May 18, 1999, how did you feel before Episode I?

OK, this is a thread about your thoughts pre-TPM, pre-PT, so no post-TPM/PT movie remarks. 

1.  What were your expectations going in Episode I?

2.  What did you think of the trailers released in 1998/99?

3.  Did you read any SW Insiders magazines, spoilers on the internet? Anything from them that stuck out to you?

4.  What did you think of the hype in the Spring of '99, as it seemed like every entertainment show was talking about the first SW film in 16 years?

5.  Did you collect any of the toys, or the merchandise from Taco Bell I think?  or was it Burger King?

6.  When did you finally see it, opening night?  opening weekend?  wait for the crowds to die down and saw it later in the summer?

When the trailer came out, a friend had a VHS, and we watched it... 30 times that night at a party. Loved every second of it. I expected to love it, and I did.

Saw TPM at midnight, again the next morning, drove to Las Vegas and caught it again the next day.

It wasn't for a few weeks (and two more viewings) that I started to get annoyed with Jar Jar.

The only merchandise I had was the novelisation I picked up later that summer, and a Qui-Gon cup I still dont know where it came from.

1.  What were your expectations going in Episode I?

I expected like it would be like all the bad bits that had been inserted into the SE, but more of it: crappy CGI, making comedy of aliens getting hurt, weak plot, shots that don't make sense, etc. I did not think that they would be able to recreate the Star Wars feel.

I did expect to be dazzled by great visuals. I did also expect the overall plot to be more interesting and the dialogue to be less cheesy than the final result.

2.  What did you think of the trailers released in 1998/99?

I avoided all spoilers like the plague.

I was in school at the time. When someone played a trailer on a computer nearby in the computer room, I closed my eyes, put my hands over my ears and sang loudly so that I would not see or hear anything until it was over.

3.  Did you read any SW Insiders magazines, spoilers on the internet? Anything from them that stuck out to you?

I avoided reading magazines that I thought could contain anything about Star Wars.

The only spoiler from a magazine was a picture in Wired Magazine of Battle Droids debarking a landing craft. I thought "Hey, this looks pretty cool". Then i read the first lines in the caption, and panic struck. I immediately closed the magazine and never opened it again.

From the posters of the movie, I had got the impression that Liam Neeson and Pernilla August were playing husband and wife and that Anakin was their son.

6.  When did you finally see it, opening night?  opening weekend?  wait for the crowds to die down and saw it later in the summer?

I think that I saw it on the third night. I could not get tickets for the premiere.

It was not shown in theatres over here in Sweden until September. A buddy had a pirated DVD that I could have seen in the beginning of June, but I wanted to see it on the big screen.

Those three months were HELL ... Spoilers on billboards on the street, talk about Star Wars on television and in magazines.. It was everywhere, and I had to avoid it.

My buddy had spoiled me about Jar-Jar, but I did not think that he was going to be that bad as he actually was.

I was actually pretty hopeful before TPM (I refuse to call it Episode 1 -ANH is episode 1 as far as I'm concerned). Here was a Star Wars film with Liam Neeson in it (only three years earlier he'd done an incredible performance in Michael Collins) and it had Natalie Portman who was so good in Leon/The Professional. Things looked good. Except they didn't really -I should have paid attention to the screwed up Jabba and in the 97 SE and realized trouble was coming. I read a fair bit about TPM before I saw it and I still was optimistic. I was having a bad year and I really needed something good. I didn't hate the film when I saw it (I even liked it to an extent), but it was deflating. Still, my year did get better otherwise. And late the same year, Hollywood made up by putting out Fight Club. 

1.  What were your expectations going in Episode I?

I was one of the few fans who wanted the Sequel Trilogy, as I was dying for Episode VII back in the mid 80's.  I read in an interview with Lucas somewhere back during ROTJ, and he said he was going to take 2 years off and do the Sequel Trilogy in 88, 91, and 94, then take 2 years off and then do the Prequel Trilogy in 99, 02, 05,  and it was like Christmas morning thinking about more SW movies for the next 20 years! 

As for expectations of Episode I,  I really lost my zest for new SW movies by the late 80's, and really wasn't juiced for this movie.  Many of my friends were super-hyped, and it seemed like they were let down more after we walked out of the theater.

2.  What did you think of the trailers released in 1998/99?

I remember seeing a trailer on Entertainment Tonight in the spring of '99, and I can't explain it, but it just felt weird, it didn't feel like SW, but in some ways, I sorta liked that cause maybe this would be something new that would knock our socks off!

