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S01E07: Clean with Jeff at the Episode I re-premiere!
48 Plays1 year ago
Join Bob and his Star Wars pal Jeff Rogers at the opening night of the Phantom Menace re-release! Reminisce about those heady days of 25 years ago as you make your kitchen spotless!
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Transcript
Re-release Event & 25th Anniversary
00:00:00
Speaker
We are on location at the episode one re-release. Grab your droids and brooms as the Star Wars cleaning crew is starting now.
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome back to the Star Wars cleaning crew. You know, last Sunday, May the 19th was the 25th anniversary of the release of Star Wars episode one, The Phantom Menace. And as you may know, they re-released the movie in theaters recently. So on May the 3rd, which was opening day for that, my friend Jeff, who has always been my Star Wars buddy, Jeff and I went to see it together and we recorded a podcast before that. So I'm gonna let Jeff set the scene for you.
00:00:40
Speaker
Now, full disclosure, I had just ordered from Amazon a new mic recording set, but it didn't arrive in time. So we recorded this just with us passing my iPhone back and forth. The sound might not be perfect, a little imbalanced sometimes. I apologize, but I think it's good enough to get the job done. So here's Jeff. All right, Jeff, set the scene for us.
Nostalgia & Midnight Shows
00:01:01
Speaker
Where are we? What's it look like? What's going on?
00:01:03
Speaker
now or right now? Right now we're at the Irvine Spectrum in Orange County sitting in front of what is now the Regal Theater but it used to be the Edwards Theater and we're getting ready to watch the 25th anniversary of the Phantom Menace at 325 today. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yeah, so we're sitting out here in lawn chairs on the fake grass here just like we did 25 years ago except you were standing in a line for at least like 12 hours I think yeah, and Yeah, so we're doing it again. It's good. Yeah, this is a pure nostalgia play. You know because of course I
00:01:36
Speaker
We live in a modern day where you have reserved seats. So we've got our seats all ready for the 325 show. But back in the day, for those of you who don't remember this, you didn't have reserved seats. So Jeff and I came to this theater for the midnight show opening day of every prequel, episode one, episode three.
Premiere Excitement & Memories
00:01:56
Speaker
And we would get out here like eight or nine in the morning before the midnight show to make sure that we would get good seats. So we're, we are reminiscing again, camping out here. Not too many people are looking at us like we're crazy, but that's okay. Yeah. It's a, it's sort of funny. It's a, it's definitely a different day now where you just get your seats beforehand. Cause that used to be a major consideration. Every time you would go to the theater, it was like, we need to leave early so we can get good seats.
00:02:22
Speaker
because otherwise it wouldn't even be worth going. It'd be in the first row and it'd be almost unwatchable. So and there'd be I don't know a couple hundred people at least because this theater had multiple showings of the Phantom Menace. I think they had it on four or five screens on opening day and so there were four or five lines
00:02:39
Speaker
that went out of sight like if you were standing at the front door of the theater you could not see the end of the line it would just go all the way out so anyway it's fun to be back sitting in lawn chairs reminiscing about the good old days it is fun and you know you're absolutely right about the seats i i don't know if i ever told you but empire strikes back the first showing of that i think we were in like the third row all the way on the side at the woodfield theaters in shamburg illinois uh you know still managed to love the movie but it was a little bit different
00:03:09
Speaker
What do you remember about that day 25 years ago? What are some of the highlights for you? Well, I think we were all just so pumped because it was the first Star Wars movie in forever. And so everyone was just totally excited about it. So, you know, a lot more people, I think, even even in subsequent years, I think this one had a lot more hype to it. And just everyone was just there was a buzz and a lot more people in costume, a lot more people. I think there was a band that came by and played music. There was some guys playing music from a local band they like played.
00:03:37
Speaker
the cantina music or a couple of things. It was just like there's all these weird, crazy, but fun things that were going on to sort of celebrate it. So it was a fun, even though it was a really long day, it was really fun to be a part of. Yeah, we definitely mastered the art of waiting in lines during
Mixed Reactions to Episode I
00:03:53
Speaker
those heady years of the prequels.
00:03:55
Speaker
The one thing I remember the most about episode one was we drove over here. One of your friends had like an RV and the episode one racer game for the Nintendo 64 had just come out and he had one hooked up in his RV. So we actually spent a few hours in the morning with taking turns. So somebody would hold the place in line and then the rest of us would go in the RV and play episode one racer.
