A Star Wars Virgin Review: Episode 1

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am a Star Wars virgin. Yes. It’s true. Believe it. If there were a Star Wars ‘AA’ group, I would be there every second Tuesday. This is because I have never seen a Star Wars movie in my life and until most recently, would have rather poked my eyes out than spend 3 hours watching a space soap opera, especially a 70’s space soap opera.

However, this is year 2005 and my boyfriend, Chad, and I thought we should relinquish to the phenomenon known as Star Wars. We would embark our journey down the path of Jedi, Siths, Hutts, other strange alien beings and weird-haired women by watching Episode 1 through 6. Indeed, in that very order.

This journey from Episode 1 through 6 by a Star Wars Virgin(s) intrigued Paul, as many of the simple things in life do. Paul commented “methinks this has never been done before. You must write a blog!”

Alas, here I am… in Bear City… no, I mean blogging away on my Episode 1 experience.

I had no idea what to expect. I heard it was the worst, I heard it was dreadfully dull, I heard it was the best. What to believe from all these opinionated geeks? Well, after watching... it turned out to be not horrible. Yes, not horrible…that works. Maybe even “better than I expected”, which is a huge compliment coming from this anti-sci-fi, Alien/Predator/Alien vs. Predator movie hater and too-young-to-appreciate-Mark-Hamill girl. I actually stayed up until 1am on a work night! Chad would like to comment but he fell asleep half way through.

In fact, some of my favorite characters were in Episode 1 including Liam Neeson (who I must add, grew up in the same Northern Ireland town as my godmother’s husband…talk about 6 degrees of Liam Neeson) and that other guy that I like, you know the one…no, not Yoda, he isn’t real. And, contrary to popular belief, Jar Jar Binks was NOT annoying. In fact he was cute in an annoying clumsy lovable alien way.

And… I now truly understand what the force is. After all these years of pretending and laughing along at the “force be with you” jokes without having any inkling of what they meant, I can laugh along with confidence. I may even tell a joke of my own someday. Okay, maybe after Episode 2.

To sum it up: Episode 1 was worth the $0.99 I paid at 49 Cent Video *support your locally owned video store* I have witnessed the foundations of a good plot forming, fell in love with some lovable characters and I can’t wait until Episode 2 (which means I have to finish this blog before Paul will lend it to me). I also can’t wait to see the totally cute and grown-up Hayden Christensen. Episode 2, come on down!