Saga How have rewatches changed your opinion on the films?

Have you ever come around to one of the movies after rewatching it? Have you ever disliked a movie the second or third time around? What's something you noticed on a rewatch that made you appreciate (or vice versa) a particular film more?

Share your rewatch stories here!

 

For 90% of the films I have been happy with from the word go, but for TPM I had a slight sense of disapointment after the first time I saw it at the cinema, It was only after seeing it for the second and third time and realising what GL was trying to do and that this was SW for a new generation that I began to like it, I also wasnt too keen on Solo when I first saw it, but after buying it on home video I watched it again and enjoyed it for what it is a standalone story set in the SW universe and now I like both.

 

I was one of 3 people that didn't like Rogue One. Outside of the aesthetics (which are the best of the Disney era), I had a hard time finding investment in the characters or the plot.

However, I decided to rewatch key scenes from certain films during quarantine and I watched the Battle of Scarif, and it just clicked. The characters and their deaths still don't really do much for me, but the scope of the battle and how its filmed and the characters' roles in the battle just worked for me. I felt some investment in Jyn and Krennic's confrontation.

So, I'm happy that I can find more appreciation for the movie.

 

Came around- all three prequels. Originally they were equal to the OT before I fell into common internet rhetoric as my early posts on this site reflect. They've risen back up though. ROTS was at one time my favorite Star Wars and is still my third favorite movie despite my complaint about Padme.

TFA I loved my first watch. Since then it's gone to near the opposite.
TLJ I thought was decent at first but never loved it.

 

What didn't you like about RotS?

For myself, I loved all of Lucas's Star Wars films from the moment I saw them. I also loved R1 from the start. I didn't hate Solo or anything, but I thought it was really average - the first forgettable Star Wars move - but I've liked it more each time I saw it.

I couldn't stand TFA when I first saw it, but on rewatches I was able to appreciate it for what it was. I still don't like it and the direction it took the story, but for what it's trying to do, the execution is pretty good. I haven't re-watched TLJ or RoS yet, but that should be an interesting experience whenever I get around to it.

 

There’s two that I changed my mind on:

Attack of the Clones - Loved it when I first saw it on the big screen, but as time went on and I rewatched it I started to actually find it quite jarring and difficult to watch. However the last couple of years I’ve really appreciated it more and more with each rewatch

The Force Awakens - Enjoyed it the first time I saw it in the cinema, disliked it more and more the following two times I rewatched it as I realised how bland and how much of a blatant (poorly done) rip off of ANH it was

 

Forgot to mention- after the last few rewatches, ROTJ is back on top for me. My reaction to the Ewoks was the big changing factor.

 

Been growing more on Solo and Rogue One with each viewing. At first I thought both were fine, perfectly fun movies, but later rewatches have lifted them up, R1 in particular. They're both really nice add-ons to the original 6

 

I think part of what makes it saddening is that before Mace goes to face Palpatine, he shows Anakin that he respects him and understands the gravity of what it is the Council asked of him even though he couldn't trust him fully. It's made even more tragic that this gesture on Mace's part arrives too late and doesn't realize it.

 

TFA had a check in the "like" column for me the first few times I watched it but once the nostalgia wore off it stuck out as the rip off of ANH that it is. Rey did not turn out to a well written compelling heroine for the much touted "first female Jedi on screen" schtick they were peddling. Kylo going from a potential bad ass villain to annoying 30 year old lip quibbler takes away any interest I had in ever watching TFA again.

 

I was absolutely thrilled when I first saw TFA in theaters. However, now that the rest of the trilogy has been released I find it hard to go back and rewatch due to my general disinterest in the overarching narrative. At first I was willing to handwave some of the movie's shortcomings, but with my current post-trilogy perspective those problems are impossible to ignore and just drag the movie down.

As a kid I felt very lukewarm towards ROTS, then over the years I bought into the common opinion that it's definitely the best of the prequels. Then last year I watched through the saga again and realized that the praise seemed way over the top. The memorable scenes were worthwhile enough but much of the movie felt like a slog to get through and I found myself more annoyed and frustrated with the characters than saddened like how a tragedy should make me feel.

Funnily enough when I was younger TESB was one of my least favorites. Now it's without a doubt my favorite in the series after some rewatches. I definitely find that as I get older, the "slow" parts of movies become much more interesting because I can enjoy the layers of details such as innovative cinematography, small set choices, clever dialogue, and interesting world-building / character development. As a kid I was just an impatient bugger who wanted more lightsaber action and big explosions.

 

I really love TPM now. I didn't when it first came out. There just seemed to be so many awkward moments. It's still a flawed film but I really like watching it now. I liked the lightsaber fight and the pod race on first watch, but the rest not so much. Now I really enjoy it; it is very nostalgic for me.

 

The first time I saw R1 I felt lukewarm about it, until Scarif, which is one of the greatest SW battles, on par with most of the OT. Rewatches of R1 helped me appreciate the first two acts more, but it still feels a little choppy to me.

I've tried to appreciate the PT with rewatches, but they still don't click for me.

