Star Wars Shrine

After letting the kids watch Star Wars, we were ready for a pilgrimage to the ultimate shrine to Star Wars geekdom - the traveling Star Wars exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum. This exhibit had been here all summer and has been extremely popular. It costs considerably more than the normal admission price and you generally need to buy your tickets in advance. We waited until the end of the summer to go and it wasn't too busy.

The majority of the exhibit consists of costumes, props, and models from all of the Star Wars movies. There seemed to be more stuff from the original three movies, which is likely a reflection on the amount of CGI work done in the second trilogy. They just didn't need to produce all of the models for those movies.

It was fun to see all of the original costumes. They had the Darth Vader costume from the original Star Wars movie. You can tell it is thiry years old. Up close, it doesn't look nearly as imposing as in the movies. Hokey might be a better word.

The Han Solo costume was similar. The vest looked like somethig your mother put together for you so you could be in the school play. On the big screen you don't notice stuff like that.

The models of all the space ships were very interesting, too. Some of them had acquired some minor, but obvious damage over the years. They were still impressive. I was surprised to see that the models of the various ships were all about the same size, regardless of how big the ship was supposed to be in movie terms. The Star Destroyer and the Millenium Falcon were about the same size, for instance. They both had very intricate surface detail for close range filming.

Since this was a science museum, there were a few stations that tried to teach you some actual science. (This exhibit tries to make learning FUN!) What the heck does actual science have to do with Star Wars? We pretty much ignored all that crap. If I want to learn about robotics or magnetic levitation, I'll use a source other than George Lucas.

One of the highlights of the trip was a chance to sit in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon. Unfortunately it wasn't the actual set, but a passable mock up. The windows were display screens and it played a movie that made it seem like you were flying in space. A Millenium Falcon simulator, I guess you'd call it. It was okay, but disappointing. Instead of zooming around blasting TIE fighters, it tried to teach you about the stars and planets. BORING. Like, if I wanted to learn something, I'd read a book or go to school! I just wanted some TIE fighters and maybe to fly through an asteroid field. Is that asking too much?

Anyway, despite my grumblings about the akward learning opportunities it was a fun trip and the kids seemed to enjoy it almost as much as Allison and me. We topped it off with lunch at Cassetta's - one of our all-time favorite places to eat.