There was much hoopla leading up to the release of episode 7 of the Star Wars series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Though a fan of the series, I wasn’t one of the ones waiting with bated breath. I certainly did love the first three moves, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But those were followed by a prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Confusing things, they numbered these episodes I – II – III, making the first three episodes IV -V -VI. Ironically, I only saw episode I of the prequel trilogy and never got around to seeing the other two. Still, though not as excited as others, I looked forward to seeing the newest episode and, as a family, we finally made it to the theater a few days ago to see it.

I’ll have to admit, when I saw the very first movie, Star Wars, back in 1977, I rediscovered the joy of being a kid again, even though I was in my early 20’s. I actually went back and saw the movie probably a dozen times. And a friend of mine who worked at the theater got me a movie poster which hung on my bedroom wall for several years. What really fired me up about this movie was the fact that true science fiction/fantasy had finally made it to the big screen. Over the years, I’d seen many such films, many considered classics, but still, they’d not to me reached the mystical level to light a fire in one’s imagination.

My love of science fiction began when I was a kid and my Mom got me a library card at the age of six. But it wasn’t until the age of nine, with the help of a special librarian, that the love began in earnest when I read my first Ray Bradbury book. And he truly was an inspiration to me when I read his visionary tales. It was only later on that I learned that he began his writing career at the age of 11, writing his first stories.

But the movies I saw as a kid also fostered my love of the genre. Being a kid, I of course didn’t identify the camp, or cheesy, aspects of these early attempts at displaying science fiction on the silver screen. To me, they were just fun and exciting. One of the first ones I remember seeing was 1951’s The Thing From Another World, loosely based on the novella Who Goes There, by John W. Campbell, one of the leaders of what is known as The Golden Age of Science Fiction. Though you’d never know it by looking at the “Thing,” the actor who portrayed it was James Arness, who later went on to portray Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke. The movie was remade in 1982 as simply The Thing, starring Kurt Russell, and it stuck to the original plot. Nothing cheesy about this one; it was an electrifying film!

And who could ever forget Godzilla, a precursor to the Jurassic Park type of film? In this one, the star was Raymond Burr who later came to fame in the series Perry Mason. Then there was The Blob with a young Steve McQueen making his film debut. An interesting side note is that the girl who portrayed McQueen’s girlfriend, Aneta Corsaut, also made her debut in this film and later went on to portray Helen Crump, Sheriff Andy Taylor’s girlfriend in The Andy Griffith Show. It truly is interesting to see how so many later stars got their beginnings in not-so banner movies.

Another movie I’ve never forgotten is X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, a totally weird and freaky film with Ray Milland. Then there’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, based on the classic novel by Jack Finney, an author who wrote many sci-fi themed short stories and novels, who is especially know for his time travel book Time and Again and the sequel From Time to Time. One thing I later learned about Invasion of the Body Snatchers, made in the beginning years of the Cold War, is that some thought rather than being about pods from outer space that came to Earth to occupy human bodies, it was a metaphor on the tyranny of the McCarthy era, or on the other hand, a metaphor of the danger of Communist infiltration of America. You could argue either one based on what the lead actor Kevin McCarthy screamed out at the end of the movie: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next!”

But the coming of Star Wars truly did reawaken that kid in me at another level because it did go beyond the pale of all that had come before. What was so great about Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that as well as the new characters, carrying on the legacy of “The Force,” the majority of the original characters appear: Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker. And, of course, what Star Wars movie would be complete without Chewbacca. Then there’s the droids, the humanoid C-3PO and the astromech droid R2-D2 reprising their roles along with the newest addition, BB-8, another astromech droid.

I’ll certainly not be a spoiler because there are many surprising scenes that await the viewer in this instant classic, especially the final concluding minutes. But once again, the years vanished and I felt like a kid again after seeing this one, a great feeling seeing that I’m now a retired “golden oldie”. So may that “Force” be with us all, always, be it in this place, in the here and now, or in a galaxy, far, far away.