I honestly was sure there would be a topic on this here, but I can't find one, so my apologies if I missed it.
I had a very interesting discussion with some friends of mine about this, and I wanted to hear of some of your guys' experiences.
What was your first "Star Wars" experience? As in, how did you "find" the films, which one did you first watch, etc?
For me, I was around 4 or 5 so this must have been in 1993 or 1994 - I was walking into the kitchen after bedtime, to get a glass of water. I looked at my parents in the living room, and they were watching something on TV. I looked to see what it was, and a monstrous, ugly, horrific creature was being crushed by a huge metal gate, and a bunch of equally strange-looking creatures were shocked at this.
I asked my parents what this was, and they said "Star Wars." I wanted to watch it with them, but they said it was too late and it was partway through. I asked if we owned them, and they said no, but my grandma did.
So the next time I was at my grandma's house, I asked her if she had "Star Wars," and if we could watch it. It was a pan & scan, early-90s VHS (the one right before the "Faces" set came out). We watched it.
The only thing I can remember about my first time seeing "Star Wars," other than how enthralled and amazed by it I was, was how cheated I felt that no giant greature was crushed by a gate in it. I was furious that my parents had lied to me.
My grandma explained to me that they had been watching the third movie.
The third movie? There were more than one? Yes, she said, there were three. I instantly wanted to watch the rest, right then.
Some weeks later, we watched "Empire." I liked it, but it terrified me, and the ending made me feel sick. I asked her if the next one was as scary, and she said "yes and no ... it's like a mix of the first two."
We watched that one later, and I honestly can say that when I was a kid I loved every aspect of that movie. The dark parts were awesome but not scary like ESB, there was a space battle like in the first one, AND there was a ground fight like in ESB! Granted, both were smaller, but hey, you get BOTH! AND a lightsaber fight! All at once! And it was funny, too!
Today, I realize how I loved it then for the very reasons I don't like it now.
Then I saw the SEs in theaters in 1997, when I was 8, and thought everything that was NEW! about them was AWESOME just because it was new. Plus, I got to see it on a giant screen!
And the SE VHS tapes introduced me to the concept of widescreen movies (that and "Titanic").
When Episode I came out on 1999, I was 10, and I saw it on opening day. I remember feeling weird afterwards, but hey, Jar Jar was kinda funny, and Darth Maul was a badass! But I was confused about why Jedi were suddenly so violent about everything, and what flashy fighters they were.
Similar story to Episode II. The love story bothered me a lot, but I liked the war! I was irritated that Yoda was CG now - the beginning of my distaste for CGI.
Episode III, I was 16, and I disliked everything about it, except the scenes of the extermination of the Jedi (though I was upset that that had been done so quickly in one montage).
Well, that's me. You don't have to mention all 6 movies if you don't want to, I just kinda got carried away.