MTV.com has a new article up today by a guy who no longer loves Star Wars. Believe it or not, it is an interesting read about childhood imagination and adulthood. Even if you don't share the same conclusion, it might be fun to check out. Here's a clip:

As you read this, thousands of people are lining up around the world to see "Revenge of the Sith," the sixth (or third, whatever) and final installment in the most beloved film franchise of all time. I, however, will not be joining the queue. Because ? spake the heretic ? I don't like "Star Wars."

Don't get me wrong. I'm of the Star Wars Generation. I was 12, perhaps the perfect age for fandom, when I saw the first movie (or the fourth ? again, whatever) in the summer of '77, and I did love it. I had "Star Wars" action figures and comic books and posters and soundtracks and T-shirts. I waited in line for hours on opening day to see "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi." Friends and I even went so far as to make our own parody tape featuring "Star Wars" characters meeting the crew of the Starship Enterprise (I played Dr. McCoy, Yoda and Darth Vader). "Star Wars" fit right into my geeky lifestyle.

And yet, as time wore on, while I held on to many of the trappings of my youth (comic books, punk rock and stuff that glows in the dark still fit into my life), I found that I completely lost any affection for "Star Wars." I got rid of all the memorabilia; I didn't see the original movies in their re-releases; I never pined for the DVD; I only saw "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" on video (two thumbs way down). I'll eventually see Hayden Christensen slap on the ill-fitting helmet, breaking poor Natalie Portman's heart and disappointing Ewan McGregor and the voice of Frank Oz, a.k.a., Yoda, but probably not until it comes to video or cable. Heck, I already know how it ends.

Nostalgia is a powerful force (no pun intended), but it's usually misleading. Time clouds our judgment, and pieces of pop culture from our youth rarely withstand adult revisitation. In the era of 1,000 cable channels, DVD box sets and digital downloading, most things we remember from our childhoods are available to us again. But caveat emptor: We may have warm memories of "Super Friends," but to watch it in 2005 on DVD (as I did, foolishly) is to realize that the show was just kiddie crap, hacked out by workhorse animators unconcerned with crafting lasting art. They were just earning a paycheck.