For me, I'm in the fortunate position that I can enjoy the original movies the way I always have - since I got the DVDs with the original films. Sure, they weren't restored in any way but they still look great. Personally, I think that's fantastic when you think about it - I mean, Lucas completely shafted these films, hoping that we would be turned off by them and instead, they just continue to dazzle, amaze and stand out on the cinema landscape (I'm not including 'Return of the Jedi' here of course - that just looks worse and worse with each subsequent viewing).
I am a little bothered by the effect it has had on some of the 'Star Wars' literature. Some of you probably know that I am a huge fan of Timothy Zahn's 'Star Wars' novels as I have been raving about them in another thread. Well, one of his novels was set just before the clone wars and since the prequels were out by the time he wrote it, it suffered because of it. Now I am sure Zahn had envisioned something slightly different when he had first conceived of that particular novel and I think it's a shame that we'll never get to see what that was.
As for the prequels themselves, they weren't a cultural phenomen like 'Star Wars' was. They were a fad like Pokemon was. Don't believe me? Consider this - the original 'Star Wars' trilogy was played on television every year when I was growing up and the nights these movies were on were stay-at-home nights. People would talk excitedly the day before and then they'd gossip about them afterwards as if they'd only just seen them. Whereas with the prequels, they're already largely forgotten by the wider community. However, this does bring me to my next point, regarding 'Star Wars' as a cultural phenomen.
In the past, like I said, 'Star Wars' was such a phenomen. However, I believe the prequels may have ruined this by tainting the good name of the original movies. A lot of people in the future will probably get their first exposure to 'Star Wars' through a prequel because of the new ordering system (you know; EPISODE I, II, III, IV, V and VI). And if they think that "The Phantom Menace" is representative of 'Star Wars', they are not going to stick around for the original 'Star Wars' ('EPISODE IV' in Lucas speak).
The other problem is all the revisionist changes that were made to the original movies. Even though it's possible to see the unaltered versions for some of us, for a lot of people, the experience has been too off-putting. Also, if the originals appear on television these days, they are invariably the altered versions - so gone are the stay-at-home-'cause-Star-Wars-is-on-TV nights. Old fans sit down to watch the films with fond feelings of nostalgia... then they see Greedo shooting first and a CGI Jabba and they think "What the hell is this?".
I think all of this will really affect the original films in a bad way because people in the future aren't going to want to watch them. And that's a real pity. These films should be passed down from generation to generation. Although, I guess if any of us have kids, we'll probably show them. My kid would probably ask me "What happens after 'The Empire Strikes Back'?" and I'd say "Well, you see, they never actually got around to making the next movie." Sorry. Couldn't help myself.
The last problem is where does the prequels leave us as 'Star Wars' fans? When I was a kid, I also told people I loved 'Star Wars'. Nowadays, it's just so much more difficult and I have to use a whole lot of qualifiers afterwards...
"Oh, well, you see... when I say I like 'Star Wars', I mean there was a film made in 1977... "
Boy, it was a lot more simple in the past.
This post has been edited by Just your average movie goer: 17 August 2007 - 08:49 PM