STAR WARS: A Retrospective

There is no greater an influence on my imagination than the Star Wars saga. Throughout jr. high, high school, and college I always looked to the stories for a place of inspiration. Watching the making-of documentaries of the original trilogy and the individual ones we were given on the prequel DVD's over and over led to nothing short of a yearning to create my own universe. Needless to say, the Star Wars saga means a lot to me and in light of Episode VII - The Force Awakens opening tonight I've been re-visiting both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy to get a sense of the universe I would be returning to once again. I was twelve years-old when I was introduced to the world of Jedi's, droids, and Darth Vader and now that J.J. Abrams is bringing most of them back to the big screen I thought a retrospective might be in order as I haven't talked as much about my love for the series on this site as I probably should have. Going into the The Phantom Menace in the summer of 1999 (yes, I watched the prequels first) I didn't know what I was in for and was transported to a world that very much spoke to everything I assumed the movies were supposed to be (yes, I enjoyed The Phantom Menace-don't act like you didn't). At that point in my development though, The Phantom Menace was mind blowing. I immediately went home and begged my parents to buy me the original trilogy. I officially became a Star Wars nerd at that point, but I didn't really care-it was beginning to become the cool thing anyway. I remained fascinated by the universe as I made my way through the original trilogy and though, by the time I was eighteen and able to finally see what Revenge of the Sith had to offer, I'd become slightly disappointed in where things had gone Sith was a good enough payoff to let things rest in peace. As that peace will now be disturbed though, I decided to take a look back at each of the six films that formed that galaxy far, far away.