The last time I saw the ‘Star Wars’ films was in their original theatrical release. ‘Star Wars’ in 1977 had robots and was fun. I remember everyone going nuts about bluescreen technology and thinking, “but I can see the blue edges”. But no one cared because R2-D2 was cute and Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia were cool. They were the friends you wanted. They were from different parts of the universe but somehow they had an undeniable connection.
The ‘Empire Strikes Back’ was a mindblower. Yoda, Tan Tans, The cliffhanger of Han Solo. The developing feelings between the characters. My favorite by far. We waited with great anticipation, three years to see ‘Return of the Jedi’ which was a hot mess but Leia and Solo were reunited, Luke kills Darth Vader and we get Ewoks.
I saw the rerelease in the theaters of ‘Star Wars’ and was like, okay, whatever bump up the lasers. I attended ‘The Phantom Menace’ premiere and was very confused, but whatever. I was never a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan, but it was part of my childhood and maybe I just didn’t care about space robots anymore because I was an adult. I believe I white knuckled the next one, ‘Attack of the Clones’ and then just lost any interest I may have had. This was no longer fun. This was no longer an escape. Everyone was taking this way too seriously and it just wasn’t that good.
