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[inm8num2]

SW fandom didn't seem to be as polarized before the prequels as it is now.

The great thing about the 90s was that SW had started to experience something of a revival, largely spurred by Zahn's trilogy and the 1995 THX VHS release. Comics, books, video games, collectible card game, special editions, etc.

The entire decade was like one giant buildup to The Phantom Menace. At that time the backlash was mostly directed at things on the surface, like Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd. After the other films came out the criticisms focused on deeper aspects like the story, character motivations, etc.

But anyway, 90s SW fandom was fun.

 

[Faddy]

I was 12 when the Special Edition VHS came out and they were great at the time. The new effects and touched up scenes were cool and how they basically salvage the films from disintegrating.

There was a ton of hype for Episode I, reading about actors getting cast and the music release was so hype too. Then I saw it and it wasn't very good, although I was jet lagged and tired but it seemed so boring. I even hated the Pod Race, it made no sense that Anakin could recover from his start (I was heavily into f-zero x at the time).

I agree with whoever said that 90s fandom was about the cool military stuff. There were four different kinds of Stormtrooper, the Red guys who guard the Emperor, AT-ATs, AT-STs. The rebels had the Falcon and X-Wings. Jedi had ranks of apprentice, knight and master. The battle scenes were the ones that I remembered most and re-enacted with my toys.

I watched the og trilogy the other week and it was painful. These were perfect movies to teenage me but the new trilogy ruined them. Once I saw the flaws in the new films it was hard not to see them in the older ones. Most of them are related to RotJ and the special edition stuff.

Am I a bad person for hoping I see a remake in a few years?

 

[Bobby Roberts]

The Phantom Edit is as good as a prequel film will ever get.

No. There's no edit of The Phantom Menace that actually fixes ANY of its problems. it just makes new ones.

Smearing a turd across a sidewalk doesn't make the turd any better.

Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels, and it's obvious it's the only one Lucas really gave much of a shit about.

I didn't know a single person who had a problem with it pre-web/Clerks.

Okay. But trust me, there were a lot of them.

Clerks is not the demarcation point here. If anything, the 1995 THX releases (they got a HUGE marketing push) simply reminded people who had a problem that those problems were still there. Clerks might have added to it, but I'm fairly certain that even accounting for Clerks' popularity on home video, there's just no way it had THAT much impact on Star Wars.

 

[BigDug13]

I'm surprised no fans have gone through RoTJ and re-edited it to remove almost all of that ewok battle scene. It could be done. Their first attempt at placing the charges was successful, commence the attack!

 

[A_Gorilla]

I was 12 when the Special Edition VHS came out and they were great at the time. The new effects and touched up scenes were cool and how they basically salvage the films from disintegrating.

There was a ton of hype for Episode I, reading about actors getting cast and the music release was so hype too. Then I saw it and it wasn't very good, although I was jet lagged and tired but it seemed so boring. I even hated the Pod Race, it made no sense that Anakin could recover from his start (I was heavily into f-zero x at the time).

I agree with whoever said that 90s fandom was about the cool military stuff. There were four different kinds of Stormtrooper, the Red guys who guard the Emperor, AT-ATs, AT-STs. The rebels had the Falcon and X-Wings. Jedi had ranks of apprentice, knight and master. The battle scenes were the ones that I remembered most and re-enacted with my toys.

I watched the og trilogy the other week and it was painful. These were perfect movies to teenage me but the new trilogy ruined them. Once I saw the flaws in the new films it was hard not to see them in the older ones. Most of them are related to RotJ and the special edition stuff.

Am I a bad person for hoping I see a remake in a few years?

At this point I really wouldn't mind, so long as they fix the (few) problems present in the OT, and COMPLETELY redo the PT from top to bottom.

 

[Cat Party]

SW fandom didn't seem to be as polarized before the prequels as it is now.

The great thing about the 90s was that SW had started to experience something of a revival, largely spurred by Zahn's trilogy and the 1995 THX VHS release. Comics, books, video games, collectible card game, special editions, etc.

The entire decade was like one giant buildup to The Phantom Menace. At that time the backlash was mostly directed at things on the surface, like Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd. After the other films came out the criticisms focused on deeper aspects like the story, character motivations, etc.

But anyway, 90s SW fandom was fun.

I agree with this.

 

[Sobriquet]

The books didn't even start until 1991, and the games started in 1993.

