Happy fortieth birthday, Star Wars!

"Star Wars. Yes it's the Star Wars. Yes it's the Star Wars. Yes it is."

I must own up. Those are the words I hear in my head whenever I hear the Star Wars theme tune, and no one will ever convince me those weren't the words in John Williams' head when he was writing it.

"That's all very well," I hear you say, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

What it has to do with is that, as mentioned previously on this very blog, this week has seen the fortieth anniversary of the release of the film that saved an industry, saved a comic company and launched a religion that you're actually allowed to list on your census form. In light of the historic nature of such a release, and my desperation to keep up my Google ranking, I feel obliged to at least do a post about it.

Now, I have to admit I've never really been a Star Wars fan. I don't mind the original film but I'd never put it anywhere near a list of my favourite films of all time. Granted, most of my favourite films of all time involve people being killed by monsters, so it was always going to struggle to make that list.

But what I do like about it is the way it looks and the way it sounds. The spaceships, the droids, the lightsabres, the Death Star, the storm troopers, the alien worlds, Luke Skywalker's hover car, all look great. And, of course, it has that classic score which manages to lend drama, romance and even a sense of epic grandeur to what is at heart a fairly modest and silly remake of the old Flash Gordon serials.

On the other hand, the story itself, with its fairy tale plot, characters and sensibilities, doesn't do a lot for me, being somewhat basic and juvenile even for a man of my lack of intellectual development.

The Empire Strikes Back is, to me, a better and more developed film, although arguably not as much fun as the original.

Of the first trilogy, I think I prefer The Return of the Jedi, even though there are many who see it as the runt of the litter. Certainly, the reuse of the, "We must destroy a Death Star," motif shows a noticeable lack of imagination and ambition but the film feels livelier than the first one and more fun than the second and wraps the series up perfectly well.

As for the prequels...

Let's be honest, they're dreadful. They're so bad that I didn't manage to get through any of them in one sitting and had to watch them all in instalments, meaning I have very little idea as to what the overall plot of them is, other than that Anakin Skywalker turns evil for some reason that's not clear to me, there's a weird love story going on and various characters that I don't like get killed.

My main perception of the prequels is that they're simply very very long and very very boring, weighed down by politics that don't even make any kind of sense, involving things like a queen fighting to protect the republic she rules. I don't know how a queen can rule a republic but, if you're George Lucas, it is, apparently, very possible. Blind-sided by having to do everything in rooms filled with nothing but green sheets, the actors don't seem to know where they're supposed to be or what the significance of their lines or actions is and therefore basically don't act at all but sleepwalk their way through scenes that are beyond their comprehension.

When it comes to the new films, I've not seen any of the Disney sequels because, although I wish them no ill, I sort of feel like I don't need to. I'm basing this on the assumption that, once unleashed upon free television, they'll be on every bank holiday until the end of eternity, meaning I'll have all the time in the world to find out what they're about.

Of course, my other exposure to the world of Star Wars came from the Marvel UK comic of that name, which launched in early 1978 and which I had every issue of. I must confess the main strip never particularly interested me and I remember little of it other than that it always seemed to be drawn by Carmine Infantino but the comic featured some rather belting back-up strips such as Warlock, Star-Lord and general sci-fi-ness that kept me hooked for week after week.

In 1980, it switched to a monthly schedule and became The Empire Strikes Back.

Even though I read that one too, I have even feebler memories of it than the weekly title and can honestly not even recall what the back-up strips were. This lack of recall seems a strange beast indeed but, as we all know, lack of recall is what this blog does best.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. You may have other thoughts. You may not. You are free to share them or not as you see fit.

In cliché loving fashion, I would finish this post by saying, "May the Force be with you," but I don't even know what that actually entails. Is it possible for the Force to choose not to be with you?

After all, it was with Darth Vader and he was evil. So, it doesn't seem to be that fussy about who it's with. Thus, I'm taking it for granted that it's with you already. Just make sure not to misuse it. Remember, if you do, you could end up yelling, "Nooooooooooooooooo!" and complaining about sand.