books could be , and indeed have been written about the star wars trilogy , and rightfully so . 
this is a set of movies that shattered all expectations of what science fiction could be in the late 70s/early 80s , inspiring literally dozens of clones , from battlestar galactica all the way up to stargate and independance day , and one could argue revitalizing the whole science fiction genre . 
the special effects were groundbreaking , revolutionary for their day and still eminently watchable well into twenty years later . 
literally millions of people have seen the star wars trilogy and been touched by it . 
and now , george lucas brings it back for a new audience to enjoy . 
much has been and is still being made of the fact that mr . lucas has gone back and revised his trilogy for rerelease now . 
some fans are angry that he has dared to meddle with what they consider perfection , while others are thrilled by the idea of seeing yesterday's star wars updated with today's special effects wizardry . 
either way , the special edition release means that star wars is back on the big screen , where it rightfully deserves to be seen . 
can there be anyone in the world who doesn't know what star wars is about ? 
in a way , star wars is so much a part of our cultural heritage that it feels silly and almost artificial to try to summarize it . 
it's a story about a young man's coming of age , a fight for freedom against an oppressive empire , a tale of swashbuckling and derring-do the likes of which haven't been seen on the silver screen in decades , strange new worlds with strange alien creatures and weird surprises around every turn , and the yearning within each of us to realize our dreams and make a difference in the world . 
it's high adventure , incredible special effects , and . . . well , it's just an _experience_ . 
something about this movie sparked the imagination of a generation . . . and 
it's about to do so again . 
this new release of star wars comes as no surprise to many of the film's devoted fans , who have been trading rumors and bits of information about it for quite some time now . 
interviews , trailers , leaks from within lucasfilm . . . all of these have been collected , collated , and placed on webpages for people to see ( pages such as http : //www . islandnet . com/~corona/films/details/sw4 . html 
or , my personal favorite , http : //leopard . cs . latrobe . edu . au/~koukoula/ 
 ) . 
pictures of before and after have been placed side by side . . . even 
months before the movies were released , fans were making comparisons . 
in some cases , the changes were nothing less than phenomenal , and this can be seen from the comparison shots even before you go into the movie theater . 
the digital matte effects that were little more than a toy in forrest gump are put to excellent use here , unnoticeably sprucing up scenes that that george lucas was unsatisfied with in the original . 
for instance , in my personal favorite example , the ancient temple on yavin that was formerly a flat stone edifice now has deep , moss-covered carvings and etchings . 
and mos eisley spaceport is now a bustling , booming city , with more surprises and things going on in the background than you can notice on the first viewing . 
all the starships and fighters are now computer-animated , getting rid of glitches and artifacts of the special effects processes used when the film was originally made--and they look _fantastic_ . 
four and a half minutes of new or missing footage have been added , including a scene with jabba the hutt that had originally been shelved because the state of special effects in 1977 simply couldn't do it justice . 
however , much of the ten million dollars that was spent on the star wars special edition restoration went into restoring the quality of the film itself . 
the negatives , badly damaged by the ravages of time , were brightened and returned to their original splendor . 
the audio tracks were remixed and reprocessed , with reworked sound effects by effects maven ben burtt , into glorious , booming , theater-shaking full-thx dolby digital stereo . 
and _that_ , more than the added scenes or new special effects , is where the real value of this new version lies . 
it's really true what they say in the commercials : star wars loses _so much_ on the small screen . 
even letterboxing doesn't make up for the decrease in size and definition . 
in regard to the star wars special edition , and to the other two films of the trilogy which have yet to be released , i'll make this final recommendation : go and see it . 
go and see it more than once . . . it 
may be another twenty years before it comes back to the big screen after it's gone this time . 
take along the youngsters who've never had the big-screen star wars experience--you'll enjoy seeing it through their eyes as much as they will enjoy it for the first time . 
there's magic in this movie--special edition or no , there can be no denying that it's still star wars , and still has the power to thrill and enthrall children of all ages , from four to four hundred . 
let's all return to that time long ago , and that galaxy far , far away . . .