Movies and sleep deprivation

Believe it or not I actually made it in to work on time this morning, unlike some people I know. He also beat me to the post, but somebody has to do some work around this place. These things aren’t just going to break themselves. Let’s get on with this thing, but first I bore you. Ha. So there.

As my last post stated I went to the 12:10 AM showing of Star Wars Episode III last night. I had originally intended to take this afternoon off and see the movie a little after lunch, but I was talked into going to the midnight showing. We got to the Theater at 10:25, a full 1:45 before the movie was set to start. It was a good thing too. There were several hundred people in line when we got there. Smartly we had already purchased our tickets several days before.

We stood in line and talked, went to the bathroom, and tried to avoid the TV News camera that was there. It seems that a gathering of this many nerds in one building is apparently a very news worthy event. I think it was primarily a warning for normal people to stay away from the theater. “Billy, see what playing too many video games can do to you. It makes you either fat with log unkempt hair or skinny with a scraggly beard.” I recognized some of the people as escapees from the basements of the computer science and mathematics departments. That was the front of the line though. As you moved farther back down the line it began to turn into normal college and high school kids with a few adults thrown in. I was right at the separation point of ubernerd and the almost normal person, right where I should have been. I say almost normal because anyone who goes to a movie at 12:10 AM can’t really be normal. Anyway, I had fun watching people play with their light sabers, don their Darth Vader and Storm Trooper masks, walk around in their Jedi Robe, or wonder how the father expected the 5 year old to stay awake or quiet.

The seating took place rather calmly and collectedly about 30 minutes before the movie. Dex managed to get into our theater by saying he was with us. They were checking tickets to keep the theaters evenly loaded. Dex’s original ticket was different, because he had mistakenly purchased a ticket to the wrong cinema, a miscommunication. He managed to get one of the last 40 tickets earlier that evening and exchanged his other ticket for a Saturday one for his son. Next time we are going to send one person to buy all the tickets.

We sat for half an hour before the previews started. I was actually amazed that there were only 3. I’ve been to several movies lately with what seems like 5 or 6 trailers. No wonder a 2 hour movie has 3 hours between showings. Anyway, there was Fantastic Four, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Stealth. Fantastic four looks like it may not suck. Mr. And Mrs. Smith looks like I might be able to drink to it. Stealth made me think of Macross Plus, so I reserve judgment. It was at this point that it became clear. The audience was not the loudest I have ever been in, but they were going to make loud comments and spontaneous outbursts of laughter and awe precisely at the times I wanted to listen closely. I had been prepared for this, but Dex seemed a bit miffed. Such is the side effect of seeing it with The Great Fandom. To them the first watching is for golly jees. The third watching is where you look for details and poo poo the people doing the whooping that you were doing just a few hours earlier.

It was then that the Lucasfilm logo popped up on the screen and the crowd went nuts whooping and flailing about. And then something struck me in the chest. It startled me for a second and then I looked for the stealthy projectile. I found it on the floor and for a second thought it might be a sexual aid. I then realized that in someone’s excited state they had over flailed and launched the 10 inch plastic tip of their light saber at me. I could see the story, “Man Loses Eye in Lightsaber Mishap at Star Wars Opening”. Then the Family Guy episode with Luke doing the laser eye surgery came to mind. It wasn’t pretty, but it was funny. I took some solace in the fact that it would ruin the guy’s week if he couldn’t find it. I saw him looking for it after the movie and gave it back to him. Yeah I’m a soft touch. Next time I’m taking my safety glasses, because there really is no more important safety rule.

Holy crap that’s a lot of text that has nothing to do with the movie. Why didn’t one of you speak up and tell me I was rambling. And now for the rest of our show.

One thing you must know is that I enjoy many forms of entertainment and the varying degrees of quality that exist therein. I’ve tried to explain my varied taste before, but most people see it as unrefined at best. I tend to look past what others call bad acting, predictable plots, poor production quality, etc. to find other things of merit. Most of the time I see a play, poem, song, script, or story as a walk though another person’s imagination. I study and think about the paths this person has chosen that mimic or differ from what I have seen before. To me most stories are predictable, to some degree. There are only so many paths that an audience will watch and enjoy. Others have seen me pull lines out of the air almost word for word before the character says them. I’ve watched Monk, KOTOR 1 and 2 and other stories, predicting the outcomes at just over the halfway mark. For many stories the outcome is trivial. The journey is what is of consequence. And I dearly love when a story takes a turn I did not see. It’s like finding a secret cache of possibilities that you can treasure and examine. So take any review or opinion with as large a hunk of salt lick as you want. I figured you might need that before I talk about movies.

Star Wars Episode III

In two words, Utterly Predictable, but really what did you expect? You’ve seen the first two and the next three, so bridge the opening and there you have it. I mean seriously it’s supposed to be epic, and that is usually pretty formulaic. I mean the 4^th-6^th episodes are utterly predictable if you have seen the first 3. Now beyond that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. The actors have matured and have a better grasp of the story and their characters. But most of all, this movie is a whole lot more like the 4^th - 6^th episodes than it is like the 1^st and 2^nd. There’s a lot more fighting, and it seems to be choreographed better. I definitely feel the Lightsaber swordplay was studied and practiced more. The CGI is more subtle and doesn’t steal the scene as often. Don’t get me wrong, there are showy things, some small jets and flying come to mind, but for the most part the action is large enough to compete. The only CGI that was really bothersome was the representations of the main characters. I swear I saw a CGI Obi-Wan that looked like a face texture wrapped around a smooth balloon shaped head. The shading and shadowing were nonexistent or completely wrong. I don’t want to say anything about the plot because it’s too easy to give large pieces away, but betrayal is the theme for the day.

If you haven’t seen the Star Wars Clone Wars animated series I suggest you do so. You should be able to rent the first series, and Cartoon Network will probably be showing the second series again. It leads from the end of the 2^nd Episode right up to the beginning of the 3^rd. And I have to say it has great story, action, and character development. And it is cannon, or official story line. It helps make Anakin even more real and helps change your view of Vader forever.

Now for the condensed review from Yoda:

“If Star Wars you like, then see it you must. If Star Wars you do not like, then something else you should see.”

And my condensed review:

“It’s worth a full price ticket the first time, but only a matinee the second. Anything beyond that and you should wait for the DVD.”