Star Wars was really a dormant, legacy movie series from 84 to 91. Like the Dark Crystal (or whatever) is today.

Maybe I misunderstood your post, but the books have been around since the 70s, and the games since the early 80s.

I remember reading something that so many people skipped work to see Episode I on release that a lot of companies just shut down that day. Was that true?

I'm not sure, but two of us (out of six) took the day off for it at my job.

I didn't know a single person who had a problem with it pre-web/Clerks.

My experience is the opposite.

 

[Rootbeer]

What I can tell you is I was about 3yo when RotJ hit theaters for its original run so I missed out, but I watched them on VHS and laserdisc a few times as a young kid. Then, when I hit around 13yo I was rummaging through a friend's VHS tape collection and there was an old copy of Empire Strikes Back. I had very vague memories of watching it around 6 or 7yo, so I borrowed it... and ended up rewatching it 3 times. Then I tracked down the other two films, watched them again... and from that moment I was a big fan.

I got to see the Special Editions in theaters in HS, and then each of the prequels. The lead-up to Phantom menace was absolutely ridiculous... I was fully immersed in everything SW from 1997-1999.

Yeah, I dug TPM but I was also very aware of the seething fan hatred for Jar Jar, Anakin and some of the other controversial elements. It all worked for me though, at the time. Today I feel a little more critical, but I'm still relatively accepting.

I think Clones has way more problems personally. But it has less Jar Jar so it's automatically better to some people for that reason alone.

Anyway... you got me thinking, and I remember now that Star Wars wasn't on DVD for a long time even after the format exploded in popularity around the time The Matrix hit DVD for the first time. Back then the best you could get were these VideoCD copies but you had to special order them, not sold in most stores. Was a weird time to be a fan... some of the bonkers choices Lukas makes like that can be really irritating.

At least we don't have to deal with that anymore.

 

[foxdvd]

I still remember as a kid my parents taking me to The Empire Strikes Back. It still sticks in my head the pure power that film had when it launched. Nothing has matched it since. Not the hyped Avatar audiences. Not the aggressive Harry Potter/Twilight crowds. Not the Titanic explosion. Not even The Phantom Menace when it came out. (My ex wife waited in line for 4 hours to get tickets to it while I worked..but that still was nothing compared to Empire)

The first Star Wars movie had played off and on in theaters for 3 years before Empire came out. Every kid in school had Star Wars sheets/clothes ect. The movie did not launch nation wide right away, but I was lucky enough to grow up in Modesto California, Georges home town, and it played the first or second week it was out (hard to remember) Many people were turned away because of sold out crowds.

Every boy, and many girls, thought about nothing but Star Wars. My kids grew up with so much entertainment between games, movies, 24 hour tv that they never experienced a single movie/show that EVERY kid was into. It was something that everyone loved and was proud to love. I don't think anything will ever match it again. It really was the strongest entertainment influence for me and most 40-50 year old men.

 

[bigwinnerx]

I was at E3 1999. Hype level for TPM was about 1,000,000%. I played N64 Pod Racer on a 40' projection screen. Jake Lloyd was there. Mann's Chinese was still showing The Matrix though as E3 and TPM opening night didn't line up. Shame.

In the 90s, we had the fantastic X-Wing games, Rogue Squadron, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, etc without any knowledge of the upcoming prequels. EU was pretty accessible if you wanted it, I read lots of Thrawn Trilogy, etc.

I'm a massive Kevin Smith fan, but, to even put Clerks anywhere near with how people might have felt about Jedi is like saying a drop of water matters in the Mississippi River.

 

[ghostmind]

The books didn't even start until 1991, and the games started in 1993.

Star Wars was really a dormant, legacy movie series from 84 to 91. Like the Dark Crystal (or whatever) is today.

I'm not talking about the Thrawn trilogy-onward, I mean Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Han Solo books and the Lando books, all of which I did not read until after RotJ.

EDIT: And the Marvel comic series, which I stayed with until issue 100.

 

[Ecotic]

Pre-1999 was great, Shadows of the Empire was a great example of an EU project that captured the feel of the original trilogy perfectly. Play the N64 game and you'll be awash in John Williams' music samples and original trilogy imagery and sights. Times were great.

I left The Phantom Menace premier utterly devastated and humiliated. I collected the Pepsi cans, I got all the tokens from KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. I even had a VHS tape that had most of the movie trailer on it by recording clips off the news. Good internet and computer skills were still a rarity enough that this was something valuable.

