Its Star Wars Day!!! Actually its probably Star Wars Day Eve!!! Yes, that sounds better. Tomorrow, Friday December 18th, is the official opening of the new Star Wars movie (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), but many places are showing it early tonight starting at 7pm. I am going to see it at midnight on my way home from work. I was going to wing it and go with the force and not buy a ticket ahead of time, but other people were tormenting me (yes, using the dark side) as they were buying their tickets early online and got me to buy my ticket early.
My love of Star Wars goes back years and years. I remember going to see the original three movies in the theater and taking my Ewok stuffed animal to the Hights Theater with my mom, grandparents (Grandpa Steve did not understand the whole Ewok thing), and evil twin sister. I still have the original VHS copies of the original three movies, where Han shoots first, as was intended, and before they “improved” it.
I was even interviewed by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel back in 1997 when I went to see the 20th anniversary showing:
`Star Wars’ fans keep going back to the future: [All Edition]
UEBELHERR, JAN. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Milwaukee, Wis] 21 Feb 1997: 8.
MELISSA AHO, 24
Why are you here: “To see it again on the big screen. It’s such a great story. And I saw it when I was little. I was 5 or 6. I was like overwhelmed at the special effects. I liked all the aliens.” She called it “the eternal story good vs. evil. Good wins out over the evil. And it’s a big sprawling space saga.”
Favorite character: “Han Solo, because he tries to be really hard and mean, but he’s really got a heart of gold.”
Here is a copy of the newspaper article (useless bit of trivia for you: I hiked out in a blizzard in Milwaukee to get copies of the newspaper article because I could not drive due to all the snow!)
p.s. Its also Wright Brothers Day! Today in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright made the first sustained, controlled power airplane flight! Thats only 112 years ago! We’ve come a long way, baby!
UPDATE 12/18/15
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was wonderful! As I Tweeted after I saw it: “The Force Awakens will make you fall in love with Star Wars all over again.” And it really does. Its funny and adventurous, and makes you laugh and then makes you cry. The old characters are wonderful and the new characters are fantastic and perfect for their roles. Also GIRLS RULE! There are women everywhere! Women flying the X-Wings, women in the Resistance, women in the Empire, women in the background, etc. Star Wars had very few women in it, but J.J. Abrams adds them in everywhere, as they should be. Really, its a movie that makes you want to see it again and again and again.
So I arrived for the midnight show and founded the parking lot at the movie theater empty. Hmmm. Then when I was getting my ticket I asked if they were sold out, only to be told that only the earlier 7pm, 7:30pm, and 8pm shows were sold out, but not the later ones. So I got my free popcorn (I had a coupon) and went to the assigned theater #6 to find about 40-50 people inside and thought, well lets try another theater as they were showing it in five different ones. The next was almost as busy, and the next was 3-D, but the next theater was tucked away, so people probably did not notice it, as when I went in there was only dude in a Jedi robe. That was the lucky theater. Just me sitting at the top and the Jedi dude at the bottom. Next there were 20 minutes of previews and then the movie started. It was awesome!!! I didn’t get home until 3am, which is not bad, but then I had to watch the Star Wars episode of Big Bang Theory, which was really funny and then had to get up to go to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens again for the 10am show on Friday December 18. The 10am show was at a different theater and there were a lot of people, but still the movie was awesome! Now I just need to see it a few more times this winter….
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- Just me and the Jedi