3.  Did you read any SW Insiders magazines, spoilers on the internet? Anything from them that stuck out to you?

I went totally unspoiled for the movie, no magazines, no internet, no spoilers, I had no idea what I was walking into opening night.

4.  What did you think of the hype in the Spring of '99, as it seemed like every entertainment show was talking about the first SW film in 16 years?

I personally loved the hype that spring as Entertainment Tonight actually started off every show, "21 days til Episode I!"  As a SW fan, and having no idea that the PT would not deliver to many fans, this was the zenith of this movie series.  It was cool that SW dominated the pop culture world, and this was before Jar Jar Binks, so SW was still king of the world to EVERYONE.

5.  Did you collect any of the toys, or the merchandise from Taco Bell I think?  or was it Burger King?

No, although I do remember the merchandise being everywhere.

6.  When did you finally see it, opening night?  opening weekend?  wait for the crowds to die down and saw it later in the summer?

I saw it the first Friday night at a Multiplex, and we got there super early to get tickets, and finally walked into the theater, and it ended up being half full!  It started off great with QuiGon and Obiwan and then Jar Jar appeared on screen and my buddy said to me, "I gotta bad feeling about this...." 

Famous last words!

1.  What were your expectations going in Episode I?

 

well, i was sick with cancer and i remembered that i wanted to go see that movie so bad! i was a little guy then and had to

go to an four o clock morning showing since i was highly vulderable to other people. still, there were over a hundred in the theater.

2.  What did you think of the trailers released in 1998/99?

i never saw the trailer. i'm sure though people were freaking out.

3.  Did you read any SW Insiders magazines, spoilers on the internet? Anything from them that stuck out to you?

i wasn't a big reader/computer guy being sick and all

4.  What did you think of the hype in the Spring of '99, as it seemed like every entertainment show was talking about the first SW film in 16 years?

i thought, "Wow! these people are diving on store shelves just to get an action figure or trading card!" I thought it was

huge!

5.  Did you collect any of the toys, or the merchandise from Taco Bell I think?  or was it Burger King?

i can't remember if i did or not

6.  When did you finally see it, opening night?  opening weekend?  wait for the crowds to die down and saw it later in the summer?

i saw it like two wks after it came out i think 

I seriously thought TPM was going to be the greatest movie ever made. Even on the news the hype was so strong that a lot of reporters were saying it too. They were predicting it to surpass Titanic in ticket sales.

I thought TPM was going to be a continuation of the SW universe and was going to be amazing... and how did I eat my own words.

I remember being very excited for Episode I.  My older brothers and I grew up on Star Wars and, when we were younger, had many of the toys and would use them to act out our favorite scenes from the films (or create our own).  Being born in 1978, I never got to see the original version of the first film on the big screen, and I don't remember seeing ESB (although my parents tell me they took me to a screening of the film.)  I do, however, have great memories of seeing Return of the Jedi on the big screen, but even then, I was only 5 and my memory doesn't serve me as well as it could if I was even a few years older.  So aside from this experience, this is the first time I was getting to see a new Star Wars film on the big screen.

The commercials and trailers were amazing and I remember feeling that the film would be great after seeing them (Although seeing Darth Maul's dual sided lightsaber was disappointing as I felt that would have been a cool reveal in the film itself.)

As far as the hype, though, I loved it.  I lived in it.  I was totally excited and wanted to read every magazine article I could find, look at every picture, watch every news report.  Again, this was the first new Star Wars I was going to REALLY experience in my life time.  I stopped myself short of reading spoilers as I did want to go into the film fresh.  The images in magazines and the trailers were teaser enough to get me there and I wanted to experience the story by watching it on the big screen.

My brothers and I saw it on opening day at an evening showing (as we all had to work and couldn't go at midnight).  Everyone in the theater cheered as loudly as they could when the Star Wars logo retreated into the stars at the beginning of the movie.  Everyone was hyped....everyone was excited.......and I can't tell the rest of the story as you have asked for no bashing in this thread........So, I will leave it at that.

being a kid, i could care less whether it was bad or good at the time. it was star wars! i wanted star wars! so even though the movie didn't live up to everyone's expectations, for kids, me anyways, it was all about the fun and adventure.

skyjedi2005 said:

 

I read the script about a month before i saw the movie so i noticed things not being there.  Like the duel on the ships ramp  between maul and qui gon.  And Jar Jar being told by Boss Nass that he is to be "pounded unto death".lol.  Intead of as in the film "he-sun to be pune-nished ".

 i don't remember the duel on the ramp being mentioned but i do remember boss nass's original line. i think that line sounded better. more gung gung in my opinion.