Star Wars--Movies that I've Half-Watched

Every man of my generation thinks about the day he'll introduce his children to Star Wars.  (Or at least, they used to.  I had kids a bit late in life, so most of my generation has already been through this.  But anyway...)

I was 5 years old the first time I saw Star Wars, and I was completely enthralled by it from beginning to end.

My kids are now 4 and 7, so I figured it was time to introduce them to it. 

They were interested in the action scenes at the beginning.  They were unsure about whether or not it would be too scary, but they decided to stick it out.  ("At least it's not as scary as Dr. Strange," my daughter said to herself.)

But then we got to Tatooine, and all the talking parts, and they completely lost interest.  Eventually they started asking me how much longer the movie was.  I made the mistake of indulging this question the first time.  "It looks like we've got an hour and thirty minutes left," I said.  But then, they asked the same question 2 minutes later.  "I just answered that," I said.  By the 4th time they asked me, I lost patience.  "I told you, I'm not answering that question."

At 42 minutes into the movie (right at the scene that Luke comes back to find his home destroyed), they were completely done with the movie and went upstairs.   (Just out of sheer boredom, not because they were at all concerned about Uncle Owen or Aunt Beru.)

I tried my best to convince them to stay longer.  "Come back down, there's more exciting things that will happen later in the movie.  I promise."  But they were just done with it.

To be fair, when I first saw Star Wars at 5 years old, I didn't understand all the talky parts either.  I didn't know what an Imperial Senate was, or why it mattered that it was dissolved.  But I had the feeling throughout that I was watching some sort of epic story, and I was just thrilled to be along for the ride, whether I understood all the dialogue or not.  

But not so my kids.  

I think much of the difference is that when I was 5, it was a real rarity to be allowed to watch a movie, so I was enthralled by pretty much whatever my parents put in front of me.  But my kids have been exposed to a lot more screens from a much younger age, and are consequently a lot harder to impress than when I was their age.  (We do try to limit their screen time, but it's a constant struggle, and screens are just everywhere now--but that's a different subject for a different post.)

It's always dangerous to extrapolate from my kids to their whole generation, but I suspect it's a generational thing.  The original Star Wars probably just isn't thrilling enough for kids nowadays.

At any rate, once my kids had bailed on Star Wars, I decided to just turn it off at 42 minutes.  I have seen the original Star Wars so very many times in my life that I had no need to watch it again by myself.