My favourite film outing of all time

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2002)

It's 3.20 am on Thursday 16th May 2002, and I'm barely in the door from just seeing a the first official showing of AOTC in Northern Ireland, and my heart is pounding and my smile is fixed. I guess this means I got to see it before you guys in the US :)
Two screens in the cinema are showing the film at the same time, and you can tell the fans booked theirs really early, as all the t-shirts, pony tails, guts and babbling conversations about a certain one on one between two masters of the Jedi art are in screen 1 - my screen. One guy dressed as Darth Vader walks in and out of the auditorium to the immense delight of the crowd, resulting in the unknown hero receiving a massive applause. As you may guess, the atmosphere is simply electric.
The film starts, the music pounds our eardrums, and we are ecstatic to see the trademark yellow story card scroll into space before our very eyes. It's been three long years...we don't know what to expect after the last drab episode.
At long last we have what we wanted - comedy, romance, mythology and lashings and lashings of cold, hard action (not to mention a great deal of irony). Shortly after two hours has passed something happens on screen that makes every single living soul in the audience shift in their seats....the legendary fight between Yoda and Dooku. I will not spoil it, but I will say that this alone was worth the price of admission.
I left the cinema fulfilled and refreshed, kind of surprising for the time of day. I say my favourite film outing of all time not just because of the film (which, admittedly, has faults), but because of the great feeling of the unspoken union between all people there watching the magic on the silver screen.