In a galaxy far, far away, a memory was awakened. I was back in high school, and we were walking out of the Village 6 Cinema in Missoula. We had just watched a new, relatively unheard of, movie called “Star Wars.” Our pre-pubescent minds had been blown away by the special effects, the dreamy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and rough-and-tumble Han Solo (Harrison Ford). The boys oogle-eyed over Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in her slave costume when captured by Jabba the Hutt.

We had just witnessed the birth of an empire, and not just the Galactic kind,  but a multi-billion dollar empire that has endured over 38 years. The kind that has produced seven movies, with two more slated to be made over the next couple of years. An empire with a franchise worth over $30 billion, thanks to its creator, George Lucas.

On Friday, the warmth in the Missoula theatre was almost palatable. As fans waited in anticipation for the new “awakening,” a room full of strangers were drawn together over a common thread — their love of “Star Wars.”

The widely anticipated movie promised to be reminiscent of the original movie released in 1977 rather than the prequels “The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Attack of the Clones” (2002), and “Revenge of the Sith” (2005), which seemed to have fallen victim to the franchise itself. They had created cartoonish characters, such as Jarjar Binks —characters that seemed to be developed more for their merchandising value, than as value to a good story line. 

These prequels also came up with less compelling plots that focused more on politics than swashbuckling fights. They also used digitized, rather than traditional mechanical special effects.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” written by J.J. Abrams, steps away from the silly characters, politics, and digitized world. It gets back to mechanical effects, straight-forward characters, and the traditional theme of good versus evil — duplicating the raw, fast-paced, excitement of the original film. 

The audience cheered and clapped as their old friends Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2, came back to thrill and entertain us. This movie elicits feeling of awe, elation, wonderment, titillation, and an overriding “wow” factor, much like the original. Is it worth the hype? In a word, yes. 

This was “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” opening weekend and it has raked in $250 million to date. Not bad compared to the original movie, now called “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” which premiered in 1977 with a box office of $1,554,475 on its opening weekend!