A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I saw the original Star Wars film when it first came out. At least I saw it when it first came out at our local cinema. It came out originally in the US in May 1977 but didn’t make it to the glittering heights of the West End of London until the end of that year. By the time the film had worked its way around the country to us it was nearly May 1978 and my father offered to take us to see it for my elder brother’s birthday treat. This in itself took two efforts as he initially booked the tickets for a suspiciously quiet Wednesday. It turned out that this was the day of the European Cup final which was being held in Wembley that year and created something of a double booking dilemma. I think we actually saw it the day after but I wouldn’t swear by it. Regardless, I saw the original Star Wars film when it came out (sort of).

In fact, aside from being a cinematic event of the highest order it was also the sort of film that was right down my dad’s street. He was very much a fan of the action-adventure genre and would have spent a childhood watching a mixture of westerns and Saturday morning serials like Flash Gordon. Unfortunately, his big sister held the purse strings on the matinee entertainment budget so it was Busby Berkley musicals all the way. I’d like to imagine that the surroundings of the picture house had improved by 1978 although in truth it was probably little changed: the film still had an intermission half way through, tubs of Walls’ ice-cream were the order of the day (I seem to recall a Cornetto was still more than the ticket at this time) and the film was watched through a veil of cigarette smoke with a mono soundtrack crackling away in what used to be the organ pit. I loved it every second of it.

I have actually seen all the Star Wars films to date at the cinema. If I’m being honest this has been a case of diminishing returns. The Empire Strikes Back seemed a bit of an anti-climax at the time although once its place in the original trilogy became apparent it is arguable the most dramatically satisfying. The Return of the Jedi was a reasonable conclusion but the plot was essentially the same as the original except they ended up on the planet of the teddy bears. Aside from some needless reworking of the original trilogy with some dreadfully ill-conceived CGI fiddling the next films were “the prequels”. Given the hype, The Phantom Menace was destined to be underwhelming and it did succeed on that dubious point: even setting aside the excruciating Jar-Jar Binks the plot was dull and the action sequences looked as if they had been designed purely with a video game in mind. Attack of the Clones was better but it was apparent that these were films that could only really appeal to fans of the original trilogy and it is noticeable that The Revenge Of The Sith tied up the series mythos with little regard to the casual viewer and was probably a better film for it.

I hadn’t intended to see new film, The Force Awakens, on its opening weekend but this changed last week when the opportunity of a spare ticket came up. It’s actually quite fortuitous as I had been intent on avoiding any spoilers until I saw it. This is actually very hard these days with a buzzing internet of fevered fandom enthusing for the new chapter but even in 1978 I practically knew the original film by heart before seeing it as I had been collecting a set of bubble-gum cards with a scene by scene resume of the plot (I hated the bubble-gum, by the way, but it seemed a small price to pay to collect the cards). So on Sunday evening, I went into the cinema with pretty much no idea of what to expect: well, I was expecting light sabres, space battles, weird aliens and an assortment of droids, but in terms of the plot I knew practically nothing.

So without actually giving the plot away, what did I think? Well first of all, I have to say I loved it and in a similar way to JJ Abrams reboot of the Star Trek film. It assumed that everyone knew what to expect and proceeded to offer exactly that. He seems to have ignored the prequels as a misstep and what he has offered is actually very close to the original film in both content and style: a simple story of good vs evil set in the stars, with David Lean style desserts and Akira Kurosawa style wipes. It’s worth remembering that whilst the original Star Wars felt fresh and new, it wore its influences on its sleeve and The Force Awakens does the same, except it is very much a homage to George Lucas’s original film but without being the cinematic game changer that Star Wars was in 1977. What it doesn't offer is any unexpected twists and turns aside from one very big name actor that has a surprisingly small part at the beginning. But what it may lack in originality it more than makes up for in cinematic flair: many Star Wars fans will probably hate me for  saying this but I think Abrams is a far more accomplished director than Lucas ever was.

I suppose the critical thing is whether I would like to see the film again. As it is my son’s birthday next week I will get the chance to see it again very soon and I’m actually looking forward to that as it will give me a chance to appreciate many of the subtleties of the direction. I suppose that is as good a recommendation as any.