Star Wars, always my favorite sci-fi movie, debuted the latest film in the now seven film franchise this week: The Force Awakens.  Uncle Tim, Camden, Ben and Emma (aka The 3 Musketeers) and yours truly made the journey on a cold winter night, the day after the official opening on Friday, December 18. 

It was a big deal for a bunch of reasons:

• It featured the original “big three” actors – Harrison Ford (as Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia). and Mark Hamill (in a brief cameo role at the end as Luke Skywalker).
• it was directed by J.J. Abrams (his first Star Wars) who lovingly returned the movie to its  “original three” standard of quality (the second three films were not very good in my and many others’ opinions).  It was like watching the original Star Wars from 1977!
• We went with your Dad aka “Uncle Tim” who was born in 1977 and grew up loving the Star Wars movies.  In the early 1980’s, I  built a six foot x four foot Star Wars set in our basement at 1 Rowland Street in Somersworth, NH that featured a swamp (where Yoda lives), the winter planet “Hoth” (featured in the second movie “the Empire Strikes Back”) and a sand planet (Tatooine where Luke lived as a boy, featured in the first Star Wars).  We’d play for hours with the figurines, battling the Dark Force.
• the movie eventually set all kinds of records including the fastest film to gross $1 billion – 12 days. And the biggest worldwide opening weekend and single weekend gross – $529 million.
• Emma and Ben – you had never seen a Star Wars movie, so this was your first experience.
• Camden (thanks to his Dad) binge-watched all six of them before seeing the Force Awakens.
• whether it was your first Star Wars experience or 20th, it was fun and fantastic.