I've experienced a renewed love of Star Wars, and it came via an unexpected path. In my teens, I was a Star Wars fanatic; I read the books, owned the trading cards, and had little models of ships and people. Okay, fair admission: I still own the books, and the trading cards and models are in a box at my parents' house. It's the one thing I collected as a teen that I still hold on to other than all the photos I took.
In my later teen years and during college, I somehow lost touch with the Star Wars universe. The first episode (not to be confused with the first movie, which is actually the fourth episode) came out, and I fell asleep while watching it in the theater. I never bothered to see the other two movies, as internet and newspaper reviews told me not to bother.
In the last few months, I've had a personal resurgence of interest. I am pretty sure it's due to all the changes in my life; with everything so tumultuous, it is nice to return to some of the familiar comforts of youth. I also decided to finally watch the first three movies for the sake of completeness.
Surprisingly, the first three movies were not all that bad. I really enjoyed learning the backstory of Darth Vader and watching all the pieces fall into place. For me, I don't mind knowing the ending to a story. I still like to know how the story got there. Therefore, I weathered through the somewhat sub-par acting (which, in my opinion, was not really that bad) and came to enjoy the first three films.
Now, I am sitting down watching A New Hope (episode four, and the original Star Wars movie), and it is such a breath of fresh air. Somehow, I had forgotten a lot of little details, and it's fun to both know the backstory and watch how more little pieces are coming together. I am finding solace in this tale of rebellion and freedom from an oppressive regime (maybe related to my recent throwing off of the shackles of graduate school?). Despite challenges and setbacks (for them, they need to be patient en route to destroying the death star. Need I mention the garbage chute? For me, I need to finish this one last term of teaching), our heroes pull together and come out stronger on the other side. I still don't understand why storm troopers have horrible aim or how Leia (or Padme) manages to be proficient at diplomacy and the art of war, but I'm willing to suspend a little disbelief. Above all, it is good to know that Chewie, Luke, Leia, and Han will always be there for me.