Krokodil and Captain Amazing, thanks for the explanations.
- ::cough::geekalertcough* :::
Just kidding… 
I’m as geek as geek can be and somehow, I’ve never seen a single star wars or star trek movie. Until about 3 years ago, I hadn’t seen any Monty Python either.
I don’t have any particular aversion to them, it’s just that it never came up when I could be bothered watching.
Nah…the movies really are not all that good. Poor writing, shallow, bad acting (mostly), silly plot elements…etc. Frankly, they suck.
Mind you, that is coming from a long time fan. A fan who still watches them on occasion. The problem is the “WOW” factor is long gone for them.
I was 11 when the first movie came out and the effect on me in the theater has stayed with me ever since. I was absolutely floored. The opening scene where the camera pans down and you see a planet spread out beneath you and a moon at it side…wow!
Then a ship comes flying in right over your head. Not a ship on wires wobbling about with smoking rising from its sprakler powered engines as I was used to but something that looked like a ship. Double wow!!
Whoa…ship is shooting at someone…too cool! This is GREAT!
Then, having already been impressed by the first ship a Star Destroyer rumbles over my head. It is massive! It is shooting at the little ship! Laser balsts all over, deep rumble of powerful engines. I mean WOW! Just fuckin jaw dropping WOW over and over again. After that the acting and story barely mattered…especially to an 11 year-old. I was throroughly hooked.
These days the special effects are par for the course and nothing special. The last movie that really even started approaching a “Wow! Look at that!” effect was the first Matrix movie. To today’s kids watching the movie is probably akin to me watching The Lone Ranger and wondering what all the fuss was about.
Lucas really should have given up the writing to someone else. He is a master of special effects and has done wonders for the film industry in that respect…but he is a lousy judge of acting talent and a lousy writer. More’s the pity…
And so the great philosophical debate emerges–which is worse, a Geek or a GeekPoser? 
Oh, there’s no doubt about Leia’s intentions. I still think that Luke enjoyed it, though.
I’ve only recently really watched all the Star Wars films, and I loved them. I wouldn’t say the appeal ends with special effects, or was unique only to a certain time period. I recommend watching it, just don’t expect it to be life-changing. It may not be your thing, but it certainly was mine.
I have to second what Nordic said. I’ll quote, cause I can’t say it any better:
"Don’t worry, Colophon, you haven’t missed much.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re mildly entertaining films – I just can’t see making a religion out of them as so many people have.
I assure you, you can live just as long and die just as happy without having seen them."
Now the “Lord of the Rings” films, on the other hand, you should really see!
(Just kidding. To each their own obsession. LOTR, books & movies, is mine. And I have a friend whose obsession is Jane Austen novels. Just no accounting for taste.)
Are you trying to impugn my geekhood little man? :dubious:
I grew up with Star Wars. I even got the gift certificate that first Christmas for the action figures (I still have them).
When they re-released the original series, much to my surprise, I found myself next to a 40-something man in line when EP V came out in the theaters again. He had never seen the originals, but decided to this time around. He had just seen EP IV a month before. We ended up sitting next to each other for the movie. I will never forget the expression he uttered when Vader said “Luke, I am your father.”
“You have got to be shitting me.”
I laughed so hard that I think I peed a little.
I’m glad you took the trouble to describe your reactions, Whack, because Lucas has said in interviews that the opening scene was the most important one in the movie. If he could get you to believe in that shot, the rest would be easy.
And he was right. I remember vividly my jaw stretching to the floor as the Imperial Destroyer grew and grew and grew, it’s engines rumbling and the lasers blasting. Quite a rush, and one that I guess “Matrix” viewers got the first time they got a glimpse into that world, and LOTR fans got seeing Hobbits walking alongside men.
I understand movie goers back in 1933, watching that big monkey walking around the jungle, or when the tornado lifted the farmhouse and dropped it into technicolor.
I’ve never seen it either. Not into SciFi/special effects movies. By osmosis I’ve picked up things and now who C3PO and R2D2 and Chewbaca etc are. I have no interest in seeing it either. Just think of all the time I’ve saved not standing in line for the 9 movies.
Similarly have only seen about 20 minutes of Raiders/Lost Ark & Jurassic Park on tv. THey have no appeal to me, and I love movies.