In a few hours I’ll be leaving the apartment to get in line to see Spiderman. I got the tickets a few weeks ago. This will make Spiderman III the latest in a long line of movies I’ve insisted on seeing at midnight on opening day. Other films include:

Spiderman II
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Matrix: Reloaded
The Matrix: Revolutions
Star Wars episode II: Attack of the Clones
Stars Wars episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
(Multiple Harry Potter films that I cannot remember)

I’m not sure why I like going to midnight shows. I never read Spiderman comic books, never read Tokion or played D&D. I didn’t even see the original Star Wars trilogy until after I saw the new movies. I was never into Meat Beat Manifesto or Nine Inch Nails, so I don’t have an excuse for the Matrix. But I am a fan of people who are fans of these movies. And you don’t get to see people dressed up as movie characters when you show up on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Just the midnight showing.

Before I left Tucson and my brief Arizona Daily Star-related column got co-opted by other staffers, I wrote about waiting in line for 5+ hours to see Star Wars III, a pretty terrible movie. Together with waiting in line, seeing Star Wars took up 8 hours of that day. The last three hours weren’t great. But for the first five hours I stood in line watching couples dressed up as Jedi, and talking to kids who came at 5 a.m. with Star Wars Stratego and sleeping bags. This stuff is always better than the movie.

Related:
Potter stinks, Support Cedric Diggory
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