I went with like 10 friends, my parents came, and then it sucked. All my friends and I were outside the theater afterwards trying to figure out what the hell happened. None of us would admit it was bad just to save face. Years later I angered a friend of mine at college by saying I must have sounded like a self-blaming rape or abuse victim after I watched the movie. "What, was it me? Was it something I did wrong? I really didn't enjoy that."

 

[SiteSeer]

pre-prequel fandom was strong of course. no divide, but ewok haters, and 'whiny luke' bashers. mostly for shits and giggles, not the real hate like we have for the phantom menace.

others have said enough about new star wars movie hype. even the hype for the re-releases were super strong.

the one thing i do find strange, though, about star wars fandom through the years is how much the empire is front and center now. when i was a young lad, it was all about the rebels beating the evil empire. everyone rooted for the good guys. now its almost all about empire and stormtroopers.

 

[Affeinvasion]

I had a subscription to star wars insider after the special editions came out so I was really into the hype surrounding tpm. The designs that they teased were really cool and the trailer was amazing. Then I saw the movie and it was pretty bad overall. There was a lot of disappointment but there was also a lot of hope that episode 2 would be way better. When episode 2 turned out as it did there was a lot more cynicism towards ep 3 and rightly so. That cynicism has never gone away.

 

[Arkos]

My birthday party was TPM because it came out right around my birthday :3

 

[Sobriquet]

My birthday party was TPM because it came out right around my birthday :3

Happy birthday

 

[Arkos]

Happy birthday

Aww thanks. It's today!

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

I feel like people were pretty positive about the 1997 rereleases, at least initially. Is that when they made the edits and whatever? I completely forget.

For me, from 95-97 was about those action figures. Error versions of figures in early runs, the Luke you could only get at the theater, etc. Crazy times, especially since most of that goes for peanuts now, but people were willing to fistfight over a Yak Face figure or whatever.

At least for me they were novel changes at the time and it was cool to watch. There also wasn't the thought those edits would actually turn out to be permanent so people who didn't like them didn't worry about it.

 

[TAJ]

Okay. But trust me, there were a lot of them.

Clerks is not the demarcation point here. If anything, the 1995 THX releases (they got a HUGE marketing push) simply reminded people who had a problem that those problems were still there. Clerks might have added to it, but I'm fairly certain that even accounting for Clerks' popularity on home video, there's just no way it had THAT much impact on Star Wars.

I put "the web" before Clerks. That wasn't an accident.

 

[AlexMogil]

I'm 42. We didn't have an internet to bitch on. We didn't have discs that we could watch frame by frame renderings of the movie. We didn't have YouTube where we could take those movies and rip the living shit out of them with endless waterfalls of snark. I was sad when the Ewok got blasted. That's how invested I was.

I was 10 when rotj came out and I'm not completely sure at that time if I even remembered that Vader was Luke's father. But I still saw the movies over and over again in the theater because they were magical. But I digress.

When the movies came on television, the world stopped. The idea of owning it was far fetched, to me. So the movies still held a mystic quality to them. An unfair reverence. When I thought the movies were done the video games filled the gap. I never read the fiction because I thought it would have taken away from the original story.

Movies cannot be made the same way these days. They have to be so much better, so much smarter. So many people refuse to suspend their disbelief and need to make the film a two way experience with live tweeting, immediate YouTube reviews, forum posts to compare notes, stuff like that. Star Wars' original trilogy was released at just the right time. You could go to the movie, watch it, and then think about it.

Coun Dookakke gets it. I wish I had some of his abilities to see this stuff. I fall prey to the snark. Sometimes it's like movies are a magic eye puzzle, and the internet can't see the picture because it's dumb to try.

Just my (probably not well thought out) opinion.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

Have any of you guys seen the movie Fanboys? Is it at all an accurate representation of pre-21st century Star Wars fandom?

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Have any of you guys seen the movie Fanboys? Is it at all an accurate representation of pre-21st century Star Wars fandom?

No.

That aside - it's a shit movie in general.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I put "the web" before Clerks. That wasn't an accident.

Okay.

Doesn't really change what I was saying, either. "The Web" didn't really change people's general opinion on Return of the Jedi. The idea that it was the least of the three wasn't a new thing for a lot of people. "The Web" just made it easier for those people to find each other and join voices in a disappointed chorus.

