Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Mark and I wandered through last night, mystified.
On Thursday, we drove by The Senator, contemplating a Thursday night showing of Revenge of the Sith. The Senator, so we have been told, is the place in Baltimore to watch any and all Star Wars re-releases and new episodes. Daunted by the line, still an hour before the showing, that curved down around the theater block and stretched two more blocks (or as far as our eyes could see) down another street, Mark and I rolled past the crowd suspiciously, tucked in our tails, and drove home without a fight. The next night, Friday—which turns out to be the “last night” I began this post in reference to—we engaged in mental pacing (the sort an anxious or undecided fellow might practice) for several hours, uncertain if we should brave the crowds this weekend night. By the time we made up our minds to head out, it was nearly 9:00pm. We were agreed that we would not be disappointed if we could not get into any of the showings, but we did try to enhance our luck by heading out to the Super Multiplex Cinema outside of the city, where we would have a shot at the 10:10, 10:50, 11:20 and 12:30 showings. (Friends of ours had reported at least an hour-long line at 4 o’clock for the 5:00pm showing at this same Cineplex, so we kept our hopes in check.) We drove up to the theater, hearts silently dropping at the packed lot, and skulked into a parking spot in a far corner across the street. As we walked nearer, Mark and I both saw the heads…the line. Mark even said it out loud, “Well, there’s the line, I guess.” But as we got closer, scanning the length of the crowd, we were a little confused to recognize the gathering of heads (all we could see over top the stretch of cars) as nothing more than a gaggle of loitering teenagers. Hmm… The line must be inside, we agreed, or on the other side of the theater—we were heading through the back entrance after all. Into the theater we went, and marched up to the remarkably un-crowded ticket counter. We scanned the digital posting of the movie times…it still read “9:30, 9:30, 10:10…” None of them said “Sold Out,” so I shared with Mark my fear that they may not have updated the screen yet. We looked around, still a bit confused, and headed out to the front of the theater to find the tell-tale lines. But as we pushed out the big red double doors, we found ourselves lost in yet another sparing sea of loitering kids. Our heads turned simultaneously toward one another in question (and I suddenly felt we had found ourselves in some sort of sitcom sketch). We headed back to the ticket counter where a smallish line had begun to form. “Okay, then here we go,” I thought. But due to the high volume of ticket-tellers, our wait was hardly a full minute. I stepped up to the counter asking as carefully as possible if there were any showings of Star Wars that were not yet sold out (I did not want to appear to be the naïve Star Wars-ignorant movie go-er who would not recognize the mass popularity of the film). The kid behind the counter, “Hmmm”-ed and studied his screen carefully. “Well, there’s tickets left for...” he trailed off and I knew he must be scanning down the screen near the midnight showings… “uh, for the 9:30 showing.”
“Really?” Mark and I traded first confused, then dubious glances. “Okay, but how many seats are left? I mean, realistically, are there good seats left?”
He replied, “Well, there’s about 145 seats left.” Really? “Okay, but out of how many?” The poor guy looked a little confused, “I don’t really know. It doesn’t say, but it’s basically 48% left open.” Finally convinced, I let down my protective tense-shoulder stance and laughed a little. “Okay, we’ll take them. Is there a line somewhere?”
“Yes, I think so,” he replied apologetically.
So we took our tickets to the ticket-tear-er and waited behind a smallish mass of other movie goers. But past the steward in only moments, we were ushered to the second theater on our left. We had to sort of fight upstream against the flow of people coming out of a few theaters on the right—each with digital movie titles flashing “Episode III.” But once we passed through the long dark hallway into the gigantic stadium theater to which we had been assigned, we were in awe once again at the enormous abundance of open choice seating. You would have thought we were first in line or two hours early or accidentally in the theater showing the number 10 box office hit. Weird! We shook our head as we picked through the seats, deciding on our favorites.
I guess it’s the California in me, but I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if it’s just because there are less people, or if they finally did it? If they finally built so many gosh darn theaters with so many seats, that even with the whole city out to see the latest Star Wars must-see, patrons could still sit luxuriously spaced out with 5 to 10 seats between them and the next group of people. Sadly, it dawned on me, that as we paid nearly $10 per ticket, we were probably paying for not only for the right to occupy our own seats, but for the privilege of keeping the seats next to us empty as well.
As for the movie, I will not give anything away, except to argue with my brother who reported that this episode, Episode III was his favorite, second only to The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V): I, in turn, would report that this episode took in my book, the long-coveted, long-held place of the spectacular sixth episode—Return of the Jedi—as the ultimate number one.
