oh, the agony...

Tonight my family is torturing me by forcing me to attend the sneak preview of the new Clone Wars-cartoon-fake-Star-Wars-longest-90-minutes-of-my-life-movie. Seriously, this movie looks horrible. Zero desire to see this thing. Now, I'm as big a Star Wars fan as the next person. I mean, who does not love episodes 4, 5, and 6 (except my mother)? One of my fondest memories is of my dad taking my sister Emily and I to the UA Cinema in downtown Seattle in November when I was 9 years old. My dad never took us to the movies. Frankly, we couldn't afford it. But this movie was so big, that he spent an entire Saturday, waiting in line with us for 3 hours (I distinctly remember the line circling the theater) and spending money he saved for this event, while my mom spent a quiet afternoon at home with our baby sister, Caroline. Since my boys are essentially the same age Emily and I were back in 1977, my dad must have really wanted to see this movie to be willing to stand in line for hours, before sitting in the theater for hours, with a couple of squirrelly kids.

Being a purist, I'm not a huge fan of episodes 1, 2, and 3. The fact that my cat could have done a better job of acting may be part of my issue, but I argue that these movies did not need to be made. Prequels can be interesting, if done right, but these movies were just OK.

But this new animated thing? Enough already!

Mike and the boys were at the comic book store last week and they were given free passes to the advanced screening. The movie does not officially come out until the 15th and we have been watching the previews on tv for the past month. Eric is giddy with excitement. It's as if they made this movie just for him. This is all he has been talking about for weeks. And this was looking like a great evening alone for Mom until Ryan begged me to go. As in, all you do is work and you NEVER do anything with us even though we have spent THE ENTIRE SUMMER together and you are home all the time but I'm going to make you feel guilty because you have not devoted 100% of your life to just ME.

Fine. The movie is free and I am just talented enough to knit in the dark, so at least my fingers will be entertained even though the rest of my body and soul will be dying a slow and painful death. At least I can look forward to someday owning a copy of this fine piece of filmography since Eric has already put it on his Christmas list and, when Eric gets into a dvd zone, he will watch a movie over and over again until a permanent groove is burned into the disc.

As a bonus, I think I get to eat at McDonald's tonight. This is the special evening I have been dreaming of for months.