When the movies came on television, the world stopped. The idea of owning it was far fetched, to me.

If you had a VCR and they were on television, you could "own" them in the mid 80s. That's how I "owned" them. Hell, I remember having to sit next to the VCR (because our remote had a cord) and I was in charge of hitting pause as soon as it looked like a commercial break was coming. Imagine being a little kid with the family gathered around the 19 inch Zenith, screaming at you to hit pause because a commercial was starting

The first time I saw Star Wars, actually, I was 4 years old, it was Christmas, and my Uncle decided to show off his new VCR with a bootleg of Star Wars that he got.

Coun Dookakke gets it.

Huh? His contributions were basically "Kevin Smith made people hate Jedi." And he's not really correct on that assumption, at least not on the scale he was suggesting.

 

[GamerJM]

I'm much too young to contribute to any of this, but I have to say that this topic is pretty interesting. I find 90s-era and earlier internet/fanbase stuff really intriguing.

 

[Messypandas]

Were the Tazo's anyone elses jam?

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Really, 1985-1995 was probably the only time that Star Wars fandom could be concievably considered "nerdy." And that's mostly due to the fact the only way you could enjoy new entries was to read tie-in novels - which are nerdy.

Otherwise, it's been essentially the most popular thing that's ever populared. Ever. The only time it ever was NOT that was 1985-1995, really. And even then - it was pretty popular. A LOT of those novels/comics got sold.

 

[lemonlyman]

For those old enough to remember, what was the SW fandom like before the prequels came out, or hell, even before the 1997 re-release?

I was in my mid-twenties when Episode 1 came out. My friends and I were stoked. It was like Christmas every day leading up to The Phantom Menace. We camped out and everything. I don't remember anyone thinking they would be lame.

Jimmy Fallon pretty much summed up the enthusiasm of the time:
Jimmy Fallon reviews the new Star Wars movie.

 

[Gustav]

Before the re-release, a lot of fans for their fix from computer games. x-Wing, Tie Fighter, Dark Forces and Rebel Assault in particular.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Before the re-release, a lot of fans for their fix from computer games. x-Wing, Tie Fighter, Dark Forces and Rebel Assault in particular.

Man, TIE Fighter especially. I used to mute all the music, and then blast the soundtracks on my stereo and play for HOURS.

Had that Microsoft Sidewinder and I put in work.

 

[BigJonsson]

I got excited every time I saw the Duel of the Fates music video on Much Music........


I want another Tie Fighter game, it was so fun

 

[Messypandas]

Lets not forget Masters of Tera Kasi

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I remember being told, at age 19 "You need to have a good credit rating, so you need to get a credit card, and you need to buy something on it right now, and start paying it off"

That was all the excuse I needed to scoop up a Sony Playstation at Sears, which was the first place I could think of that would instantly give me a line of credit. They gave me a $500 limit, and I got a Playstation, and 3 games:

Resident Evil 2
NBA Live
Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi.

There's disappointment - and then there's Masters of Teras Kasi.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

It was magical time when Star Wars was the most beloved movie property of all time. I was to young to watch the OT in the theaters but I grew up with them on tape, with the video games, and books. 1997 was nuts, think of this, rereleases of old movies grossed over $150 million, back in 97, with no 3D. That number these days would be gigantic.

Any fighting about Star Wars was very minor scwabble, stupid stuff after the rerelease like Han shot first. For the most part Star Wars was IT. The lead up to TPM was the most hyped movie event of all time and nothing has even come close to that. Theaters across the country SOLD OUT just to see the first trailer, it was one of the greatest movie going experience of my life.

It was pure love. Pure joy. People of all generations celebrating some of the greatest movies of all time. What I see now still disgusts me, especially those that can't separate their hate of the prequels from the originals.

no, that's not a minor quibble. it's a major, major rewrite of the character and his motivations. Han was in the theatrical release for all intents and purposes a crook. a smuggler, a thief, and a murderer.
sure Greedo wasn't a nice guy but Obi-Wan had it right " a hive of scum and villainy" and Han Solo was part of that. he redeems himself in the end but his past would eventually catch up with him. Greedo shooting first makes him an innocent victim who was defending himself.

 

[Chuckie]

I saw ANH and ESB when I was really really young. I absolutely loved them. I saw ROTJ a bit later (still pretty young, about 12) and despite the Ewoks I liked it. (Was still sad for that one blasted Ewok though)

When the movies were re-released in the theatres, I saw ANH and ESB and loved the fact I could finally watch them in the theatre. I never bothered to see ROTJ though.