00:04:18
Speaker
I totally remember that. That was a fun game. I was just thinking, too, this is a little bit of a sidebar, but you remember that we did this with The Matrix, too. That was the deal. I had just moved out to California. Right. So the deal was you would come out here for the Star Wars prequels and then I would come back to Chicago and we'd see The Matrix movies in Chicago. And so we sort of do the same thing for The Matrix. Matrix, less of a line issue, but still fun little trivia.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was a little bit of hype. And so we'll have to do that again for the new Matrix movie when, which just got green lit. So yeah, that'll be, that'll be fun. Do you remember what your reactions were to episode one, like while you were watching it and right after?
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, I remember being really hyped about, just, I was, I don't think, I was so excited to see another Star Wars movie. And I think the trailer was really good. So everybody was super pumped to see it. I remember really liking it. This is very typical of a lot of my recent Star Wars movie reactions. I like it at the moment. And then I go home and I go, eh, well, yeah.
00:05:21
Speaker
Well, I liked it. I liked it. And then it sort of, the bloom wears off. So I still think episode one is probably of the prequels. It's between episode one and episode three. I liked episode two the least. But again, I mean, I liked A New Hope the best because it was the first one. And I sort of feel a little bit that same way with
00:05:46
Speaker
I'm sorry, episode four. Episode one, just because it was the first time back out and there were so many like great to see again kind of moments and to experience again. And then two and three were sort of coming back to that again, but it was only a year or two later. And so that episode one experience was
George Lucas's Storytelling
00:06:03
Speaker
really great. I really loved it.
00:06:04
Speaker
Well, you know what I remember is that night, so what we would do with these movies is we would see the midnight show here in Irvine, and then we would go to Hollywood to see it on opening day at the Chinese theater, at least for episodes one and two. Episode three, it was at the Cinerama Dome.
00:06:23
Speaker
But for episode one, our friend Lori worked at Marriott at the time and she had booked a room at the Hollywood and Highland right next door to the Chinese theater. So we're leaving here and it's like three in the morning after we've been out all day and just buzzed out on caffeine and tired. And I remember my review of the movie in that moment when we were driving away from here was I said, well, act one was okay.
00:06:51
Speaker
And then it got a little bit slow during act two when they were in Tatooine, which for me was a huge, like to admit that I didn't like, come 100% a little bit of it, was a little bit of a push for me. But then I said, but act three was flawless, which I genuinely believed in that time, right? But then I kind of went through this era after a couple, it was probably after all three of the prequels came out where I finally admitted to myself, I was disappointed in the Star Wars prequels.
00:07:20
Speaker
And then I kind of jumped on the George Bashing bandwagon. And for me, there's a lot of George Bashing to be had. I mean, very fair George Bashing. But all that having been said, I just sort of started to remember the truth that's always been the truth, which is George isn't a great
00:07:41
Speaker
storyteller. He's great at imagining worlds and like concepts and ideas, but really the reason A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi did so well is because he had really, really good help. And by the time he got to the prequels, then he was George Lucas. He wasn't...
00:07:58
Speaker
George Lucas, just some guy who had done American Graffiti and THX 1138, he was George Lucas. And I think he had lost a lot of the people in his life that were willing to sort of push back and say, hey, this doesn't seem like a great idea. Maybe we should try something else. I'm not sure, really, that's just my guess. But it seems like he had the reins so completely for episode one that you really got pure George Lucas. And so that's a thing in and of itself.
00:08:24
Speaker
But,
Changing Perceptions of Star Wars
00:08:25
Speaker
you know, he's not good with dialogue. He's not really great with necessarily with character development and that kind of thing. And so it was so great to be back in the world. Right. You know, back in the Star Wars world and see the the the Jedi and the and all the machines and the spaceships and the environments and the aliens. But then, you know, when it came to the actual dialogue and story stuff, I was like, not so great. I mean, it was like
00:08:49
Speaker
maybe the next one will be better. Like that was what I immediately switched into. I'm like, okay, they're going to learn from their mistakes though, from this one. And the next one is going to be sort of when they doubled down. Like the second one had the most cringy stuff in it in terms of the scenes and the dialogue and stuff. And then they did sort of, I think redeem themselves when they got to episode three. Episode three had a lot of great stuff in it. All that to say, it is very rare if ever that I go, you know what I want to watch tonight?
