Your History seeing Star Wars films through TFA? Tell your story

man these stories are awesome. what a great gem of a thread!

A New Hope

i was 5 1/2 when ANH came out. we were not a movie-going family (except to the occasional Disney animated feature), but we saw a "making-of" special on tv. my brothers and i were mind-blown. what was this thing? with the golden robot and the skeleton soldiers and the guy in the black mask who looked like a red-eyed bug and the scary scary head-wrapped sandpeople???

we begged to be allowed to see it. begged to the point of nagging (which was also frowned upon in my household).

and then, out of the blue we were bundled in a car and driven to take our much older sister to see it. oh the outrage and injustice of it all. there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth until we realized it was all a ruse and we got tickets of our own (i still remember having to tell the woman behind the plexi how old i was).​

Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi

seeing ESB was less of a fight three years later. we were obsessed and it ruled our lives: Christmas and birthdays, and all of our daily play.
by the time ROTJ came out, my mother let our neighbor take us. i was nearly twelve then and at an age where i had to hide my tears when Darth Vader died. i think i cried more openly when Han was put in carbonite.​

The Prequels

not much i can say for the prequels. went to the midnight showing of TPM full of hopes and expectations, spent a good year lying to myself that it was pretty good, threw up my hands at AOTC, barely showed up to ROTS (with such low expectations that i actually didn't full-out hate it).

and, feeling utterly burned, i crawled into a dark hole of disavowing the whole franchise. i clung to my VHS OT (unspecialized) and wished the rest of it into the corn field.​

The Force Awakens

when TFA was announced, i disregarded it. i refused to engage. i refused to hope. when i saw the toys on Force Friday, i refused to admit that Phasma and the new troopers were awesome. i hated Kylo Ren.

about two weeks before TFA opened, i allowed myself to start hoping. i opened my heart a little. but even as i watched the opening crawl, i was clenching my knuckles. i clenched my knuckles as the transports landed, as Kylo Ren struck down LST.

and then Poe made the joke about not being able to understand Ren through his mask and that was it. totally won over. in that single line all my fears dissolved because i could see that the movie wasn't going to take itself too seriously and it wasn't trying to make Ren into the new Darth Vader and that Poe was a guy i wanted to spend time with.​

and i couldn't be happier to love Star Wars again. i'm at the perfect age to have a second childhood and i'm going to enjoy it.

 

Where did you see them and what was your experience?

SHARE AND DISCUSS YOUR STORY -

When and where and your experience!

I have only seen one star wars movie in the theater. I was actually born the year The Phantom Menace came out. So I saw The Force Awakens in my favorite theater, AMC Avenue Forsyth 12.
Address
350 Peachtree Pkwy
Cumming, GA 30041

I went with my family opening night. December in Georgia is cold, not surprisingly, but I waited in line for an hour and a half in order to get good seats. We prepurchased our tickets weeks after they were on sale so imagine my suprise we got some for opening night. Anyway many of us in line were anxiously awaiting the movie to start. Some where for the 9:45 others for the 10:30, we were for the 11:00. When we finally got in and got our seats for about 20 or 30 minutes we waited for the movie. The trailers were awesome. When the Lucasfilm logo appeared you could feel the anticipation reach a maximum. The title card "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY..." appeared and then the Star Wars title appeared with that music. Everyone lost it. The whole movie made me laugh and teary eyed while being amazing. December 17 will be a night I'll never forget. See you all for Rogue One.

 

Whoa! You all have great stories!
Here is mine:

5 years old watching
I first heard about SW when my parents bought the complete saga (at that time) in DVD in 2006.
We watched all of them at home in their release order.

I had different opinions depending on the movie, so here are (higgledy-piggledy) the feelings of a 5 years old girl who at that time was afraid by the Green Goblin in the Spider Man movie.

