The Clone Wars

Tonight we went to see the new Star Wars movie "The Clone Wars."  It's an animated movie aimed at kids with a story line that fills the gaps between Episodes II and III.  (Yes, this information was supplied to me by Ben before the movie so I might have some clue as to what was going on).  Ben and the kids are all Star Wars fans - between Star Wars legos, the video game Legos Star Wars, and various books, transformers, and other toys (3 light sabers!), Sam spends quite a bit of his play time involved in the Star Wars world.  Maria enjoys the Legos Star Wars video game.  Ben has been a fan since childhood, and is thrilled that he can enjoy it all again with his kids.  I am a bit of an outsider - when Sam asks me who someone is I almost always don't know.  I don't mind Star Wars, I just am not as into it as they all are.

So when we saw the movie was going to come out, we had just assumed that Ben would take the kids alone, since I was not really that interested.  But we ended up going tonight, since it opened today, and I hadn't seen the kids all day since I have been at a technology workshop yesterday and today (possibly the longest 2 days of my life - seriously, who has never worked an ipod before?).  And I wanted to spend time with the family since I hadn't seen them all day.

And I actually enjoyed it.  It was fun to go to an evening movie with the kids - usually we go to afternoon movies since Sam was always young enough that bedtime interfered with evening movies.  And the movie was good too. I know its getting terrible reviews, and I think if you compare it to usual Star Wars movies I can see why.  This was completely different.  It was animated and meant for kids.  The story was easy to follow, and even tried to be funny every now and then.  And there was even a baby, although it was the infant son of Jabba the Hut, very lumpy and green, and nick-named Stinky.  Still, he was cute in his own way and I found myself really hoping he was saved in the end (Spoiler - he was.)

So a fun family night for us.  And we got home in time to see Michael Phelps win his 7th gold medal.  I have to say we do have a little Olympic fever here.  Love watching the swimming live in the evenings, although I can never stay awake for the end of the gymnastics, I DVR it and watch it later.  I just feel bad the kids are missing the good stuff.  But I am not letting them stay up this late, and they aren't that interested in watching it the next day.