So I’m talking to my friend, he says to me, he says “Let’s see a MOVIE!” And I says, I says to him “You want some CINEMA? A FLICK? Catch a SHOW?  Some lights FLASHing before your eyes and loud NOIses in your ears?!” My friend, oh yeah, my friend doesn’t BAT an eye and he says he SHOUTS at me “Baby, I want the whole damn PIZZA and the PARLOR TOO!”   And ha ha, and I say to my comrade, my buddy, I says “Let’s get a MIDNIGHT screening, 12 o’FRIGGITY clock at night of Iron Man 3, cuz I got a HANKERING for some REPULSORING and BABY! Baby you KNOW I need it!” And he says, oh what does he say when he says this you don’t know WHAT he meant and so he says, “I don’t like the cut of your JIB,” and I go, I says “It’s the only jib I GOT, baby!”

Who sounds like this guy?

It feels like me.  I don’t usually talk to my friends like that when asking if anyone would like to go to a midnight screening with me.  But as of late, as the years start to stretch a little more thin on all of us, the answer has been more and more along the lines of “Are there any earlier screenings?”  And yeah, its a legitimate question.  More and more blockbuster movies, and even some less than blockbuster fare, are getting the before Midnight release treatment.  Die Hard 5 had an 8:00 pm screening the day before its release.  It seems more and more theaters are changing the midnight screening as we know it.

And when I suggested Iron Man 3 for midnight, I thought at first this was the image that would come to mind:

Not so.

In fact I just come off less and less realistic.  People work earlier hours and go to school and, well, are responsible and s**t.  And though I understand, sympathize, and even encourage this change of heart… I miss my midnight screening.  Because it signified the hard core.  The most true of heart.  To sit out and wait for that movie.  It was like a mini-Comic Con event for that one thing you’ve been dying to see.  But I have to keep an eye on my fervor.  I mean, I’m the dude that watched Avengers 10 times in theaters!

Yes, Young Loki, I watched the movie that many times.  Joss Whedon needed me!  But that was just an example to show how much I enjoy the movie experience.  I’m not scared off by lines like this:

In fact, in a few hours of the uploading of this very entry onto the site, I will be attending a screening of Iron Man 3.  But not at midnight.  No, I dare say those days may be done.  My days of watching movies mere minutes into the start of the day its due to release could possibly have ran its course.  Theaters are more and more willing to allow earlier viewings.  And with the internet always spoiling things (seriously, its like a weird compulsion for the entire internet to spoil things and then make a gif of said spoiler on a continuous loop) why not show the movie a little earlier than the release date?

So now the official Midnight Screening of a brand new movie may be gone, does that mean the Midnight Screening itself is over?  I SAY THEE NAY!  Just look to The Rocky Horror Picture Show to see how the magic of the midnight screening is still alive and well.

And what keeps this movie and its legendary midnight status alive?  Simple.  The FANS of the movie:

Look at them!  This is a mini-weird-ass-convention-I-would-feel-uncomfortable-at!  But that’s the beauty!  I went to a midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with friends and they all dressed up as Harry Potter characters (even Agent Bobby of GUARD, but that’s a story for a different time).  So in that vein, if what I loved about Midnight Screenings was the spectacle and the connection to other people, then that’s what I should carry over.  And that’s what all the cool kids realized, too, way before me.

Edgar Wright has always been light years ahead of everybody, in story, skill, and talent.  This picture was just another in a long line of great ideas and exciting ways to bring new eyes to an old favorite.  And how will I know its some peoples’ favorite as it is mine?  That it’s more than just some lights flashing before your eyes and loud noises to your ears?

Because we’ll be waiting at midnight to watch it.