The first one was a cultural phenomenon. If you weren't around in '77 then you never saw anything like it. The 2nd "Empire" was a very good movie, dark, sinister, actually good dialogue since Lucas hired another to write it. The 3rd "Return" was maybe worth it just to see Princess Leia in that skimpy outfit, a chain attached to her neck held by the Intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hut.
Then "Phantom" blew, "Clones" blew, "Revenge" blew. The last two I never even saw in the theater but only when my kid bought the DVDs. Maybe the next three have a chance with Lucas out of the picture and Disney on it. We'll see.
I was born in '83, after Jedi. but I can remember having the original trilogy on VHS in the mid 80's. I had some of the toys - especially remember R2D2. Later, once I had a Nintendo, I got all the games this followed in the 90's with SNES and PC games, especially loving Dark Forces and the original Rogue Squadron. I was 13 when the rereleases "Special Editions" came to theaters. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to see them all on the big screen. The experience was awesome, but the flaws were obvious and the changes not generally needed.
Oh, never mind the "Han shot first" argument, it really should be, "Han shot only!"
In '99 when Phantom Menace was released. Again, I rushed to the theater to see it. I was mostly disappointed. It's a bad movie, with none of the charm of the Original Trilogy. The only bright spots being the performances of Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor - even though the script itself sucked, the menace of Darth Maul - even with the dumb name, he "mauls," get it? Also the saber battle between these three is the greatest in the entire series. But these did little to make TPM remotely rewatchable. No need to go over the myriad of flaws. The next two films were even worse than TPM. McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi - fantastic performance, everything else - total crap.
