So, Pam and the Son & Heir and myself attended the midnight premiere of Star Wars: Episode III at the local cinema in the Charlestown Mall.

Our night started at 10:15pm as we headed out the door to the mall; it’s only 5 or 10 minute drive (at most), so within a short time we were viewing the very large numbers of cars in the parking lot. We decided just to park and walk rather than hunt for a choice space; better to get in line quickly.

It also occured to me later that the very large truck in the lot was, most likely, delivering the film packs to the theater right then. Lucas & Co. are very paranoid about the films leaking out before release time, and I understand that the new procedure is Just-In-Time delivery of the film packs.

We stood in line for only 30 minutes before they started seating everyone. While we were there I managed to sneak in a few pictures; I was reluctant to be too obvious with the picture taking lest some security dweeb make the tactical mistake of trying to take my PDA.

In the background you can see some of our friends in Jedi-like capes

And here we have a young lady who brought her blaster (a rather uncivilized weapon).

And the person just in front of us in his Jedi cloak.

We were in our seats well before 11:30pm, and it was a short wait until 12:01am and the beginning of the film.

I’d never been to a midnight premiere before (having been raised in the sticks where they roll up the sidewalks at 8pm), and it was very enjoyable. There were a lot of college students there; ironic to think that most of them were not born when Episode IV came out in 1977…