Written By: Dan Geer
For kids of the 1970s and early 80s, Star Wars was the big blockbuster movie experience, and rightly so. Nothing was bigger. For me personally, while I technically saw Return of the Jedi in the theater when I was three, I don’t really remember much from that day. I highly enjoyed the films growing up, and even had a few of the action figures, an R2-D2 toy toter, and the original three films on VHS. But I never truly experienced seeing the Star Wars films in the theater until the Special Editions were released in 1997.
It was really the first Batman from 1989 that was my first big blockbuster theatrical experience. Aside from Superman: The Movie (1978), the comic book genre had really disappeared into oblivion with the abysmal sequels in the 1980s. So when Tim Burton’s Batman came along, it was the biggest craze since the Pet Rock, and put comic book movies back on the map. As a kid, nothing was more cool than that film. NOTHING.
