Do I really like Star Wars?

This isn't a Star Wars vs. whatever rant, as a kid I loved Star Wars but this is a true hard look at the trilogy as an adult. When I was a kid I thought that these movies were the coolest things I'd ever see in my life. No doubt the light sabers were one of the best things about the movie, not to mention the gigantic space battles. As I watch them now the sophistication I've gotten as I watched more and more CGI intense movies has worn down the luster of the original Star Wars. The question popped into my mind as I saw a posting on Facebook that quoted "Clerks 2" ...there is only one Return and it's of the Jedi.

"Which one came first?" Thought popped into my head. Well Jedi did... in theaters. The book predates the movie by about thirty years so... there's that. Return of the King came out in 1955 and looking at Lucas in the 80's? Come on, you know that guy read LotR. The LotR movies came out later, so the CGI and practical effects are much better. Does that make LotR better? No way. I love the way Star Wars looks. Practical sets and extras, use of miniatures, sound everything is great in the original print. The added CGI in Star Wars is rough. As time goes on our eyes only get better at detecting CGI imperfections and pull us out of suspended disbelief and that, more than anything, disappoints me as a fan. Let's not get into The Hobbit. LotR has great effects and blends them really well into the practical shots in the scenes. Weta made great use of miniatures and creative green screens to create beautiful, and believable composites. None of those would have happened without Star Wars.

Industrial, Light and Magic was created for Star Wars, and is still one of the leading visual effects houses in the industry. Without something as visually intense as Star Wars, I don't think that we would be in such a great position of effects based films that we are in today. No Avatar, no Life of Pi, or Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm sure we'd still have sci-fi movies, but does anyone remember those movies before Star Wars? They were almost all practical effects with a few that had miniatures. Star Wars changed all of that.