aethelfrith

Unlike most on here I'd imagine, I was very much a child of the prequels. Born in 1993 I would have been, what, 6 or 7 when TPM came out? That said, I distinctly remember watching the OT first. I remember sitting on the sofa (of a house we moved into in '97) and my parents saying I should watch the Star Wars films. I had to have only been 5 or 6, which in hindsight is extremely young for films that contain a lot of dark elements. It has to be true because I distinctly remember watching them before TPM came out. It was definitely my first exposure to Star Wars. They were VHS tapes, don't know which year, but older copies and untouched by special effects and I sat with my dad and watched them.

I loved them and absolutely fell in love with Star Wars; far too young to properly engage with the story or the concepts perfectly but I knew I loved it. I guess at this point I was perfect target for the PT, because TPM came out the next year and I loved that too. I had all kinds of toys from both TPM and from the original trilogy and I loved the video games too; particularly a game called 'Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds' that was basically a Age of Empires clone with Star Wars factions taken from the OT and the new film. In many ways I followed the perfect arc for taking in the new Star Wars films, right after I got bored of dinosaurs and right up until I discovered girls. I remember seeing AotC in cinemas when it first came out and the same with RotS on launch night. I liked them too, again at 13 I was perfect age for probably the darkest of the 3 prequels films.

In the end, I largely grew out of all the toys and games etc (unlike many others!) and it wasn't until about 4 years ago I went back to watch them all. First I remember watching the OT, this time they were updated versions. I fell in love with them all over again, this time older and with far greater appreciation of them as films. I was however furious at the changes and had no idea before I stuck the films on. There's the obvious ones but it was particularly when I got to ROTJ where it infuriated me. The Lapti Nek song really stuck in my young mind, the oddness of it felt totally alien - and they removed it for that rubbish! Then the stupid beak over the sarlacc pit, argh! The open mouth in the ground was so disgusting and real, I was utterly grossed out by it as a child and now it was ruined. Then, of course, topped off by the oddity of Hayden turning up at the end instead of the old guy I remembered from my childhood. I guess in many ways this didn't annoy me as much though because I was yet to realise how bad the prequels actually were.

I watched them next, and couldn't believe how bad they were seeing them with adult eyes. Boring plot, terrible script and acting, and I didn't find the eye candy cool like I did when I was younger. I distinctly remember watching the Gungan battle scene on repeat when I had it on VHS! Now though, watching it back, they are just terrible films. Not only that though, but, the CGI has dated HORRENDOUSLY. There's a particular scene in the droid factory in AotC that looks terrible now, truly terrible.

So it was at roughly this point, I realised the PT sucked. When I watched them as an adult. Straight away, they fell apart. This is what I don't understand about prequel fans who aren't children; they really are just terrible when you watch them as an adult. There's nothing there to admire or hook you in, they're just bad kids films. Then I watched the Red Letter Media reviews and I saw truly in just how many ways they suck. I wouldn't dare watch the prequel films now, but I love the OT and will always cite them as some of my all time favourite movies.