Here’s my take on it…
I was a Star Wars fan from way back. I was 6 when I first saw it in the theaters. So I was at the right age for it. Up until then, I think the only other franchises I was into at that time were Star Trek, Space: 1999 and Planet of the Apes. I had always liked Science Fiction, though, watching episodes of Irwin Allen’s shows (Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, etc.) and catching the old Sci-Fi and Horror movies every Saturday afternoon on WPHL-17’s “Mad Theatre” and “Shock Theatre” and later channel 48’s “Creature Double Feature.” I was really into the Japanese stuff, like the Godzilla movies and Ultraman and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot. Once in a while I would also get lucky and see one of Ray Harryhausen’s movies too, like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and I thought they were awesome.
But once I saw Star Wars, it blew me away. And I think in that moment that it really cemented my interest in all things Sci-Fi related. And naturally when the TV networks starting making shows in the wake of its success (Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Project U.F.O., Star Blazers, etc.) I watched them too. And of course, I bugged my parents to buy all the toys…at least the ones they could afford. I had some of the bigger ones, like that fabled Death Star playset and a Millennium Falcon, but never got an AT-AT (a situation I remedied last year).
But here’s the thing. While I loved Star Wars, I was never the type of fan to get that obsessed over it. I didn’t mind for example that George Lucas decided to touch-up the effects for the special editions because I had to admit, they were starting to get a little dog-eared (and those hold-out mattes around the spaceships were especially distracting). I didn’t care about whether or not Han or Greedo shot first because the end result was the same either way: dead Greedo. And I liked that they put back the scene with Jabba and Han in Episode IV because it was in the Marvel comic adaptation that I had, and had always wanted to see it restored (even if some of the dialogue was lifted word-for-word from the earlier scene with Greedo).
And while I was excited about the prequel trilogy, my expectations weren’t sky-high for it. I wanted another rollicking adventure in the Star Wars universe, and that’s what I got. In hindsight, yes, Jar Jar was annoying. And they could have cast a better actor for Anakin than Jake Lloyd (they should have gone with Haley Joel Osment, whom Lucas mysteriously passed on). I also enjoyed Episodes II and III for what they were. I didn’t mind the acting or the dialogue so much, because by that time, I knew that was never Lucas’ strong point. (I remember an interview with Carrie Fisher where she said she told Lucas at one point, “You can write this s**t, but you can’t say it!”) Empire and Jedi only worked as well as they did because Lucas wasn’t directly involved with them. Had he been more hands-on with those movies, I’m sure the results would have been very, very different.
But while I got into Star Wars at a very young age, I don’t subscribe to the whole “George Lucas raped my childhood” meme. As much as I like Star Wars, I know enough to not take it so seriously. It was conceived from the start to be a pastiche of pulp sci-fi space operas like Flash Gordon and E.E. Doc Smith’s Lensman series. It was lighthearted action-adventure, and wasn’t supposed to provide social commentary in the way that, say, Star Trek did. They were both very different animals. I’ve seen Mr. Plinkett’s lengthy critiques on the Prequel Trilogy. And while he does make some astute criticisms, he overanalyzed it waaaaaaaaay too much. And somehow, no matter how much people rag on them, I can’t bring myself to not like those moves. I’ll take them, warts and all; just because I like the concept of Star Wars and what it stands for and it’s fun to visit that world.
So I’m very much looking forward to the Blu-Rays, unlike some fans who seem to be awaiting them with a mixture of anticipation and dread.
I’m a huge Star Wars fan myself - the first movie I ever went to see on the big screen was Episode III, I own two different talking Yoda toys, and a small selection of the action figures (although nothing newer than about 2006)! 
