For #TBT #ThrowBackThursday from 1999: Billy Hates Being Called on His #StarWars-related Crap

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Billy is perfectly comfortable admitting that he was in the theater opening night for STAR WARS EPISODE 1 THE PHANTOM MENACE.

And by "Billy" I mean, "me".  I was an OG STAR WARS fan.  My parents took me to see the original STAR WARS a week after it opened in 1977.  I still remember my mom leaning over to me and saying "Don't worry, Pete! Ben'll win!"

My trouble with authority figures is understandable now, isn't it?

But seriously (not that I was joking), STAR WARS had an insanely huge influence on my life, as I'm sure it has on the lives of many people.  So, when SWE1TPM came out sixteen years after SWE6 RETURN OF THE JEDI, I was understandably excited.  Truth be told, I was at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood opening morning to see the 3:30am show of TPM because I wasn't the die-hard fan that was willing to sit in line for weeks to get tickets to the midnight show.  But, seeing it second, was fine with me.  Especially since I only had to stand in line for about 5 or 6 hours.

I remember watching the film and not having a problem with it at first.  I suppose I hated Jar-Jar from the first trailer, but over all, TPM was pretty fun upon my first viewing. Of course, my first viewing was really exciting and filled with all kinds of science fiction geekery and friends and nostalgia, but that didn't occur to me when deciding if the movie was any good.  So, it would be three more viewings before I started to realize that THE PHANTOM MENACE, was really quite bad.  By my fifth or sixth viewing, I was sure it was really, really horrible.

Flashforward seventeen MORE years and we're getting a new STAR WARS film in about four months.  Am I expecting the worst?  No.  Am I expecting to like it?  No.  I'm hopeful, though.  J.J. Abrams is very hit-and-miss for me, so it could go either way.  Honestly, it will be fun to return to the STAR WARS live-action universe again, even if it does suck.

That said, I hope it is better than the prequel trilogy...

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