I left work early, because Doors Open at 4:00. I left at 3:00 (because Driving To Hollywood). Partway there, Google Maps told me there was a road closure ahead and kept trying to reroute me. But I really couldn't see what road was actually closed. I kept flicking the screen -- everything between me and Hollywood & Highland looked clear. Although ... wait ... it looked like the block in front of the theater itself was closed, at least in one direction. OK, fine. I took a small detour to come 'round the back into the parking, walked out to Hollywood Boulevard and... Oh. There's an Imperial Walker in the middle of the street. Got it.
No time for that, though; I was trying to find Ric & Lisa in the crowd in front of the Chinese. Right as I got there, they were sending everyone OUT of the courtyard in front of the theater, to actually line up on the sidewalk. (Not sure why, but someone was filming the "line.") I watch everyone pour out of the courtyard and while I don't immediately see Ric & Lisa, I do see Val, so I pretend to wait in line with Val and her guests for a bit. We text Ric and find him in the front of the line, so I run up to be a "plus one" with my actual hosts.
Ric looks a little like George Lucas. Of course, Lucas is 73. And would not be waiting in line to get in to a fan screening at the Chinese. (Also, not a regular kilt-wearer.) None of this stops some dude from taking a selfie with Ric, thinking he's Lucas. A bunch of us have a laugh over this, but Ric says it happens quite a bit.
We are eventually let in the theater. (We pass through security. Weapons not allowed. Lightsabers ok.)
There are people from Sideshow giving away Star Wars collectibles. It isn't going well. They've put stickers under random seats for the winners, but nobody is in their seats. Lots of people sitting vaguely near the marked seats are walking off with the goodies. I think half the audience is still in the lobby, or in front of the theater, taking pictures or something.
They miss the "special guest" giving away one of the collectibles. Rian freakin' Johnson. I'm pretty sure the winner of that one was happier to get the handshake and selfie with Rian Johnson than whatever thingy he happened to win. (While Johnson is saying the standard things about how the mega-fans are the bestest audiences ever, I hear some people walk in from the lobby and say, "Is that--? No WAY!")
It gets closer to 6:00 and I get my (free) popcorn and settle in for the movie. First, there is a moment of silence for Carrie Fisher. People hold their lightsabers in the air in tribute. It's beautiful. It reminds of the crowds at Universal raising their wands in tribute to Alan Rickman. (This, I guess, is what my people do.)
The curtain opens and we get the first movie preview. And the second. And the third. And fourth. I'm watching the audience more than the previews. We've run out of patience pretty much after the second one. There's a groan when the next, "This following preview is approved for all audiences" comes on screen (and someone yells for "Star Wars"), but the annoyance is instantly replaced by cheers when we realize the preview is for something we want to see. Man, this crowd is amped up... and we'll turn on a dime.
We've been told Disney has a little something for us to watch pre-movie. We don't know what it is. It's a little featurette (I assume it will be a DVD extra someday) about John Williams scoring these things for 40 years. It's a good choice; everybody loves John Williams, and it's fun watching the old clips next to the new ones.
And finally, the movie. We cheer the beginning (of course) and then get down the serious business of watching.
A few scenes in, I realize I am going back and forth between being utterly sucked into this film and observing the opening night crowd o' fans respond to it. We laugh; we applaud; we cheer; we see shit coming the MOMENT we're supposed to see it coming and react in anticipation. We even miss stuff we're supposed to miss, and react audibly when we catch on. I don't know how this will play on video in your living room; I don't even know how it will play to a bored audience a couple weeks in -- but it played fantastically well to us. If Rian Johnson stuck around, he would have been gratified to see his audience of mega-fans respond exactly as his movie wanted us to.
In the interests of telling you how good this movie is, without anything particularly spoilery, I will say two things: 1. There is an explanation of the Force in which the word "midichlorians" gloriously fails to appear. 2. (And this one is intentionally vague.) There was a lot I didn't like about "Force Awakens," and this fixed the absolute worst of them. I'm not sure what sort of hopes I had for this movie -- but it certainly exceeded expectations in that regard.
When it was over, we took our little wristbands and headed over the Lining Up post-movie party. (Soooo many pizzas.) It was about 50% the Line People celebrating their Job Well Done and 50% saying goodbye until the next line. And some dudes brought an R2-D2 and a BB-8 which they were (somewhat subtly) operating remotely. We took a picture with the R2 and I said my own goodbyes, thinking I'd definitely sign up to be a full-fledged part of this group the next time (...weather permitting).
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