I did see it opening night in '97, and remember seeing ESB too when Luke & Leia kissed, the whole crowd screamed 'ewwwwwwwwww!' Even though I didn't like the changes at the time, it was cool to see the original in the theater again with a new generation of fans, and being amazed that SW was still popular 20 years later. I really thought when Lucas was re-releasing the SE of the OT that nobody would really care, and that SW was an afterthought, and maybe, I was just alittle too old to still love those movies. I loved it in the theater that night, went back again that Saturday night, and showed me my love for these movies will never get old.

It is just weird to think how my views of George Lucas have changed in 9 years. Now I am not one to hate the guy, but I definitely don't think he is this great director or genius that I thought he was when the OT was ruling the world. I always thought Lucas was untouchable to criticism before the SE and the PT. He was god to me, and I would shrug off any people who would say SW was overrated, I would defend George to the tilt. Now after watching 3 PT movies, I realized he can't write a lick when it comes to dialogue, he is an overrated director, and he has definitely lost his edge in what is 'cool' for the public with such bad attempts with Jar Jar, the droid voices, and the uncool aliens. The one thing I will always give Lucas is he is a great storyteller, and if he just wrote his vision for his movies, and let someone write the screenplay and direct it, the PT would have been so much better.