May 25, 2006
Story and Photos by Chris Rhoads (dustrho)

INTRODUCTION
On May 19, 2005, the final chapter in the Star Wars Saga debuted in theaters all across the country. Star Wars fans waited in long lines that stretched out theater entrances to see Anakin Skywalker turn into Darth Vader, Yoda duke it out with the Emperor, and to see Chewbacca back on the big screen. Many fans skipped work the following day in order to watch the movie at its midnight showing, and some of those individuals watched the movie over and over until their wallets were empty or until they couldn’t stay awake any longer. So what movie am I referring to? If you don’t know then you must not be a Star Wars fan, because the movie I’m talking about is Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. 

MY EXPERIENCE
When I first heard that George Lucas was going to be making three additional Star Wars films that were going to be prequels to the three original films, I had become so excited that I was going to be able to go through the whole Star Wars experience all over again. For someone like me who is an enormous Star Wars fan, you would have thought that I would have been one of the first people in line when The Phantom Menace came out in theaters. Unfortunately, I was not one of the first people who saw it that night, but that was because I was working on the road and was putting in 18-20 hours a day. Instead of seeing it when it came out, the first time I got the opportunity to see it was when it landed in the cheap theaters. It was still a terrific experience for me, and I was lucky enough to have watched it for the first time with my wife (girlfriend at the time).

Things were quite different a few years later when Attack of the Clones came out, because this time I was the first one in line to see it. There was no way that I was going to miss this opening night, and I was much more excited about seeing this film versus The Phantom Menace. What was really making me want to see this more than TPM was because of the debut of the clone troopers. I was so anxious to see them on the big screen, because soldiers are much more interesting to me than the main characters. Plus, I was going to finally be able to see what stormtroopers used to look like many years prior to those seen in A New Hope. Being first in line was an incredible experience, and it was something I will cherish for the rest of my life. 

Then it was May 18, 2005, and Revenge of the Sith was going to be released across the country at the stroke of midnight (May 19). I was initially planning on going to see it on opening night, but with all the hype and excitement about this being the last Star Wars movie ever I thought it was going to be way too crazy to watch in theaters. So, I had come to the decision of not watching it that night, but instead to watch it sometime that coming weekend. Fortunately, that plan never developed because one of my best friends, Jeff (aka Darth Berger), called me up and told me that we were going to go see the midnight showing of ROTS. I really wanted to go and see it that night, but I was going to have to work the next day which meant I was going to have to wake up at 5:00am. That really didn’t sound good to me as I don’t function too well on only two to three hours of sleep. 

So, did I go to it on opening night? Hell yeah I did! It didn’t take a whole lot of persuasion from Jeff to get me to go with him to the theaters that night, and it’s only because I wanted to see it so badly and I wanted to see it NOW. He drove that night and we arrived at the theaters pretty early (maybe around 8:00 or 9:00pm), and the line was already long as hell. I knew it was going to be long, but I didn’t think it was going to be THAT long, especially since the showing was more than a couple hours away. It didn’t bother us that much, because we were determined to see it. We were a little concerned about not being able to get a ticket. With the lines as long as they were, I was fearful that by the time we would approach the ticket counter that they’d be all sold out. Luckily for us we were able to purchase our tickets, so we knew that we were going to be in for a wonderful treat. What can possibly be better than eating movie-theater popcorn, drinking a large cold and refreshing beverage, while watching one of the best movies to ever be made? We were in heaven.

CONCLUSION
One of the best Star Wars films had capped off the Saga in a style that would seamlessly tie the prequels to the original trilogy, and would end the love fest between Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. Don’t get me wrong, that love piece in the first three films was critical to the development of Luke and Leia, but it was dragged out too much to the point that I wanted more and more fighting and action scenes to take place. Would I change any of the three prequel movies to make them better? Sure, but I seriously do like the way they were made and presented to us. Jar Jar Binks is probably the only thing I would definitely change, but even he was just as tolerable as those little furball Ewoks from Return of the Jedi.