October 30th, 2012:
A day long remembered. I was angry. I was fearful. I was everything a Jedi shouldn’t be. New Star Wars was coming. And I didn’t know why but I knew I didn’t like it. As time passed I came to terms with what this meant. I was just told the impossible was possible. I was told that you can lift an X-Wing out of a mud hole. And once JJ Abrams was attached to the project I was ready to face my destiny. The destiny we as Star Wars fans all share. The idea that Star Wars will never die. Immortality is exciting and frightening as we watch what was already one of the most powerful franchises become more powerful than we could have possibly imagined.
May 19th, 1999:
A Saga took its first steps into a larger world. Little, 8-year-old YB didn’t see the movie on opening day, but the first showing was an unforgettable trip to the movies. Many will say that Jar Jar, Little Ani, and the massive amounts of CGI was vomit inducing. Well, for me that is a literal statement. The Pod Race pushed my poor, childhood stomach to a nausea so bad I missed most of the second half of the film. Despite this sickening experience I have nothing but fond memories of seeing The Phantom Menace on the big screen. Of seeing how everything began.
May 19th, 2005:
At 12:01 AM, (because midnight shows used to be midnight shows) an older and more constitutionally stable YB saw the end of a beginning. The last shot of Revenge of the Sith is burned into my memory. It’s just a few seconds but was the most memorable part of the film for me. The moment I saw it, with the John Williams score swelling, I knew this binary sunset was it. The end. I was overjoyed – I couldn’t imagine a better final shot for the film. I overcome with sadness – this would be the last new shot of Star Wars I would ever see.
Little did any of us know.
The decision to release both Episode I and Episode III on the same calendar day was almost certainly the result of a business decision and not a creative one. But then again perhaps it was the will of the Force, creating a full circle for this chapter of the Skywalker Saga. Star Wars is a story of cycles fill with repetition in a very poetic fashion. So today I remember the fun of times gone by while I await the next iteration. A new hope of a very different kind is upon us.
