10/10 for the Original Unaltered Version, 1/10 for the Ruined Version

Rating: 10/10 (29 February 2012)

It's hard to rate this, cos I was in the theatre, on the first DAY that star wars was shown in San Diego. It had already gotten a kind of limited run, so there was a slight buzz about the film (And I mean Film, not Digital Medium).
But still nobody in the SOLD OUT Theatre knew what was going to happen next. We see this little Space Ship flying by, Oh, look at that, it's being chased. Then we see what it is being chased BY, the Star Destroyer FILLED the screen.
From that moment on, we are all in a kind of Fugue. We were caught up in the story being told, the characters interested us, even that original Bar scene that Lucas said he hated, it was fantastic, it was like nothing else ever imagined on screen. And finally, these Rebels, we don't understand what they are rebelling against, except that it is "The Empire" and that it's BAD - And NOT Explained-These Rebels are being attacked by a huge World-Sized Space Station. It was something nobody had seen before, the dimensions were incalculable.
And Oh yah - There was this thing that gave our hero, Luke Skywalker, a kind of Edge - The Force. We didn't know what it was, and it was not explained by the "Old Man" of the movie Sir Alec Guinness: It was a MYSTERY.
And so it all led up to "The Trench Battle" - WHich was visually and creatively the most intense thing anyone could experience. By sitting in that Theatre, we all were WITH Luke in his X-Wing and what he saw, We saw.
It was an incredible experience for me, one that impacted me. So, I had to see it again... And Again and Again and Again. Five Times I saw it, and my friends who I had gone with also came back, and brought new friends. If the IMDb Demographic had been done in 1977, it would have been, 90% to 95% 10/10.
People forget this, and younger people, they just never knew it. This Movie affected the WORLD.
And Star Wars, as it was called back then, stayed in the theatres to SOLD OUT SHOWS - Every show! For almost a YEAR.
Trying to explain this to people who politely "like" Episodes I through III - Well it is impossible, because they were never there. Had they BEEN there, they'd have to agree with me, because it is not me, it is History. Perhaps, there is some Data Bank in Hollywood that shows how LONG Star Wars ran and how many people went to see it during that time. I challenge any person who insists that Episodes I through III are "good."
Because, we're not talking about something that was JUST "good" - People did not discard their Tight Budgets of 1977 just to go see a Movie up to 60 times. I knew one person who saw it 100 times.
And because it was expected to be a FLOP - There were no TOYS made in time for the showing of the movie. So, Kenner gave people "vouchers" - Which they could redeem when they finally caught up with Production Demands of Hans Solo action figures. I have, a Luke Skywalker Action Figure of that time. It is not special, except that it is rare.
George Lucas went with "No Name" actors for the characters he had created. Except for one guy: Sir Alec Guiness. All of the acting was good, because the story was good. It was more the Gestalt of the whole-The young actors, the incredible visual effects which were used to propel the STORY forward — the satisfying resolution... Oh the Explosion of the Death Star was satisfying in So many ways, and the "Special Edition" ruins even that by adding the "Praxis" explosion from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.
The release of Star Wars even affected the look of Star Trek, when a Motion Picture related to THAT show was released in 1979... Gone were the streamlined look of all the ships from the TV Show, the Klingon Ships had visible windows, tanks, portholes, hatches... All due to the look of spaceships in Star Wars.
You cannot compare episodes I-III to this, even if I am wrong and they are "good" movies - Because Star Wars the Original was not just a "good" movie, it was world class. It made statements for Conservatives, it made statements for Liberals. It made statements for Religious People, it made statements for Atheists. It made statements for people who read Science Fiction, and it made statements for people who read The Bible.
So, I cannot accept that Episodes I through III are in any class related to this, the original and unbeatable story of Luke, Leia, Han and Obi-Wan.
The Original Trilogy was American Mythos Created and Personified, the Second Trilogy was UnMitigated Garbage and Filth- And more importantly, an EXPLOITATION of the first trilogy - An exploitation designed for one purpose: To Generate MONEY. And that it did, much to my dismay. Because if you spend enough money, you can get people to believe ANYTHING. Just look at what happened in 2010 with the Mid Term Elections, all bought and paid for by Corporations. Which is exactly what happened to the Star Wars Franchise.