Saturday Night Star Wars

On Saturday night I saw my very first Star Wars movie. I was joined by eleven movie-goers, about half grandkids, all seated across one long row just above the horizontal aisle in the local movie theatre. That meant there was no one in front of us and we could put our feet up.

We had arrived a good half hour early and saw an incredible number of over-the-top-noisy-violent-action-packed trailers before the show started. And all that time I wondered where the people were. We’d been told to come early even though we had tickets ahead of time, so that we’d be able to sit together.  Turned out that was not a problem. By the time the main attraction started, there were at most another ten people in the theatre. And no-one else came in.

Really?? For Star Wars?  On Saturday night, Dec. 26? There was snow on the ground and the streets were a bit slippery but certainly navigable. Because I’d done a little pre-show research, I knew that the bigger theatre in town was full except for rows one and two.

One of the reasons that Star Wars was of special interest was because half of them were related to one of the writers, Michael Arndt. Michael’s big brother, one of our group, made his way to the very front of the theatre and took a picture of us all with rows and rows of empty seats in front of us.

We were a mixed bunch in many ways. Some of us had seen every single Stars Wars production. Others of us had sort of heard of Darth Vader and R2D2 over time, but were a long way from understanding the backstory. It didn’t matter. This was a holiday gift for us all preceded by a green-chili-smothered burrito dinner. Everyone was in a good mood.

It was an engrossing, explosive, action-packed, fascinating two-plus hours, enhanced by our 3-D goggles. I’m sure for many of us it revived memories as far back as 1977 when the original Star Wars came to the screen. I left the theatre curious about the story that had gone before, the incredible hype this movie has enjoyed and why in the heck so few of us were there to see it last night at the local movie house.

I just took a peek at Twitter where my granddaughter had written: “Grandma’s Star Wars review: ‘A stupid fight with neon swords.’” That was only my reaction to a single scene, but true. Even so, I had a great time!