Friday, May 20, 2005

   Re: Star Wars . . . . . . to quote the tricycle kid from The Incredibles . . .
"THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!!!!!"


So yeah, I got to the theater at about 5pm for a 7:40 showing. Naturally I was the only one there out of a potential nine people . . . but, that hour before someone else came went by pretty quickly. 'Sides, I was about 20 people from the front, so seating was set for us. There was a group of hump kids/teens a couple groups ahead of me who I just wanted to beat the hell out of, though . . . they brought lightsabers, they were loud, they were running around "fighting" in the arcade area . . . which is fine and all, but man, they were just everywhere! Then they would talk about movies and stuff that were on the TV monitors showing trailers and stuff . . . then when they got to "Kingdom of Heaven", they started discussing how it's actually based on a true story just like "Indiana Jones" . . . . . ohhh, I wanted to smack them . . .

There was also a family of "Jedi": a mom, dad, and two sons all dressed in full attire. Their outfits actually looked really good, and for what I saw of them they all behaved quite nicely, so they were alright . . . now I REALLY want some of those long riding boots - I mean, they go with any kind of costume you can imagine!

At about 6pm my first friend finally showed up - but then he left again to get dinner at McDonald's downstairs. He got me a Big Xtra meal which was a blessing because I was starving, having not eaten anything all day except a thing of instant noodles around noon. So yeah, I felt much better.

At about 6:20 the aniki and his actor buddy (who got screwed by Smallville somewhat) came and grabbed my extra tickets. There were only two of them so in the end one of the tickets went to waste, but oh well. Soon after the other four guys arrived, but then went down to McDonald's for a similar reason as the other guy.

Then at about 7pm the doors opened and there were just two of us to hold eight seats (I decided I'd help my brother out as well). So me and the good friend hauled ass into the cinema and jacketed two rows of four center seats close to an aisle on the left. Man, I hate saving seats like that on a busy night . . . . . shortly afterwards the "coincidental" friend came and jacketed the four seats directly behind us as well . . . so yeah, we were all together which was cool.

Once we were all settled in and fed, we just stared at the movie screen watching whatever, talking to each other . . . the four "somewhat late" people were in the middle row chatting and playing with a PSP . . . . . me and my brother's actor friend started saying absurd things in an effort to rile up the natives . . .
"So what I never understood was, why do they keep calling Luke Ani?"
Why do they keep calling her queen or senator? I thought she was a princess . . ."
It didn't work, so we stopped.

Trailers were average. Two Vince Vaugn movies, "Fantastic Four" . . . "Stealth" looks ridiculous and the audience responded in turn (I mean, a military robot that goes rogue?! Imagine that!). That wasn't why we were there, though . . .

(Dum dum! Darra dum dum! Darrrrrrarraaraaa dum dum!)
DAH, DADADAAAAA, DA DA DA DA DA DAH, DADA DA DA DA DA DA DA DAH DA DA DAHHH DADAHHHHH!
Dadada DAH (Dah, dadaDaaah),
Dadada DAAAAH (Dah, dadaDAAAAH),
Dadada DAAAAAAAAH (DAH DAH DAH DAAAAAH)!

Applause.

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . ."

More applause.

Opening Crawl

More applause . . . then shouts for people to turn off their lightsabers. Now one was of a hump kid in the back row waving it in front of the projector, he was risking his life for no good reason . . . I couldn't exactly tell, but I bet he was with those humps from the lineup . . . the other one was a special needs kid in the bottom corner who wasn't being tended to enough. But, a quarter of the way through the opening crawl and that was taken care of as well . . . so then it was time for the movie . . . . .


Annnnd . . . yeah. T'was good stuff.

Hehe, I won't say too much other than that since I know a bunch of ya haven't seen it yet. But DAAAAMN, there are some amazing things to see. Now, the whole reason I wanted to go to opening night was because of that energy in the room from the last ones. Y'know how when Darth Maul bought it in the first one, and then people cheered? Or when Yoda fired up his lightsaber for the first time and people cheered? Well, I was hoping for that.

There was very little cheering in that theater. This movie simply does not want you to jump up and cheer. It's heavy stuff . . . serious stuff . . . I mean, you cheer when they get the bad guy now and then, but I'll kid you not, there were times when I gasped out loud when things happen . . . seriously, "Order 66" is gonna be a phrase people will use in regular speech for a long time, I just know it.
Lightsaber fights? Bloody good stuff. The final fight is supposedly the longest swordfight in the history of cinema . . . and it doesn't blow it one bit. Remember how we all thought more fights and longer fights were the way to go? Then we got "Matrix: Reloaded" and realised we didn't want that? Thing was, in "Matrix", the fights were just fights; they didn't tell a story, or advance the relationships between the people, or whatever . . . . . this time though, oh man . . . GREAT storytelling in that fight! And then it comes to its end and gets wildly emotional . . . I just know that the next time I watch this movie I'll probably cry at a bunch of parts (it always happens second time around, I still don't get it).

So yeah, lotsa good stuff. Hayden's got a bit more to work with now and is a little more comfortable with his role and it shows (he's been fighting a war for ten years, after all). He still whines, but for the most part he's a pretty confident dude with long hair. Ian McDiarmid steals the show as Chancellor Palpatine and is absolutely the coolest puppetmaster to come into movies for a long time - his moves in this one really do put the other previous prequels into a slightly different light, which is good.

Then there's the dismemberments and disfigurements . . . heh, this one's pretty gross at times, actually. You know how it's kinda standard fare in Star Wars to chop off hands and stuff? Man . . . yeah, this one ups the ante a bit . . . . . and then there's the burnation of Anakin . . . owie, painful . . .

In the end, there's closure to the series. And y'know, it ain't a bad feeling . . .


Before I sign off from this damn long post, I'll leave one last thing for ya. Now, the first time Samuel L. Jackson showed himself on screen, my brother and his friend cheered and went on to do slightly odd punching motions . . . they continued to do this punching motion throughout the movie for Jackson's scenes . . . actually, I did now and then too . . . . . hehe. Anyway, the move is called the "Inglewood Jack", and the story behind it can be found here.

Alright, peace out, be sure to watch Star Wars once ya can, and have a good day.
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