“It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force… but by our skills with a lightsaber.” –Count Dooku to Master Yoda, in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

All the fuss about the new Star Trek movie and the next Star Wars film reminds me of when Episode I came out back in 1999. My brother and I were super duper excited. Prior to that, the only Star Wars flick I had seen in the theaters was Episode VI, with my family, when I was about 7 years old. 20 years later, my brother and I were amped to see the prequels. We weren’t big movie-heads, but when it came to Star Wars and the like we were sure to go watch it on the big screen, together. I’ll always remember going to those midnight showings with my brother. Even if the movies weren’t great, the experience of seeing them with him was.

Back then, midnight showings were unheard of. Star Wars was (I’m pretty sure) the first movie to be shown at that time that did this. And who, of course, was going to the first midnight showing? We were. So after a few beers (and accompanied by the few we snuck in) we went (we did so for each of the prequels.). I expected the theater to be empty. I mean, who in the BX wants to see SW at midnight? Everyone and their mother, that’s who. It was a big deal. Dudes were dressed up in Star Wars attire (seriously, you can’t make this stuff up) with their lightsabers blazing. Cats from the neighborhood that we bumped into were there that I had no clue were Star Wars fans. We found out that a few of them were even bigger Star Wars fans than us (imagine that!). It was like watching a flick with one huge family. Every scene was magnified by the crowd – it felt like we were in a stadium. Even the notorious opening crawl was greeted with thunderous applause. Remember when Yoda strolled-in on Dooku in Episode II? Man, you could feel and hear the anticipation build in the theater. Collective ‘ohhhhs’ and ‘ahhhhs’ rippled like a wave at a baseball game. Then when he flipped-out on him… forget it. We went nuts; everybody went nuts! The theater erupted – it felt like it shook! It was pretty awesome.

By contrast, I remember a few years later when the The Matrix Reloaded came out. We were anticipating that movie too with great fanfare. But for some reason I saw it in PA with a few of my grad school friends instead of seeing it with my brother. Big f-r-i-g-g-i-n-g mistake. I was expecting similar theatrics (pun intended) to the prequel showings in The BX. Anticipating at least an excited crowd, at least as excited as I was. How disappointing. The movie was decent, IMO, but the crowd was so boring (oh, so very, very boring). Everytime a cool scene occurred the audience was silent. Every time. Like, library silent. Big giant explosion? Crickets – no ‘yahoos’ or collective ‘ohhhhhhhhhhs’ or ‘ahhhhhhhs’ – just crickets. It was like watching one of those silent black and white 1920’s films…
with headphones on…
in a foreign country…
in somebody’s basement…
on Jupiter (ok, I’m exaggerating. You can’t watch a movie on Jupiter. You can’t even stand on Jupiter.). Needless to say, it sucked. Big time. I was the only one yelling at the screen and stuck out like a sore thumb. I quickly realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore and did like the Romans did. Afterward, I complained to my crew about the sterile moviegoers (as well as their own appalling behavior) but they didn’t get it. What a surprise. When you’re from NYC, you just expect bigger and better things I guess. Everything’s always magnified here. And it may be cliche to say it, but I’ll say it anyway: nothing’s like NYC. Nothing. Not even watching a movie.

I thought about seeing Star Trek in the theaters and bringing the Starfleet cadets, but they’re too young for the training. I’ll probably just wait to stream it to my couch. But Episode VII? I know I would definitely have gone to see it at the theater with my brother. And since we can’t go this time, I think it’s time for a new tradition. Next time, I’ll bring the little Padawans to pass on the SW experience to the next generation, so that they’ll experience and feel what their dad and uncle felt a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. My son and niece will be about 7 years old when it comes out in theaters, about the same age I was when I saw my first SW flick on the big screen. And my son is already a SW fan (surprising, right?). My daughter will probably get a kick out of hearing her Jedi-namesake on the big screen too. And my nieces will know that their father was strong with the force, the way they will be one day. I hope it’ll be as big an experience for them as it was for me when I went with their Dad/Uncle; I hope that they’ll look back one day and know that their Dad/Uncle did it way-back-when too. I’m looking forward to bringing them to a theater in the BX. I know my brother would approve. But maybe we’ll skip the midnight showing this time or, then again, maybe not.