Florida.
The AMC movie theaters, at the Disney West End.
It's a crowded theatre, but one filled with electricity. On the screen, the orginal Star Wars has been re-released. As the anticipation grows, up through the trailers of coming attraction, including those of the next two Star Wars movies to be released soon, people are becoming more and more restless. Then the lights go out, the cheers starts and the music booms to a louder applauds and yelps! The moment has come! For those of us too young to have watched Star Wars on the big screen, the moment is finally here. I am surrounded by others who have also dreamed of this for years. The moments go by one by one, and we couldn't be happier! Quietly we quote along, knowing the dialogue by heart. We are that kids who watched it when we little, playing along with our action figures and homemade costumes. Those kids were once overwhelmed at the sheer joy of watching Darth Vader enter the ship in dramatic fashion and the wonderment of seeing Obi-Wan take out a lightsaber and slash the air around him. And the greatness of seeing Greedo shoot first. Wait, that's not right. Han shoots Greedo, argument over. Did that really happen? Oh well, it's still Star Wars and we are all still super excited in our chairs. This was a moment of pure magic for the geeks.
And then, that weird Jabba scene happens. You know the one, right after Greedo is killed, we get a scene that says exactly the same thing that that previous one just said. It shows Han talking over things with Jabba the Hutt, who is CGI, and looks odd. He sounds different and even a bit smaller than he looked in the original Jedi film. It's weird. The effects look weird. The scene just doesn't work. Even after all this time, and with updated effects, it still is out of place and seems ridiculous.
Maybe this should be an indicator. Maybe this should be the inkling that something is amiss, and yet, we are so excited to see this film that we let it pass! After all, the SW: Special Editions are still the old movie, just added with something more. We are so excited that it passes us up that there is a problem looming.
It's 1999. The year has finally come. The rumors had swirled for years that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lucas was going to finally give us those prequels, giving us the back story about Darth Vader and his downfall as a Jedi. And now it's true. After all this time, we are going to see just how awesome Darth can be. This is going to be epic.
