My Trip to SWC3-Episode 3

Hey there. Back with yet another entry recalling my trip to last month's Star Wars Celebration 3 at Indianapolis...

On the second day (Friday, April 22) of the trip, me and my friend Rob got up around 9am and made our way from the hotel to the Convention Center. Pretty much, our experience from the first day with the long lines and huge crowds convinced us that the major events we were hoping to check out before we left for Indy weren't going to happen. Therefore, we missed out on seeing a live satellite chat with the future Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen, that took place earlier in the day. Besides, we were still wiped from Day 1, so we got to rest instead of making the early trek. We also figured there was no way we were going to catch George Lucas' chat on Saturday because of the lines and crowds (more on that on the next blog)

When we arrived at the Center, we were again met with another long line that stretched out till about the same place we started at yesterday to line up (near the RCA Dome). On top of that, it was raining as well, so we were off to yet another fine start. Luckily for us, two things worked in our favor. First, the rain let up shortly after we got in the line and second, the line was moving faster as compared to Day 1.

Once inside, we decided to try our luck and go to the Celebration 3 Store and pick up some stuff, in particular, the exclusive talking Darth Vader action figure. We would soon discover that going to the store wasn't going to happen. Turns out, the demand for the items were so great that a lot of people made their way to the store and because of too many people, the store was closed for the day. Which means, even a little past 10 in the morning, the store wasn't going to let anyone in.
Now that sucked. Especially when one of the people working at the Center said, in the most grating voice, that "the store was capped for the day." This guy said this phase several times within our earshot and frankly, it got on my nerves. This was the number one problem of the whole SWC3 experience, dealing with the problems of the store and the lines at the store. It was a royal pain and many people (me included) feel that the people running the convention really dropped the ball when it came to the store and handling the crowds at the store.

Anyways, knowing that the store was a no-go, me and Rob headed to the Exhibit Hall to check out some of the booths. I got some cool free stuff while I was there, in particular a red wristband, promoting Revenge of the Sith (one that I'm proudly wearing to this day and will continue to wear up to - and even after - seeing Episode 3), a "Star Wars is Forever" pin, and a free bonus DVD for the SW Trivial Pursuit game. Now getting that disc was pretty cool and has made me consider buying the actual game.

After stopping at the hall, our next stop was checking out the Lucasfilm Archives exhibit. Very cool to see some of the actual props and costumes used in all of the Star Wars films. (photos from that coming soon) From there, we went to the Fan Fair Hall where we saw some cool displays and got an opportunity to meet one of the original SW characters, Han Solo

Me and "Han Solo" in front of the Millenium Falcon backdrop at SWC3.

OK, it's not Han Solo exactly, but hey, he was a good sport as he took a lot of photos that day.

After that, we went upstairs to one of the ballrooms to check out what I think was one of the major highlights of the Celebration, a chance to see actual footage of Episode 3! After getting in yet another long line and waiting about a half hour or so, we got in and saw it.

Now, what can I say about the ten minutes or so of footage:

OH MY GOD!!! IT'S FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!

I mean, we didn't hear any actual dialogue as it was drowned out by some well done music, and it didn't show too much to be classified as a spoiler, but it was everything I expected it to be, and more than fueled my belief that "Revenge of the Sith" will be the best of the prequel films. There was stuff with Yoda being the kick-ass Jedi we thrilled at from "Attack of the Clones", footage from a major ship battle, stuff with Darth Sidious and Yoda (which I call the undercard of the fights we'll see in the film) and of course, footage from the main event matchup between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

After seeing the footage and getting a thunderous standing ovation, RIck McCallum, producer of the Star Wars films, said something that really validated our hopes about this film. He said that he believes that this is the one, the one all the fans have been hoping for. He went on to say that he could show even more footage from this that topped even that (which we all were hoping for but didn't happen) and that the lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan just goes "on and on and on", which really psyched us up. From what I hear, they say this is not only the longest fight in Star Wars films, but the longest sword fight in film history.

Coming off the high from seeing that footage, me and Rob split up as he went to get some autographs at the Autograph Hall (including Temera Morrison from Episode 2) while I walked around. I got a chance to go by the Store and see if maybe there was a chance to get inside. Of course there wasn't, but I was able to pick up some copies of the official program guide from one of the workers standing outside the store entrance. He told me that there was a seven-plus hour wait for those going into the line and getting their stuff, which was totally insane.

After meeting back up with Rob, we went and checked out the Star Wars Fan Film Awards, where we saw the winning entries of the annual fan film competition. All of them were well done and some were pretty funny and all worthy of the awards they received. It was also cool to see Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in "Return of the Jedi", hosting the ceremony and we also got to see some of his own personal movies, including one he did while filming Episode VI, called "Revenge of the Ewok" A cute and funny film.

Once that was done, we headed back to the hotel and rested up for the night. Halfway thru the trip and still, more was to come.

Up next: Episode 4 -- Day 3 and the best day of the entire trip!!!