Friday, August 15, 2008

A Summer Storm Brings Us Up to MIDNIGHT!

It was like thunder and lightning... oh wait, it WAS thunder and lightning when we got to the theatre. A summer storm was brewing up, and the wind made my Jedi cloak billow out behind me and I felt like a kick-butt Jedi Master as I walked across the parking lot, lightsaber in hand.

Then there was the biggest-honkin-screen-in-Arizona of the Cine Capri. The only place I'll go to see a movie anymore, I'm so spoiled. Stadium seating, rocking seats with lightsaber holders (some people were using them to hold their drink cups), 400 speakers and 35,000 watts of Dolby Digital.... Yes, I'm a techno-junkie... so send me into exile... this is only the second time in two years I've even BEEN to a movie!

Last weekend we spent two evenings there in costume, raising money for Phoenix Children's Hospital. The local 501st set up a photo booth, and we good guys from the Rebel Legion supplied plenty of Jedi, a Padme, a Tusken, a Rebel pilot.... The bad guys supplied a Vader, and Darth Nilihus, some stormtroopers, a couple of clones who didn't know what side they were on...

We even got some good press out of it... with a slide show! Don't worry, I'm not in any of them...

This brings me up to last night.... We hung out and about in the lobby waiting for the midnight show. Jedi, stormtroopers, Sith Lords, Clones, Tuskens, a Wookiee, Yoda, Princess Leia and Padme...a whole family of Jedi came in...

We were supposed to play with the folks in line, and there was no line! They opened up the theatre at 9 o'clock and everyone was inside... and I can't say that I blame them, since the AC inside was much better than that in the lobby area...

But I digress.... Sweating in full Jedi garb tends to do that.... You're all waiting breathlessly to hear what I have to say about The Clone Wars.... And I say, GO SEE IT! Don't let other peoples' opinions sway you, judge it for yourself.

No, it isn't Star Wars: A New Hope revisited, it won't give you the chills and thrills of 1977, but it's FUN! Lots of action, lots of humor, some nice artwork. I would have preferred a more realistic style of animation and real John Williams music, but those are just personal preferences.

One guy in his mid-30s, who must have visited the bar across the mall before entering the theatre complex, asked me if he could have my lightsaber.... "No, I don't think so!" I said. "OK, can I have you?" He replied.

Forget it, my heart belongs to Obi-Wan, but don't tell Yoda.

At least the Force was with me long enough for no one to see the Jedi in full vestments putting out the recycle bin at 2:30 in the morning..

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