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Arts & Entertainment

Crazy in Suburbia: Whose Fans Screamed the Loudest and Other Moments as 100s Attend Twilight Premiere

Hundreds lined up around Walnut Creek's downtown movie theater starting at noon Tuesday to get their chance to see the midnight premiere of the new Twilight flick.

UPDATE: Sorry, I'm a bit dazed and confused this Wednesday morning, but my son and I survived the midnight Eclipse premiere at Century 14 in downtown Walnut Creek. Here are some basics for those of you who were sane enough to stay away--and get a decent night's sleep:

--My son and I arrived at about 10:30 p.m. only to find that purchasing our tickets ahead of time online still meant we had to join in the line wrapping around the entire block of Olympic Place. Yes, last night I became a Line Joiner. 

--People had been standing and or sitting in the line since noon Tuesday.

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--All 14 screens at the cinema were given over to showing this film, the third in the teen vampire saga.  

--No real wacky costumes, but a fair number of females, from preteen girls to 20something women, wearing T-shirts that showed their allegiance either to the dreamy vampire Edward or to the hunky, white-toothed werewolf Jacob. 

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--The crowd was made up of groups of teenage girls, as well as girls women who had dragged their boyfriends and husbands. There were also parents like me who were treating their kids to a pop culture treat. 

--Police patrolled the area, driving around the movie/garage complex.  

--The only crowd drama, if you will, came when 1) Guys in cars sped by and yelled to the crowds "Twilight Sucks" and 2) Two groups of girls--one Team Jacob and one Team Edward--had a brief, giggly shout-off. "Team Jacob!" "Team Edward!" 

--Some of the Eclipse fans were slobs, leaving garbage on the sidewalk or in the landscaping around Olympic Place. Movie theater staff went around to clean it up and to empty overflowing garbage cans.

--The theater staff started to admit people into the theater, starting at 11:30. We all got in by a little after midnight, and my son and I actually got good seats. 

--Oh, and the movie? It was what is was. It was fine. I imagine fans of the Twilight books and movies will be satisfied. 

--And, yeah, the first time this male character appeared shirtless, the squeals went up in the audience. The same time he planted a big, long smoldering kiss on heroine Bella Swan.  

ORIGINAL STORY: While Walnut Creek--or the Plaza Escuela sector of Walnut Creek--braces for Twilight mania tonight, we experienced some mania of our own in our house: I couldn't find our tickets to tonight's midnight screening on my Fandango account!

Oh yes, I pre-ordered and paid the extra fee. As I stated in a previous column, I avoid lines at all cost. I am a Line Avoider, as opposed to that other kind of person in the world: the Line Joiner.

But if I'm a Line Avoider--and all the anti-social tendencies this implies--why am I subjecting myself to sitting in a crowded, noisy sold-out movie house to see a film? Especially with a bunch of crazy Twiheads? 

First, I figured that for the first time since college days I would go see the midnight screening of a movie that's a pop culture sensation. I think the last midnight show I saw was, gasp, Easy Rider, which was a bit groovily long in the tooth by the time I saw it. 

Eclipse and all its on- and off-screen teen vampire drama (Are Robert and Kristen really going out? Will she break his heart?) is about as insanely pop sensational as one can get. 

So, panicked about the tickets, I raced to the Century 14 Downtown. And, phew, the cashier found my tickets with a swipe of my credit card. Turns out there was some login SNAFU with Fandango; you know, I don't use it that often, so I forgot which email I used to sign in and order the tickets ... and the password ... and the user name ... 

Tickets in hand, I stopped in at Starbucks on Locust Street for some coffee. But wait! Maybe I should be avoiding caffeine this afternoon. I should nap! How am I gonna stay up way past my usual bedtime?  

The barista said Starbucks was expecting big crowds of Twilight fans tonight. Apparently, back in November, for the midnight screening of New Moon (Twilight No. 2), Twiheads started lining up in and outside the coffee house a few minutes before the usual 9 or 9:30 p.m. closing time. The poor staff on duty that night ended up staying until 2 a.m. 

Disclosure No. 1: I'm taking my 12-year-old son. Actually, going to see this movie at 12:15 a.m. tomorrow was his idea. Blame the kid. He read the Twilight books in fifth grade and got me to read them. They were pageturners, certainly, but I don't think they were great literature. We both got annoyed reading Werewolf Jacob's endless POV whining in Breaking Dawn.  I liked the first Twilight movie quite a bit; I could definitely see how that film and the books, with their intense underlying themes of sexual repression and desire, could become international blockbusters.

This is the third installment of the film series, but you have to wonder whether the series and the Twiheads are running out of steam. Will the Robert Pattinson/Kristen Stewart/Jacob Lautner/Ashley Greene fans be camping out tonight to get tickets that they didn't pre-order?

"I don't know if the movie will be good, but it's Twilight," my son said. "It will be a cultural phenomenon."

Per my son's request, I checked Box Office Mojo to see how much the last Twilight film, New Moon, grossed. It was the No. 4 top grossing film in 2009, bringing in $297 million, behind Avatar, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 

OK, Disclosure No. 2: Unlike most normal parents, who raise their kids to get all caught up in the Superbowl, World Series, and World Cup, I'm encouraging my son's interest in the Academy Awards and movie box office grosses. 

Finally, Disclosure No. 3: The fact that this Edward Cullen Barbie doll made it to the top of our tree for Christmas 2009 is in no way a statement of our family's preference--except for my son who says Jacob and his scary white teeth drive him crazy. As I said in my blog post on Crazy in Suburbia, my intention was to buy both Edward and Jacob Barbies for the top of our tree--let 'em battle it out up there--but Target in downtown Walnut Creek only had Edward. 

Soccer Mom is the nom de plume of, yes, Martha Ross, editor of Patch. In my spare time, I also publish my personal rants about life in suburbia on my blog, Crazy in Suburbia

 

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