When TPM was announced me and my mates from university were fucking hyped. Everybody was hyped.
And initially I actually loved it. I went to see it with my friends, again with my parents and again with a date.
Jar-Jar was horrible from the first moment ofcourse... and so were the midi-chlorians...but it still was enjoyable. It was weeks later when I started to realise there was more wrong with it. But even now I don't hate the movie.

AOTC on the other hand... God that was awful. Me and my brother were disappointed but seemed almost ashamed to admit it. The only thing we talked about was the Slave One fight with the awesome seismic charges... because that was the only good thing in the movie. Everything sucked about it...the enormous amount of CGI, that fat fuck in the restaurant and most of all the conveyorbelt scene. R2 with little jets? What the fuck?

I almost didn't go see ROTS because of AOTC. I am still glad I did, because (even with is many flaws) was the best of the PT.

And despite everything...I am slowly getting hyped for episode VII again.

Edit: Can someone enlighten me what was the influence of CLERKS on the perception of ROTJ? I've seen CLERKS once a long time ago, but I only remember some joke about contractworkers on the Death Star II

 

[MC Safety]

Edit: Can someone enlighten me what was the influence of CLERKS on the perception of ROTJ? I've seen CLERKS once a long time ago, but I only remember some joke about contractworkers on the Death Star II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGOVbXF7Iog

"All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets."

Clerks was a great slice-of-life movie. It didn't really influence anything, but it was a general statement of cynicism felt by a lost generation of 20-somethings.

 

[BocoDragon]

Maybe I misunderstood your post, but the books have been around since the 70s, and the games since the early 80s.

Well to clarify:

There were a handful of random books in the 80s, but they were rare, random and I believe they were considered to be of dubious canonicity later on. The EU and Star Wars books being a regular thing didn't occur until Heir to the Empire in 1991. That is considered to be the birth of the EU (RIP 2014), and of Star Wars being an ongoing thing.

And LucasArts didn't have the rights to Star Wars games until X-Wing in 1993.... so while there were licensed Star Wars games from the likes of Atari, Namco and JVC in the 80s and very early 90s, they were little more than licensed games, and did hardly more than depict events in the films. You certainly didn't have anything like Dark Forces or The Force Unleashed in the 80s. X-Wing was the beginning of Star Wars telling new stories in the universe... an extension of the EU.

So in reference to Star Wars being an ongoing franchise... I would say it was not, from the end of RotJ until 1991.

I'm not talking about the Thrawn trilogy-onward, I mean Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Han Solo books and the Lando books, all of which I did not read until after RotJ.

EDIT: And the Marvel comic series, which I stayed with until issue 100.

Yes, you are right... there were a handful of pre-EU oddities.

I believe Splinter of the Mind's Eye was de-canonized upon the release of Empire

Marvel Star Wars was definitely shot into the sun, never to be acknowledged again.

 

[AniHawk]

i remember being surprised at the big plot twist in empire strikes back

Spoiler

(that lando sold out han)

, but aside from that there wasn't really much that stuck out. it was one of the most-rented films in our household and i even watched the ewok film with friends on occaison. i think return of the jedi, like the last crusade, was originally my favorite. over time, i think i prefer empire (and raiders, respectively).

the other big pre-prequels moment i recall was seeing the original films in theater again. i don't recall when we saw the first movie again, but we caught empire s.e. on the weekend it was released and it was the best movie-going experience of my life. i didn't realize that as a crowd, you could spontaneously all boo and cheer moments happening on the screen. my dad hates that sort of thing, but to 11 year-old me it was thrilling.

everything leading up to the phantom menace was pure hype. it was like ocarina of time in movie form. it took me a day to download the trailer from the internet, and i kept it on our hard drive and would play it over and over until i had memorized it (and i still think it's pretty well-put together as a trailer).

i don't even remember when i started thinking ill of the phantom menace. there was a point after it had released, but before attack of the clones was out that the backlash had really began in earnest, and i remember watching it on tape and actually enjoying it for what it was. after that, and before the plinkett review, i had started to dislike the movies in the prequel series, one by one. it's actually to the point where i can't work up any excitement for episode vii.

 

[davepoobond]

I saw the first special edition in theaters and I watched the special editions on VHS multiple times during elementary school and before episode 1.

