| Heh, but I LIKE hijacking Spidey's threads!! [/pout]
I remember first hearing about Star Wars during little league practice. Some of the kids were talking about this incredible movie with aliens, spaceships, laser guns, and (WOW!) "laser swords". It was June of 1977, just before my 10th birthday, and apparently my dad had heard about it too since it didn't take much prodding to get him to take us to see it. I remember being blown away by the opening battle in space, remember thinking how cool Vader was, how terrifying it was that he not only picked up some guy with one arm but you actually heard his neck break! WHOA! This is also the first movie I can recall people actually standing up and cheering for at the end, as the Death Star exploded and the good guys won, and needless to say it left an impression.
The rest of that summer was spent walking with my friends to the theater (ah, the old Brementowne theaters) to see this movie over and over and over, and walking around town to K-Mart and Ben Franklin to constantly monitor the arrival of the action figures. Heh, words cannot describe my joy when I FINALLY got that jawa figure at the end of the summer.
Being as spoiled as I was, at some point or another I got all the action figures and accessories. I had the TIE fighter with detachable wings (battle damage, dontcha know), the X-Wing with the light up proton torpedo thingy and "real attack formation action!", and of course the crown jewel of those early toys...the Millenium Falcon.
By 1980 I had read the original Ep 4 book along with Splinter of the Mind's Eye (anyone else remember that book?), the Empire Strikes Back novella, and was well primed for the movie release. We caught it opening night and waited in line with hundreds of others to get in and see the movie. I remember Ray Rayner showing scenes from Empire (just like he did the original Star Wars) pretty much every day, especially the battle of Hoth scenes. Even though I knew Vader's surprise for Luke because of the book, hearing it actually spoken drove it home as reality, and I was still floored. I remember actually hearing people gasp in shock as the words "I...am your father" were spoken. I also remember one scene in particular as being the most memorable to me: when Lando leads Han and the others into the Empire's trap and Han fires off some shots at Vader, just to have them deflected and his blaster pulled from his hand. I remember seeing that scene in the trailers for Empire before other movies and thinking it was so cool because the good guys were actually coming face to face with the bad guys...and losing, it seemed.
Jedi came out while I was in high school. Even though I was older I still geeked out as the release became imminent. I remember thinking the brother/sister thing with Luke and Leia was a twist I didn't see coming, and getting to see Vader without his helmet was a huge deal too. Heh, I also remember that horrible Ewok Celebration song from the end was all over the radio stations. I also distinctly remember expecting 6 more movies in the series, so it didn't really occur to me that all things Star Wars would dry up for another 15 years or so.
I remember when Menace came out I actually bought the tickets a couple weeks in advance and took my son (of course) and the woman I was dating at the time and her daughter. I left the movie unsure of how I felt about the overall body of it. I do remember thinking that the moment when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan removed their hoods at the beginning was exceptionally cool and I immediately bought into them as jedi. I wound up cutting the movie some slack since it wasn't really new material...it was fleshing out a story we already knew, and a lot of it was character development with some action mixed in to keep it lively. However one thing I was never able to reconcile in my mind was Jar Jar. UGH!
Clones was a better situation to me. I enjoyed it a lot more (no more Jake Lloyd and much less Jar Jar) and felt the characters were developing to the point where something big was going to happen...sadly not til the next movie though. I saw it the first time with a buddy of mine (didn't have my son the weekend it came out) and I remember we both wanted to give Natalie Portman a standing ovation for that tight bodysuit she was wearing late in the film (on an obviously cold set). I also remember my disappointment in seeing those scenes touched up for the dvd release. I did rank this film highly overall in the series though, right behind Empire and New Hope.
Sith is going to rock, I just know it. I think Lucas has primed his universe for a gigantic showdown, and even though we all know the end results...getting to them is going to be a lot of fun. As I mentioned in another thread here, its not a matter of IF we're going to see Sith but rather how many times. |