Alamo Drafthouse Surprised Us – the First USA Showing of the New Star Trek Movie

Tonight, Donna and I were at the Alamo Drafthouse on Lamar. We had vip tickets from a friend to see a 10 minute preview of the new Star Trek to be released May 8th and then we were to see an older Star Trek movie – Wrath of Kahn. Seemed like an odd thing to do late on a Monday night but I’m such a Star Trek fan that I figured it was worth showing up to see the long preview and the Star Trek rerun.  Little did we know what was about to happen.

The lights came down and sure enough Wrath of Kahn starts to play but no preview, so we thought oh heck, we gotta watch an old Star Trek movie before we can see that 10 minute trailer.  I guess they figured people would just watch the trailer and leave so we had to watch the movie.

On the way into the theater, management was fanatical about no cell phones or cameras and wanded everyone that came in – no exceptions and that happened even if you went out to pee and came back into the theater.  There were lots of guys in black suits and some had ‘gear’ to look for the little infrared beam that a camera puts out when it attempts to focus.  We saw the guys, I didn’t see the gear.  Seemed pretty serious for a 10 minute preview but what the heck.  They started playing the “Wrath of Kahn then the movie became very scratchy and stopped playing. Looked like the film burned up or something in the projector and the movie stopped.

Oh great … now what!

Then … the lights up front come on… and this very tall lanky rather familiar looking older man steps onto the stage at the front into the lights.  He was there along with the three writers for the new Star Trek.  We thought, “How cool and how lucky are we that they were there to see the audience reactions to the longer trailer”.

But no, they had something else in mind!

They started talking and asking the audience if we would prefer to see the entire new Star Trek movie versus just the 10 minute trailer. Well that was an easy answer – YES.  But we just thought it was a big joke.  The audience was just dumb founded – like REALLY you’re going show the entire movie not just a 10 minute trailer?  No … you’re kidding … right. Long pause, then Leonard said well, I like Austin and I think it should be the first place to show the new movie.  We applauded like there was no tomorrow with excitement; all the while still half wondering is this was all a joke.  But hey, Nimoy doesn’t lie right?

And then they played the entire new Star Trek and needless to say we were on cloud nine the entire time.

You’re gonna like the movie I think.  We sure loved it.  I’m sure lots will be written and no doubt the movie critics will have their way with it as they tend to do. But for me, a Star Trek fan, I totally enjoyed the movie and will not spoil it for you by trying to analyze it or talk about it too much.  If you watched Star Trek in the 70’s and 80’s, then you’ll enjoy what happens in this movie.

This is the first movie I’ve been to with people standing up applauding and hooping and hollering. Nimoy, the writers and Alamo Drafthouse management came back up on stage afterwards and it was like a giant love fest. Nobody wanted to leave. Many MANY thanks to Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas for their magic.

What an evening…

Tom

PS:  There is a hint of a sequel!

Tags: Alamo Drafthouse, Star Trek

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 12:37 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.