STAR WARS: It's become more than just a movie, it's now an experience.

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2008)

My Take: Need i say more? It's STAR WARS!
I have never seen STAR WARS in theaters, so you may not here anything in this review about those days were people flocked to theaters like an angry mob just to get a seat in nearly-full rows. Neither will you here about the lines that flocked back when series creator/director George Lucas brought back STAR WARS for a second round (now featuring never-before-seen footage, mostly with new special effects). My experiences with STAR WARS usually was on home video, and now the all new DVD's, where Lucas evidently has fallen in love with his work a bit too much. But even if he did a few revamps and revisits, STAR WARS is the kind of film that actually holds up for quite a time.
Mostly memorable are, of course, the special effects, were it's meaning might have probably been changed by the release of this film. While special effects have been used already before STAR WARS was released, the film still showed it's audiences something anyone has never seen before, or not in the way it was featured in STAR WARS. With STAR WARS, Mr. Lucas has enabled to share his childlike visions and imaginations, which then gave way to other directors, lining up in Lucas powerhouse ILM effects studios with their bag of ideas. The incredible sights in STAR WARS aren't just the best thing from those faithful days in 1977, it has now become a history of the word special effects, or perhaps of its new meaning in movies.
But STAR WARS isn't just memorable for the majesty of their mind-defying special effects, STAR WARS also works because of its inspiration on characters and storyline. The characters, starting from young farm boy-turned hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), stubborn but cocky gangster Han Solo (Harrison Ford), spontaneous Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), wise master warrior Ben Kenobi (Alec Guiness), merciless evil villain Darth Vader (Dave Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) as well as the lovable droid duo C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and many others are either caricatures of our dreams characters as a kid or inspired from famous characters in other adventure films, mostly Akira Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS and SEVEN SAMURAI. But Lucas makes these inspired characters with originality, and most importantly, likability. These are a bunch of characters that aren't too deep, but are beloved and charming, we don't need to know more about them than the fact that they are the most reliable characters in a classic sci-fi epic.
Throw in the creativity punched into the special-effects, starting from the gangster-era inspired wastelands of the planet Tatooine, punctuated with a samurai-inspired lightsaber duel and ending with the exciting WWII-inspired space dogfight, STAR WARS is a feast for the imagination that hasn't just become the ultimate screen comic book adventure, it's an experience that didn't just change the meaning of the word "special effects", but also the word "blockbuster".
Rating: ***** out of 5.