Star Wars

So, last night I saw what I'm assuming will be the last real Star Wars movie made.

Gabe and his workboy were the first on the scene, I think around 5-5:30pm for a midnight show, and reserved a spot which, by the time the line was fully formed, put us in the front 1/3. I showed up a bit later, around 6:30pm to find Gabester hanging out. There were 8 showings total, labelled 12:01 - 12:08, and lines for all were already formed. We sat and talked and watched a million little Jedis rolling around doing lightsaber fights and so forth.

It was crazy to see the cross section of geekdom there. Everyone, obviously, was a Star Wars geek. The were a lot of costumes and lightsabers, both manufactured toys and homemade jobs. Lots of really awkward looking teenagers, all of the slightly off-center breed that reminded me of myself in high school. Guys who would rather play games than drink, and the girls who somehow found those guys attractive.

There was a lot going on. Most people brought chairs. There were a number of TVs set up, and various Star Wars movies were playing. Someone brought a full poker table-top and chips. I saw some dudes playing Munchkin. Later in the night, a spontaneous breakin' circle started, and a couple guys and girls starting busting moves, which was fun to watch. They weren't all-stars, but the rawness of just dancing right there on the pavement was neat.

We called in an order for some food and I went to pick it up. It was nice to use up some of my prized gift certificates (thanks to Eron's birthday party). By the time I got back, M.Kyle and Gabe's workboy Dave had shown up. Soon enough Iwan and Little Buhr arrived, straight from a final and a drive from San Francisco, respectively. Before the movie started, they had everyone put their chairs and stuff away, and then let all the lines in one at a time. And all of a sudden, we were in the theater!

It seemed like there were a million previews before the actual movie started. But then the Fox fanfare started, and the green Lucasfilm logo appeared, and the Main Theme starts. BAH, bah-na-na... good stuff.

I won't go too much into the movie details. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it a lot for some major reasons:

1) The writing is a TON better. It's not perfect, especially with regard to the emotional love scenes, but it's a very much improved.
2) As a result, the acting (particularly Annakin) is a LOT better. No more wincing through lines about how rough sand is.
3) No more potty humor. No droids saying "roger roger".

And most importantly, the plot was relatively straightforward, and filled in all the appropriate gaps that I wanted to see.

I loved seeing the transformation of Annakin into Vader. The character of Vader, until now, was always so mysterious. We all KNEW that he used to be Annakin, but it somehow didn't actually become real until he puts on the costume. And all of a sudden, it all made sense. All of a sudden, we know exactly who the mysterious guy in black that strides into Leia's Blockade Runner in the opening of Star Wars IV. All the pieces are in place, and we can now look back and view the entire puzzle as a whole.

The more I think about it, the more stoked I am. I can't wait to see it again, especially with Diana.

In other news, I'm exhausted. We stumbled out of the theater around 2:40am. I mumbled some goodbyes and somehow made it home, and was in bed by 3. Today, I'm in a total fog.