ANH: Oooooooh, space!!!!! The big ship of Ian (old French translation of Han) Solo is beautiful and I love his friend teddy bear (5 years old perception of Chewbacca) and Z-6PO (old French translation of C-3PO). The princess is wonderful and the big bad is frightening!
ESB: Snow! Strange walking vehicles! Hoth is the best planet ever!! I like the little green guy who speaks strangely. Dad, are you a Sith Lord? (after watching the "I am your father" scene)
ROTJ: The Emperor is ugly but the panorama from the Death Star is beautiful. The Ewoks are so cute!!!!!! (I still have the soft toy key-ring I begged my parents to buy)
TPM: Jar Jar is stupid, and ugly, and such a pain! (Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings come grains of truth). The red bad guy is frightening and gifted in acrobatics! I love his lightsaber!
AOTC: the love story is sooooo boring. Count Dooku is not a vampire (my father told me the actor is well-known portraying Dracula so...) but he cut Anakin's hand. This guy is a bad person.
ROTS: (watching the death of Mace Windu) Now, Palpatine is really the Emperor. He wasn't too frightening before. For the final duel and the birth of Darth Vador, I tried to avoid watching because I was afraid.

If you asked me about what I thought about SW during the following years, I would have told you that I knew the story but no more and that I was afraid of ROTS. I watched about 2 time each film of the OT once in a while (I didn't like so much TPM and AOTC and for ROTS, you know the story).

The "revelation"
It came when I watched Thor The Dark World in theatres (my first MARVEL movie in theatres by the way), when I was 12. A scene with Loki

Spoiler: It is better to not take risks

when he simulate his death

made me cry (a little) and from this time, I started to like bad guys more than good guys (the scene was so touching!).
Since this moment, I decided to give a second chance to the villains. I watched again some movies which terrified me and the two Green Goblins (sr. and jr.) became ones of my favourites characters, like Loki, Draco Malefoy...
SW movies were no exception to the rule. I watched them again in the release order and loved them. I found Darth Vader and the Emperor wonderful, Darth Maul amazing and Count Dooku awesome (but Jar Jar still stupid).
Then came the time for me to put ROTS in the DVD player... My long-standing fear... I found it purely and solely awesome!

The following years pre-TFA
During these two years, I watched new movies (especially MARVEL movies and Harry Potter), liked most of their characters who had a dark side and watched Star Wars from time to time, especially ROTS.
When I heard that a 7th episode will be released, I started to watch again all the saga but I admit that I gave TPM and AOTC a miss.
A few weeks before it was released, my parents and I said we will maybe watch a Sunday in the near shopping centre's theatre.

My first SW movie in theatre
I had nearly forget about it (I know it's a sacrilege) when, the 18th of December, I went to a MUN organized in my high school. Just before the opening ceremony, one of my friend propose me to go with him and two other friends watch TFA (in English (we were all nearly bilingual) and in 3D (even the subtitles were in 3D!)) the following day after the MUN in the theatre close to our high school.
I asked my parents and they agreed! Hence, all four of us, we went to the theatre at the 10 PM film show and saw our first SW movie on a cinema screen. It was AMAZING!

How I hassled my parents with SW...
From this time, I begged my parents to go watch it as soon as possible. We watched again the OT and finally went to the shopping centre's theatre, in French this time. The cinema was full of folks and we were not able to sit side by side.
Because I've already seen it in English, I tried to focus on little detail and to compare the two versions (both are amazing and the French voices stick very well to each character's personality). It was amazing to!

The post TFA
Since this time, I did some research on the plot (especially on Kylo's and Hux's previous lives because I wanted to know...) while listening the film music (I love film music and TFA score is one of my favourites); discussed with my friends Rey's parentage and Kylo's aim and origin story; my mother brought me back a Kylo Ren figurine and a BB-8 toy from her travel to Anaheim (the figurine is a Disney XD one and it is now on my shelf, in such a prominent way) and I watched some SW. I'm now hassling my parents to buy the DVD of TFA, but I had to stop my research to focus on my school work.
This month, I plunge back into SW, bought (and read) the official novelization (both English and French version).

Finally, I found the Cantina and you know what happened next...

 

Ian Solo? Unbelievable .

 

But it's true. A (not too) long time ago, French translations had very strict rules but now, we try to keep the name as they are. For example, in France, we know Darth Vader as Dark Vador and Alderaan as Aldorande. To preserve the continuity, we also say Dark Maul, Dark Sidious, Dark Tyranus.

 

Lol, I guess I'll add this to the random French stuff I already learnt from an old friend who lived there for a year .

 

Yes. If you want other informations about French culture, feel free to ask!

 

Hoth is indeed the best planet ever ~ hahaha

: D

 

The Starkiller Base was marvelous too! Before it's destruction...

 

yeah, they shouldn't have blown it up (though metaphorically it was important to do so).
i fear we will have no more snow this ST and that makes me sad ~ hahaha

 

Best. Thread. Ever.

