Star Wars Viewing Advice

[Scatter]

Just show them Star Trek TOS and be done with it rather than starting at the bottom.

[Pauspy]

Watch them in order of release. That way your 7 year old can understand why the series was so popular in the first place, then learn the important lesson of what can happen when you take yourself too seriously. 

[long live kong]

My 2 year old daughter has seen all the Star Wars films. Of the six her favourite is Return Of The Jedi. She likes the Ewoks. She loves Jabba. She regularly finds the DVD and implores me to put it on. She becomes bored very quickly with the prequels. Of the 100s of films at her disposal the ones she watches again and again are Labyrinth, with David Bowie in the shockingly tight pants (this is her absolute favourite), Return of the Jedi, Toy Story and Jurassic Park.

She has seen a few mild 'horror' movies, such as Gremlins, Ghostbusters, that sort of thing. She was indifferent to the scary scenes but the other night she was awake quite late and 'The Creature From The Black Lagoon' was on telly. I had to turn it off as it freaked her out! She did not like the creature's hand when it emerges from the water with the loud orchestral music! There is a geometric creature model kit on a shelf in my bedroom which she now calls 'the meany fish!'

[Bogey]

My 2 year old daughter has seen all the Star Wars films. Of the six her favourite is Return Of The Jedi. She likes the Ewoks. She loves Jabba. She regularly finds the DVD and implores me to put it on. She becomes bored very quickly with the prequels. Of the 100s of films at her disposal the ones she watches again and again are Labyrinth, with David Bowie in the shockingly tight pants (this is her absolute favourite), Return of the Jedi, Toy Story and Jurassic Park.

She has seen a few mild 'horror' movies, such as Gremlins, Ghostbusters, that sort of thing. She was indifferent to the scary scenes but the other night she was awake quite late and 'The Creature From The Black Lagoon' was on telly. I had to turn it off as it freaked her out! She did not like the creature's hand when it emerges from the water with the loud orchestral music! There is a geometric creature model kit on a shelf in my bedroom which she now calls 'the meany fish!'

That is awesome!

[Moonshadow]

I think from now on here at the UMA, we should have to refer to Creech as "the meany fish"!!

[general gruesome]

The original trilogy is the best way to go first. I enjoyed some of the newer trilogy but not as much as the original. I would say watch the original first because they are such classics and should be appreciated more than they really are. Plus you can get her more interested in the older trilogy instead of the modern one which is totally dominated-interest wise by most kids and teens nowadays. I was baffled to hear from a younger kid that George Lucas should remake the original trilogy and add-in the modern CGI and special effects  you can imagine the reaction I posed.

[zombiehorror]

Just show them Star Trek TOS and be done with it rather than starting at the bottom.

No comparison between the two (besides that they are set in space) and that is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, it just is!  I grew up with Star Trek/Lost in Space reruns but those shows never really grabbed my attention the way that Star Wars did; I didn't even see a Star Wars flick until well after Empire was out, which was actually the first one I saw and I was an instant fan.  I saw every episode of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers religiously, well before I ever saw Star Wars and those movies just blow all of those shows away in my opinion.

[Scatter]

Gotta admit, I LOVED the first SW movie in '77. Don't know why but I never got around to seeing any of the other ones. But personally, I think the best of the Star Trek motion pictures are better than the original SW. SW is too cartoonish for my tastes.

[zombiehorror]

I would recommend giving Empire Strikes back a chance, it has always seemed to me to be the darkest flick of the original trilogy!  But if you think the original flick was cartoony then definitely avoid Return of the Jedi; those Ewoks will have you setting your phaser for disintegrate/kill.

[Scatter]

I would recommend giving Empire Strikes back a chance, it has always seemed to me to be the darkest flick of the original trilogy!  But if you think the original flick was cartoony then definitely avoid Return of the Jedi; those Ewoks will have you setting your phaser for disintegrate/kill.

That seems to be the consensus........."Empire" is supposed to be really good. Yeah, and I already hate the freaking Ewoks just from the pics. I can't stand cutsie crap like that.

[zombiehorror]

I've always heard that originally the whole Ewok episode was supposed to be Wookies but it was deemed unfeasible to make that many Wookie costumes; you know with Ewoks George doubled his onscreen "aliens" since 2 Ewok suits could be made from the same material as 1 Wookie.  This vision of a Wookie inhabited planet of course would be realized (unfortunately) in one of the new Star Wars flicks!  The Wookies getting their revenge on the Empire would have been way more poignant seeing that in Star Wars lore the Empire totally decimated (or so they thought) the Wookies during the raid on their planet.

Oh and of course the other realization of a Wookie planet was seen way back in 1978 during the Star Wars Christmas Special~

The Star Wars Holiday Special - "Happy Life Day" (1978)

This may be further evidence that a planet of Wookies was to appear in Empire as Lucas obviously had alot of Wookie heads laying around!

[Paul L]

But personally, I think the best of the Star Trek motion pictures are better than the original SW.

Definitely. But the original SW flicks are still classics IMO.

"Jedi" is the weakest, but thanks Zombiehorror for the Ewok/Wookie info. I always thought the Ewoks were a contrived toy tie-in. Jedi's distinction for me was seeing the Emperor in his glory.

[Moonshadow]

While I agree that the Ewoks suck, I still enjoy Return of the Jedi solely for the Luke stuff, seeing him become a bad ass jedi and the redeem his father. Part of the reason I don't care for the prequels that much (besides the terrible acting of Hayden Christenson, Jar jar, the terrible voices, "younglings", Yoda fighting, did I mention Hayden Christenson's acting?) is because Lucas has insisted that the entire Star Wars saga, all 6 films, is really about Darth Vader. Clearly, the original three films are Luke's story. As a young person when they came out, I could empathize with Luke -his desire to be a part of something bigger, to get away from his mundane life. He has a wonderful character arc through the three films, as he grows from boy to man. I would have loved to see later films where Luke rebuilds the Jedi. But I guess Vader was more appealing to the general public, and Lucas.

[Sean]

We watched Episode IV together.  My 3 year old calls it 'the Darth Vader movie'...

[RedKing]

Just show them Star Trek TOS and be done with it rather than starting at the bottom

I have to agree with scatter. even as a kid I thought ST was way better than SW. It is like comparing apples to oranges but I always did and still think ST has much better writing and character development than SW, good as SW (the original trilogy anyways-dump the 3 useless prequels) is. I would also say Doctor Who is better than Sw as well as long as we are talking about the major sci-fi franchises. The writing, backstories and everything is just so much better in both Trek and Who than what i always found contrived and heavily influenced by other sources in SW.