Three years ago, Associate Editor Gerald Clarke attended a sneak movie preview in San Francisco with hundreds of screaming children, a few science-fiction buffs and the creator of the film in question, George Lucas. Clarke emerged from the theater to urge that TIME'S editors schedule a major story about "a movie you have to love." Clarke's article appeared soon after, previewing a film that was to receive a tidal wave of national attention: Star Wars, the fun-and-fantasy space opera that became the most financially successful motion picture ever made.
Movie sequels never seem to measure up either to the original or to...