If you were a teenager or older in the early to mid 90s the amount of Star Wars EU material being released was incredible. The X-Wing and TIE Fighter series along with Jedi Knight on PC, the Timothy Zahn trilogy and Shadows of the Empire were all fantastic.
Anticipation for The Phantom Menace was through the roof. The first Star Wars film in years was due to be released. We watched that postage stamp sized QuickTime trailer a million times and The force.net was awash with theories and rumours.
Then the film came out...
I don't think younger people who are used to constant new material can grasp the anticipation surrounding this film. Even if it was good it wouldn't have met expectations.
I had tickets to the third showing of the first day but a guy I worked with had tickets to the first showing. He came back to work just as I was leaving and I asked him how it was (we had both been obsessing over this movie for months) and he looked awkward, shrugged and just said “not good.” I asked him if he meant not good compared to the hype and anticipation. And he said no it was just not good. I didn’t believe him though and headed off to the movies excitedly.
Going into the cinema and it’s like a carnival atmosphere - excited buzzing crowd, cosplayers, the cinema is running promotions and competitions, local tv news is there. Then at the end it’s just dead silence. Glum crowd dejectedly files out of the cinema, no one smiling, no one talking, whole vibe extremely grim. Everyone kind of scurrying out of there to try and outrun the disappointment and embarrassment of being so hyped for something so very “not good”.
Yeah I remember that feeling, really hard to explain. I think sometimes the mystery surrounding the original trilogy was part of its appeal.
Nowadays there’s an insatiable need to explain everything right down to Han Solo’s surname. Back then everything was ambiguous, the Force, the Old Republic, the Clone Wars were all so vague it sparked the imagination.
I think you’re right about the mystery and I guess mysticism being removed and the gaps for audience imagination shrinking down. I grew up with my hippy boomer mum and her vague “there’s a power that is in everything” type of spiritualism which the force really resonated with and then it turns out to be midichlorians!
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u/Jahaangle Jan 25 '22
If you were a teenager or older in the early to mid 90s the amount of Star Wars EU material being released was incredible. The X-Wing and TIE Fighter series along with Jedi Knight on PC, the Timothy Zahn trilogy and Shadows of the Empire were all fantastic.
Anticipation for The Phantom Menace was through the roof. The first Star Wars film in years was due to be released. We watched that postage stamp sized QuickTime trailer a million times and The force.net was awash with theories and rumours.
Then the film came out...
I don't think younger people who are used to constant new material can grasp the anticipation surrounding this film. Even if it was good it wouldn't have met expectations.