From 10:30am to 1:30am -- fifteen hours of LOTR back-to-back-to-back...
It was AWESOME.
It was a big lovefest. As you can imagine, the crowd was really friendly and loved talking all things Tolkien. And it was amazing to see how the turnout included everyone from ages 7 to 70. After FOTR (extended cut), we were all getting into the groove, and there was a lot of excited discussions about this and that, over some light ad-hoc dinner fares we scraped together from the offerings at the concession stands. After TTT (extended cut), we had to catch our collective breaths after seeing Helm's Deep again; but then began a hum of excitement that just kept building and building as we all realized that ROTK was finally going to happen. When the organizer for the Trilogy Tuesday at Loews came out and announced 'five minutes', we all roared, and our adrenaline rush kicked into high gear. And then...
ROTK was breathtaking. It's incredible, not just as a fitting triumphant ending for the greatest cinematic trilogy ever made, but just as a movie onto itself. The depth and range of emotions was overwhelming, and the special effects were truly epic. The battle scenes make your heart thump and your brain buzz. The scenes involving interactions between the main characters, especially between Frodo and Sam, truly reaffirms that there is indeed some good in the world -- not just in their Middle Earth, but also in our real one. And Gollum... as it turns out, TTT was only a taste of how emotive and mind-blowingly good Gollum (Andy Serkis) is. Gollum needs to win best supporting actor; anything less would be highway robbery.
I really don't know how to describe this movie, other than that it's one of the greatest movies ever made. For that matter, combine it with the other two, and this stands in my mind as THE greatest movie ever made. The movie held me not merely in rapt attention, but actually at the edge of my seat half the time. For almost twelve hours. And I had seen the first eight hours of it multiple times before. It's so good, it eats superlatives for breakfast and cliches for lunch. (Or something like that; you know what I mean.) And if a movie like 'Gladiator' can win best picture, ROTK should receive it for the next three years in a row.
In short, it was a truly trilogific experience.
Posted by teak at December 17, 2003 12:20 PM