 

At least we have a water planet on film now .

 

"Star Wars" - I saw it when I was 13 at the Paramount Theater in Eastgate shopping center in Memphis. I had to go to the bathroom and missed the hologram chess match! Outer space had never been this exciting.

"Empire..." - It was great too.

"...Jedi" - The most disappointing movie ever! Another Death Star? Are you effing kidding? Is that the best you can come up with? And why do you have furry merch running around through the movie? It really seemed that George Lucas had mailed that one in. Kinda turned me off from Star Wars for about 30 years.

Episode I & II - I rented these at some point in those 30 years. Here GL goes again, pandering to his toy-buying demographic of 10 year-olds, by starring the movie with a super 10 y.o. Made it through half of the Clone one.

Episode III - I watched this past spring with my 12 y.o. daughter. We watched all 6 movies after we had seen TFA.

TFA - I saw it in January with my 2 daughters. I loved it. I smiled at the Millenium Falcon. I'm here because I got caught up in plot mysteries.

 

I was born in 1983 so I missed the OT in the big screen. So:

- ANH and TESB the Special Edition (1997): I dont remember why I missed ROTJ SE, probably they were not showing in the cinemas around my house. I was already a big fan and I was 14.

- TPM (1999): The waiting for this movie was huuuge. First rumors of the new SW movie started to came out in 1996 and the first picture that I remember that I saw in a magazine was of Mos Espa. In that time I used to buy every single magazine with a tiny picture or text of SW. The premier finally came and I went out of the cinema a littlle dizzy, everything was so different from the OT. I was 16.

- AOTC (2002): I liked Kamino and the clone factory, the romance plot was boring. I was 19.

- ROTS (2005): I hated the transformation of Palpatine (his melted face) and the final with Lars family and Luke was emotive. I was 22.

- TPM 3D (2012?): They just stole my money. The 3D was poor.

TFA (2015): Loved the new characters, Chewbacca, Han's death and the final scene. Snoke was weird and a shock, I liked the feeling.

 

So : i don't remember exactly but i think anh came in my country a year later , i skiped school, my mom got a day off from work and took me to see it , paid two times the price for the tickets outside the cinema (it was sold out), i was 7 , i was in trance, didn't know what to do first, tryin to read the subtitles or see the action , it was awsome ;
esb came, it was a tough year for me, my dad passed away a year before , it was what i need it to get trough that period ;
rotj - well , it was 1986 i think , the cold war was at his peak , no western movies were shown in cinema anymore , i've seen a comercial on tv, not romanian tv of course , was a tv chanel from our neighbours Yugoslavia and i was blown : those speedsters in the forest, the emperor in all his splendor ( those lightning strikes , i was wooooot ) and boom! i couldn't see it anywhere : ( , i had to wait until 1990 , after the revolution , and watched on a vhs at a friend on a crapy tv ,but the same , it was awsome . i was 16 and well, i had other things to fill my time , music, sports aaaaaand girls , if i have to wait now 4 years to see the last jedi i don't think i can make it;

the prequels - , first two i've seen them in cinema , i love them, what can i say , give me a sw movie every day , im in , new efects , cool duels , i didn't had much acces on the internet , i wasnt even aware that there is a mass complain among the fans about the pt ,after reading all those complains about them my believes were a litle shaken , but i love them nontheless ;
rots was leaked on line and to my shame i've seen it on a 17 inch monitor , it's the best from pt imo;

TFA - was my first movie seen in 3 D , and was the first sw movie i was ( a litlle ) disapointed after first watch , feeled a little cheap , low budget , no luke, third death star, dunno , probably cause of 3d ; after 20 or even more reruns on my tv i love it more and more with each view , i realize is just the first movie and it was suposed to bring sw back in front line , to meet the new heroes , not to bring closure to the story, now im hyped af for the last jedi .

 

Watched ANH Vhs in 1989 when I was 6 years old. After the 300th rewind it was destroyed.

 

since this thread got bumped, i went and looked for the first theatre i saw Star Wars in.
couldn't find a good picture from the era unfortunately, just this marquee from 1986:



apparently Montwood permanently closed in 2007.

this was a super-flashy place in its heydey.
i spent many late teenage and early college summer nights watching bad movies here (including the ones above).

and yes, all tickets were $1. : D