The Force Awakens.... A Few Hours Earlier For Some of Us

It's been pretty quiet lately. Force Friday came and went. It's been two months(!) since the behind the scenes footage at Comic-Con. A whopping five months since the last trailer was released. And several weeks since that random little tease of footage that showed nothing but footage we had already seen plus like four extra seconds we hadn't, that included Finn holding a lightsaber.

Personally, I am enjoying the quiet. It allows me to not think too much about what may or may not happen in the movie, and less worrying about potentially bad things. I will surely watch the next trailer when it comes out (likely next month) but I'd be just as happy at this point to know nothing more, and simply sit down and watch the movie. I know I said I wanted to know some stuff to mentally prepare myself, but I'm not sure that is true anymore.

The good news is, apparently we may not have to wait quite as long as we originally thought. For those of you who are unaware, apparently there will be screenings in the US at 7pm on December 17th. I guess this has been a trend for some of the larger releases (this would count, since it is probably the largest release in the history of cinema) rather than midnight shows on the release date, to have 1 show at 7pm the day before the official release. This, of course makes me happy because not only does it mean that I will get to see the movie 5 hours earlier, it also means that I don't have to stay up all through the night. Not that I wouldn't have, it's just nice not to have to. I don't know how widely available these 7pm shows are, but I do know that locally for me we've gotten these early shows for things like Hunger Games, so I have no reason to believe it'll be different.

Also, for our non-US based readers, apparently several countries are getting it in the days prior to the 18th (or 17th now, as the case may be.)  As early as December 15th. I know the UK is getting it on the 17th. I don't quite understand this, because given that it is the biggest movie EVER it makes more sense to me to release it all on one day. And really, the US is behind everyone else anyway when we are talking time zones, so even if we all get it the same day, we're still last, so why do so many other people get it earlier?  Also, for several days before the release this means I will have to be extremely careful on the internet so that my overseas friends don't spoil it all for me.

Which reminds me, and I'll remind you all later, but when the time comes, I've decided that the rules for posting about Episode 7 on the blog will be that nobody can post anything on here about having seen it until I see it and post. I know that may not be fair to some of you who might not see it right away, but it's my blog and it is easier for you to not look here than for me to not look here!

I'm also curious: which format are you planning on seeing it in first? This movie was shot in IMAX 3D. The trailer, for those of you who have not seen it, looks pretty darn cool in IMAX 3D. That said, I think the first time I see it will be in regular, 2D format. I will absolutely be seeing it in IMAX, but sometimes the 3D can be distracting or make me miss something on screen, so the first time, I'm thinking I'm just going to see it "normal." Or, really, whichever possible way I can see it the soonest.

Anyway, now I know what I'm doing at 7pm on December 17th, just a little earlier than I thought. Now I just have to have the anxiety about getting tickets on top of the anxiety over what they are going to do to my Star Wars.

Happy Force Friday!

In case you hadn't heard, today is Force Friday. I honestly don't entirely know why, or when they decided to start calling it that, or if this will become a "thing" every year like May the Fourth or whatever, but for some reason someone in the marketing department decided that this would be a cool idea. So, here we are on Force Friday. And what does it mean? Mostly, the opportunity to spend money. Lots and lots of money. Most of your usual retailers have set aside special Star Wars sections, at least for now. Also the first wave of the "new" EU reading material was released today. I have still not yet decided whether or not I'm going to get into that stuff. Most likely I'll await further review. 

Did anyone go check anything out? At this point in my life, while a lot of the stuff looks fun and cool, it is unlikely I'll be buying much. It's all fun to look at and everything, but once I buy it and take it home it's just like, there. So it's tough for me to justify spending money on it. Maybe if I had more room at home. 

Oh, except for the remote controlled BB-8. Have you seen that? It is so adorably cute and looks like a lot of fun. I would actually love to play with one of those. 

Let me know if any of you have checked anything out or are planning on getting anything. Even if I don't buy anything I think it will still be fun to peruse the merchandise in the stores. It's cool to see so much Star Wars stuff out there again.