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First impressions What were they?

#1 User is offline   Paladin Icon

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Posted 11 October 2004 - 10:17 AM

Well, since I've only started two Star Wars threads during my entire stay here, I decided to be a little more active and start a thread that has something to do with things other than hating the Prequels.

So here's the wang: What were your first impressions of the Star Wars universe when you encountered it for the FIRST time. Now I know that some of you must have been very young when they did that, but try to dig up your memories a bit.

The bizzare thing about my first impressions is that I saw several parodies of the Star Wars films and several objects (namely school bags and lunch boxes) that were made BEFORE I saw the actual movies. So here was my first impression of Star Wars: the first thing I saw is a lunchbox with Darth Vader on it and several storm troopers taking Leia prisoner. I didn't know what he was, so I asked my dad about it and he said, 'That's a a mechanical man and the swtichl board on his suit is how he controls himself.' That's what he said and he didn't know what Star Wars was. Oh yeah, and he never explained who Leia was either. smile.gif

When that happened, I just thought it was a 'stand alone' lunchbox with no signifcance... but I was only 5 years old and I really didn't know much about movies and franchies at the time!

So what were your first impressions of the Star Wars universe? Come on, blurt it out! biggrin.gif
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#2 User is offline   ernesttomlinson Icon

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Posted 11 October 2004 - 11:51 PM

I had a similar experience. When I was quite small--this would have been late '70s or so--I got a Star Wars blankie for my bed. Who knows where my folks got it; neither of them gives a rap for sci-fi of any variety. Probably they got it at a thrift shop. Anyway, it was a cheap print of the classic, slightly ridiculous "Star Wars" poster (Luke holding his saber aloft, Leia alongside in a cheesecake pose, &c.)

The movies didn't really "sink in" for me until the 1997 rereleases. I remember watching "Star Wars" and "Empire Strikes Back" on laserdisc in college in 1994 but somehow they didn't make the impression on me that watching them on the big screen at the now-defunct Cinema 21 single-screen theatre in San Diego. But this has been something of a pattern for me. I read "The Fellowship of the Ring" when I was about eight, read the whole "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" when I was about eleven or twelve, but not until I read the LOTR again about two years later did they really kindle my imagination.
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#3 User is offline   Chefelf Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 08:06 AM

Sadly I have no memories of life prior to Star Wars. I was born less than six months after the first movie was released. My earliest memories involve Star Wars already being a prominent part of my life.
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#4 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 10:20 AM

I saw The Empire Strikes Back at my neighbour's place when I was tiny. I was too young to understand it at the time though... I thought the AT-ATs were lions (WTF?) so that should you give you an idea how young I was. Funny, what you can remember sometimes.

What's funny is that when I saw it later, I was under the impression that the original Star Wars would show how Anakin became Darth Vader. When I finally saw that movie, I wondered "Who the hell starts a series at Episode IV?" So even back then, I thought there was something a little odd about Lucas.

I asked my parents and older siblings if they'd seen Episodes I - III but they told me those movies didn't exist. So I thought that was really strange.

I saw Star Wars later on... in Grade Two. My teacher showed it to us... man, that teacher will always be remembered fondly... and not just because she was a babe (yeah, I was interested in attractive older women right from the word "go"). But I digress.

I do remember feeling that something was amiss with Return of the Jedi when I finally saw it but at the time, I was so young that I could enjoy the stupidity. But the older I got, the less appealing that movie became until it reached the stage where... well, you know how I stand on it now.

I watched these movies many many many times over.... well over a thousand times each... so I forget the rest of the details. It's hard to remember when I didn't know anything about it.

I can remember seeing commercials for the movies when they came on TV and when I saw them, I always wanted to watch the films. I knew about the films probably since I learned to walk and talk... and waited eagerly to see them.

I wasn't disappointed. smile.gif
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#5 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 10:58 AM

I'll be lazy and quote myself from back in June, from a thread title "Your Very First Time" (I've done my best to remove my typos):


I was nine in 1977, and hadn't seen very many films in the theatre by that time. I was an avid comic book reader, mostly following the silver age marvel stuff and the chessiest cornball DC stuff I could get my hands on. I used to collect the Jimmy Olson and the (far superior, though corny as hell) Lois Lane stuff, as well as Flash and Shazam, of all things. For some reason I had no tolerance for cornball Batman, so steered clear of all the stuff from a decade before; fortunately in the seventies Batman was on his own again and often quite serious.

