There’s a frenzy at movie halls worldwide!

Over $120 million in U.S. box office collections on opening day, Friday, December 18, 2015!

$57 million at the box office for the Thursday previews!

Same story of fans gone crazy in Germany, UK, Australia, France and all across the Milky Way!

Much Ado about ….

Now call me a contrarian if you want.

But I just don’t get all this brouhaha about the latest Star Wars movie – Star Wars: The Force Awakens a.k.a. Star Wars 7 since it’s the seventh film in the successful franchise.

So out of sheer curiosity, I joined the hordes and watched Star Wars 7 yesterday at a theatre on the U.S. East Coast. It was a full hall.

For sure, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not a bad film. Infinitely superior to the Dilwale kind of junk.

Like its predecessors, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a fast paced space odyssey filled with humans and human-like anthropomorphic beings, and references to and presence of key characters from previous movies (like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo et al) in the Star Wars series.

Spaceships gigantic and small, fancy and rusty and people in white body armor/masks and people in black masks light up the screen with guns and weapons shooting red and white flames of light.

Where there are People, there must perforce be War or at least frequent battles.

So Star Wars 7 director J.J.Abrams gives us skirmishes between the Republic’s ill-equipped Resistance forces and the disciplined forces of the First Order.

As is the norm for films of this genre, the forces of good emerge victorious but always leave room for a sequel by keeping the ultimate fate of key members of the defeated side hazy.

Why the Frenzy

But there’s really nothing in Star Wars 7 to warrant all the hype, frenzy and house-full movie halls in America, UK and elsewhere.

If you ask me, I’d say Star Wars is more unique as an extraordinary marketing exercise and for building an Apple like cult fan following.

The special effects, CGI and the pyrotechnics were all above par in Star Wars 7, as they usually are in any big budget Hollywood film.

But there was none of the gee whiz moments or the extraordinary emotional pull to send my pulse racing.

Perhaps, Star Wars 7 is a movie that appeals mostly to those who grew up watching the six previous movies in the series.

My hypothesis could be true because I did not see many youngsters in the hall (you know, the youngsters who flock to the Hunger Games, Iron Man or Jason Bourne films).

The majority of people in the hall yesterday were in their 30s and 40s and some of them came with their young children in tow hoping to recapture some of the old excitement and pass on the Star Wars torch to a new generation of fans.

Seeing the wild frenzy surrounding Star Wars 7, all I can say is that Life on Planet Earth is more bizarre than on other galaxies.