 

Rewatches have skewed my thoughts on the saga as a whole. This is not a knock on the prequels, and while I enjoy the prequels, they feel more like archival footage. Like something we would learn in an encyclopedia (a book to reference past events for the young crowd), as opposed to an integral part of the saga. This is not to say they aren't integral to the saga on the whole, they just feel like they're in the distant past, instead of flowing into the OT era. The newer content being produced, being set in and around the time of the original trilogy, and leading towards the sequels is partly to blame for this feeling. Even though we have Rebels and Solo to bridge the gap between the PT and OT, the ST progressing the story forward has made the events of the PT feel so long ago in comparison to the OT to ST time frame. TCW did a great job of expanding upon the events, but did little to nothing to remove that feeling of the prequels being distant.

On an individual film level, having now seen the ST movies at least a handful of times each, I've found a greater enjoyment of TROS. It is a bit of a mess, but it is a fun movie. While the short attention span style can be a bit off-putting, it has at least become a movie you can kind of shut your brain off and watch and still enjoy. TLJ gets better for me with every viewing. TFA has become a bit of a struggle to watch, but I still can enjoy it. While Finn, Rey, and Poe were given solid introductions as our new heroes, they do end up being plot devices simply to move the story forward leading up to Han's demise.

With the prequels, TPM has grown on me the more I watch, even in spite of the inane Jar Jar antics. It has a good flow to the movie, and does very well at giving us new introductions to old characters, and new characters, as well. AOTC is a struggle to sit and watch. It's so tonally inconsistent and jarring that I have to lower my expectations on what I'm viewing to be able to watch and enjoy it. While still my favorite from the PT, ROTS has become flat. Every character is reduced to nothing more than a plot device to get us to Anakin's turn, and the birth of Luke and Leia. Too many character's abilities are reduced to make others appear stronger because it appears the writers didn't know how to draw up an inherently powerful character. Still has the best action of the three, though, which keeps it as my favorite for now.

And then we have the OT. Still my favorite trilogy. Enhanced greatly by Rogue One, and rounded off nicely by the Mandalorian, for now. Empire is still the cream of the crop. ANH remains in my top 4, and every viewing solidly keeps it there. Surpassed only by Empire, TLJ, and RO. With ROTJ, it used to be fun and whimsical as it built towards the epic finish, but for me over time, it's become slow and plodding. The third act is still epic, it just feels like it takes forever to get there now.

Solo is a fun, little bit quirky, but enjoyable movie. It continues to get better for me with each viewing. Rogue One is just phenomenal, and continually creeps up my personal rankings. Excellent acting. Great story. Feels like it's been part of the saga since the beginning. It does have a couple of slow moments, but nothing to drag down the movie on the whole.

 

I think A New Hope has gone lower on my list as I rewatched it...I've found a bit more...boring more and more as i rewatch it over time. It's a bit slow for taste and not enough happens their seems to be a lot standing around it seems and the best part is defiently the Third Arc and First Arc, the middle part is where things get a bit to boring for my taste.

 

- ROTJ used to be my favorite in the '80s, when I was a teenager. Nowadays it's my least favorite of the 6 Lucas movies--I think primarily because of the pacing. Certain subplots go on waaaayyyyy too long (the whole rescue Han from Jabba's palace thing should've taken 20 minutes, at most), others, including all the emotional beats, feel rushed.

- I thought TFA was OK when I first saw it. I didn't think that when I watched it a second time.

 

Jedi feels like it takes forever to get to the payoff. It feels like there is too much exposition with every scene. Not every scene needs it, yet they got it anyway.

 

When I first saw "A New Hope", I disliked it. After a second or a third viewing (I'm not really sure), I grew to love it.

 

I watched TPM relatively recently and came away from it with the feeling that it might have aged the best out of the prequels. I actually really like the slower pace at the beginning of the film, and Anakin's childish dishonesty and arrogance just before the podrace sequence felt less like an annoyance and more like foreshadowing (intentional or not.)

 

With time, frequent watches of ESB have diminished my enjoyment of it. Probz just because I'm so familiar with it, it's lost its excitement. I still enjoy it though, once in a blue moon.

TLJ has actually grown on me a little bit with rewatches. Especially now that the ST is complete, and TROS helps me see it in a new light. I went from straight up disliking the movie, to enjoying several parts of it. It's still 2nd to the bottom of my ranking, but it moved up at least one spot.

However, everytime I see AOTC-especially if it has been a long time, like six months or more-I have found myself greatly enjoying watching it!

 

Out of curiosity, what movie did TLJ surpass in your ranking?

 

Clones does not get any better with repeated views
TPM gets better.. I love the way it was still made on film and how aotc looks like a computer game. I just wish they'd used a better back drop for the gungan battle and they were all Jason and the argonaut style skeleton models lol.. Well for the close ups.. The cgi really does not date well from the first two but menace is a great story.. Even the politics

 

TPM is on the bottom for me. It's not bad, and I respect it as a set of events to set the stage for the state of things in the saga, but it drags for me when trying to enjoy it as a film in its own right, despite a few great scenes (the obvious ones). I will admit it's close between those two, but the one thing that eeks TPM that bit further down is...Jar Jar.