I encountered STAR WARS first as a comic book series, although of course I knew it was out there. The toy revolution followed long after the films, so it wasn't like the kids at school were running around with the Kenner action figures and generating interest. The closest I came to a pop-culture awareness of the film was seeing C3P0 on the cover of TIME magazine and wishing I had the $2 or whatever it was to grab a copy to read. No way; all of my money I spent on comic books.

By 1978 I had the screenplay, a year's worth of further adventures from Marvel (including a Roy Thomas(?) story about a water world that would later figure prominently in the Holiday Special), and the novel. It was high time I saw the damned thing. I told my parents, and they they packed all the kids into the station wagon and we went to the drive-in, where it was playing in a double-bill with BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (I shit you not). Of course in those days the drive-in didn't broadcast on AM radio, so you had to grab that little speaker and hook it on to your car window.

It was a gorgeous summer night and I watched the movies from the roof of the car with my younger brother and a friend from his school. They were equally enthralled by the back-up feature, but I had no interest in it. Even at that tender age I knew a lame ripoff when I saw one, and frankly I was also a little scandalized by how blatantly it ripped off the Bible. I knew lazy writing when I saw it, and there I was, looking at it on the big screen.

It was just getting good and dark when STAR WARS started; BG had been washed out somewhat (even though it was the new release, they'd played it first, as a back-up to STAR WARS). The opening text crawl looked just like it had in the comic (no "Episode IV;" no "A New Hope"), and just like the Flash Gordon serials that had been rerunning on a local station in the wake of STAR WARS. I had seen THE LION MEN OF MONGO and was I think well into FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE. It had never occured to me that the opening text in the comic was an homage to Flash Gordon until I saw it on the screen. I was instantly enthralled.

EMPIRE I saw after school when a good friend's maiden aunt rushed us out from the three o'clock bell all the way from the the suburbs to the city. Those of you familiar with Vancouver may know that at that time the Stanley Theatre showed movies, and damn it was a classy joint. Much nicer now, of course, that it is back to being a venue for plays, but as a kid I was impressed by the great architecture and not yet sophisticated enough to know that a stage theatre just doesn't have the acoustics for film. The screen was so big that the movement of the snowspeeder gave a real sense of vertigo. I knew nothing going in, since I had doggedly avoided spoilers (in those days, this was pretty easy to do), and of course this is the formative filmgoing experience of my life. In the months that followed, I bought up all of the non-repetitive EMPIRE literatre I could, including a journalistic piece writen by some guy they invited to document the filming. I was still buying the comics of course, which had matured ever-so-slightly, and I saw the film in the theatre nine times in its initial run.

I've said enough of my opening-day JEDI experience: suffice to say I was pleased and yet simultaneously underwhelmed. Luke/Leia left me cold, the die-hards actually booed when Kenobi said "certain point of view", and it was really just another movie, since by that time I was more intrigued by the idea of a RAIDERS follow-up than by a ho-hum STAR WARS finale. I can say, however, that I saw an opening-day film in the days when that meant something: playing in only one theatre at that time of day, that was the screening that ALL the die-hards went to. These days opening day is such a big deal that the first-screening crowd is dispersed in different rooms all over town. I saw Tim Burton's BATMAN in a JEDI-style opening-day experience as well: there is nothing like all that concentrated fanaticism to make the moment memorable.

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nostalgia buffs may view the original, with the typos intact, and the entire thread here:

http://www.chefelf.c...p?showtopic=948

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I think I said a lot there about my first impression, but just to make sure it's clear, STAR WARS became a bit of a fixation for a while. I avidly anticipated EMPIRE and JEDI, read the comics and wrote fan fiction, and followed the careers of the actors as though that were somehow in support of the films I loved (I even ran out to see UNDER THE RAINBOW). Affiliated material was of great interest as well; when I heard 2001 was being rereleased in 1980, I was there, and seeing that for the first time at the age of 12 was probably as bewildering to me as it was for anyone who saw it in its day. I blame STAR WARS for my later interest in roleplaying games, and Carrie Fisher (And Kate Jackson) for my lifelong attraction to the smarter gals, with strong opinions and quick wits.

