a lot of things about Star Wars. The characters - or rather the concepts of characters - are extremely unreal, made up only of black or white, with only good qualities or the bad ones; there are no gray areas allowed, as if the doubt and hesitation belong nowhere, on some wayward world far from the real center of things. The lines they say are really funny and childish; the way things happen - that's another story all together, not even mentioning the possibility of such an amount of bad luck or fortune to all fall on one pair of shoulders in a given moment.
But once you saw and noted all those innumerable faults, you need to come back again to see the true meaning of things. For the meaning lies beyond all the appearances, beyond the grace or lack of it in the things that you see. For Star Wars is one of the rare breed of movies where the story is so much bigger than any character involved. No actors however good they are can really add to it; in a way, they just provide the background on which the fundamental ideas and challenges appear before us. And that is why, whenever you come back to the movie, you are not seeing the bizarre creatures, or annoying puppets, or childish lines and concepts on screen; what you are seeing is the reflection of that battle of good and evil as it takes place in your own imagination, in all its glory and magnificent detail.
You see things the way they should be if it was your world to rule; you see things as they are now and imagine how things would change. You imagine this character do this, and that character to do that; and there is always room for more, as the concepts become multidimensional and characters come to life - the way you imagine them.
The movie earns its biggest praise for supporting this state of mind; it always provides a drawing board, where the characters are never fully complete; there always remains an area of doubt or mystery, never to be shown, always imagined and so endearing. A good movie deserves to be watched twice. Probably this is all one needs to say to the people who express extreme likes or dislikes for anything. Give yourselves some time, and allow another attempt to see things in a different perspective.