MBoyd

There was a streaker at my midnight May '99 showing. In the middle of the film he screamed something, ran down the aisle, jumped up and slapped the screen and then ran out the exit.

The Valeyard

My '99 midnight crowd cheered at the 20th Century/Lucasfilm logo, Star Wars title and fanfare, first time Qui Gon and Obi Wan whipped out their lightsabers and bits of the Pod Race. Then quiet for pretty much the rest of the movie. There was some applause for Darth Maul's dual saber. When the end credits rolled, most of the audience left quietly with one guy screaming out "What the fuck!?"

HollywoodLights

The crowd at tonights show where I am was a little more rowdy....mainly my friends. One came armed with a dual bladed lightsaber and kept yelling stuff at the screen the entire film. It felt like rocky horror meets star wars. Quite an experience though.

georgec

Darth Maul resurrected in the EU at the same time that TPM is re-released into theaters?

Shocking.

My Other Self

I honestly don't remember anything happening when I saw Episode I.

I remember seeing it opening day, but I went around dinnertime. I remember anticipating huge lines and went in without many people in there. It opened on a Wednesday, didn't it?

Looking back, nothing was memorable about the experience but I remember telling my father how disappointing it was and how I was bored. I was 12 at the time but the only thing I took from the showing was how awesome Ray Park was as Darth Maul. It's sad but I may have been more disappointed by Episode II since I was hoping it was going to be miles better then TPM but I had that pegged wrong.

Jason

I don't remember much about the line or crowd for Episode I. I just remember the oddly ambivalent feelings my buddy and I had about it during the ride home. I remember a much longer line and livelier audience for the Episode IV special edition release.

Still, the most amazing theatrical experience I ever had was Fellowship of the Ring. For three hours, a packed theater made virtually no sound. No coughing, no talking, no fidgeting, and no cell phones. I seriously don't even think anyone got up to go to the can. Absolute rapt attention, and the audience left (slowly during the credits) in silence. Unlike TPM, I think they were all just completely blown away.

Osiris3657

You should see all your movies at these places: Sundance (downtown where the Angelika used to be), any Alamo Theater, or any Studio Movie Grill. Those theaters don't put up with that kind of shit and will kick people out.
Sundance is the nicest theater in Houston and has the best crowds, never had any issues. They are always quiet, polite and respectful. And yes they are showing Phantom Menace this weekend.

davidh777

My favorite part of TPM: The opening when QGJ and OWK are first talking, because it brings back my memories of thinking to myself, "Cool, we're watching a new Star Wars movie!" It quickly goes downhill after that.

TGM

this this this this this this 100 million times this! I remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing up when I saw the SW logo and the opening crawl... then the very opening scene. I was in heaven... for about 2 minutes.

Artman

Nothing really memorable about seeing I-III either... and that was opening day for all of them. Ep IV in 1997 was a lot more fun, people in costume, laughing a lot, etc. The audience reaction to TPM trailer was amazing... it was playing before The Mummy, which was packed... and during the final moments someone yells "STAAAAR WAAAAAARS!! and everyone cheered and clapped.

Giles

there's been mixed thoughts on the 3D conversion, but I still want to see this and am trying to pick the right theater to see this at, in terms of properly calibrated brightness and audio

mhg83

Why the 'Star Wars' Prequels Are Better Than the Original Trilogy


It verges on cinematic treason to suggest that the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy is in any way superior to the original trilogy. However, history has proved that treasonous behavior is just as often necessary to stimulate progressive revolution as it is to endow malevolent forces with unrestricted authority necessary to obstruct basic human rights. So here goes: the first three episodes in the saga of Anakin Skywalker are deeper, better structured, and more politically astute than the final three. Not only is that why the prequel is superior, it is also a pretty decent elucidation of the original trilogy's greater popularity.

