Is it worth seeing Star Wars again? Are the new special effects good, and do they enhance the experience at all?

The answer is yes. There are many small, welcome additions that help the story along, such as an extra shot of the Millennium Falcon lifting off from the Mos Eisley spaceport. In the original edition of this film, as the Falcon heads toward the rebel base on Yavin, viewers see a sentinel standing on a tower, pointing a gun-thingamajig at the distant horizon. Now he does this as the Falcon comes in for a landing.

Surprisingly, almost all the raging rumors on the Internet over the film's new content were true. For example, there was chatter that Greedo would fire off a blast at Solo before being killed.

What strikes against the Special Edition, unfortunately, is the expansion of the Mos Eisley spaceport. The opening, establishing shots of the spaceport as Luke and Kenobi arrive in the landspeeder are good, but primarily the many small additions are terribly distracting.

The worst of all the new additions is when stormtroopers stop and interview Luke and Kenobi. "How long have you had these droids?" a trooper asks. At this point Lucas saw fit to add a CGI creature walking from right to left, in front of the action. What was Lucas was hoping to achieve? The results momentarily obscured the scene with a bad CGI graphic. It's times like this when restraint is necessary.

Overall it was a pleasant experience, after a 20-year break, to see Star Wars on the theater screen again. It's particularly satisfying to hear the film in Lucasfilm's THX sound stereo system, adding an aural richness which home video cannot provide.