I admittedly wasn't nearly as stoked for ROTS as I was for the first two. But for TPM, it felt like the entire planet was anticipating it more than any other movie in history.
Because I'm in the mood, things I remember loving about the lead-up...
- Thanksgiving '98, a bunch of us going to see the first trailer in front of Enemy of the State. Then, getting interviewed by the local newspaper on our way out, asking if we had bought tickets just to watch the trailer. I told the reporter yes, and when she asked my name, I gave her the name of one of our friends who wasn't with us, who thought Star Wars was for dorks. I then went on and on about how much Star Wars meant to me, and the article made the front page the next day, using our friend's name. He was not amused.
- Trying to download something called "QuickTime" so I could then download the first trailer to watch on the family computer... something I didn't even know was possible, but was out of my mind excited for. Though, the trailer was a whopping 3 MB or so, and took multiple tries and multiple hours to finally download, due to me getting kicked off AOL every time our other phone line rang.
- Buying the Vanity Fair issue with all the incredible Annie Leibovitz first-look photography from the Tatooine set.
- My weekly-turned-daily internet sessions, where I'd check Ain't It Cool News, Corona's Coming Attractions, Dark Horizons, and TheForce.net for the latest news and rumors.
- Recording the full/second trailer from E! News, to VHS, so we could rewind and watch it over and over again.
- The mind-blowing Dual of the Fates music video premiering on TRL on MTV.
- Going to Hastings the day all the TPM merch dropped, to check out all the new books and what not.
- Eating sh*t tons of Taco Bell, in order to collect all the TPM game pieces.
- Finally getting to watch the 60 Minutes piece with George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch, about the making of the movie, which featured a ton of new/awesome footage, after my mom forgot to record it, and my dad made fun of me for getting mad at my mom for forgetting to record "some nerdy Star Wars thing."
- Skipping school at lunch on May 19th to go buy 20 tickets to that night's premiere at the mall Cinemark.
- The palpable buzz between me and 19 of my friends finally sitting down to watch the movie.
... all culminating in the utter shame and disappointment we felt when the lights came up.