I don't even LIKE Star Wars anymore

I have no idea why the whole universe still works so well for me, I've outgrown almost all of my early childhood favorites over the years. I'm becoming more and more secretive of my love for the series (yes, the WHOLE series) because it's simply not possible to defend myself anymore.

I'm 33 years old, grew up with this shit, A New Hope is the first movie I remember seeing, and I don't even have the undying hate for the prequels most do, and yet I totally agree.

Except for Empire, which I can watch over and over. I guess that's the only one I need anymore.

Try shrooming on them, I kid you not.

I'm not surprised, Patrick.

You think so? I hated "A new hope" watching under that circumstances. Hated it. It literally was a peak behind the curtain and what I saw was not pretty.

But to answer on the topic: Like many around here I grew up with the movies and toys. And your allegiance metaphor hits home with me. When I last tried to give them a shot they simply didn´t click. Didn´t even tickle nostalgic feelings. It was a weird experience.

Sad to say, but I am completely with you on this one. There was a time that if I caught any of the original trilogy on tv I'd certainly watch it, now I can barely sit through 15 minutes of them. The oversaturation of all things SW has just gotten ridiculous, to the point where I find myself annoyed that they are putting that cartoon in theatres. I never hoped for or intended this to happen, its been nine years since TPM and the marketing machine is still going, I just want it to stop.

Most movies on shrooms are total sensory overloads for me, but the OT and its gentle John Williams cues made for some smooth sailin'.

I still love the original trilogy, but I think I'm done with any new stuff. That new animated film doesn't nudge my interest one iota.

Despite some views to the contrary - I'm looking at you Joe Campbell - these films aren't deep. It's likely you've pulled a Spike on Aliens. Give it ten years, maybe revisit it then. The well is dry.

That was exactly the point where I knew that whatever spell it had over me was unrefutable gone. These stuff doesn´t even raise any curiosity in me.

I've gotten to the point that I won't watch the originals without a good reason simply because I know I have been overexposed to the Star Wars universe at this point. I don't want to find myself in your shoes, Patrick, and since absence makes the heart grow fonder...

I want to share the original trilogy with my future children and be able to talk about them without worrying about too much sarcasm/exhaustion seeping into my tone.

Oh, and I second Luca's comments. I had an absolute blast seeing New Hope on shrooms at the Mann Chinese (for the re-release).

It'll probably be a couple of years before I revisit the OT. I still think "Empire" is magic, but we've been browbeaten with the saga for over 10 years now, from the release of the Special Editions in '97 to the "Clone Wars" video game cutscreens that are being released as a feature this August. It's too much of something that can hardly be described any longer as a good thing.

Maybe I still like them because my adult mind sees them as expensive art film projects. I kind of like the fact that they're built to be predictable and represent every story ever told. I've always had an interest in mythology too, when I was a kid I pretty much obsessed over dinosaurs and Greek mythology.

I'm not arguing anything, by the way, I'm just trying to figure out what it is that keeps me coming back. It has to be something visceral rather then intellectual I suppose.

I've lost my love for the original trilogy for the same reason I'm beginning to rethink how I feel about Bill Clinton.

I just compared Hillary to the prequels. I win this thread.

Patrick, are you kind of live-blogging this now while you are watching?

Yeah, that's not going to help you do anything cept pass the time.

I'm with Patrick on this one, but whilst I will admit I have a least respect for the technique on show in Aliens I just can't find anything to love in A New Hope. It's so just so dry and as Patrick pointed out the dialogue is absolutely fucking atrocious.

I still kinda dig elements of Empire though, but I think it's the only film in the series with any actual solidity from a directorial standpoint.

Well, may the force be with you. I am sorry.

What sacred cow will fall next? It better not be YOUNG GUNS II.

I've been tempted to write about a fairly recent trilogy of films that left me cold, but I think I'd get eviscerated for typing it. I think even thinking it is probably a cinematical crime.

LOTR? Wow, maybe I'm not alone.

Screw you. Kieslowski's RED, WHITE, and BLUE trilogy still rocks.

I'm with you 100%.
Having Beyonce in the third one ruined everything.

I think that Red is far too indulgent a piece of filmwork after the bleak and bruising Blue. You can't expect audiences to reconcile those two films and I think White doesn't really do enough to create an emotional bridge between the two. I always suspected that the three films would have worked far better, for me, as singular features.

As it is I ended up watching all three over one night and found them a little bit discordant, but maybe that's the entire point because The Declaogue was working with similar discordant tones for its individual stories.

To describe Star Wars by abusing a useless phrase: It is what it is. I think it's a fun and imaginative exploration of a fantasy world, but I'm not going to revisit it for many years.

THOUGHT CRIME DETECTED

Deploying agents to Leeds, UK - Marshall residence

PO-TAY-TOES

Also, if you were to watch Star Wars in a theater you'd probably ctach the bug again. Distracted home viewings are only good for shitty movies.

