I still geek out over the original 3 movies which came out when I was in college, but TPS and the remainder of its trilogy were so underwhelming for me that not only have I never watched them again, but they left me with absolutely no interest in seeing the recent SW movies. I am content with the original trilogy which I will happily watch anytime.
I did see TPS during its opening week, but not on the first day.
I’ll still take it anyday over The Last Jedi.
I think that was the last movie we saw in a theater! It was despicable, a huge disappointment. Sometime later, I was in Best Buy at the mall and they were showing it on a drive-in-movie size tv screen. I stood there transfixed and thought, ‘even bigger and louder, its still a pile of shit, only bigger.’ When it’s on cable tv, I’ll have it on in the background. Not to watch but hate-watch: glance at now and then, and marvel on what a pile of shit it is.
It’s a shame so many people have been scared off the new movies because of the prequels. Though there are conflicting audience reactions, the new movies are trying to appeal to the original trilogy fans as much as possible, without being slavish (YMMV) and in my opinion knock it out of the park. Give them a try if they pass your way, I say.
The prequel trilogy, though, can stay in the trash for all I care.
I was completely into The Last Jedi; the Luke/Rey/Ren storyline was the bee’s knees.
The rest was okay.
When the junkyard dealer was talking I thought to myself - yeah this is pretty fucking racist. But there were a lot of bad points too.
… Which was kind of the point.
I was quite excited. My friends and I were talking about going to go see it, and had stuff planned. But then our plans fell through due to some church function or something–I can’t remember exactly. And then I never really got around to seeing it.
I had no idea people thought it was bad until at least the second one came out, though. Maybe even after that.
I was a big fan of Star Was as kid, but only saw Return of the Jedi, and Battle for Endor. By the time Phantom Menace came out, I couldn’t care less. It didn’t help that it didn’t look that interesting.
I later saw it on DVD and thought it wasn’t that bad. It was entertaining enough.
But then I rewatched the entire original trilogy, and realized that no, it should have been so much better.
I didn’t want to go, but friends made me. I got really drunk, and snuck more beer in with me, and fell asleep maybe halfway through. I also got my finger bitten by a very large beetle on the way to the movie.
I also got drunk and fell asleep for the second and third movie, but with more effective vodka.
I mostly enjoyed Natalie Portman’s torn shirt in the second movie, and do regret falling asleep during the wookiee battle in the third.
I really don’t remember much of the trilogy. Unlike the Star Wars Holiday Special, which I saw when it was unleashed briefly upon the world when I was 4, and can recall far more than I want to.
I took my girlfriend on our first date to the cinema to see it. I thought it was OK at the time, but more recent revisits have shown me that it’s not that great a movie, and the big battle cgi does not hold up.
I read some blog or other which suggested that the ideal viewing order would be New Hope, Empire Strike Back, the go for Bring In The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, before returning to Return of the Jedi for the end. Phantom Menace isn’t necessary.
Phrasing? I take it you mean “a lot of other bad points too”
I was really disappointed.
As an 8 year old in 1977, Star Wars was mind blowing, the unbearable anticipation of Empire’s release and the cliffhanger into RoTJ and denouement was acceptable for me then, despite how silly and unsatisfying I find it now.
I was not really interested in a prequel because over the years, I always wondered “And then what happened?”
There’s a long list of things I found …disturbing.
At 30, I resigned myself to the fact that these prequels were geared towards children and toy marketing rather than adults who wanted something that made sense.
My thoughts exactly.
The sequels are getting heavily analyzed and criticized, which is totally fair. Episode VIII was not a script I would have allowed filming.
However, even The Last Jedi is 10x the movie any of the prequels were. People making the sequels care and when they fail, it’s at least a genuine attempt. The prequels were boring and made with low effort by Lucas because he likes computer effects more than people and sets, etc.
Are you sure it wasn’t a weevil? Or, one of these big tick-cow things from Episode 2?
I saw it about a week after it was released. I was excited to see it. I left it feeling that it was ok. Not good, but not terrible either. That’s still my opinion of it (and yes I’ve seen it a few times since then). Some fantastic scenes, but the plot was too thin. Lucas could have done far better - making Ani a little bit older probably would have helped.
Though I did really appreciate the overarching story that Lucas was trying to tell with the prequels (how evil can take over). I just think he stumbled on how to get there.
I feel like TPM holds the record for the biggest turnaround reaction for me of pretty much anything ever.
I was VERY excited (and 15) when it came out. I was a huge Star Wars fan, and didn’t actually hate the CGI-bloated “Special Editions” that Lucas had put out. I owned tons of SW merch and loved the extended universe world-building books. I was psyched. Not QUITE waiting-in-line-for-midnight psyched, but definitely “saw it opening weekend as soon as I could” psyched.
I left the theater happy. I don’t think I LOVED it, but I remember thinking, “Yeah, that’s more Star Wars. It looked and sounded and felt right.” I specifically remember recommending it to my sister a few days later saying, “It’s fun and exactly what a new Star Wars movie should be.”
But within a few months, I realized I was lying to myself. It looked cheesy and totally lacked the timeless, lived-in aesthetics of the original. The music was a pale echo of the old score. The plot was thin, dull, and built around predictable blockbuster setpieces. The characters were barely there. And, worst of all, it made me like the original films less – seeing Darth Vader and not being able to unsee the awful portrayal of wee baby Anakin completely broke my interest in the world.
I went from “discussing Star Wars tattoos I wanted to get when I was 18” to “never bothered seeing the other two prequels until a decade later when they were on TV” in the span of a few months.
For me, it would be both of the new movies. I really didn’t need to get my hopes up, and then see what amounted to a glorified remake of the first movie (Episode IV), and The Last Jedi was one step from being a glorified remake of The Empire Strikes Back.
Very well done remakes, but still remakes. At least the prequel trilogy had their own unique stories.
Oh, didn’t care for “Rouge One,” either.
I saw it the first weekend and thought it sucked.
