Obi-Wan Kenobi meets his nemesis: a heavy-breathing, failed student dressed in black It was always going to be a struggle to choose a title for this post that wasn't straight out of Star Wars, so I've applied my usual standard of determination and given in immediately.
On Good Friday, a month of waiting was over for my 7 year-old son Duncan as I took him to the O2 Arena for his main birthday present: Star Wars - A Musical Journey. My wife would argue that I was equally excited, which is preposterous. I was definitely more excited.
This event was a celebration of John Williams music for the Star Wars films, accompanied by film excerpts and narration by one of the original actors.
Actually Duncan was almost as excited just getting there. Our journey was a long and tricky one, thanks to engineering works that ruled out going by train. Instead, we drove into London and were able to park very near Waterloo Pier, for our boat trip to the O2 Arena at Greenwich.
First though, there was time for a walk around a farmers market where Duncan had the world's largest hotdog (followed by an ice cream of course), and a few coins for the musical statues entertaining the tourists by the London Eye.
Then it was time for the boat trip on the O2 Express, run by Thames Clippers. This is a direct service from Waterloo Millenium Pier to the O2 Arena, which takes approximately 25-30 minutes. Duncan was literally bouncing up and down with excitement, and we enjoyed the sights as we cruised down the Thames. After we cleared the last of the bridges, the boat (a high-speed catamaran) was able to get up to full cruising speed, which got interesting as a few swells got us pitching up and down quite heavily.
All of a sudden it was there - the O2 Arena appeared as we rounded a bend in the river, all lit up and displaying the Star Wars title on flashing billboards. Within minutes we had docked, and we walked up the ramp towards the venue.
Immediately we knew we were amongst some truly dedicated Star Wars fans. Apart from the thousands of kids wearing the off-the-shelf Star Wars outfits, there were mainly 30-40 year old men (and some women) milling around dressed as their favourite Star Wars characters*.
*These are tailored and often expensive - apparently a deluxe Stormtrooper outfit will set you back £1800!
The most dedicated of these fans hire themselves out to appear at events just like this one. Squads of Stormtroopers and Jedi Knights with glowing lightsabres posed for photos, while Darth Vader and R2-D2 also mingled in the crowd. Duncan was too scared to pose with any of them, except for R2-D2. In his mind, these characters were all very real - so to have a 6 foot Storm Trooper looming over you is actually quite a scary experience. Especially when they sound like them too with "Com-Link" sound effects through their helmets!
We raced through the exhibition of props and costumes from the films, as Duncan desperately wanted to get to our seats. We paused only to buy the programme and a mini-light sabre as we found our way to the upper tier, to the left of the main stage.
The seating is steep and compact, which offers clear views but is somewhat precarious when getting past other people to your seats. Doubly so, when you find your path blocked by a gentleman and his lady friend whom I can only describe as very generously proportioned. We did our best impressions of tight-rope walkers as we teetered between a wall of rounded flesh straining under "Jedi vs Sith" T-shirts, and a steep plunge onto the Arena floor.
The show began 15 minutes late - finally silencing Duncan's impatient demands for the show to start. Massive curtains separated to floor and ceiling revealing the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra as they launched into the main Star Wars theme, while the main title sequence was displayed on an enormous 100 foot video wall behind them.
The sound quality and acoustics were superb, and the crowd absolutely loved it. Anthony Daniels (who played C3-PO in all 6 Star Wars films) took to the stage as narrator, and provided the necessary links between the musical pieces.
Star Wars fans are sharply divided on the merits of Episodes 1-3 (the prequel trilogy), which came out between 1999-2005. It has the same ingredients as the original trilogy (Episodes 4-6, released 1977-1983) such as awesome special effects, a basic theme of good vs evil and execrably wooden dialogue.
However the original trilogy benefited from excellent direction and astute casting, that exceeded the sum of its parts. Despite the presence of good actors like Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman in the prequel trilogy, these failed to capture the public imagination in the same way.
Primarily this was because it was a vanity project for George Lucas. Despite him claiming to give the fans what they wanted, he chose to direct all 3 films himself and the special effects dominated nearly every scene. It must have been near impossible for the actors to provide any depth or meaning, when they were acting against blue screens with imaginary characters or props.
Anyway, I digress - back to the show. Anthony Daniels did his best to give the prequel trilogy some importance as various themes were explored, but it was only after the 30 minute intermission (wayyyyyy too long) that things really got going as the original trilogy came to life again.
Huge cheers erupted as the original heroes were mentioned in turn by Daniels, and some of the best music was then played out to the most exciting film excerpts. Lasers flickered across the arena in time to the music as the show built to its climax. The music from the final scene of Episode 4 (where the heroes are awarded medals by Princess Leia) concluded the show to rapturous applause.
Duncan was exhausted both from the excitement of the whole day (not to mention being awake hours past his usual bedtime), so as we made our way home he fell asleep in the car. Once we were home I carried him up to bed (no easy task, he's a big lad!) . As I tucked him in, he opened one eyelid slightly and mumbled: "Thank you for the best birthday present ever ..."
Even Darth Vader's bottom lip would have wobbled at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment