Episode III Opening Night

Well, we did it. We actually spent almost half of yesterday waiting for the final installment of the Star Wars saga to play at our local theatre. Kat got there at 2:00 (for a midnight showing, mind you) to find over 50 people in line in front of her, some of whom had been there since Tuesday.

I'm not going to spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it yet (hey, that's just about everyone reading this, at least right now!) but, suffice to say, I walked away very satisfied, and actually somewhat sad. Sad for the final end of an era that began when I was eight years old, but even more sad for the tragic figure that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader cuts. I will never again be able to watch Star Wars: A New Hope (that's the first film to come out, for those not in the know) and see Vader walk aboard the Rebel blockade runner in the opening moments of the film without feeling a profound sense of pity and sadness.

Anyway, enough with that. Go see the movie.

As I said, Kat got to the Cascade 16 Theatre at about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was a nice, sunny day, so she figured it would be no problem to sit in our camp chairs, listen to her mp3 player, and watch the rest of the Star Wars geeks encamped around her fight with their toy light sabers and debate the minutiae of the first five movies.

That was until about 3:45, when a deluge of biblical proportions opened up on her and everyone else. I know, because I was on the phone with her. I was gathering up supplies at the house (extra blanket, my mp3 player, a book to read), and my cell rang:

"Hello?"

SSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSPLASHSPLASH
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!! GET OVER HERE NOW!!! I'M DROWNING!!!"

"Honey, what do you mean? I'm just getting the blankets and the..."

"NEVER MIND THAT!!! JUST BRING A BOAT!!!"

"Um, what are you talking about?"

SPLASHY-SPLASHY-SPLASHY-SPLASHY-SPLASHY-SPLASH
"HAVE YOU LOOKED OUTSIDE?!?!?!?!?"

Frankly, I hadn't. I glanced out the bedroom window just in time to catch the frontal assault of the cloudburst that had hit Kat two minutes earlier a quarter mile away. Now, I've lived in the Northwest for almost ten years, and I can honestly say I've never seen it rain that hard. I mean, it's the kind of rain that makes you want to call up your crazy neighbor Noah and say, hey, buddy, about that "ark" thing I've been giving you a hard time about...

Anyway, I got over to the theatre, but not before receiving another call from Kat, this time requesting I bring our tent. Tent and various and sundry gear in tow, I headed over to the theatre for one of the craziest and most fun afternoons I've ever spent.

Several readers of this blog (well, maybe only one or two) may recall the time when a number of Bethany Long Beach people camped out on the sidewalk in Pasadena over New Years Eve, awaiting the Rose Parade. It was kind of like that, only with more light sabers and fewer marshmallow-throwing bikers. Plus, despite the rain, it wasn't as bone-chillingly cold, either, which was a definite plus.

We set up our tent in the spot Kat had grabbed, just around the first turn of the building. The guys next to us had a hibachi, and periodically would fire it up to cook bratwursts.

Here's how tent city looked:


After a while, it stretched pretty much around the building:


Of course, an event like this gives guys like these a chance to show off their mad lightsaber skills:


Some dudes took it really seriously, with actual rules regarding how many hits you can take, and which ones are just "burns" vs which hits actually remove limbs. I'm not kidding here.


A church youth group behind us in line had about twenty kids there. We could tell they were a church youth group (and later verified that they indeed were) when, in the midst of a conversation debating whether a certain character in the film will die, a youthful voice shouted irreverently, "all right, ashes and sackcloth for everybody!"


Some people passed the time entertaining themselves...


...while others came to entertain everyone else.



And this speeder bike trooper and Imperial Navy pilot took this poor kid in for interrogation on the Death Star right after I took this shot. Tragic.


These girls were trying to evoke two different images of Princess Leia...


...while these two girls kept on wandering around saying "Yub yub! Yub yub!"


Some costumes were outstanding...


...while others showed a distinct lack of effort. "Yoda" here actually got the Dark Lord of the Sith to give him a hug. Aww, ain't that great?

This Mace Windu needed a tan and to have his head shaved (although he did have a cool purple lightsaber):

I had actually been looking for the guy in the photo below when I ran into the Whitey Wannabe Windu pictured above. I had spotted him earlier, and went up and down the line saying, "Hey, Mace Windu! How's about a picture?" when the guy above turned around. I have to say, his costume was spot on, and his purple lightsaber rocked, but my look of disappointment at not seeing the dashing, bald black dude I'd seen before must've shown on his face. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I guess you want the other Mace Windu." I told him that was okay, and took his picture anyway. An A for effort.

A little too friendly with that saber, I'd say.

We hooked up with our friend Connie from church, who brought her daughter, Donica and her son, James, to the movie. The next couple shots are of them with some of the folks in costume:

Weren't the Imperials a singing group once?


This dude had his picture taken more than a department store Santa.


Bummer this one didn't turn out better. This Boba Fett costume was perfect. (Actually, Kat said, "I wonder if it's Boba Fett or Jango Fett?" to which I replied as I was setting up the shot, "well, I guess it's Mr. Fett to us."

At this point, one of the guys in a stormtrooper outfit leaned over to me and whispered, "well, actually that's Mrs. Fett, to tell you the truth.")


The black blob along the bottom of this shot is my phone's leather case getting in the way of the lens.


So, that's about it. We had a wonderful time, and, being as how I didn't get to bed until about 4:00 this morning (and I've been up since about 8:00 downloading images from my phone), I'm going back to bed now. This last one is the sign I posted on our tent flap:



G'night, all, and may the Force be with you.