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It will instead be long remembered for how vulgar the mass marketing tie-ins became.
how vulgar they "Became?"
if you can look back at the marketing and merchandising that took place starting in the summer of 77 and continuing well into the 90's even BEFORE the Special Editions were announced, and say the mass-marketing tie-ins weren't just as "vulgar" then you're looking back with rose colored glasses. chances are you didn't think they were "vulgar" because mass-marketing merchandising didn't insult your intelligence at the time--because you were like, 8 years old and wanted to buy the stuff.
these criticisms have been lobbed at Star Wars ever since Empire Strikes Back. C'mon. Hell, "The Art of Star Wars" has an editorial comic detailing the merchandising madness of a "Darth Vader Mall Visit." complete with Darth Vader ordering a Tab soda between autograph signings.
The prequels don't do ANYTHING to the first films unless you LET THEM. The Special Editions? Yeah, those do something to the first films--because they're directly ALTERING the first films. But the prequels are their own movies, and are marketed and merchandised in THE EXACT SAME MANNER AND VOLUME as the originals were. Maybe even less so. Last I checked the prequels didn't spawn a Star Wars cookbook. But to claim that these movies didn't get over-merchandised until 1999 is ridiculousness.
And in the same manner that you can ignore remakes of classic movies, you can ignore the prequels. It's real easy. The argument that the prequels taint the originals has always been silly, to me. Especially since everyone pretty much agrees the first two movies are the best two. They wouldn't be able to say that if they REALLY believed the prequels had tainted everything else.
You're telling me TPM, AOTC and ROTS somehow made Star Wars and Empire LESS GOOD?
Don't buy it.