Noted in a few places already, but I wanted to offer my $0.02 on Star Wars coming up on it's 30th anniversary/birthday.

30 years?!?  Wow! time has seriously flown for me on this one.  At least most of the time has flown.  Except for the parts where I had to wait for what seemed to be forever before I could get DVDs of the original triology and still couldn't get a *true* copy of the original movie and it's two later sequels (as Lucas only released a crappy transfer of the original, un-retouched/un-molested, un-"improved digitally", original movie rather than a nice widescreen transfer, etc.)

Now I'm stuck waiting a while for a Hi-Def DVD (HD-DVD) or perhaps a Blu-ray disc version in the future (most likely Blu-ray as FOX is one of the major partners and supporters of Sony in the Blu-ray disc technology), but that wasn't the point of this article.

I just find it amazing that a movie that touched so many lives through that original film, and it's sequels and eventual prequels, is that old.  30 years?  It seems more like yesterday in many ways.

I remember talking my parents (along with my brothers helping to do the talking) into taking the family to go see Star Wars while we were on the yearly family vacation visiting friends of the family in Western Maryland.  Star Wars was showing at the theatres at the local mall there, and we had seen the sign advertising the various movies showing at the mini-plex and on the title alone the boys in the family had decided what movie we really wanted to see at the time.  We had no idea what it was really about, but that title sounded so cool.  And when we approached the theatre box office and saw the poster, ooooooh, that poster, with the light saber held high above head, the Vader mask in the background, the cute princess standing to the side.  We ate that up.

Once we were seated and were watching the movie, munching on popcorn and movie theatre candy we were in a trance.  We were carried back to that Galaxy long, long ago and far, far away and it was just soooooo cool.

30 years?!  It can't be that long ago.  But then again... fire up the original movie, even with the enhanced digital effects, and some parts of it and the effects are sooooo aged to leave you wondering what was so cool about that movie.

Well, let me tell you a little secret -- it wasn't so much the effects as it was the *story*.  Good vs. Evil, Us vs. Them.  Rebels vs. the evil empire.  That was what made it so cool and so good.

If only most movie studios hadn't forgotten that it is the quality of the story that's important, perhaps there'd be a few more classics coming of age now rather than a pile of dreck that most of us don't recall and never cared about.