That the "Star Wars" trilogy embraced by American moviegoers is the one that presents a far less complex universe is not incidental to the rabid rebuke of the prequel. "A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi" reflect the Cold War milieu in which they were created, offering up a comforting us-vs.-them story told in bold strokes lacking nuance, complexity, or intellectual ambiguity. That isn't to say that times have changed much; with the exception of "The Phantom Menace," the second and third installments of the prequel were released to an America that had embraced absolute views even more so than the original trilogy.

The difference is that the original trilogy appealed directly to the simplistic moral perspective of an America above reproach and always on the side of right in global geopolitics, whereas the much more subversive prequel trilogy stands in defiant counterpoint to the much more dangerously simplistic moral absolutism of the Age of Bush.

The original trilogy holds a special place in the bosom of American moviegoers precisely because we view ourselves comfortably in place of the Rebels. Americans revel in their historical construct as rebellious underdogs constantly at war against an easily identified and unquestionably evil empire. Hence, the reason most Americans love the original trilogy has much to do with placement of ourselves in the role of the inheritors of the mantle of the Jedi.

The problem is that the post-9/11 world meant Americans also were forced to identify themselves with the Jedi in the prequel trilogy as well, and we don't like the face we see in the mirror. Let's face it, the Jedi don't exactly come off too swell in the prequel. This time around they are the guys in charge, and it is painful to watch them screw it up, especially when the way they hand over the keys to the Empire is so eerily familiar to a historical era defined by words like "signing statements" and "Patriot Act."

Just in case you didn't notice in your rush to castigate Jar-Jar Binks and complain about the wooden dialogue of the prequel, the peaceful Galactic Republic in place at the beginning of "The Phantom Menace" doesn't turn into the dark empire in place at the beginning of "A New Hope" due to an invasion by a foreign element. The Republic falls as a result of due democratic process, albeit due democratic process that is manipulated through lies and deception. Again, sound familiar?

Watching the "Stars Wars" prequel trilogy is like the most entertaining lesson in civics ever given -- specifically the way it reveals how even a republic peopled by representative leaders with the best of intentions can make decisions that result in disastrous policies, accompanied by devastation and the crumbling of great ideas. Yoda's observations about anger, hate, fear, and suffering are not said lightly; they may be the most prescient words spoken by a movie character in recent memory.

Not much less important is another quote associated with "The Phantom Menace," a quote that hasn't proved anywhere near as memorable as Yoda's but nonetheless plays a huge part in the events that will follow. Chances are you don't even remember these words of Darth Maul: "Fear is my ally." One can well imagine that slogan scrawled across the office walls of men like Scooter Libby and tattooed across the back of Dick Cheney.

Nowhere in the original "Star Wars" trilogy is there any sequence of events nearly as profound in their application to real life as Palpatine's manipulative orchestration of the separatist movement "headed" by Count Dooku. Palpatine's nefarious scripting of events allows him to go before the senate and ask for special "emergency powers" to deal with the growing threat facing the peace of the republic. Perhaps if Americans had embraced the prequel in the way they did the original "Star Wars" trilogy, they would recognize the danger when an elected member of a representative republic asks for "emergency powers" to combat a threat.

Palpatine's actions in the prequel are positively Machiavellian, and his evil in those first three movies is far more chilling than his appearances as the emperor in the original trilogy. In those movies, Palpatine is so far removed from us we can only approach him from the perspective of a Hitler. We must always remember that Hitler didn't ascend to dictator by using tanks, but the ballot box.

Just as Palpatine is far more chilling as a politician abusing the system than he is as an emperor in comprehensively malevolent control, so is Anakin Skywalker far more chilling as a powerless pawn than he is as powerful Darth Vader. No more alarming scene exists in the entire "Star Wars" canon than the political conversation that takes place in "Attack of the Clones" between Anakin and Amidala when the boy-who-would-be Vader suggests the system is broken and needs to be replaced with something where one person in charge has the power to enforce laws he feels are for the good of the people. Amidala replies, rightfully, that what Anakin is talking about sounds like a dictatorship. And then these all-too-familiar words from Anakin: "Well, if it works."

