Remember that funny scene in Captain America: Civil War where Spider-Man makes everybody on the screen, and in the theater, feel old when he mentions an "old movie" from the 1980s to show how young he is? Yeah, it's not nearly as funny anymore. Apparently, Spider-Man actor Tom Holland has never actually seen Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, or any of the original trilogy. How old do you feel now?
For those of us of a particular generation the original Star Wars trilogy is part of our DNA. Nearly everybody has seen it and most everybody likes it. However, occasionally we must be reminded that it's actually been a really long time since that trilogy ended and entire generations have grown up since then. Tom Holland has clearly put himself in that younger generation by admitting to Yahoo Movies that he's never seen the original Star Wars trilogy, so it's unclear how much he even knew what he was talking about while filming Captain America: Civil War.
Tom Holland isn't entirely averse to Star Wars. He says he saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and he really liked both of them. Those are not the only movies he's seen, however. He's all seen all three of the prequel trilogy and while Holland is embarrassed to admit it, he says he liked the prequels as a kid.
And ultimately this leads us to all the answers. If you were a kid during the era of the prequel trilogy then the prequels are your Star Wars. What's more, the original trilogy just looks so different compared to those films that it's not surprising that many would have a hard time getting into them. We're not going to hold it against Tom Holland that he liked the prequels. When you're a kid all movies are good, and the prequels were much more designed to appeal to a younger audience.
In the end, maybe it was a good thing that Tom Holland hadn't seen the original trilogy. One of the biggest complaints about Star Wars: The Force Awakens was that its plot was too similar to that of Star Wars: A New Hope, but if you've never seen that movie, how does that make The Force Awakens look? Maybe The Force Awakens becomes the best movie ever if you have nothing to compare it to. Maybe Rogue One: A Star Wars Story feels entirely different too if you don't have a clear understanding of where it's going.
In college, I met somebody who had never seen the Star Wars trilogy and I took it upon myself to be the one to educate them. Hopefully, somebody will care about Tom Holland enough to take him aside and fix this oversight too.
