Terrible news reaches us about a midnight screening at the Odeon in Glasgow that was ruined for Star Wars fans. Tony tells us (spoilers have been whited out):

This may not be big news to you dudes over in the US, but an incompetent Odeon Cinema, in Glagow, Scotland, has just managed to waste a couple'a hundred people's premiere AOTC experience. Please read on......

I had arranged with a good friend to go to the midnight showing of AOTC here in Glasgow, at the Odeon, Springfield Quay. This was gonna be the best ever, we just knew it. So tickets were booked well in advance, collected and then before we knew it; the 15th had rolled around and it was time to take our seats. Good ones too.

After about an hour of perhaps THE most enjoyable Star Wars film yet, we see (highlight to read) Obi-Wan approaching Slave 1 for the battle we'd all seen and heard so much about......then, a flicker and all of a sudden we are on Geonosis watching our hero's chained to pillars in the Arena! Now having read all the spoilers and plot details was to prove a good thing, as it meant we were able to get right outta there and see what was going on.

Sadly, upon the emptying of the hall and the arrival of the management, it appeared that the film had skipped a reel or else had been loaded wrong, or whatever, but the crux of it was that due to "technical problems" our big Star Wars night was ruined.

The audience though, were more than prepared to settle back down and view the film from scratch and stay 'til it finished. Enter the manager - or on-site supervisor, whatever; the dude in the tie - who said that he wasn't prepared to do this, and quote, "....didn't really care" that this was the worst thing that could've happened. He "didn't care" that we had just had the whole reason for going to a midnight premiere whipped out from under our feet, or that it has cost a lot of people (sold out show) a lot of cash on transport, food, drink and the tickets. And all he would do for us was to offer a cash refund - which would have to be accepted at a later date - or for us to turn up at a later performance in the future and rely on pot luck to get us in there!

He also decided to call the police, hide in the ticket booth and basically let confusion and unrest run riot! As we left, the leading Scottish tabloid, The Daily Record had arrived and were taking great notes as to the going's on.

I'd just like to point out to other Scots fans that - unless they have pre-booked tickets then go see the film at UGC, or Showcase, or anywhere else - but don't put up with an "I dont care" attitude from Odeon cinemas in Scotland!

And Gary adds:

I'm just back from a partial midnight screening of Episode II here in Glasgow, UK at the Odeon Springfield Quay. When I say partial - one minute we're watching (highlight to read) a shot of Jango Fett loading Slave1 then we suddenly jump to Anakin and Padme chained in a cart being led into the arena and the start of what I believe to be the main end battle. Obviously something went wrong with the reels.

The manager was brought before the 400 disgruntled group of fans and tried to explain that they hadn't had time during the day to check the reels and due to the timing of the showing nobody could rewind the film and re-start it, but we could get a refund or tickets to another screening at a later date. The fact that the tills were down, so refunds couldn't be issued and most of the screening this weekend are sold out didn't help matters and voices were raised. The Police were called and put in the difficult position of trying to diffuse the situation and the press turned up and got plenty of quotes and photos from the increasingly irate fans.

Let us take this opportunity to say that the mayhem would have never have happened if the film was projected digitally. Want to get digital projection in your local theater? Check here.