A Long Expected Party

I don't think anybody would be surprised to hear that we've been looking forward to seeing The Hobbit.  I wrote about it here, and frankly, our Lord of the Rings geekiness is common knowledge. Since we've been waiting so long to go back to Middle Earth we decided not to wait any longer than we had to and see the movie the moment it was released. Midnight movie premieres are a good time.  While you're waiting you get to hang out in line with people who are as excited to see the movie as you are and they are usually interesting and friendly, and sometimes they are even in costume. The waiting is fun and so is the anticipation, it's a big party and a good time.  Steve and I have been to several midnight shows but we've never taken Dagny and Dane. (we're good parents like that)  The Hobbit premiere seemed like the perfect time to indoctrinate them into the midnight madness.  (the fact that it was a school night and they wouldn't get to bed until 4:00 AM wasn't really a big deal, they're young, they can handle it) Every time we have gone to a midnight show there has been a long line of waiting people, we planned for that and got to the theater around 8:00.  Much to our surprise, we were the only one's there.  Just us, no line.  Every other theater had a line a mile long, but the small, out-of-the-way theater I had chosen had no line.  We were the line.  The theater isn't far from home, we could have turned around and come back later, but we decided to just stay. Why not get the full midnight movie experience even if it was just us?  We camped out in the hall and Dagny and Dane did some homework, we played cards, (thoughtfully brought by Austin) Steve read a book, I played on my phone, and we all pretended that the theater workers weren't laughing at us. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. At 10:00 they let us into the theater and that's when things got fun.  Being the only people in the entire theater it seemed like the thing to do was run around and chase each other.  Mature?  Maybe not, but sometimes maturity is overrated. If you are ever in a completely empty theater late at night I hope you do the same thing, it was that fun.  I ran with the kids until my sides ached, then they played tag and did other crazy stuff  that only ended when Dane rugby tackled Dagny.  By then other people had shown up and it was time to settle down and watch the movie.  

We are the line!

Somehow Dane got ahold of an extra pair of 3D glasses,
he popped the lenses out and made himself  a hipster 

pick a seat, any seat

Austin, carrying Dagny to her seat after the tackle

showtime

My review of the movie is short and sweet; it was great, go and see it.  I very much like how Peter Jackson is tying in The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings,  it's very clever and it makes me excited about the next two installments.