Star Wars VII - Here be some small spoilers. Look away now.

I remember watching Star Wars IV in the cinema. And then going back with friends a few days later to the matinee performance and lying on the carpet in front of row 1 to watch it again. It was easy to enjoy a small boy's pleasure in lots of guns going pew-pew and fighter planes in dog fights. Then a few days later I bought a copy of International Times and was dismayed to read a critique of the film as a disgusting and obscene celebration of the US-UK Military-Industrial-Complex. That moment of cognitive dissonance as the concerned adult fought with the small boy for control has stayed with me ever since.

Now it's getting on for 40 years later, a new Star Wars film has come round with almost exactly the same story line. It's got the same fighter plane dog fights. The same pew-pew gun noises. And the usual bloodless violence and obligatory hand to hand fighting. Amazingly, International Times has resurrected itself as well. And here's one of their suitably obtuse critiques of "Stop Wars" complete with free verse and obligatory Banksy. It's not as hard hitting as in 1977, but I'm feeling the same cognitive dissonance.

http://internationaltimes.it/stop-wars/