It’s 2010 and the Star Wars saga ended 5 years ago with ROTS.
Of course us middle aged folk like to remember the saga as Star Wars = legendary, Empire = unchallenged best of the series, Jedi = nice finish, Phantom Menace = disgrace, Clone Wars = poor, Sith = nice try but nowhere near the quality of the original trilogy.
So without the biases seen through rose colored glasses from our youth us old foggies use how does the class of 2010 who would have been a mere 7 years old when Phantom Menace hit the screen review the Star Wars saga?
What order did you see them in?
Has anybody watched them I-VI?
Just wondering what an unbiased viewer (age 16-18) might think of the series seeing it for the first time these days?
I’m 17, FTR.
As a kid, we had the entire original trilogy on VHS. My dad insisted that I watch them early in life, because they were so good. I loved A New Hope, and would watch it often as a kid. The other two, though, didn’t take, because I was too scared by them. (It should be noted that I am quite easily scared)
When Phantom Menace came out, we watched it in the theaters, and I loved it too. We bought it on VHS as well, and I would watch it over and over again. And I’ve never really been an avid movie-watcher, so that was a big deal. Eventually, though, it got boring (or I realized how boring it truly was). We saw Attack of the Clones in the theater, and I was impressed. But then I never watched it again. Revenge of the Sith, also in theater–mostly forgettable was my impression.
Around this time, we had to move and give up pretty much everything we owned, so I decided to watch the original trilogy again before we threw it away. And I was blown away by how good it was. I appreciated them in a way I could not before.
My good memories of the prequels began to fade, to be replaced by cutting criticsm and humorous and intelligent parody and my current opinions are pretty much the mainstream.
@pedescribe, that is a really interesting and useful response.
I remember as a child seeing the first or maybe second episode (Star Wars/Empire) and blurting to seatmates “My mom says I’ll be taking my kids to the other episodes of this!”
Even then people knew it was a carefully scheduled franchise, but I haven’t kept up and am curious about reactions.
how many times have old fogies have seen the new trilogy? i’m 23 and i’ve only seen the new movies twice each.
I bought the new trilogy on DVD just to have it in my collection. I watch them just to complain about them on bulletin boards. I’ve watched them maybe 5-6 times each?
Same. Well, Phantom, I’ve seen completely once, and… right up to the bongo trip like twice before I gave up. But the others, twice on DVD, once in theaters.
I’m 29. I think I’ve seen them all once (and bits and pieces numerous times). I don’t see what all the hubbub is about. Lots of special effects, considering the times in which they were made.
I did, I’m 24. Of course even watching them for the first time in-order it’s pretty much impossible to go in without knowing basically everything about the original series due to over-frequent referencing and parody.
I saw the prequels as they came out, first in theatre, second on cable, and third in theatre. And then saw the whole 1-6 one day as a marathon ran on cable. And have since seen some of them more times piecemeal on cable.
I’d rate them probably something like 5-4-3-6-1-2. But I don’t really like any of them. And the prequels aren’t much worse than the originals. Pretty much all the best moments & lines are in the originals though.
Like Luke & the Emperor taunting each other in the last one. Or Luke entering Jabba’s lair. Or “pray I do not alter it further”. Though I always found Vadar to be ridiculous rather than intimidating. The plastic suit, the breathing, the control panel on his chest. The clumsy stiff movement. Not even James Earl Jones could make that anything other than silly.
Some of the fan reactions to the prequels really baffle me. Like Jar Jar. Sure he’s annoying but how anyone can sit through 3 movies of c3po without complaining and then whine about one movie of Jar Jar is beyond me. C3po is far more annoying and gets more screen time. Or the reaction to medichlorians which seems to drive some people insane but fit in well enough to me that I didn’t even realize it was new to the prequels. It’s an obvious reference to mitochondria, it helps bolster the already implied genetic factor in someone’s capability with the Force, and yet the movies remain vague enough that it’s exact function could be interpreted any way one wants. It doesn’t really need to be there but it fits well enough and works as a way what’s his name can know Anakin will be unusually proficient with the Force.
To me the main difference between the prequels and the originals is that while the prequels are insipid, poorly acted, and make no sense; the originals are dull, ridiculous, and badly paced.
Though technically not a high schooler (graduated in June), I can weigh in on this.
I watched the original trilogy on VHS at home with my family, renting from Blockbuster. We’re not a huge movie family, but we enjoyed them. Obviously being really young (probably somewhere between 6 and 10) I didn’t think all that much about the movies, just enjoyed them for what they were.
I seem to recall watching at least some of Episodes I-III in theaters, though probably not if I was indeed seven. (In retrospect, I think I only saw II and III in theaters.) They were cool but not really all that amazing. It should probably be said that I have rather high standards for movies, though. I didn’t see how they were all that special, and I’m a big fan of sci-fi stuff. A high schooler watching the movies today for the first time would probably be mystified as to why they were so popular, I’m guessing.