So, Attack of the Clones.

Well, first off, the line was no near as long as for Episode 1. But eldest son was first in line. His mother came home from work for lunch, and dropped him off at the theater at 13:00. Chuck, the manager, brought out the "first in line" chair for him to use.

The show wouldn't start until 18:45.

Wife and I didn't arrive until around 17:30, and by then the line was 30-40 people. But at least we were waiting inside, out of the light rain. And Chuck was selling cans of pop and pizza by the slice.

Eldest son bought our tickets, so Chuck had us hop the velvet rope to go in first (they don't actually use tickets at this theater... you pay your money, and then they allow you to walk past the register).

Wife's godson was technically the first to enter the theater (at a run), and got the front row seat he wanted. I snagged row 4, seats 7 and 8 (best seats in the theater) for the wife and I.

Now we only had 50 minutes to wait.

Chuck had planned a mock light-saber show on stage to fill the time, with the fancy $100+ light sabers, but his contracted Jedi copped out on him, at the last minute. Literally.

Guess the Force wasn't with them.

Had planned ahead, and brought the day's crossword along, but the red lights were too dim to read. So spent most of the time watching the antics of the subadults in front of us.

[Editor's note: wife had a good chuckle reading this line. 'Cause in the theater, I'd actually had a Freudian slip of the tongue. Instead of "subadults", I'd called them "subhumans."]

Was pleased to note youngest son saved a seat, and it was later occupied by a young female. Was surprised when the wife pointed out she is a senior (he's a sophomore).

Good for him.

With 15 minutes to go, I decided it would be best to take a pee break before the movie started. And since Chuck had just finished admitting the last person in line, I went to ask him.

Since there was no second show, was he going to leave the house lights off until the end of the credits?

At first he thought I was complaining about there being no lights in the theater (as we later learned, he had been having a long day), but then he said, yes, they could leave the lights off during the credits.

And he did.

Not sure what to say about the flick itself. Predictable, but all the Star Wars films have been. Self-parodying sometimes. Only one technical flaw that I saw, but the new light saber effects were annoying.

The male of the couple to our right was even more annoying. He laughed out loud, a genuine but loud laugh, at everything. Literally. Like even when Obi Wan uses a tracking device. Don't know how he thought that was funny, or what he was on, but it was annoying.

The wife even commented on it afterwards.

Audience as a whole was respectful throughout most of the film. Until the scene with Yoda. Then all decorum was lost, with cheers arising from the high school crowd in front of us and the family crowd behind. (We, apparently, were in the "couples" row of the theater.)

As soon as the credits were over, Chuck was up front. And offered to turn the house lights on, but asked that everyone grab a pop or two to help them clean up and get home early.

And we did. Not just us, but also almost a dozen of those high school teenagers. The entire 182-seat theater was cleaned of cups and candy boxes and popcorn bags before we left. Nothing for the crew to do but clean the floor.

Then the regular visit with Chuck at the back of the theater. About the movie, and The Rookie, and his roof problems (only leak tonight was in the projection booth of number 2, if you wanted to know).

Tonight was the third or fourth viewing for Chuck. There were audio problems with the first version, so the company had to send another set of audio discs by overnight delivery. And still the DTS conked out at the arena scene.

So tonight, at the split second when the fancy sound system failed, Chuck was there in the booth, and switched on the old Dolby.

We never noticed.

It was about this point of the conversation that the lights went out on us. Someone in Chuck's family telling him it was time to go. He handed us a couple free cans of pop, and sent us on out. With a reminder on when the matinees will be for this flick.