This may well be the one and only time you’ll see me review a museum exhibit but then again how many exhibits have the geeky pop culture relevance as one devoted to Star Wars. The touring exhibit currently at the Science Museum of Minnesota (then heading out to LA) is a combo of props, costumes, and science. In short it’s a geek’s dream.
I arrived at the museum located over the river in downtown St. Paul with a spring in my step but unfortunately the first part of the exhibit dampened my spirits. Showing in the Omni Theater (IMAX) of the museum was a film titled Special Effects and by my judgment it must have been filmed in 1932. Sure like any IMAX film it had moments where you thought you were going to hurl as the camera careened over sand dunes and landscapes, but when the star attraction of the film is a sneak peak of this summer’s blockbuster pic Independence Day you can’t help but feel cheated. It was as if the curators looked in their vault and said this old film could bilk a few more dollars out of the geeks. The lazy narration of John Lithgow along with the dated films and technologies made for a painful 45 minutes that drained the excitement out of me and my companions.
Of course all that began to change once we got to the next step…the gift store. Yes I know I should talk about the exhibit first but come on this was a pretty awesome assembly of Star Wars schwag. From cardboard cut outs to framed film stills this was an impressive array of toys, books, and memorabilia. I picked out the functional yet creepy Yoda backpack pictured above. As I went through the museum and out to the bar afterward, I got plenty of double takes as people had to make sure I didn’t have a sickly green colored baby on my back. Commerce always makes me feel better so with that purchase in the bag we set off for the exhibit.
With an exhibit this size and this popular the museum has taken to assigning entry times which meant when we got to the entry point we still had a half an hour to kill, thankfully there was an even cooler distraction…the Millennium Falcon. Yes in another effort to shake us down for a few bucks, the museum and the exhibitors give you the opportunity to ride in the Falcon and at $3 a pop this was a ride worth taking. You enter in a corridor that looks straight out of the movie and sit yourself into the cockpit. From there C3PO comes on the loudspeaker describing the images you’re “flying” through. He talked about some real life solar systems or something but honestly I didn’t pay attention as I was busy posing and snapping pictures of me and my friends in the god damn Millennium Falcon! The jump to light speed was awesome and you even got a free pin for taking the ride. (On a side note they don’t seem to be real efficient at collecting your cash as the three of us got in for free.)
After exiting the Falcon with smiles as wide as a Dewback, we finally entered the exhibit proper. While I expected to see a fair amount of props and costumes, I was blown away by the amount of stuff from the Lucasfilm archives. The actual landspeeder from A New Hope greets you and I was instantly in heaven. Chewie looked real behind the glass case and seeing his impressive height in person left me awestruck. The collection of blasters and lightsabres was fun as were the various ships. In the interest of education, there were also plenty of real world scientific examples that showed how science fiction can be, and is reality. Of course, I skipped all that. Who needs science when you’ve got full sized Wampa models? My partner liked it though as she built robots with magnetic stabilizers and learned about air compression propulsion. Again I was just happy to snap my picture with a tauntaun. There was a great balance of material from both the original trilogy and the prequels and again I can’t stress enough how overwhelming the volume of stuff is.
Of course on the way out of the exhibit there’s one more money draining opportunity that I highly recommend. For under $10 you can take a picture against a green screen and get dropped into some of your favorite Star Wars moments. For example my partner and I went to the Jedi council for a sit down (or float down) with Yoda (check out the nice t-shirts). Sure it’s frivolous and I’m sure more industrious folks can do something with Photoshop, but we all walked out of there with a few pics that we will treasure for a lifetime.
In closing, aside from a boring outdated IMAX film the exhibit is worth every Imperial credit. If anything the exhibit is overwhelming to the point where you geek head might explode like the original Death Star (strangely not on display).
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