A long long time ago in a state far far away (okay, well it was Pennsylvania), there was a lot of hoopla about some new movie that had come out, "Star Wars". My older brother and Mojo had already gone and seen it a couple of times and every night when the national news was showing crazy lines outside of movie theaters, my siblings would excitedly talk about how great the movie was. I was only 7 years old, and my movie going at the time consisted of the annual pilgrimage to go see whatever Disney movie was re-released.

Mojo and my brother decided they wanted to see Star Wars again, and they asked me if I wanted to get ice cream with them (At the Creamery in State College, if you are familiar with that wonderful place), so we went downtown and got in line for ice cream. At least that's what I thought. Being 7, and convinced that ice cream is THE BEST FOOD EVER, it didn't seem strange to me that the line for a cone stretched way down a block and around the corner. I spent about an hour or so standing there with them, asking them things like "Aren't you going to be late for your movie?"

Eventually we turned the corner and were right at the theater. I was absolutely shocked that Mom and Dad had 'allowed' me to go see Star Wars, and the moment from when I realized I was going, to when we sat down in pretty much the last three open seats in the theater was a blur. The movie started almost instantaneously, and back then you didn't have to sit through 15 minutes of ads and another 15 minutes of previews to get to the main feature. I basically sat down and had my mind blown apart.

Yesterday, I did pretty much the same thing to Per. I have been telling him that he has to be about 10 years old before I'll let him watch the first two Indiana Jones movies. I don't recall anything in the third that's particularly inappropriate, but Raiders and Temple of Doom are both just too dark. (And, as Dean reminds me, there's a lot of fairly insensitive portrayals of other cultures sprinkled throughout) For a few weeks now, however, he's been campaigning heavily to go see "Crystal Skull" at the theater. As you recall, I had the chance to go see it for free on Monday, but didn't bother. But I started to regret that decision, as I was wondering whether or not the film would be closer in tone to the third, or the first two.

Since it was our 10th Anniversary, we'd decided that we would go as a family to the movies, then have a hibachi dinner as a really special treat. I'd chosen "Prince Caspian", but when I mentioned it to Per, he moped that he *really* wanted to see Indiana Jones, and that he didn't want to see stupid ol' Prince Caspian. (He probably *does* want to see it, but he didn't want to admit it b/c of his Indy campaign) Around this time, I saw that a number of folks had gone to Thursday showings, and I started to read reviews. I went over to the website "Kids in Mind", but I found that their descriptions weren't really helpful. I mean, they would say "blood and bulletholes visible", but there's a big difference to me between a small splotch of blood on a bad guy and a "Platoon" style bullet carnage.

So I contacted Willow, who is an exceptional reviewer of appropriateness for kids. She let me know where the film stood violence and gore-wise. I felt it was right on the edge of what I'd take Per to, so I went home and asked Dean what he thought. I suspect his personal preferences came into play when he instantly said "Let's take him!" We ended up going to a 4pm showing, which was crowded but not full. Decent seats right in the middle of the theater. The funny thing was that Per couldn't see the sign while we were waiting in line, and then was so distracted when we went into the theater that he didn't see the big huge poster. His first inkling of what he was seeing was when the big words "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls" (or whatever the full name is) came up on the screen. And he had a mini-freakout just like I had had back in 1977. So excited!

I won't go into plot points--I knew going in where most folks felt it stood in the Indy-verse, and I was not as disappointed as Willow was, perhaps b/c I already knew most of the plot going into it, so I was just enjoying the stunts. And, honestly it was more about watching Per just enjoy every moment of his first 'real' Hollywood summer blockbuster. As the lights came up and the theme played, he was just over the top happy. Last night he was moving around getting ready for bed like Indiana Jones, protecting us all from all sorts of unseen dangers. As for the parts that I'd been worried about scaring him, he said in that tone of voice that kids use when their parents are being exceptionally dense, "Mom, that didn't scare me at ALL, because it happened to the BAD guys."