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[bryant]

When Phantom Menace was released, I took the day off work and drove up to the AMC 1000 Van Ness in San Francisco. If you ask me, it's got the best screens in the city, although maybe the new AMC multiplex in Daly City beats it these days. But that multiplex was built over hospital parking, and is thus morally flawed, so I vote for the 1000 Van Ness. Besides, the Daly City multiplex wasn't done when Phantom Menace came out.

As far as San Francisco movie theaters in general? Yes, of course the Castro is better. But they don't show blockbusters. The Coronet was awesome... for sentimental reasons: yeah, it was the canonical destination for blockbuster openers. However, the 1000 Van Ness had better screens. My favorite rep house in San Francisco is probably the Roxie, while I'm digressing. But man -- the Four Star, the Bridge, Red Vic, even the Embarcadero didn't suck. I saw a lot of Cronenberg movies at the Embarcadero. I do miss San Francisco's movie options, as much as I love the Brattle.

Where was I? Oh yeah; Star Wars.

So I drove up and got to the theater by noon, with tickets in hand for a 7:30 show. Surprisingly, the theater was not packed. I'd anticipated camping out in line with my pal Jamie -- no such need. In fact, there were still tickets available for the 1:30 show. Jamie and I looked at each other.

"Hey. We could see the 1:30, and then we could see the 7:30! We could see it twice in one day! It's gonna be awesome! This is great! We are so lucky!"

In retrospect? Yeah, the lack of people lining up should have been a sign. I don't really recall what I was thinking. I might have said something about how everyone was over at the aforementioned Coronet. The local newspapers had been doing stories on the line over there, which was huge. So, sure, that's why nobody was around at the 1000 Van Ness for the most important movie event ever. (We didn't know about that thing with the hobbits yet.)

So we went to see the 1:30 movie. So exciting! The Lucasfilm logo at the beginning! The incredibly cool first ten minutes or so!

And then it was as if we'd eaten the top layer of our popcorn and found stale Milk Duds underneath. The hell?

Afterwards we kind of slouched out into the lobby and looked at our 7:30 tickets. And looked at the tickets we were holding for the other five or six people who were seeing the 7:30 showing with us. And sat down on the floor, and talked about -- I don't remember. Gaming, probably. When everyone else showed up, we didn't trash the movie -- figured it was better to let people make up their own minds, plus hey, maybe it'd get better with a second showing. Which it didn't really.

So that's why I saw Phantom Menace twice on opening day despite hating it both times. It turned me off blockbuster openings for a while. The thing with the hobbit did a lot to fix that, as did both Spider-Man movies. (The first of which I saw at the Metreon, since I'm keeping track.)

Despite all that, despite the tale of woe, despite the painful contrast of Natalie Portman in the Star Wars movies and Natalie Portman in Closer... I'm still sitting here with four tickets to the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith at Boston Common. (First come first served but one's earmarked for my brother unless he doesn't want it and one's earmarked for the guy who got me a Serenity ticket ditto.)

Eternal optimist am I. Sigh. You know what was really good? Sean Stewart's Star Wars novel. It had a lot of Count Dooku in it, y'know?

Comments

[that-cad.livejournal.com]

Best. Post. Ever.

[bryant]

Thanks! I keep reading people like Lance Mannion and thinking "Wow, I gotta write longer posts."

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

You know what really hurt? There's an article blurb over at imdb today about how Lucas had to literally force himself to write the screenplay for Revenge of the Sith, because he was just so uninspired. My tummy hurts.

[head58.livejournal.com]

and one's earmarked for the guy who got me a Serenity ticket ditto

Boo-yah!

Let me check and make sure I'm not seeing it out my way. I had a potential thing there.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Okay, the potential thing is not a thing. I'm there.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Caffeine and adrenaline got me through 1.333 viewings of Phantom Menace before I realized I hated it.

I guess I'm gonna blow some geek cred by even asking this but: midnight showing on what day?

[bryant]

May 19th.

[head58.livejournal.com]

This is the midnight Wednesday night-Thursday AM, right? Not Thursday night-Friday morning midnight?

[bryant]

Correct.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, I'm going out of town that day, so that makes my decision easy. Now I can pretend to myself that I wouldn't have jumped at that ticket, that I'm not a tool of Lucas' marketing machine, that I'm not going to get my hopes up one more time...

...but I totally would have.

[head58.livejournal.com]

I didn't love TPM when I saw it in the theaters. But I've grown to like it a lot more after repeated watchings on dvd, when I can control the scene skip function. Permanently excise the trip through the "planet core" and the whole Gungun boss thing, and it's not terrible.

Really!

Also, as I've said, it and AotC are much better if viewed through the lens that Padme is the Queen of the Sith. Unfortunately, the new movie is going to ruin that for me, I fear.

[gentlyepigrams]

I am not going to see it the first day or first weekend. My expectations are low, so it will be hard to disappoint them.

These things are my mantras.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I'll go see it eventually I'm sure, if I can drag peaseblossom along and get a babysitter. Its the type of movie you have to see on the big screen for it to have any affect.

[head58.livejournal.com]

My problem is I've got high expectations for this one. Beacuse at this point before AotC, with a month to go, we already knew it would be stinky. We'd seen "leaked" screenshots and script chunks. We knew about Jar Jar, and that But everything I've seen thus far about the film has only made me more excited for it.

And oh, look! A very spoilery review from Kevin Smith, the biggest SW fanboy of them all. Everything he says about it makes me tingle.