On Thursday, we drove by The Senator, contemplating a Thursday night showing of Revenge of the Sith. The Senator, so we have been told, is the place in Baltimore to watch any and all Star Wars re-releases and new episodes. Daunted by the line, still an hour before the showing, that curved down around the theater block and stretched two more blocks (or as far as our eyes could see) down another street, Mark and I rolled past the crowd suspiciously, tucked in our tails, and drove home without a fight. The next night, Friday—which turns out to be the “last night” I began this post in reference to—we engaged in mental pacing (the sort an anxious or undecided fellow might practice) for several hours, uncertain if we should brave the crowds this weekend night. By the time we made up our minds to head out, it was nearly 9:00pm. We were agreed that we would not be disappointed if we could not get into any of the showings, but we did try to enhance our luck by heading out to the Super Multiplex Cinema outside of the city, where we would have a shot at the 10:10, 10:50, 11:20 and 12:30 showings. (Friends of ours had reported at least an hour-long line at 4 o’clock for the 5:00pm showing at this same Cineplex, so we kept our hopes in check.) We drove up to the theater, hearts silently dropping at the packed lot, and skulked into a parking spot in a far corner across the street. As we walked nearer, Mark and I both saw the heads…the line. Mark even said it out loud, “Well, there’s the line, I guess.” But as we got closer, scanning the length of the crowd, we were a little confused to recognize the gathering of heads (all we could see over top the stretch of cars) as nothing more than a gaggle of loitering teenagers. Hmm… The line must be inside, we agreed, or on the other side of the theater—we were heading through the back entrance after all. Into the theater we went, and marched up to the remarkably un-crowded ticket counter. We scanned the digital posting of the movie times…it still read “9:30, 9:30, 10:10…” None of them said “Sold Out,” so I shared with Mark my fear that they may not have updated the screen yet. We looked around, still a bit confused, and headed out to the front of the theater to find the tell-tale lines. But as we pushed out the big red double doors, we found ourselves lost in yet another sparing sea of loitering kids. Our heads turned simultaneously toward one another in question (and I suddenly felt we had found ourselves in some sort of sitcom sketch). We headed back to the ticket counter where a smallish line had begun to form. “Okay, then here we go,” I thought. But due to the high volume of ticket-tellers, our wait was hardly a full minute. I stepped up to the counter asking as carefully as possible if there were any showings of Star Wars that were not yet sold out (I did not want to appear to be the naïve Star Wars-ignorant movie go-er who would not recognize the mass popularity of the film). The kid behind the counter, “Hmmm”-ed and studied his screen carefully. “Well, there’s tickets left for...” he trailed off and I knew he must be scanning down the screen near the midnight showings… “uh, for the 9:30 showing.”
“Really?” Mark and I traded first confused, then dubious glances. “Okay, but how many seats are left? I mean, realistically, are there good seats left?”
He replied, “Well, there’s about 145 seats left.” Really? “Okay, but out of how many?” The poor guy looked a little confused, “I don’t really know. It doesn’t say, but it’s basically 48% left open.” Finally convinced, I let down my protective tense-shoulder stance and laughed a little. “Okay, we’ll take them. Is there a line somewhere?”
“Yes, I think so,” he replied apologetically.
So we took our tickets to the ticket-tear-er and waited behind a smallish mass of other movie goers. But past the steward in only moments, we were ushered to the second theater on our left. We had to sort of fight upstream against the flow of people coming out of a few theaters on the right—each with digital movie titles flashing “Episode III.” But once we passed through the long dark hallway into the gigantic stadium theater to which we had been assigned, we were in awe once again at the enormous abundance of open choice seating. You would have thought we were first in line or two hours early or accidentally in the theater showing the number 10 box office hit. Weird! We shook our head as we picked through the seats, deciding on our favorites.
I guess it’s the California in me, but I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if it’s just because there are less people, or if they finally did it? If they finally built so many gosh darn theaters with so many seats, that even with the whole city out to see the latest Star Wars must-see, patrons could still sit luxuriously spaced out with 5 to 10 seats between them and the next group of people. Sadly, it dawned on me, that as we paid nearly $10 per ticket, we were probably paying for not only for the right to occupy our own seats, but for the privilege of keeping the seats next to us empty as well.
As for the movie, I will not give anything away, except to argue with my brother who reported that this episode, Episode III was his favorite, second only to The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V): I, in turn, would report that this episode took in my book, the long-coveted, long-held place of the spectacular sixth episode—Return of the Jedi—as the ultimate number one.
posted by anne | 9:53 AM
1 Comments:
Saw it today with Wood and Bry who came with us to see it again. I have to say I really enjoyed the whole experience. We'll have to talk about it on the phone... I still like Episode V best though, but maybe I should see it again to hunt for hokey dialogue.
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