Brad and I finally went to see the new Star Wars movie. We thought we'd beat the crowds by arriving a half hour before the first show on Sunday morning (9:45 a.m.). Guess again. Remember this is Tokyo. It's difficult to avoid crowds at anytime on the weekend. Well, truthfully, the line was not too long but we were a bit worried about the announcement (in Japanese) that the cinema employee kept blaring through a megaphone. The only words we could make out were "Star Wars Episode Two" and "forty". So we stood in line, nervously guessing at the meaning of the announcement:
(a) You must be 40 or younger to buy tickets to Star Wars Episode Two.
(b) No need to rush buying your tickets -- there will be 40 minutes of commercials before the movie begins.
(c) There are only 40 seats left for Star Wars Episode Two and most of them are single seats scattered throughout the theater.

Option B was pretty close to the truth (though it was really about 15 minutes of commercials and 20 minutes of trailers for coming attractions). Option C was dead on and we had to scramble till we finally found two seats in the third row all the way to the left.

As for the movie, we both loved the special effects, but found the dialogue to be rather hokey and the acting wooden. And even though the special effects were quite spectacular, one of them bordered on the rididulous: the image of Yoda engaging Christopher Lee in a light sabre duel. I actually laughed out loud at that one.

And then I began to wonder . . . hmmm that Christopher Lee character sounds so familiar. Bearded guy in possession of extraordinary powers that most mortals can barely dream of . . . the possession of those powers have gone to his head, twisting him to the "dark side" . . . sounds a lot like Sauron in Lord of the Rings doesn't it? Interesting that both characters were played by Christopher Lee. And since he's British, he could even be cast as good-wizard-gone-bad Lord Voldemort in a future Harry Potter movie.