I fully expect to be utterly crushed by this film.

[bryant]

Yeah -- lemme help you out with that. Kevin Smith thought Gigli was a good idea.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Did he? I thought he was pissed about it because he knew it would sink Jersey Girl?

He did think Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was a good idea. There's a big strike against him. Balanced by the pure brilliance of the Clerks Animated show, but still a blight on his record.

[kodi]

I was capable of submerging my expectations for Episode II. I went into it expecting crap, and it was only a little worse than I expected.

I can't do that for this one. I watched the trailer, and it confirmed what I already knew. The events that take place in Episode III are the most exciting events that take place in the entire arc. In capable hands, this would be far-and-away the best movie of the six. The only possible reason for this movie to suck is the guy in charge, and even though I know he has a godlike capacity to screw it up, there's still a part of me that won't accept that it blows goats until I see the goat blown.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I had fun at Episode I. I didn't love it, but it didn't ruin Star Wars for me. I loved the Jedis and Ewan's lovely impersonation of Sir Alec Guinness. And I had figured that it would be the Return of the Jedi since Anakin was so young (and painfully bad!). So I forgave it all of its shortcomings except for the casting of young Anakin and the midiclorians (which still irks me).

But Episode II was horrible! After seeing it, I literally couldn't watch the original movies. It has ruined everything that I loved about Star Wars. And now I'm dreading the next installment. I don't have tickets. I'm not going on opening night or probably even opening weekend. And I don't own any of the original movies on DVD after hearing about Lucus' continued meddling. And now I hear talk of a TV series.

And this all makes me very, very sad.

[bryant]

You probably already know this, but Clone Wars (the cartoon series) is very good.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

My stepson has been bringing Star Wars comic books home and those have been pretty good, too.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Mike and I went to the...what...6:30 a.m. showing of Phantom Menace on opening day. Dunkin Donuts coffee in hand, wondering (at least I was) where everyone was. I actually liked it a lot more then than I do know--it's only after repeated viewings that I've come to realize just how bad the acting is. I can handle bad dialogue. But Natalie Portman...good gawd. Please, Natalie, please. Let me choose your films for you. Please?

[rumhann.livejournal.com]

I came away from TPM hoping that it was as bad as it was just as a political setup for TCW . . . but when that too came out, I have chosen not to waste teh ~$10 to see RotS in a theatre. :(

Here I am, one of the geeks who was able to see the original set when they first came out, had TESB wall paper and curtains my grandmother made from teh bed sheets, nearly all the figures and vehicles I could keep up with buying 'till I was kisked out of the house and left them for my step brothers (VERY bad choice), camped out overnight to get tickets for the re-releases in the '90's . . . and am so disapointed with the plot/acting of the recent two that I'm not willing to see it purly for the SFX till it comes out on DVD and I borrow/see it at a friends house.

Though sort of a side note: Return was origianlly titled Revenge of the Jedi, but Jedi's weren't supposed to be vengeful so they changed it - I even had one of the patches which said Revenge. Now the third of this trilogy is using Revenge . . . at least there's some consistency. =;-}

*sigh* back to work for me . . .
SM

[bryant]

See, I actually wanted Attack of the Clones to be political setup. I think there's a great story to be told about Count Dooku and his mixed desires and his attempt to balance between the Sith and the Jedi. Christopher Lee is great; he's got the gravitas to pull off the role. But I know that's not gonna happen.

Depressed.

[c-vista.livejournal.com]

We mostly go to the Daly City Theaters nowadays, tho I still like Van Ness. The screens at DC are just as good to better than the AMC ones (if only because they are newer) and the parking is FREE, which is a big deal, of course. Tho VanNess was only $4 last time I was there. Also, living in the south bay now, Daly City is much easier to get to and the parking is FREE.

If you still lived in Pacifica, I have no doubt you would be loving the Daly City theaters. Did I mention they have 2 parking garages? (and they're free!)

I really liked the Alexandria, but unfortunately it is gone. There is a theater much like the Embarcadero now in San Jose at Santana Row. I have a lot of fond memories of The Embarcadero, tho, most especially The Limey.

Have fun at the movie! Opening night is kinda fun, even if the movie isn't so good.

[aelfsciene.livejournal.com]

I did that million-hour wait at the Coronet. I also spent hours waiting outside a Toys R Us (with Fire, of course) waiting to get in and spend tons of money on the new Star Wars toys. Spent hours and hours over too many months seeking out figures, both the remade ones from the original trilogy and the new prequel stuff. I even saw it twice in theaters, because he wanted to. The lightsaber stuff? That was fun. Amidala kicked a little ass. But it was disappointing.

AotC was just...god. I don't even remember when I saw it, but it was only once, and that was immensely disappointing. Even with the lowered expectations. What the hell happened to Natalie Portman?

Now, I dunno. I have to admit to some curiousity and maybe even a little excitement over the latest trailer, though I still expect betrayal. I won't be seeing it anywhere near opening weekend, though, since I'm a no-fun-on-school-night girl and Soula's getting married that weekend and then it's Fanime Con and finals, and well. June 3rd at the earliest, unless everyone says it's oh-my-god wonderful and I sneak in a matinee during the week.

Though I'd probably go with you if I was in Boston.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

The only reason Lucas gets away with this crap is that you, collectively, refuse to acknowledge what you, individually, know bloody well. This is like a support group for Teh Suk. Stop enabling each other! Stop it!