I have a friend that has never seen a Star Wars or an Indiana Jones movie and he never cares to. He can spot a well-made movie when he sees one, but he doesn't watch movies that are fun. Hell, he didn't even like KISS KISS, BANG BANG (a first for me). Patrick, maybe you have the same problem. Perhaps you can't have fun with movies like you used to.

As for me, the trench run is still pretty magical.

The first time I deleted a Star Wars official site "Homing Beacon" newsletter without reading it, I could feel my childhood weeping. Now it's just regular practice, but I still feel sad when I do. It's your fault, Lucas! You made me do it!

Maybe a bit of a derail but I've been a bit meh on my regular movies of late. If I was 12 and saw that Indiana Jones, Batman, some type of Star Wars, and James Bond all are coming out the same year I would have exploded or killed a few people in frenzied excitment. Now I'm just cynically bracing myself for which one will be the worst.

I enjoyed putting my Laserdiscs of Star Wars and Empire a couple of months ago, I haven't done it for years and I'm sure it will several years before I do it again.

Most of the enjoyment I've been getting from movies lately is from catching up with classic's on TCM. I realize it's the aging process but it's disapointing that my enjoyment of newly discovered classics isn't nearly the same as my frothing at the mouth childhood love of the adventure movies.

I used to really like 'the star wars universe'. The idea that there was robots and jedis and aliens, spaceships, etc.

That underlying concept helped me really love the films.

The prequels really destroyed that foundation. In a New Hope when Obi-Wan mentions Anakin being friends and fighting in the Clone War, the whole thing seems much more stupid now.

So with that destroyed, the films really have to stand up on their own merit. I could watch Empire over and over, and parts of the other two but that's about it. It's fair to say I don't actually like Star Wars anymore.

I was actually going to start a thread about whether movies in general get better or worse for people over time. I'm in the camp where no matter how great the film, if I watch a film too many times I will start disliking it and I have to stop watching it anymore.

I've found that the more I've divorced myself from the obsessive fandom -- reading every book, buying every toy, defending the prequels, watching the OT constantly -- the more I appreciate the OT. Now it's just about the films, not the universe.

If you've seen the OT more times than you can count, read a good number of the SW books and collected the toys, then it's no surprise that the films no longer provide the same amount of fun it used to. The movies would have to be fucking perfect to withstand that kind of rewatching and obsessing over.
And to say that the script is terrible and Obi-wan is worse than Jar-Jar seems like nerd-baiting hyperbole. Alec Guinness is worse than a shitty CGI cartoon character? Seriously?

Stop watching the same movies over and over again, people. Take up drinking if your life is so hard you have to escape into the same shit ad infinitum.

Goddamn straight. That's why god created bourbon.

Drinking leads to anger. Anger leads to...

Being more interesting than a STAR WARS quoter.

I've always figured this was my problem with the films. As I said in the You're Just Wrong (not the real name I know but I can't remember) thread when we were predicting future 'winners', the films as a whole are certainly technical masterpieces but when I start watching them i'm asleep almost immeadiately. Course I've only watched each one twice.

The original trilogy still works for me. I certainly agree on the point though that if you watch anything too much it gets boring. I give most movies two or three viewings at the absolute most, with the occasional exceptions. Anything more just becomes excessive, not to mention unwarranted.

Hey, there's nothing childish about liking dinosaurs by the way. They are badass creatures. That's my story at least and I'm sticking to it.

Whuh? I was quoting The Doberman Gang.
I'm pretty sure the old star wars trilogy was never meant to hold up to any kind of scrutiny by adults. All that Joseph Campbell stuff came later in the 80s/90s didn't it?

I think that sounds like an interesting thread. I can't think of many films that have actually gotten better with time. Maybe Dog Day Afternoon and Zodiac?

The prequels went back and ruined the originals. A NEW HOPE, which was always boring (fact!), now takes on the bitter tang of rape.

You know when C3PO gets knocked off a cliff by a Sand Person and goes "WHEEEOOOOOO" in a high-pitched scream? What was once just background action is, now, after exposure to the prequels, more shitty Lucas humour, just in a nascent, even more poorly-staged form.

I've been on a ten-year break from any of the original trilogy. I'd need a reason to revisit it. If you made me pick a reason today, the best I could come up with is to watch the weirdo 70s film grain handmade vibe of the first one, which, no matter what Lucas tells you, he never got back in any of them.

Movies are organic. They don't have to work forever - shit, when we've gone all EM Forster's "The Machine Stops", none of them will.

Is it possible we're overthinking these things people? They are kids' films after all. I see the same thing with Indiana Jones.

And I heartily agree with Devin. Watch some Kurosawa. Or some Truffaut.

My wardrobe is half full of Star Wars T-shirts and I've got Carrie Fisher's picture signed on my wall. But I really don't watch the movies anymore.

I think I like the idea of Star Wars more than I like the movies.