And that's my initial impression of STAR WARS.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
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#6 User is offline   Madam Corvax Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 12:23 PM

Civ.. Could it be the reason that I have a feeling that you find me attractive too? wub.gif

Anyway, my first impression is out there too. Twin set on tatooine..
Any I blame SW for several things too. My childish belief in universal values like love, courage...
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#7 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 06:41 PM

MC, anyone who can crack wise before chopping off the head of the Witch King is all right by me.

wub.gif
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
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#8 User is offline   Just your average movie goer Icon

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Posted 12 October 2004 - 07:10 PM

Why don't both of you get a room?
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#9 User is offline   Madam Corvax Icon

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Posted 13 October 2004 - 12:21 AM

JYAMG, you are just being jealous, aren't you? wink.gif
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#10 User is offline   jariten Icon

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Posted 13 October 2004 - 02:57 AM

my first impressions are actually pretty blurry. ive got memories of

* getting scared when the Rancor eats the guard

* getting an x-wing for xmas, putting the `battle damage` stickers on it, then immediatly regretting it (anyone know what im talking about here?)

*rewatching the rescue scene in Jedi again and again

* having no idea what order they were in (taped them off the tv and missed the first few minutes of each)

ok, so the second one isnt related to the films directly as such, but i thought id share anyway.
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Posted 13 October 2004 - 06:40 AM

Sorry about the crude comment, Madam... it was actually having a little fun at Civilian's expense. cool.gif He is my mortal enemy afterall...


And Jariten - welcome back, mate. Haven't seen you for ages.
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#12 User is offline   SimeSublime Icon

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Posted 13 October 2004 - 08:12 AM

It all gets a bit hazy, seeing as Star Wars is a lot older then me, it was quite ingrained in the public by the time I got to it. I remember it being really big, and I was excited to see it when we taped it off of tv, but I don't think I actually watched an entire movie until I was seven. I just got bored and stopped midway through. I know I used to think that Jedi was the best, simply on the fact that it was the last and hence had to be the climax. Marketing wasn't all that big around here in my time, so I never saw any of the toys and stuff.
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#13 User is offline   Give Me The Originals Dammit Icon

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Posted 13 October 2004 - 01:58 PM

The first time I saw Star Wars was in 1980 when they rereleased it prior to Empire coming out. (remember when they used to rerelease films in the theatres before VCR's were huge? God I feel old) Anyway I must have been around 6 at the time, but I remember being totally engrossed in this movie, only for how grand it was, I've never seen science fiction on this scale before, from the music to the space battles, and the special effects (as dated as they may seem now, these were pretty mind blowing back in those days) Star Wars pretty much ruined me for any kind of sci-fi, because nothing looked, sounded , or could match what I believed science fiction should be. It wasn't until I was older when I could fully grasp storylines that I began to appreciate other forms of sci-fi, as opposed to how it looked. I'm a firm believer that science fiction has no middle ground, Either it's going to be good or it's going to be crap, there's no "it was ok" with science fiction. I'm getting off topic, sorry. After watching the films when I was older I found Star Wars to acttually hold up as to being a great movie. (Have you ever watched something you loved as a kid, only to go "what the hell did I ever see in this"?, this wasn't the case with Star Wars)
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#14 User is offline   Emlyn Icon

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Posted 13 October 2004 - 07:24 PM

My story is much like Chefelf's in that . . . there really isn't one. happy.gif I wasn't completely obsessed with Star Wars when I was a kid or anything, I just don't remember a time when I didn't know about it . . . my big brother, 7 years older than me, had the movies and the t-shirts and the skateboard with Luke on it and I probably saw the trilogy for the first time when I was like a toddler. Because of my brother, even though I grew up in the 90s I grew up with Star Wars.
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#15 User is offline   jariten Icon

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Posted 14 October 2004 - 01:41 AM

QUOTE
And Jariten - welcome back, mate. Haven't seen you for ages.


smile.gif

yeah, ive just been waiting for someone to post an entertaining rant thread that we can all fight on

laugh.gif
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