Hello all!
I have a love of the original trilogy as when I was a kid I walked the living room while my dad was watching A New Hope and fell in love with the film. It was one of the first experiences that my dad and I truly loved together. Of course he got into things I was into as a young kid, but this was the first time I truly felt I was sharing the experience with him.
I was still pretty young when the prequel trilogy came around and I actually didn’t mind them when I saw them. I could kinda tell Dad wasn’t as into them though 😉. That enjoyment of the prequel trilogy faded over time and I kinda stopped watching and engaging with Star Wars for quite some time. I remember purchasing the blu ray’s early in college and I actually wasn’t aware of all the changes… but they felt off. It had been long enough since I viewed the originals I didn’t even realize the changes where the culprit!
Then The Force Awakens was announced. I wasn’t too excited at first, but each trailer left me more optimistic than the last. By the time it was in theaters, I had a child-like level of excitement entering the theater. Unlike a lot of Star Wars fans, I was not let down. I genuinely love the movie (and still do). I understand the criticism for echoing A New Hope’s trajectory, but it didn’t bug me in the slightest (and honestly might be why I fell so hard for it). I spent a lot of time defending the film to friends stating the movie kinda needed to play it safe and that the sequel was the “sequel trilogy’s” time to shine. Unfortunately, I hated The Last Jedi. It definitely didn’t play it safe, so credit where credit is due. But I just didn’t think it did a single character justice with a worthwhile arc and the middle of the movie is a complete drag. I know a lot of people actually like The Last Jedi a fair bit and I don’t have any intention to undermine their love for the film.
Anyways, with how much I enjoyed TFA… I stumbled into fan edits while looking into opinions on The Last Jedi. I watched a couple. I didn’t realize how much power an editor has as people made versions of the film that I found fairly watchable in comparison and, magically, they didn’t feel gutted. From here I stumbled into Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition of A New Hope and my love for Star Wars migrated back to the original trilogy (I know many creators had ideas and moments that made it into this cut so I thank everyone here for that!).
Realizing how much more I enjoy the original trilogy than the sequel trilogy, I decided to use some of this wonderful work and try to make a personal cut of the films (planning to put it together in a blu ray collection for my dad this year). I’ve stuck around the forums and read for quite awhile but I just recently started engaging and I hope to continue to do so on a regular basis.
I have learned that my love of fiction and entertainment has resulted in my sometimes veering me in an overtly critical viewpoint when it comes to engaging with my favorite intellectual properties. This is not a slight at the creators of the content… They are the ones that created something engaging enough for me to care in the first place. It just happens 😃. In the past it has led to me really relishing in any way I can engage with material itself in an effort feel some part of ownership of the material and I find a lot of joy in that. In the past, it has been modding games as I’m a software developer by trade. I am grateful to this community as well as that on sites such as fanedit.org that I have found such a cool way to engage with movies.