Seeing TPM when it came out is just an impossible-to-replicate experience, due to the unprecedented and never-to-be-repeated levels of anticipation for this movie. Forming any sort of sustainable opinion about that movie on first viewing was virtually impossible. Just the fact that there was now an actual new opening crawl in existence, with a title that didn’t say Episode IV, V or VI, was to me, like seeing some kind of physically impossible phenomenon. It was insane that it was even real, after having seen the OT so many, many times on VHS. Also, the movie ended with this fast-paced, intricately choreographed lightsaber battle, complete with an operatic score, and that’s generally the last thing you’d remember when walking out of the theater on first viewing, leaving you somewhat mesmerized and elated.

I have difficulty remembering exactly when it dawned on me that actually this movie sucks. I think there was a period of time, maybe around a month after it came out, where I was basically in denial about this, and would try to downplay how unexpectedly childish/juvenile the tone was in comparison with the OT. I think I finally gave up on it when, on a 3rd or 4th repeat viewing, during that scene in Watto’s workshop with non-stop Jar Jar antics occurring in the background, my younger sister blurted out something like “Is this movie even serious?” She was very familiar with the OT, and she obviously picked up on the more childish tone, and basically said what I was thinking but wasn’t ready to acknowledge. The difference in tone from the OT was undeniably jarring. After that, I started to notice a million other problems with it, and ultimately, all my friends and I sort of reached a consensus that it sucks around two months or so after it came out. (But we still paid to see it like 5 or 6 times like idiots.)