Why does Han shoot my Greedo first?

I can't let that slide. Abrams faced an impossible task with Ep7: to continue one of the most iconic and recognisable film franchises in history. What he delivered was so in-sync with Star Wars methos that it's often referred to as a reboot (or rehash if you want to go a bit more derogatory). He did this not by taking the easiest route and drawing everything but by using techniques and expertise from the original films. He did this with careful respect of the source material. He did this by distilling the raw ingredients of Star Wars and putting them into a new film with enough of the old to gel things together and enough of the new to move things along. If anything, he can be accused of playing it too safe but better that than stomping all over the legacy and trying to reinvent it.

It's odd that there's a correlation between people who were old enough to enjoy the original originals actually praising the film, and a younger generation who enjoyed the prequel trilogy knocking it. I'm one of those old guard and for all its intents, the prequel trilogy was nothing close to what I'd hoped: They made a great baddy out of Darth Maul and then neglected to give him any gravity (I have trained with Ray Park and I can tell you that the choreographer for his fight scene chronically underused him); they explained The Force (what the actual fcuk?); they made 'young Vader' a snivelling teenage brat with all the menace of wet fart; and then unashamedly made Bobba Fett the daddy of all Stormtroopers (in a manner of speaking). +Binks

No. Star Wars was never meant to be big and clever. The prequel trilogy attempted to make it first into a political drama and then into a love story. Utter tosh that must be endured so that everything else has some history... There's a good reason why Lucas made episode 4 first: 1-3 just weren't very good stories. They're like the B sides of the Star Wars saga.

Meanwhile... back on topic...

The biggest driver for Greedo shooting was that when it came to the re-release, they were worried that cold-blooded murder would have been too much to push through the board of film classifications - especially when the same scene has an arm dismemberment minutes beforehand. Greedo shooting makes it look like an old west-style 'quick draw' which became a thing in America as it was effectively classed as self defence... not murder.