There Has Been an Awakening…Have You Felt it?
1st of a 30 part series:
What you’ve got to understand about me is that I used to get crazy excited about things. Once, when I was younger, my parents let slip that we were taking a trip to Disney World. In my excitement I promptly kicked my own tooth out, the physics of which still baffle me to this day.
I was that horrible kid that would stay up all night just for a chance to open presents as early as possible. I was the kid would wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before a field trip.
Eventually I realized that this way of living was to exhausting to keep up and a started a regime of slowly but surely lowering my expectations. I now try to keep my excitement in check to the point that I rarely am able to get hyped up about something until it’s actually taking place.
For most of my brief adult life I’ve keep to this self-inflicted anhedonia as a way to protect myself and the people around me from my own hysteria.
It is 6:34 on December 17th and I’m 26 minutes away from watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens in iMax 3D. I’m soaking wet in my Lando Calrissian costume and so are all of my friends, though they had the good sense to bring umbrellas with them. Portland has had 17 days straight of rain, but that wouldn’t deter fans from lining up outside the building since 7am that morning.
When we are able to grab seats in the third row from the front on the right side slightly off center. There is pain in my left shoulder where the tattoo needle left its mark. Today was also the day I got my first Star Wars Tattoo.
The atmosphere in the theatre is muted. Everyone is clearly excited but no one is acting too crazy. I know this will change in a while once the movie gets started but I believe I’ve mentally prepared myself for such an eventuality. Despite protestations to the contrary these are my people. While I have many nerdy friends, I haven’t been in close proximity to painfully nerdy folk in a while.
A number of folk asked to take my picture to show their friends how hardcore Star Wars fans can be.
The Regal Cinema’s First Look™ isn’t aliased correctly — there is too much red in the skin tones of folk making them look like devils (or Devaronians amirite!) on the screen in certain lights. I’m doing my best to not be irritated by this but I can’t help but worry that this will apply to the movie as well. This wouldn’t be the first movie premiere that there were technical difficulties. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight in Wichita we had to wait upwards of an hour for the movie to be fixed by technicians. I don’t believe I’ve even left a theatre more exhausted.
A few other people besides me have noticed how weird the screen looks. People can be kind of boring in that way, as though screaming at the weirdness of the screens will solve anything.
To my surprise the theatre manager is addressing the crowd from the front row. He’s recognized that there is an issue with the color in the pre-previews clips but can assure us the movie is fine and won’t run into any problems.
5 minutes until the movie is set to start and I am utterly without words. My movie companions are weirded out by what looks to be a marked reversal in my usual temperament. I’m tempted to bust out the cool genial and entertaining persona I’m known for but I can’t summon the effort. There is too much riding on this evening. Other people don’t really matter at this point.
In preparation for this movie I read all the available expanded universe novels and comic book series. I preordered a copy of Star Wars Battlefront and purchased a PS4 just so I could play it. I took a trip to Disneyland to check out all the Star wars stuff in Tomorrowland. I’ve pored over the IMDB page of this movie and the next. I re-watched all the original movies (with the exception of the prequels) I spent the last week reading over fan theories and concocted my own superior ones, divulging my various them to everyone who dared lend an ear.
2 min to the beginning of the movie and my heart has started racing. This will eventually subside, but in the moment I’m keenly aware of how embarrassing it would be to have to leave the theatre on account of having a panic attack.
The screen darkens and we sit through 10+ minutes of previews. I can already tell that 3D was a bad choice…. Adjusting my glasses (even with contacts in) took me out of the moment more times than I’m ok with.
Since this movie was distributed by Disney I wonder what it will be like without the 20th Century Fox fanfare?
