CT Do you enjoy Star Wars more as you get older?

This is hard to answer. I enjoy it in a different way then I did when I was a kid.

 

Same as the above comment. Star Wars isn't everything for me anymore like when I was a kid, but it's still a large-enough piece of my life.

 

This also.

I used to really love it and it blew my mind when I was young.

Now with researching behind the scenes things and visiting the actual locations, sure the mystery may have gone somewhat but now I love differnt things about it that in no way Ii could have appreciated when I was a kid.

 

Yes. The escapism, the fairytale, fantasy and scifi elements didn't appeal to me very much as a child. I found better fantasy elsewhere. But now I appreciate the perfect balance of humanity, visual and narrative artistry and OTT grandiosity more than I ever used to.

I dunno, I find that the more seriously I take a work of fiction, the easier it is to find escape in it. I can lose myself in something which I'm genuinely engaging with on a number of levels; but if I can't take it with any gravity on *any* level at all, that's more difficult. Maybe I'm just not a very fun person eh

 

For me, simple and fun don't necessarily mean less powerful. My younger self didn't see it that way and I was always trying to find deep and hidden meaning in things. I'm not saying that deep and hidden meaning is bad. Maybe just that complicated doesn't necessarily mean more intelligent. A simple idea or story which strikes at the core of the human experience and is expertly executed is indeed a wondrous thing.

 

Agreed. Maybe we just have a different understanding of what it means to take something seriously. I would say that

is something to be taken seriously, however fun/silly/kitschy it happens to be. I'm not saying it has to be intellectually complex for me to take it seriously. If that were the case, I wouldn't like Star Wars at all: none of that campbellian stuff and political intrigue is going to fool anyone into thinking it's Ulysses.

edit: what I'm also saying to anakinfansince1983 is that I wouldn't consider a story which strikes at the core of human experience as pure escapism precisely because it reflects things about ourselves, but again, maybe we understand "pure escapism" differently.

 

Not more or less but differently. I used to view Star Wars as masterpieces of film. Now they're mostly just fun and goofy space adventures that put me in a nostalgic mood.

 

Most good yarns need a bit of rain falling into them at some point in order to make the happy parts resonate more, but I agree that endless navel gazing and angst isn't all that enjoyable to watch. Not to me at least.

 

Personally I enjoy it more now than I did when I was younger. As an adult, I've caught more details then I did when I was younger and I appreciate more of the story elements now too. As a kid, all I really cared about were the lightsabers. Now all I care about today are the lightsabers....




Oh and the story itself too.

 

ANH = yes
ESB = about the same (remains my fave movie of all time)
ROTJ = overall the same but it's complicated. I dislike certain parts more now than when I was younger but I appreciate the great moments more now. It evens out I guess.

 

Very much so. I often wonder what it would be like to have my own spaceship, light saber , blaster. The dialogue, the sound effects, the characters are all awesome.

 

Not really since 1983 and the completion of the OT.

But, in a way, clearly yes regarding the OT period 1977-1983 : I didn't enjoy ANH that much in 1977 at 6 years old, but was quite attracted and impressed by ESB 3 years later, and I really became hooked and fascinated by the whole saga and each movies (stylistically and storywise) when ROTJ came out and thereafter.

But since then it has remained basically at the same level. Always more or less see the movies the same way. Getting older hasn't changed a lot of things, and didn't really bring new perspective or interests.

 

As a child I liked Looney Toons because oh boy cartoons! When I got older I understood the jokes.

As I child I liked Star Wars because oh boy laser blasts and lightsabers! When I got older I understood the symbols and mythology.

 

obi wan fades away when vader strikes him down. then both return as spirits. makes sense to me.

 

More of my enjoyment comes from wanting to watch the movies or just reminiscing. That doesn't really change. I get as giddy as I use to but that doesn't lead to actually watching them.

