GUEST COLUMNIST: In line for Star Wars

For nearly eight years now, while families all over America have gathered together after Christmas dinner to watch professional football, my cousin Jonathan and I have instead turned to the USA Network to watch the sacred Star Wars trilogy. The network airs the movies every year at Christmas, and every year my cousin and I have faithfully watched the films together as a holiday ritual. So when Jonathan -- a high school senior -- e-mailed me a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to join him for the Atlanta premiere of Star Wars: Episode I, I said sure. I had no idea what I would be getting myself into. To begin, I must confess that while I enjoy Star Wars movies as much as any kid who grew up in the 1980s, I'm not much of a science fiction fan. I hate Star Trek and other space movies, and honestly the last time I bought a comic book I was eleven. So right from the start, I vastly differed from the people I encountered at the Atlanta premiere. Along with my cousin, they had been camping out during the previous week for tickets. When I arrived on the day of the first show, the Star Wars groupies gave me a laminated pass to wear around my neck, guaranteeing my place in line for the the big event. Thanks to my cousin, we were numbers 13 and 14 in a line of about a hundred. Although the movie didn't begin until midnight, we arrived around 8 p.m. to stand in line and hang out. These people knew everything there is to know about the original three movies. They were answering questions George Lucas himself probably can't answer. Writing about similar fans he had encountered in New York City, Joel Stein of Time wrote, "I'm always jealous of people who have true passion. Jealous here mostly means 'frightened.'" I was definitely frightened of some fans I ran into in Atlanta, especially the guy who had shaved his head, glued horns onto his bald cranium and painted his face black and red to better resemble Episode I villain Darth Maul. I was constantly afraid he was going to hit me with the double-edged "light saber" he had constructed. At 10 o'clock, they let us in to the theater. We filed in, took our seats, and began the two-hour wait for the show to begin. At this point the truly dedicated Star Wars fans started another trivia contest between the folks in the theater. Unbelievably, my cousin advanced to the final round. Jonathan's phenomenal recall of the first three movies did him well as he answered three questions correctly en route to the finals. After he lost to two "Jedi Knights" of Star Wars trivia in the final round, I told my cousin he had shamed our family and should never show his face again in public. I wasn't so much upset that he had lost, but rather that he had instead done so well against people who obviously had nothing better to do than watch the three Star Wars movies over and over again. At midnight, the lights dimmed and the credits to Episode I finally began. My verdict? Let's put it this way: watching the new Star Wars movie was a lot like listening to a new Rolling Stones album. You enjoy it because, after all, it's still the familiar Rolling Stones, one of the greatest bands ever. But at the same time, it is neither as original or as entertaining as one of the earlier albums. In other words, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, was no Exile on Main Street. For that matter, it was no Empire Strikes Back either. Still, high-brow critics like David Ansen of Newsweek and Anthony Lane of the New Yorker are wrong to be so harsh in their critical assessment of Episode I. I think George Lucas set out to entertain audiences and continue his saga rather than challenge the minds of arrogant film critics. I liked Episode I. It was fun. The special effects were great and the cast of characters, from R2-D2 to Obi-Wan Kenobi, were familiar and welcome. A lot of the dialogue was forced, though, and the acting from the younger thespians could have been better. What I'll remember from seeing the movie, though, has little to do with the plot or the actors. Twenty years from now, I'll remember standing in line with my cousin, meeting odd people and enjoying being among the first to see the film. Perhaps if Ansen, Lane and other critics had stood in line with the rest of us to see the movie, they might have had a different opinion of the film. My cousin and I had a good time and after all, that was all we set out to do in the first place.

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