I didnt watch episode 1 until after I had watched episode 2 in theaters. Maybe even after the 3rd one. I was always into Star Wars, never had any interest in Star Trek.

I guess I had a generally favorable attitude towards the new movies. I didnt know people didnt like them so much until I got older and started realizing the newer movies kinda blow. But I don't really watch the older ones really at all onowadays, no particular reason.

Before the new movies existed I think I remember liking return of the Jedi about as much as a new hope. I liked empire strikes back the most iirc.

 

[teruterubozu]

Pushing 40. You?

Haha. What a depressing thread where we have to out-yelling at clouds each other.
I just remember everyone was PSYCHED about Darth Maul and then he turned out to be a lame minor character.

 

[bjork]

Haha. What a depressing thread where we have to out-yelling at clouds each other.
I just remember everyone was PSYCHED about Darth Maul and then he turned out to be a lame minor character.

Darth Maul is the Goldberg of SW.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

The weird thing to hear is how everyone looked around the theater and saw people shitting on the movie during Episode 1. I just didn't see any of that on opening day and people seemed to love the movie at the screening I went to.

Same here. People LOVED Episode 1 when it came out. I know a lot of people who saw it multiple times in theaters, who now claim they hated it from day 1. Personally I think the prequels, especially episode 1, get a lot of undeserved hate. For me if you cut the pod race down to like a 5 minute sequence, and cut down the amount of screen time Jar Jar got, it's a great SW movie.


Just to add to the rest of the discussion, people were frothing at the mouths for anything Star Wars. The games were heavily discussed, same with the books and comics. Specially the Thrawn series and the Kevin J Anderson ones. I remember people speculating that there would be Episodes 7 - 9 and they were going to be based on one of those book series. It was really all about the books and comics for awhile there. Tales of the Old Republic being HUGE in my circle of SW fans. As far debate over the movies, it was always down to either New Hope, or Empire Strikes Back as being the best. RotJ was always, ALWAYS considered the worst of the originals. I also remember the big thing we'd talk about was Obi Wan's and Vader's fight on/in a volcano that made Vader have to be in his life support suit. We talked about that for HOURS. I don't even remember how we knew about it.

Ohh man I wish I could find an image of it but we had this Star Wars dictionary or Encyclopedia back in the 90s. That was always the go to.

This was it!

 

[The Elite]

SW fandom didn't seem to be as polarized before the prequels as it is now.

The great thing about the 90s was that SW had started to experience something of a revival, largely spurred by Zahn's trilogy and the 1995 THX VHS release. Comics, books, video games, collectible card game, special editions, etc.

The entire decade was like one giant buildup to The Phantom Menace. At that time the backlash was mostly directed at things on the surface, like Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd. After the other films came out the criticisms focused on deeper aspects like the story, character motivations, etc.

But anyway, 90s SW fandom was fun.

Great post.

I am 36 now and recall this being how the fandom and hype grew throughout the 90s. There wasn't any real dislike of Return of the Jedi that I recall.

I recall seeing someone wearing a Star Wars t-shirt around 94 and thinking that was a big deal. The fan base was there but it wasn't really vocal or on display.

 

[Shanks D Zoro]

I was 12 when I saw the TPM in the cinema for my birthday and loved it. I was a huge Star Wars and was blown away by the world of TPM. George Lucas wanted to create movies that were aimed at kids. As a 12 year old it was the prefect film for me. The world of Star Wars with action for the kids of the 90s. Most people who complained were the 40 year old fanboys. I remember seeing the sequels several times when I was 15 and 18 at the cinema and the younger kids were absolutely loving the films. Kids still love them today. I teach in Korea and my students all love the prequels.

Sure they are not as good as the OT, but while the OT are dark and gritty the PT works so well for me because they are so full of life and character. They show how great and prosperous the republic was just before its downfall and that gives me more respect for the world of the OT.

 

[Slackbladder]

I saw Star Wars age 7 in '77 at the Well Hall Odeon in South East London. My big sister took me.
Then my sister took me to see The Empire Strikes Back at the fucking Odeon Leicster Square in London (a great cinema at the time - fucking huge with great sound) in 1980. I remember being sad afterwards because my favourite character had just been encased in carbonite.
I saw The Return of the Jedi in '83. Don't remember where. I guess it had less of an impact on me then but I was into the toys and the books at that time. Can't say for certain if I liked it or not. I think I did.

