With Star Wars: The Force Awakens being a week away, I wanted to reflect on my life as a Star Wars fan because it's always fun to go back and reminisce.
I am of the generation that grew up with the prequels. To me, when I was a kid, they were the greatest onscreen creations and no one could tell me otherwise. I remember playing the Obi-Wan video game for the original Xbox, the Phantom Menace PC game, and Jedi Power Battles for the PS1. I also remember going to Star Wars Weekend in Disney World and having my face painted like Darth Maul. Long story short, I was a prequel fanboy throughout the early part of my life.
Why? Honestly, the original trilogy was boring to me at first...
My generation loved spectacle more than story, at least from my point of view. We liked seeing things that looked cool and didn't really pay attention to anything else. I mean, I was born in 1996, so I was 9 by the time Revenge of the Sith was released. I think its only natural since the 70's and early 2000's were such different times. My dad always talks about his first experience watching Star Wars in 1977 as a 12 year old kid and being absolutely amazed by it. Then I would watch the original trilogy and be kind of bored...Dad, I'm so sorry. I was seduced by the dark side of CGI.
As I got older and began to mature, I had come to realize why everyone regarded these films as some of the best, if not the best films of all time. For example, I used to think A New Hope was an incredibly boring movie, but now its probably my favorite, along with Empire. My favorite scene is when Obi-Wan is giving Luke that little history lesson about the Force, the Jedi, and Vader. The mystery behind what he is talking about is extremely captivating and makes the progression of those films all the more exciting. It's sort of the same thing with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I used to think the Fellowship of the Ring was boring as well, but now it's my favorite of the three. Thematically speaking, they follow the same formula.
Empire Strikes Back remains the greatest sequel of all time, in my opinion. The music during the Battle of Hoth has to be my favorite in the entire saga and that particular scene is my favorite to play in Shadows of the Empire. Also, the overall chemistry of the cast is fantastic in this film, especially in the more dramatic moments of the films. And, this movie contains one of the most iconic scenes in movie history between Luke and Darth Vader. You all know what I'm talking about.
Return of the Jedi used to be my favorite of the trilogy as a kid because it was more fast paced and it had a happy ending for the main cast. When you're young, you don't want to experience those moments that cause incredible hardships for your favorite characters. I think, since Return of the Jedi ended with the main cast partying with Ewoks, I liked it the most. Plus, Luke's green lightsaber was my favorite. It wasn't until I got older that I understood how good A New Hope and Empire were because of the obstacles they had to overcome, and in Empire specifically, didn't necessarily succeed in overcoming them.
Star Wars is such a big part of my life and I'm glad I experienced those films as I got older, appreciating them more and more along the way. I hope J.J. Abrams is able to bring that feeling from the original trilogy and translate it to the big screen once again, and I'm confident that he will.
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