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Agence France-Presse

They were nervous, as you would be if you had just bought what may turn out to be the most expensive cinema tickets in history to see the new Star Wars film.
“I really hope it turns out to be great,” said Trey Delap, who by his own admission spent “several thousand dollars” to fly to Paris to see The Force Awakens in a mall close to Charles de Gaulle airport.
But having travelled 16 hours through the night from Las Vegas to see a film on Wednesday he could have seen back home at a preview the following day, it was too late now for regrets.
“I know it is going to be great. I am not even going there,” said the 37-year-old public policy consultant, one of more than 200 Star Wars fans to have crossed the Atlantic to watch the film in Europe, two days before its official Friday release in the United States.
“Either you think we're crazy or you think it's brilliant. I'm not sure myself,” he said.
Other fans had made the trip from Chile, Argentina and Egypt to see the film in the high-tech EuropaCorp theatre in the Aeroville centre north of the French capital.
Before they were marched off to the cinema by an honour guard of Stormtroopers to the sound of John William's Imperial March - looking jet-lagged and a little embarrassed - Chinese-born Jun, who lives in San Francisco, said it had all been “worth it for the red-carpet treatment. It is has been a lot fun already.”
Lois and David Tom, who are both in their sixties and who had also made the 9,000-kilometre journey from San Francisco, were beginning to feel the pace.
Both were hoping they wouldn't fall asleep during the. “That would be a real pity given the price we have paid,” they laughed.
Emerging two and a quarter hours later very much awake, the fans - some clearly moved by the experience - gave the film the thumbs up. “I just want to see the next one now,” said Mersch.


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Star Wars

Star Wars superfans fly from far, far away to watch ‘The Force Awakens’ in France, two days before US release

US Star Wars fan Tim Mersch takes a selfie at the EuropaCorp Cinemas in Tremblay-en-France outside Paris on December 16, 2015 before the premiere of the franchise's latest film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". / AFP / KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

US Star Wars fan Tim Mersch takes a selfie at the EuropaCorp Cinemas in Tremblay-en-France outside Paris on Wednesday before a screening of “The Force Awakens”. Photo: AFP

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