From then until The Phantom Menace I slowly started to put Star Wars behind me. I outgrew it. I got into other things, mainly music. I did buy the films on VHS in '97 but I really only watched them rarely. By the time The Phantom Menace came out I was only interested in the film because I had friends who were still big Star Wars fans. Personally I could take or leave it. I do remember asking one friend a lot of questions after he had seen it. I remember him being a bit disappointed though.

To be honest I was never a HUGE fan, though between 77 and 81 I would regularly get Star Wars toys for Christmas. I watched the prequels out of curiosity more and maybe a little sentimentality. But really Star Wars was in the past for me by then. I don't have any feelings for it one way or another.

 

[bigwinnerx]

It wasn't this kind of internet, but, we did have alt.fan.starwars (i think that was the one) which took up almost all the Internet fandom I knew about in those early/mid 90s days.

 

[Fallout-NL]

I still remember as a kid my parents taking me to The Empire Strikes Back. It still sticks in my head the pure power that film had when it launched. Nothing has matched it since. Not the hyped Avatar audiences. Not the aggressive Harry Potter/Twilight crowds. Not the Titanic explosion. Not even The Phantom Menace when it came out. (My ex wife waited in line for 4 hours to get tickets to it while I worked..but that still was nothing compared to Empire)

I was too young to have caught that in theaters and I saw it on TV first regrettably. My dad used to tape all that stuff for me and my brother so we could watch it on saturday morning (which was awesome). But I can only imagine how special that must've been in an actual cinema. Empire really is something special.

 

[jufonuk]

36. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't being old-manned by a young whippersnapper.

We're going to disagree on how freely you attribute pop-cultural influence on this matter to Kevin Smith, because there's nothing in Clerks that caused people to turn on Jedi anymore than anyone had already turned on Jedi. I just don't see it.

36 here , too and I loved clerks and love RoTJ

I have always like the original three movies, but sometimes I feel I have to be in the right mood to watch them, as great as they are I have to be in the right head space, could be I have seen them so many times..

I remember the hype for Phantom Menace, shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit how bad it turned out

 

[LastNac]

I was nine myself when TPM was released, but I like to think I was fairly aware of what Star Wars meant.

For the most part, Star Wars was something largely left to be referenced in Pop culture but I certainly dont think it was nearly as specific in the gap between ROTJ-TPM as it has been from ROTS-VII.

For a large amount of time, Star Wars existed only with the Expanded Universe, so you can certainly understand why people get so defensive about the EU. There was 16 years between movies, I'd argue that the majority of people being introduced to Star Wars between the gap(90's) probably had the EU play a role in the cementing of their "fandom", I know I certainly did.

Also, people seem to forget that before 1997, there was 1995. I would argue that 1995 is more instrumental in terms of reintroducing Star Wars by far.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

For me, quiet. Even after the thrawn books & the lucasart games. Bu the lack of internet is probably a large factor to that.

I'm not talking about the Thrawn trilogy-onward, I mean Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Han Solo books and the Lando books, all of which I did not read until after RotJ.

EDIT: And the Marvel comic series, which I stayed with until issue 100.

I have all those! The lando ones were a bit weird, but the solo ones were really rather good.

 

[Effect]

From what I remember people enjoyed Star Wars. It was only when I started going online that I started to see complaints, etc when I visited various sites and forms. At that point people that would just complain to friends could come together and feed off each other complaints and that's toxic. I still remember going to see all the prequels in the theaters. They were all packed. There never seemed like there was a drop off of interest or enjoyment. I think that's the case even now when it comes to fans of Star Wars but they aren't hardcore fans. Those that go to the films, buy the dvds/blur rays and watch them from time to time don't have a negative outlook on the franchise I think. They might have issues here and there with the films like they do any film though. They might rank certain ones higher but they aren't going around slamming prequels every chance they get.

I've always felt the complaints, etc came from a vocal minority. Given that Star Wars fandom is huge compared to a LOT of other things that minority is likely large.

I think there is a LOT of revisionist history that takes place regarding people disliking the prequels, especially as they were coming out. People trying their best to make it seem like majority of people hated them or disliked them in that moment. Trying their best to convince others to dislike it along with them. Yet the success of them fly in the face of that. Even now while people might prefer the OT I don't think people hate the prequel. I think there is a group of fans that wish people did though for whatever reason.