 

As a kid I loved the action, the fighting, the space battles, the battle of Hoth, at-at's, cool looking stormtroopers hell cool looking everything Empire!. Star Wars was all about what a typical 8 to 10 year old boy* wanted. (After Star Wars I moved into GI Joe and Transformers to show my taste for action and conflict). However as I have gotten older, I came to appreciate the story itself more. I remember the first time I figured out the deeper meaning of a scene. It was when I was a teen, prob 15 or 16 ish. Watching Empire on VHS. The seen in the cave on Dagobah was one of those scenes that kids just don't understand. We (or at least I) just looked at the scene as something cool and neat. We didn't process the actual encounter and try to figure out how vader made it to Dagaboh. We didn't process Yoda's lines before Luke went into the cave. It was just a cool scene that we just moved passed, as kids. However, as a teenager watching it one day it all hit me. Putting together what Yoda said before Luke went into the cave, the fact that Luke's face was under the helmet. It hit me that there was an actual meaning to the scene. Then shortly after while watching ROTJ, and seeing Luke decimate Vader, cut off Vader's hand, then look at his own hand, it hit me that the scene from Empire and that scene from ROTJ were one in the same. Only this time Luke learned from it and threw his weapon away. That put me on the journey to look for the deeper meanings in Star Wars. It put me ont he journey to hunt down quotes by Lucas elaborating on his characters, and what he thought about each character. While I developed my own theories about what we see in the movies, I wanted to know if my theories were correct. So I got the making of books, magazines, articles. I started reading books by Joseph Campbell to better understand the power of myth and motifs that Lucas uses in his movies.

So as someone said earlier, I enjoy them now as much as I did as a kid but for different reasons. I am letting my kids watch them through kids eyes. Letting them enjoy the movies for the fun of it. I however look forward to the day that one of my kids says to me, that they too figured out the scene in the cave!


*Can I say typical 8 year old boy? I know now-a-days that might be frowned upon...

 

It would be impossible for me to like Star Wars better than when I was younger. Growing up in the early 80's I was totally obsessed with Star Wars. The great thing about watching it now is that it is like visiting a place I used to go to as a kid. In a way I enjoy them more now because I am watching them on bluray on a 55 inch flat screen with surround sound as opposed to the 24 inch tube with low quality sound compared to now. I would have flipped out to watch the movies when I was a kid the way I watch them now!

 

Unfortunately, nothing can really compare to the initial awe-factor of seeing Star Wars. Regardless of if it was in the theaters or on a CRT television screen, 'Star Wars' has no equal. While I steadily remain the fan I was before, nothing can give me the same impact as the first lightsaber fight, or "I am your father."

 

You *can* say that, but I'd just like to add that this 5-year-old girl was pretty jazzed about SW, too. It blew my little mind.

But maybe I wasn't "typical". Oh, well. Whatever. As far as I'm concerned, those other girls could keep their Barbies. I'd stick with my Leia, thank you very much. (And my Han, and my Luke, Vader, Obi Wan….). Oh, and the Millennium Falcon beat the pink Corvette everyday of the week.

 

I have 3 girls,

oldest hates dresses, hates shopping, and would play video games all day long with her boyfriend if it wasn't for college, but loves animals, loves jewelry.

Middle is the typical tom boy. We have a Basket Ball net, hockey net, footballs, etc. She likes TMNT, Wrestling, Likes shopping, as long as it's basketball shorts and t-shirts.Good luck getting her to wear a dress let alone anything pink or purple. She goes to school with her Power Rangers back-pack!

Youngest is the classic girly girl. Princesses, pink, purple. Loves dresses, shopping for dresses, and steals my wife's lip gloss. Wanted her ears pierced when she was 5 years old, and has a jewelry case full of stuff.

All my girls are different, and my wife and I let them be different. We don't try to mold them in anyway. We don't discourage the tom-boy from picking boys toys, or boys t-shirts. We don't play favorites with the girly girl.

I am just a big opponent of over doing political correctness...

 

Well, I know what bureaucrats are now...

 

I love SW the more older I get. But it meant more to me in my younger years. When I got into SW as a kid, that was one of the greatest things that helped my imagination grow. And in turn that imagination that SW helped mold made a big impact on my life. It was a lot of other factors involved as well. But to me SW had an effect on me that would help shape my life to what it is today. I feel I owe it a lot even though it is a fictional universe. But there was something about it just being a part of my life that I can't really explain what it is or was. That is the thing though, I don't want it explained to me. I can live perfectly fine not knowing what it exactly was that meant something to me. And that is why SW appealed to me for all this time. Because when I was younger and got into it it made me realize that there are things out there that made me think and imagine. SW was the primary reason that my imagination and individual growth played such a big part in my life even till today. If I didn't have it in my life I am sure my life be different and perhaps not as special. Even though I love many other things in life, SW was something that had a profound effect on me and is the reason why I am here typing this out right now. For reasons I am not really sure, SW effected me in a good way more than I even give it credit for.