In this thread we will celebrate the upcoming release of Episode VII by sharing our early memories with Star Wars.  How did you first get into it?  How did you see it?  Were you immediately hooked?

My mom took me to see Empire when it was first released back in 1980.  We went because her best friend was going with her son.  Neither of us knew what we were going to see but I was immediately blown away by the visuals and the battles.  I didn't  care for Han at the time.  He seemed like a jerk to the Princess.  I remember, even at that young age being pissed at the ending.  Movies were supposed to end on a happy note.  The good guys ALWAYS win. What the hell?

I was immediately in love with the SW universe.  I had to have the toys and got my first one right after my sister was born later that year and eventually amassed quite a collection of figures.

I caught A New Hope on a rerelease. Since VHS tapes were not popular at the time theaters rereleased popular movies quite often.  Again, I was blown away.  I could not wait for part three. It was a painful wait between 1980 and 1983.

When Jedi was on the verge of being released, I couldn't take it.  The hype was through the roof for it and it was all anyone talked about at the playground, except for the V miniseries   We had plans to see it during a Saturday matinee of opening weekend. But the Friday night of its release, the local news reported that someone had stolen the film from a local theater.  I was devastated.  Life was over as I knew it.vMy mom had to explain that there were multiple copies of the film and that our matinee would still go on.  

I remember thinking thoughts I didn't understand when I saw the princess in that bikini...possibly my first pre-pube stiffy.

And I remember pretending to be Luke in my backyard, swinging around my wiffle ball bat and slaying countless flies into piles of dog shit.

Good times.

I remember watching it endlessly with my brother and one point when watching Luke vs Vader in Empire when my dad was dying from having to sit through it, again and again and again. Eventually he retreated into another room to avoid Star Wars.

I am not here to shit on anyone's thing.

Other than once seeing The Empire Strikes back in the theatre when the remaster came out (while drunk) I have not seen any of the Star Wars movies or related properties.  None. Zilch.

I have Disney Plus, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to watch all the movies in story order.  

Last night I watched most of Episode 1.

I have two thoughts:

1. The wipe edit transitions are fucking stupid. Yes, I understand that Lucas was probably ripping them from Flash Gordon or whatever sci-fi shit he watched when growing up in the 30's, but there is an homage and then there is just fucking bullshit.  If they were star wipes instead, at least I'd get a chuckle out of it.

2. I don't think anyone would accuse me of being overly sensitive, but even to me the racial stereotypes are uncomfortable to watch.  I'm sure this is not an original or "hot" take, so I'll leave it at that. (EDIT, I just searched, and yeah by far I am not the first to see the same "IS THE NEW Star Wars movie racist? Two weeks after the hotly awaited US release of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, die-hard fans of George Lucas's space opera are beginning to wonder about the wholesomeness of noseless baddies who speak in high-pitched Japanese accents, a filthy insect who sounds Greek or Arabic, and a computer-generated idiot alien who talks like a Caribbean galley-slave." Star Wars accused of race stereotypes | The Independent | The Independent

I'll finish the movie before I have a final analysis of it.

And reminder, Star Wars fans take no offence, I am not here to troll your movies, just giving my sincere first impression.

Ravenprose said:

It's a shame you can't watch the original trilogy theater versions on Disney+. Disney+ only has Lucas' Special Editions nonsense, which I cannot watch. Thankfully, I own the original theater versions on DVD.

I don't think I ever watched the original theater versions.  But I also didn't watch the last reworking.  To be fair I don't know exactly what versions I watched, but I had no complaints.  

Yeah, Jar Jar and the Neimodians were always problematic, even back in the day. Thats why you will see very little of Jar Jar in the next two movies. Episode 2 is the weakest of the prequels to me, so many cringy scenes, especially at the droid factory. The last twenty minutes are so good though.

I actually forgot about this thread. 😂

Did I die and miss this thread? Lol.

Aspro please give us impressions as you go, this is going to be great to see your honest reactions. I will provide some of my background with each of the movies as you go. So The Phantom Menace, ask Travo or Robio, never has there been a more hyped movie than Episode 1. The build up to it is easily the most hyped thing I experienced in my life, I was beyond obsessed and the rest of the nation seemed to be right there with me.

The first trailer for Episode 1 didn't premier online, it was announced that it would play in front of select movies on a random Thursday I think from a certain time, like 5-8pm or something in select theaters. This would be the first footage of a brand new SW movie in over 15 years. So I paid for a movie to see a trailer, my theater thankfully had the waterboy which I wanted to see, others had Meet Joe Black. Here I was thinking I would be one of the few idiots to pay to see a trailer... the theater was PACKED, beyond capacity. People were in the aisles. The trailer finally played and it still to this day one of the best theater experiences I ever had. When Maul lights up the dual saber the place went bananas. Everyone erupted in cheers, everyone losing their mind at the incredible footage we saw! New Star Wars and it looked glorious! And then nearly the entire theater emptied out, lol. I stayed for the movie but most people just came to see the trailer. Now the announcement said the trailer would play again at the end of the movie and at the very end the theater started to fill up again, lol. We cheered all over again.

I got midnight showing tickets when they were actually midnight showings. I went with some friends and my dad who didn't care but he was a good dad to make sure I saw it the first showing. I can't describe my reaction to that first showing, I do remember it vividly but I was so blinded by hype nothing was going to disappoint me, still I was confused. I remember when the nemodians talked and I was confused why it was such blatant stereotype accents. I remember being so lost as to why Jar Jar and the Gungans acted like there were in a cartoon. The tone was so weird even for me in the first showing. The final 30 min was amazing and I still enjoy it to this day, duel of the fates is the best fight of the saga, just amazing music as well. So I was happy when the movie ended but I understood the poor reviews even though I initially defended TPM. My dad hated it from the get go, eventually I would accept it as the worst SW movie. I don't like to rewatch it (now, I saw it 8 times in the theater), I only care for the action scenes. I enjoyed 2 better and I love 3. Now TPM has competition from 9 as the worst SW movie.

Now, This thread reminded me of how six year old me was heartbroken when that copy of RotJ was stolen. 😂

Ravenprose said:

I saw the trailer on the internet, low quality 56K, baby! I thought it looked like it was going to be awesome. I waited a couple of weeks to see it because I hate crowds. By then my expectations were well in check.

Aspro you don't really have a comparison yet to why TPM feels so weird cause you haven't seen most the OT. When that's what you grow up with and then you see the tone of TPM it's so damn weird. But that's the prequels for you, weird, not really well made movies BUT if you get into the story and enjoy the action moments it's still a fun trilogy on its own. I'm not saying the OT is some dramatic pillar of movie making but it handled the line between silly and believable so well, outside of ROTJ with Ewoks, that's when we started to get hints of what's to come from Lucas.