I disagree. I first saw the original three at around age 5, and wasn’t really scared (and I was one of these kids who had nightmares from the Wicked Witch of the West and the Gremlins). Episode III is, I grant you, way to intense for a kid that age.
As for following the plot, it’s very easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, especially in the Original Trilogy. I suspect a kid that age is going to be far more interested in the cool explosions, the light sabers, the ewoks…
If you show him 1-3 first, God knows he’ll wind up asking you for Jar Jar Binks action figures. Fuck Jar Jar. That shit ruined an otherwise mediocre movie.
I was really hoping that George wouldn’t reveal to the audience that Padme’s children survived, or that she had twins, in Ep III. That would’ve allowed for the plot twists in Eps V and VI to remain for people watching the films in order. That he didn’t do this makes me think Lucas really didn’t mean for the films to be wathced in the order their numbered in, regardless of what he claims.
Still, if you watch in EP order (1,2,3,4,5,6) you get the crappy movies over with early, and the films get subsequently better (more or less). Also, EP III adds a pathos to the events in IV, V, VI that isn’t there if you keep the prequels till last. Granted a 5 year old probably wouldn’t get be into the pathos thing, but it would be a consideration with an older viewer.
Meh to the new ones. It is my firm belief that if George Lucas had started with Ep 1, even with all the shiny, nifty effects, there would never have been an Ep 2, let alone 3 through 6. Show him the good stuff, then later he can watch the crap movies at his friends’ houses if he really wants to.
As a parent of a five year old boy, I’m not bringing him to 3. Too violent. And no, I don’t have a stick up my ass. I let him watch tons of things. It’s just the violence in this one goes further than even most PG13 movies. I’m pissed of at the marketing they are doing towards the under 13 set.
Um, he’s 5. Please, I beg you to show him the original trilogy first, if for one reason only: he is bound to complain the FX are garbage when moving from digital to motion capture. He’s still an impressionable kid and he’s going to be blown away by them, but only if he sees them first. Second immature reason: Darth Vader is infinity times cooler as the “blackest brother in the universe”.
If I ever am in charge of kids in some way, that’s how I’m going to screen movies for them. All films with “crappy” effects go first. It’s a good rule, I think.
Are you a 5-year-old kid? I hear teenagers complain the movies look “old”. Even people here on the board. That they haven’t “dated” well. Kids are getting worse this days. Better for them to be educated on real movies.
My kid got bored to death with Episode IV. Loved Episode I though, which he snuck in the DVD player without me knowing. It’s just a lot more action and he’s more familiar with the characters.
Anyway thank you all for trying to help :).
Release order with the exception of III. I have done this recently with my five year old. He’ll have to wait for ep III, cause it does stray from typical SW violence. Anyway, he won’t really notice the difference in effects. They just don’t notice the difference at that age. The hard part is that Lucas waits to long to turn Anakin. As far as my son is concerned he’s a super cool Jedi knight and doesn’t really get how he can be Darth Vader. He knows that’s the case, but it just doesn’t compute. Proudly, he doesn’t really like Jar Jar.