00:09:17
Speaker
one of the prequel movies like I will watch the original three anytime like I still put those on occasionally and just have them on the background or turn a commentary on or something but I don't very often like go back to the prequels so that's my take on them yeah so I mean how would you review them right now like which do you like them more now than you did you know what's kind of the path I'm at I think even before the sequels came out I think my my prequel rating has stayed pretty much the same I I really do think
00:09:46
Speaker
I think it's the same thing I feel about Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope. I readily admit that Empire Strikes Back is a better movie but I still like New Hope the best because it was just my first experience and I saw that movie on Father's Day with my best friend and his dad and there was no beating that experience. It was just like we were both with our dads, I was with my best friend at the time and it was just like
00:10:09
Speaker
and we had no idea what we were going into. It was just like, well, let's go see this space movie. The kids will probably like it. And then all of us were just like, what was that? Oh my gosh. I just blown away. And so it's the same thing with the prequels. I think episode three is probably the strongest, but there's something about the first one that I just, again, it being the first Star Wars movie in however many years, 20 year, or when it was 18 or 19 years,
00:10:35
Speaker
And just being so excited to be back seeing a Star Wars movie. There was no beating that expectation So yeah my feeling it's funny because I will I agree with you like my go-to's are the original trilogy Oddly enough. We'll come back to this a little bit later. Probably the movie I watched most when I'm like I feel like watching a little Star Wars or having it on the background is solo but
00:10:57
Speaker
With the prequels, I'll bring out episode one about once a year, and sometimes I watch it and I'm like, wow, I'm really enjoying this. This is way better than I thought it was, especially as the love for the prequels has definitely grown over the years, and I'm susceptible to conventional wisdom. But sometimes I watch it and I'm just like, how did I ever even watch this?
00:11:19
Speaker
You know, it just, it's all over the place. So in general, I like the prequels more than I did. Not as much as I did the moment I saw them, but after I went through my, the prequel suck phase, I like them better now. Yeah. Yeah. No, I definitely agree with that. And I think, you know, with, with solo and with, um, I mean, there's some new Star Wars stuff that I really like and have been really, you know, positive towards that solo. Solo is one of them. Rogue one, I really liked.
00:11:44
Speaker
I liked the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and Andor I really loved. So, I mean, there's a lot of new Star Wars stuff that I've really enjoyed too. But, you know, I think the other part of that is just sort of realizing that the original Star Wars was sort of made for me at the time. I was actually pretty young.
00:12:06
Speaker
six years old when I saw Star Wars for the first time. But it was aimed at really like adolescent boys and teenagers. And so I was in the group that was so excited to be in that group. I sort of felt like I was seeing a movie that was for somebody slightly older than me. And so that was sort of even exciting.
00:12:22
Speaker
to me at the time, like it was more of an adult thing for me to see. So, but now I'm just like, you gotta remember these movies. I mean, even with the prequels and stuff like Jar Jar Binks and some of the other stuff that everybody hated, I was just like, that wasn't really directed at me. It was directed at kids. It was more for kids. And if I talked to people that were kids when they saw episode one, they liked it. They really liked the prequels and that was their first Star Wars movie and they love it. So I'm just like, it wasn't, you know,
00:12:50
Speaker
just the demographic has grown and changed over time. And I'm just like, that's fine. This isn't for me. That's fine. Star Wars universe is big enough. As long as there's something for me somewhere in the Star Wars universe, I'm happy.
Sneak Peek: 'The Acolyte'
00:13:02
Speaker
But the prequels was the first time I realized I'm like, oh, I'm not the target audience necessarily anymore.
00:13:08
Speaker
And that's okay. That's great. I mean, you know, there's got to be new. George was very smart in creating an entire new generation of Star Wars fans, people that had never seen or definitely not seen the originals in the theater. So, yeah, that was the first time I ever remember thinking like, I'm not the target necessarily. Like, they want me to like the movie, but I'm not necessarily the target audience.
00:13:31
Speaker
So there you have it. Jeff and I had a great time, enjoyed the movie. It was one of the times where I watched it and I was like, yeah, I really liked this. Uh, one of the highlights though, was at the end, they had a special sneak peek at the acolyte, which is the new show that will premiere on June the fifth.
Conclusion & Future Teasers
00:13:50
Speaker
And they showed the trailer, which you can go to YouTube now and watch the final trailer. They had that, but they also had.
00:13:58
Speaker
a good portion of a lightsaber battle between the Jedi played by Carrie Anne Moss, who was Trinity in The Matrix, and a man, Lestenberg, who was playing Mae, the apprentice, or the acolyte, I should say. And it was a really good fight. So I am really looking forward to this. We'll be talking more about that in coming weeks. We'll be talking more to Jeff in coming weeks. In the meantime, thanks for joining us in the cleaning crew. Hope your kitchen got clean.
00:14:26
Speaker
And make sure you join us next time. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave us a review. Really appreciate it. Until we see you on the next Cleaning Crew. May the force be with you. Bye bye.