Star Wars: About a thousand times on VHS taped off of HBO, from about 1981 to 1983. (To me, the HBO theme circa 1981 is just as integral to the film as the 20th Century Fox fanfare.) I still don’t know how my parents wound up with that tape—we never had HBO!
Empire Strikes Back: At a friend’s house in some bootleg form around 1981. It didn’t capture my imagination like Star Wars, and I didn’t see it again until I got the trilogy VHS set in maybe 1992.
Return of the Jedi: Theater. My first memory of seeing a movie in the theater, and it was everything I could possibly have dreamed of as a follow-up to my worn-out Star Wars tape. Somehow I got an off-HBO tape of this too, and wore that out too from 1984-1990.
The Random Premise: In the theater, weeks and weeks after release. After the atrocity of the SEs, I was in no way “fooled” by the previews. It was clearly dreck in every respect, from the cartoonish CGI (just like the SEs) to the “rabbit guy’s” shenanigans. When I finally got around to seeing it, though, it was even worse than I had imagined. It wasn’t just bad, it was a confounding embarrassment on every level to the people involved in making it.
Attack of the Clowns: Theater, opening day. My roommates were all going, it was the last day of some final exam or another, and I was inebriated. I “talked myself into” thinking “it’s not that bad.” When I finally rewatched it on video, I was astounded at my desperate reaction formation the first time. It, to a slightly lesser degree that TRP, was a travesty and a humiliating failure for Lucas and his army of cowed yesmen.
Return of the Shit: Theater, while hype was in full swing. I liked it, despite acknowledging its profound flaws of execution, and I still maintain it’s got some deep thematic worth.
The Fourth Awakening: Netflix Blu-ray.
Episogue One: It’s “on the queue,” but I am going to watch it only for cultural edification, since I am fundamentally opposed to the CGI necromancy of Peter Cushing, and will never support this manifest evil in any way.
Jedi II: Will probably get it on Netflix, depending on how tasteless Episogue One is, and whether I hear of any necromancy in this one.