Well, here it is at 5am and I’m gonna be a good blogger and write about my experience at the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Actually, I’ve decided to just stay up all night and I’m trying to keep busy and awake. Figured no sleep would be better than just a couple hours. Either way, I’m not gonna be worth much tomorrow. Don’t be surprised if I’m asleep at 7pm tomorrow night…

I was with a group of 22 friends who went to the midnight showing at the AMC theatre at Newport on the Levee. The movie was playing on 19 screens and every single one of them was sold out. Whoa! Now that’s some dedicated fans. Gonna be a lot of tired folks tomorrow (er…today, I mean). I’ve seen several articles detailing how much these midnight showings adversely affect employee productivity the next day. Oh well!!!

One of the reasons that I torture myself with these midnight showings (I’ve also been to Star Wars Episode II and Lord of the Rings midnight showings) is because of the dedicated, weird, geeky, crazed, etc fans that it brings out. You see many people dressed up in costumes at these showings and there’s this sense of comraderie among everyone. It’s easy to talk to strangers about their favorite movie, character, etc and there’s this awesome relaxed vibe in the theatre. I can’t count how many people brought light sabers tonight, and many of them had light saber duels with one another. Having all these rabid fans up so late also makes it a bit riotous. As the lights dimmed and the (stupid) commercials started rolling, people began to applaud. When the previews ended, more people applauded in anticipation. When the projector messed up and transposed the top and bottom of the film as Star Wars title screen was showing, loud boos echoed across the threatre and light sabers were waved in the air. People started banging on the glass to the projector room and the booing got louder when it wasn’t fixed right away. Luckily, the issue was resolved before the legendary scroll began or who knows what would have happened!

Anyway, on to the film… In a nutshell, I was happy with it. Much, much better than Episodes I and II. Of course there was still corny dialog, more proof that Lucas just doesn’t know how to do romantic scenes and once again we see that Hayden Christiansen (Anakin/Vader) can’t act, but I quickly got over all that. The humor, which I think was forced and overdone in Ep 1/2, was more natural and timely. I enjoyed the many light saber duels, especially Obi-Wan and Anakin and Yoda and Palpatine. Yoda rocks once again! The editing was better this time around, too, though at times the scenes were still too choppy. Making up for that was the terrific back and forth between the two main lightsaber battles and the death of Padme/rise of Vader. The moment many fans were waiting for, hearing the first muffled breath of Vader, was well worth waiting for. Lucas did a great job transitioning from this episode into the pre-existing Episode IV, too. To me, it seemed the quality of the film changed some at the end, downgraded to make it more closely match the 1977 version. Starships and technology that appeared in A New Hope were shown here as well. Some memorable scenes that are associated with the original trilogy, such as the two suns on Tatooine, were incorporated into the ending as well. As expected, this episode was dark and full of heavy emotion, which fit perfectly.

Overall, I’ll give Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith a “B.” Can’t wait to see it again!

I’m still trying to decide how I’ll rank this episode in relation to the others, but as of now, here’s where I think I’ll put it:

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Attack of the Clones
6. The Phantom Menace