Anakin's justification that if authoritarian control works in keeping us safe was being repeated on a daily basis by those in charge at the very time the scene was being projected onto multiplex screens around the world. Too many Anakin Skywalkers existed then and, amazingly, exist right now in this country who are far too eager to give up hard-earned civil rights for the illusion of security. And it is the very fact that one can write about Anakin without calling him either evil or good that elevates the prequel above the original. Try naming a single character in the original trilogy that can attain such an authentic level of ambiguity.

There is absolutely no element or character in the original trilogy that isn't delineated in stark black and white terms. Episodes IV through VI tell a much happier story, one that is consistent with the birth of the American democracy through acts of rebellion by a ragtag group of people who held the moral high ground. Episodes I through III, by contrast, tell a much less happy story about how a democracy can come to an end -- not at the hands of foreign interlopers, but directly through the democratic process itself. More people may prefer the original "Star Wars" trilogy, but there is no question that the prequel is a more challenging, illuminating, and superior work of art.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/why-sta...160300514.html

islandclaws

Armond White writes for Yahoo?

Obi-Wanma

^^ I don't care about any of that crap. The OT was FUN. The PT is not. That's all that matters.

PopcornTreeCt

Don't even remember Darth Maul saying "fear is my ally"? Seriously isn't this used in the marketing campaign right now?!

Supermallet

That's ridiculous. Two years after Star Wars, Francis Ford Coppola released Apocalypse Now, an epic condemnation of America's involvement in Vietnam. It was critically lauded, made $80 million in 1979 dollars, and is considered an American classic. The idea that people dislike the prequels because they're critical of America is silly. They dislike the prequels because they're poorly written and acted. Lucas may have been trying to say something about American politics, but he didn't have the talent or wit to execute it successfully.

mcnabb

I said earlier that the PT fans WAY overnanalyze these movies like they are fucking Shakespeare. The question I ask myself after every movie I see? Was it good or not? Star Wars and Empire are great movies, IMO, and Phantom, Clones, Sith and even Jedi are just bad movies, IMO.

You don't need to write a book to explain why this and that movie are great. Only PT fans do this shit! And Episode I was filmed in 1997 and Episode II was filmed in 2000, so werent they 'written' in a pre-9/11 world that goes against his whole argument?

Michael Corvin

Interesting read, but that was my first thought.

And this was my second thought.

anomynous

9/11 made people not like the PT?



Alright then.

Supermallet

The terrorists have truly won.

davidh777

Maybe they would have won if we DID like it

Joe Schmoe

Lucas says of 3D in this week's Entertainment Weekly:

"I don't like the gimmick part of it. I don't like things coming out into the audience. I like everything to be behind the proscenium. I think that's where the real advantage of 3-D is."

Couldn't disagree more. I'm disappointed when I watch a 3D movie and nothing pops out of the screen. This conversion doesn't sound like it's worth checking out.

windom

Not to go too much Star Wars nerd on you, but isn't The Clones Wars considered to be part of the official cannon and not part of the expanded universe?

RocShemp

That was dialogue recorded exclusively for a Darth Maul-centric TV spot for the original theatrical release of Episode I.

milo bloom

Eh, kinda makes sense to me. There's even a Lucas quote from way back about why he started with Episode 4: he said that the first three stories were the "political stuff" and that the audiences would find it boring. Hmm, sounds about right.

Freely admitting that there are serious dialogue and story structure issues, the basic story of the prequels is a good one. It's even mentioned in the prologue of the novelization of A New Hope:


Like I said, the basic story is good, though I would have tweaked to have the story of TPM occur in the first act or first half of Episode 1, time jump to older Anakin and the start of the Clone Wars. Episode 2 is all Clone Wars, perhaps focussing on one or two critical battles that were also turning points in Anakin's story, and then Revenge of the Sith. But the idea of the Republic falling because of the ineptitude of what should be the hero Jedi, and the Senate voting themselves into an dictatorship, that's pretty good stuff in my humble opinion.