David sends in a detailed report of the marathon screening of all 6 Star Wars films at the Empire Leicester Square in London on May 16th. Episode III was introduced in person by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ian McDiarmid & Hayden Christensen.

by David Scarborough

A Long Time Ago (Yesterday), In A Galaxy Far Far Away (London, Leicester Square) I went to the ultimate Star Wars event in history and it was amazing!

Up at 3:30am to catch a couple of trains were hard work and the questions popped up in my companion's mind of "is this worth it". So as we came closer and closer to the square we could see that they decorated the whole place with different Star Wars stuff. There were banners for all the episodes and as we got closer to the Empire Cinema we saw an X-Wing and noticed the huge queue of people to pick up tickets and also how many people were in the square. Then all the Stormtroopers came out and posed for the press and the fans and did various things like making people get on their knees with their hands behind their heads for cameras to take pics.
There was such a buzz at this point it was amazing and everyone was excited to get in there and see the films, my friend turned to me at this point and said "I think I under-estimated how big this was gonna be".

As we got into the cinema and took our seats I realised how huge the place was. I loaded myself up with my first hit of Red Bull before A New Hope so I was nice and awake. Kevin Bacon (ex Blue Peter/Big Breakfast/now radio DJ) came to introduce the first film too much cheering and applause as he held his mobile phone in the air which was being put through live on Capital Radio. This was it the first film of six was about to start.

Having never seen ANH on the big screen this blew me away. I got Goosebumps and tingles and the whole crowd were cheering, laughing and clapping at the right bits. Amazing film to see on the big screen and the time flew by.

Got my pic taken in the 2min gap between ANH and ESB then I went back to my seat. A lot people were queuing up for the toilet at this point so they missed the opening of ESB. ESB was amazing on the big screen and I loved every minute of it. Everyone was laughing and cheering and it was fantastic. Its hard to describe but I remember sitting in my seat thinking that this one film has had such an impact on all these people here and there all getting their kicks out of it all over again.

Nothing much happened between ESB and ROTJ ... saw Ex Blue Peter Presenter Katy Hill again for about the 3rd time. I swear she was stalking me and then I took a snap of Richard Bacon cause at that time he was the most famous person I saw.

ROTJ starts and again too much cheers and applause. The film went on and by the time it was the end there was such an energy and buzz in the room that it was really moving and it was as if I hadn't seen the film before and I found myself shouting out for Darth to help Luke. Fantastic film and was a great end to the first half.

In the break we caught about 20mins of the Philharmonic Orchestra playing Star Wars tunes. At first I had an awful view until my friend said he can get us to the front and that he did and I caught about 2 minutes of the Orchestra up close. Amazing they were so good it sounded like a CD it was so perfect and crisp it was amazing. I took some snaps here and there of the stuff around the square and had lunch went to toilet and went back in for Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

So Episode 1 started and it got applause and stuff. People cheered when Neeson and McGregor entered and it is clear this is the weakest of the lot but never the less I really enjoyed seeing it on the big screen again. Amazing to see the Duel and the Podrace. Jar Jar got boo's but then people cheered in backlash and the cheers overpowered them. I even got Goosebumps at the end of TPM and because of the atmosphere it was still great.

Episode 2 was great too see on the big screen as well and I enjoyed it more so than before. Although there were so many laughs at the unintentional humour of when Anakin and Padme are talking about Anakin's nightmare the night before. *Anakin tossing and turning in sleep* cut to. "I heard you having a nightmare" "Jedi's don't have nightmares" "what were you doing then?" *pause* "I saw my mother". We all laughed for a while about that. Still apart from this scene the dialogue wasn't as clunky as I remember it and it all went well. The action here is the weakest of the series though I feel but that might just be me.

SO EPISODE 3 WAS NEXT

Everyone was hyped but we had an hour to spare. I wondered into the square and by this time it was packed with people queuing to get a glimpse of the stars at the premiere. I couldn't move. I tried to get close to the Orchestra who were playing again but no chance this time. It was jam packed. I took a couple of photos of the crowd and of my friend with the Odeon in the distance and then we decided to walk back in to watch the events from inside. As we were walking back I bumped into none other than Simon Pegg. Luckily I had my Shaun of the Dead shirt on and I said Hey Simon look and he gave it the thumbs up and said "Waheey". Apparently he was there for the whole marathon but was keeping a low profile.

So we started watching the premiere from inside the cinema. Anticipation had hit peak now. We were all buzzing. We saw all the stars arrive, George, Ian, Peter, Kenny, Ewan, Rick, Hayden, Warwick, Anthony and some other random blokes on the balcony.
Everyone cheered when each came on and when George mentioned us over in the marathon.
Then the footage stopped as the stars stopped posing for photos and went inside. They put on the Musical Journey DVD that came free with the soundtrack. As the battle of heroes music video came on there was lots of boos and "turn it off" from the audience because lots of people remained spoiler free. Some guy behind me hadn't even seen the trailers so he was in agony. He closed his eyes and hummed. Was quite amusing. It was way past 8:30pm by now when the film was meant to start so people were getting annoyed and were wondering what the wait was for. I though being clever assumed that Lucas would be showing up. And show up he did. A group of Stormtroopers followed by Vader entered the cinema. Then Rick McCallum entered to much applause and cheer he said this event can be described in two words "****ING AWESOME". He then introduced Ian McDiarmid as the guy who "Really ****s everything up" followed by Hayden Christensen as the guy who "Really gets ****ed up". Much applause for both and then George Lucas entered to a standing ovation. There was cheers the was tears there was "I love you George" heard all through the cinema. George made a speech about the filming and said we are the first to see them back to back. He then went on to say that he flies back next week to start working on Indiana Jones 4 so you heard it here first. Some twat next to me shouted "I still can't forgive you for Jar Jar" so to compensate I shouted "Jar Jar Rules". I don't think he heard either though.

He got ushered away pretty quick but shook hands with some people as did the other guys and then STAR WARS EPISODE 3: REVENGE OF THE SITH STARTED!!!

What can I say?AMAZING. Everything I hoped it would be and more. The action scenes, Yoda, Chewie, Anakin?AMAZING. Everyone seems so much more comfortable in their roles and even GL seems to have learnt from his mistakes and improved on everything in every way. Fantastic everyone was cheering and laughing and clapping in the right bits and it seemed so good. Even the scenes between Hayden and Natalie were really good I felt and there was chemistry between the two of them that we hadn't seen before. I swear fans will not be disappointed.

Film ended to cheering and then George, Rick, Hayden and Ian appeared again to surprise us and they got mobbed by the crowd everyone trying to talk to them. George managed to get towards the mic and say "what did you think?" to a standing ovation and everyone cheering for ages. He said some other stuff or somebody did, but it was lost in the crowd of cheers and the whole place went mad and they got ushered away even quicker this time. Was so amazing to see them all though so it was worth it even from where I was sitting.

All the way home catching the late train until me being dropped off at around 1:30am we were discussing the films (met some nice bloke on the train who we had a big OT discussion with) and started to talk about lightsaber fights and made the sound effects and stuff. My friend has an exam this morning at 9am who came with me and he knew his inevitable outcome because of attending and being exhausted from the event and not being able to revise. He turned to me as we dropped him off "That was worth failing my exam for" and that says a lot. What a great day it was and I was glad that I can be one of the people who can say that I was there. A day that I will remember for the rest of my life and I'm sure everyone else who was there will do to.