This poster... (sigh)
How excited were you when you first saw this poster? It started popping up in movie theaters in late 1998 (The Phantom Menace was released May 19, 1999). My whole childhood I watched the original trilogy. I had the movie set on VHS and watched it religiously. It was my go-to choice.
Needless to say when I first saw that poster at the age of 11, I nearly exploded.
Looking back now, that image is just a haunting reminder of what could have been. I don't think even under the best circumstances the prequels could have lived up to expectations. But for myself and many others, the finished product fell waaaaaaaay short.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time criticizing this movie or the prequels. That has been done to death, and never better than by Red Letter Media. I've even run into some people my age who like the prequels. They didn't grow up with the original trilogy like I did, so the prequels were their first foray into the Star Wars universe. For them, The Phantom Menace works.
The 3-D release of the Phantom Menace has stirred up some bad feelings on my part. The eventual letdown... My 10-year-old cousin wants to go see it. But he doesn't have that connection to the original trilogy. He'll never know. He'll never have that anticipation.
For him, The Phantom Menace is just another movie.
What are your thoughts on the prequels? What was your first reaction to that movie poster?
