I had free time, free passes, and I still would rather sit and look at paint drying than go see The Phantom Menace.

I remember when The Phantom Menace was released very well. I had just finished my second year in university, and I had friends that were HUGE Star Wars fans. I thought I was a fan, but these guys knew everything about that entire series, extended universe (which I had never heard of) and all. Entire days of my life were lost talking about what was going to happen in the Prequel series, and everyone had high, high hopes about what a masterpiece it was going to be.

I remember driving to the theater in my car (the engine exploded not long afterwards), and sitting in the theater alone, as I liked to do at the time. There were families that had brought light sabers, and children waiting for the movie with lots of anticipation. I had seen the re-releases of all the series in the theater, and I can still remember watching Return of the Jedi during the original run. The “crawl” still gave me goosebumps when it started, and I was excited to see that movie like few others I can remember.

When I got home that night and my mom asked me, “So, how was the movie?”, I replied, “Well, It was Star Wars, so it was fun.. I guess.”  Even then, I knew I could no longer fool myself. All that time hearing about how the movie was going to be awesome from my friends, and then this horrible thing was the result.

Flash forward, and now there is Red Letter Media and Rifftrax making money about how terrible this movie was. It’s an easy target for hate, but it’s really well deserved.