GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Joey Estioco, 8, had a close encounter last night with an R2D2 robot outside Dole Cannery Theatre before the midnight opening of the new "Star Wars" movie.

Isle fans rave about
‘Star Wars,’ despite long
wait for midnight show

Die-hard aficionados forgo obligations
to ensure they get a seat

---

By Rod Antone and Treena Shapiro
rantone@starbulletin.com tshapiro@starbulletin.com

If he had been in charge, Matt Souza of Kaimuki would have renamed "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones." to "Yoda and a Bunch of Other Guys."

Still the die-hard "Star Wars" fan, among the first in Hawaii to see the latest installment early this morning, gave it an enthusiastic plastic-light-sabers-up.

"It had the most exciting fight scenes ever," Souza said, adding that the little green Jedi Master, who spoke backward in the last episode, continues to steal the show.

Antawn Bradley of Aiea was in agreement. "The best part was Yoda and the light sabers. That's all I got to say."

The movie was so good that another fan -- a 23-year-old Kaneohe woman who shall remain anonymous -- planned to call in sick this morning after sacrificing her sleeping hours for the midnight premier.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Wade Tachihata, Joshua Baldovi, Todd Hashimoto and Chad Sano enjoyed the comforts of home last night as they waited at the head of the line at Dole Cannery Theatre for the opening of "Star Wars - Attack of the Clones."

She also had some practical advice: Don't drink any liquids two hours before the movie. The strategy cuts down bathroom breaks, ensuring moviegoers to not miss a moment in the later half of the show, which she described as intense as the "first 15 minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan.' "

Moviegoers who attended the midnight showing at Ward 16 Theatres predicted that the latest segment in the sci-fi saga would beat out "Spider-Man," the reigning summer movie blockbuster.

"Both were good though (have) totally different styles," said Kaimuki resident Brian Takata, "but I think Clone Wars is going to top it."

"Spider-Man," playing on about 1,500 more screens than "Attack of the Clones," took in a record-smashing $114.8 million in its first three days. However, theater operators across the nation expect a "Star Wars" rush today as the film plays on about 6,000 screens in 3,161 theaters.

The movie also opened in about 75 nations around the world. A Russian-dubbed version of the film opened at midnight in Moscow nearly eight hours before the first U.S. debut. Moscow's premier movie theater, the Rossiya on Pushkin Square, held showings every 40 minutes, but there were no serious lines.

In Hawaii, faithful moviegoers began camping out in front of theaters earlier in the week.

Evan Tokunaga and Christopher Co, who camped out for 35 hours outside of Signature Theatres Dole Cannery 18-Plex, weren't born when the original "Star Wars" came out in 1977.

When "Star Wars: Episode I --The Phantom Menace" opened three years ago, they weren't old enough to go alone to the first midnight showing.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Eric Castillo brought along his replica R2D2, a robot that he built, as he waited with others at Dole Cannery Theatres for the opening of "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones."

So Tuesday afternoon, the 17-year-olds ditched graduation practice and headed to the Signature Theatres, determined to be the first people in the theater to see the Hawaii premiere.

Unfortunately for them, by the time they arrived, Eric Castillo and his crew had already staked out the coveted first-place spot -- for the second "Star Wars" premiere running.

"We really wanted to be first," Tokunaga said, taking a break from watching "Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," playing on an XBox, a video game system that also plays DVDs. (Castillo's friends were watching "Iron Monkey" on a PlayStation2.)

Tokunaga noted that Castillo and his friends and co-workers had been holding the spot in shifts, while he and Co had been there almost nonstop. "Technically we've been here the longest. We've been here all the way through," he said.

Tokunaga said they passed some of their time taking tips from the Castillo camp to figure out how to get the top spot for "Episode III." "Three years from now, we'll be ready," he said.

Castillo, 38, said he was happy to share tips on how to do a "Star Wars" camp-out with Tokunaga and Co, who he playfully referred to as his padawans (Jedi knight apprentices).

"We're grooming them," he joked. "We're going to teach them the ways of the Force."

More importantly, Castillo said he was probably going to cede the front spot to them for the next installment.

Castillo, who would have left if someone got to the theater before him, said his motivation for lining up early was to prove that people in Hawaii can be as outrageous as those on the mainland. "We can have as much fun as everyone else."

But he acknowledges that it's hard work keeping everyone organized and making sure there's enough ice and food -- not to mention handcrafting an R2D2 and planning a pizza party. He said he was grateful for the help of his friends, co-workers, as well as his father, a carpenter who built the display for R2D2. The hardest thing to deal with, however, was the humidity, despite a small Vornado fan aimed at their folding chairs, he said.

Dennis Thorp, Castillo's co-worker at Circuit City, said he wouldn't have shown up 14 hours before the movie if Castillo hadn't talked him into it.

Thorp, 32, said he has seen the previous "Star Wars" flicks "many, many, many times over" and doesn't like "Episode I" much.

He still had high expectations for the new movie, which he expected would be "a lot better than 'Episode I,' definitely a better all-round movie."