I find your lack of faith disturbing

I did my duty (and I wanted to.....) and went to see the preview screening of Episode III in the middle of Wednesday night. There we all were, lightsabres aloft, awaiting the last chance to see a decent Star Wars prequel and drinking rum and coke (smuggled in obviously). We all felt a strange sense of solidarity as the fans piled in; relieved to note we were not the only ones with lightsabres, although costumes were at a minumum (glad I resisted the gold bikini urge then) signalling a rather sober crowd.

The cinema had decided to arrange usher/ettes for this special occasion (there usually aren’t any at this cinema), who wandered around selling ice creams, or rather trying to, the room being full of people requesting coffee instead. There were many shouts for caffeine in order to facilitate the staying awake. I suddenly realised as I scanned the room that of course we needed coffee, this wasn’t a young vibrant crowd, this was a bunch of grumpy, jaded thirtysomethings, who’d been there the first time round. All feeling the strain of being up ‘til 4am on a school night. The majority of these adults had left their own kids with neighbours/parents and taken the next morning off work, all for this film that had been growing in significance in our minds for past 3 years.

A rather odd experience I thought it was, not for the film itself which I thought was a dramatic improvement (time will tell whether or not that opinion is simply Star Wars blindness in action again – the mistaking of the next episode for good just because it was better than the last – definition courtesy of Simon Pegg). There was some improved acting (towards the end anyway) and I think we enjoyed it for what it was.

But the oddness came from the scenario of sitting in a room full of people covering this tiny age-range, all ready to cheer at the credits (which we did, by the way) and it was strange and fun and unlikely to occur again. After all the age of the cinema is being challenged by the DVD (I am all for this, I love home film viewing), and the next cinematic event that covers 30 years (if there is one), I shall clearly be far too old to be involved in. So for the finality of this event and the shared knowledge of that truth, if nothing else, I am glad I stayed up all night cheering and waving bits of plastic.

I’m not growing up or anything though!!