I still remember the first time I saw the first Star Wars movie. It was at a drive-in theater and my sister and I watched it from atop our parents' station wagon. My folks had padded our perch with blankets, but the luggage rack made it tough to find a comfortable spot to lie on my belly.
An interesting side note: because Star Wars was rated PG, my parents went and saw it once without us to make sure it didn't contain any inappropriate content. (We were also the only kids in my elementary school who weren't allowed to watch Saturday Night Live, but that's another story.) I wonder how today's parents will handle the latest installment's PG-13 rating.
I was a huge geek throughout junior high and high school, and as science fiction provides a lovely focus for geekdom, the premiere of Return of the Jedi found me standing in line outside the theater at our local mall, in costume. I already had a Star Wars-like costume, you see, from attending science fiction conventions.
Like many people who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy, I've been less than impressed with the prequels so far. For the most part, the special effects are impressive but the human interactions leave much to be desired. Let's not even speak of Jar-Jar. I'm as anxious as any recovering SF geek (the purists prefer the abbreviation "SF" over "sci-fi") to see the story arc reach its inevitable conclusion, but I'm not in a rush to the theater this time.
Rather than submit to repeated compromises of my personal space, I'm willing to wait for the crowds to die down a bit before I cough up my $9.00 to see Revenge of the Sith. Some of my co-workers are going to see it this afternoon, but I definitely wouldn't want to take comp time and fight the crowds to go.
Therefore, I have decided to let opening day pass me by. It's possible we'll try to catch it on Sunday afternoon or perhaps one evening next week. I definitely want to see it, but I'm not excited to see it. I'm saving my excitement for when Serenity comes out. Yes, the inner geek girl lives on!
It's much much better than one(yuck, shudder) or Two. Not as good as Empire, but up there with ANH anyway.
Go see it later at night when the kids won't be there (and I wonder if you'll still get excited when *that* music starts up and the screen crawl rolls up... I did and I was so determined not to).
I agree, Serenity looks fantastic!
Posted by: claire | May 19, 2005 at 07:43 AM
Unfortunately, I cannot stand Star Wars, especially that bloody camp robot "marster Luke, Marster Luke, stoppit"...
Jane, you've gone down in my estimation for confessing you dressed up like one of the characters. Which one was it?
Here at work, Growler could be the Wookie just by taking his shirt off, but that's another story.
Posted by: Keith | May 19, 2005 at 08:07 AM
Claire - I like the late-night strategy, but I remember parents bringing their pajama-clad kids to a midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie, so that might not work anymore.
Keith - My costume was reminiscent of Han Solo's garb, complete with one of the toy laser blasters. Because I'm left handed, I even sawed off the laser sight and glued it onto the other side so it would fit in the holster on my left leg. In my defense, I was about fourteen or fifteen years old, so I had more enthusiasm and imagination than good sense.
Posted by: Jane | May 19, 2005 at 01:43 PM
I think that George Lucas went over the edge. Really. I can't watch Episodes 1 or 2 without trying to figure out who is who and what JarJar is saying. He reached his peak with Empire Strikes Back.
Posted by: Blaugra | May 19, 2005 at 02:25 PM
Well thanks for that Jane, I don't think the weekend would have been complete if I hadn't known what you looked like. And such attention to detail, re the left handed laser pistol.
KP
Posted by: Keith | May 20, 2005 at 07:11 AM