Star Wars had absolutely blown me away. Nothing could live up to it and I would collect just about anything related to it
Empire was a bit of a let down on first viewing, the Battle of Hoth was so awesome, but then the rest of the movie seemed to slow down and then bang, the cliffhangar ending. This was a much darker movie. Even still, it was great movie and one I saw as many times as I could.
While it was not as ground breaking as the first one, it had much more depth to it and stood the test of time
I remember saving up money to buy the 4 LP soundtrack. I would listen to it over and over while pouring over the images in the gatefold sleeve and booklet
Return of the Jedi however was kind of the swan song for Star Wars (at least back then). I was a teenager about to enter High School at the time,
Jedi just failed to connect with me. it had gone much more "kid friendly". I felt kind of disappointed. It had lost it's luster. I only saw it once in the theaters
I still liked A New Hope and Empire, but they no longer consumed most of my attention as girls and music just became more important :lol
It would be years before I fully embraced my nerd side again
I have grown to appreciate Return of The Jedi more than I had at the time, but for me, it was still the weakest of the original trilogy
Nostalgia kicked in and I started collecting some Star Wars models like the AMT AT-AT and X-Wing to try building them right this time compared to when I built them at 10 years old
Then the Prequels came out. On the plus side, it was a new Star Wars film. While not great, they were enjoyable.
There was much more of a convoluted plot. It started to get better by Revenge of the Sith which had some very cool moments.
All in all, I'm glad I got to see them and while not as good as the original, they were worthwhile seeing.
Then the long drought.
In the meantime, I started to discover Fine Molds Star Wars line and was hooked again, Then Bandai came along as well as the announcement of new Star Wars movies
What an amazing time for a Star Wars fan!
Again, while not ground breaking, I think the TFA was perfect for what it was. It hit all the right notes as far as nostalgia, and was certainly more exciting than Phantom Menance
It seemed to be a great start to a promising trilogy
Then Bandai started giving us even more cool models as well as releasing subjects we'd been wishing for in 1/72 scale for years!
Then Rogue One came along and came close to capturing some of the original trilogy magic as well as proving you can have a good Star Wars movie not rehashing the same old plots and characters
Then Last Jedi came along and totally killed that momentum. For the record, I thought the movie was ok and I am glad I saw it. But much like ROTJ back when I was a teen, it left me disappointed.
Solo was a bit of return to form for a Star Wars movie. I'm glad I saw it. It helped restore a little bit of the magic
God, I hope JJ redeems it