Let me preface this with the fact that I try to do something cool or interesting or adventurous or even relaxing for my birthday. I've done Lazer Blaze. I've went to Destin, Florida and camped out. I even spent a week away from society doing nothing and hangin' out with the 'rents. Since I wasn't here for my birthday I promised my friends that when I returned we would do something I had always been interested in doing:
Watch all three “Lord of the Rings” films. The Extended Cut editions. From the Shire of Hobbiton to Rivendell, Rohan to Gondor, and finally stopping to chuck the One Ring into a volcano, the “Lord of the Rings” is the definitive story of dwarves, elves, man, wizards, and Hobbits. Peter Jackson and WETA went above and beyond in making one of the greatest epic fantasy series of movies ever made.
I'm here to tell you, dear reader, it's more than just clearing out a day on your calendar. Watching all the trilogy in the course of a day is a Tour de Force. For this social experiment I used my upconvert DVD player and an InFocus projector.
Don't get me wrong; I love the movies. I saw each one theatrically, bought the theatrical versions, and then bought the extended cut versions. However, getting more into movies over the years I haven't had a chance to re-watch any of it. Until this past weekend it had been five full years since I've watched any part of them. With that being said, here are a few notes:
- “The Fellowship of the Ring” is LONG. How did that happen? I remember watching it several times… It's just really slow paced. I like it, it's important, but man… 30 minutes in it feels like you hit the 3 hour mark, and you still have hours to go!
- “The Two Towers” is still my favorite of the bunch. Yeah, the Battle at Helm's Deep is one lengthy battle kinda like the car chase in the original “Gone in 60 Seconds” takes up half the movie. There's more action, better scenes, a little better story, Gollum/Smeagol becomes a bigger player, and the kingdom of Rohan was cool. My only problem is that while it didn't feel as long as “Fellowship,” it still had pacing issues.
- “The Return of the King” isn't my favorite but it was still better than “Fellowship” and my friends liked it the most of the three. I'll give it credit for excellent pacing (an hour passes by without even realizing it) and it has a great deal more close-up shots than the previous two films and the image looks sharper than the previous two. The main flaw with the third is the amount of CG used; it was way too much. Yeah, there's no way the creatures used for the battles on Minas Tirith exist but after 6-7 years the effects aren't holding up as well.
For those who want to plan an event such as this, the run times for the films are as follows: “Fellowship” – 208 minutes (3 hours 28 mins), “Two Towers” – 223 minutes (3 hours 43 mins), “Return of the King” – 250 minutes (4 hours 10 mins). May I suggest watching one disc a night over the course of a week?
I've officially checked this off my list now. Here's to hoping the Blu-ray will be even better than the DVD releases and I look forward to “The Hobbit” (the prequel to the trilogy whereby a Halfling decides that to avoid a group of dwarves he has to go slay a dragon and at some point picks up the One Ring).
Good movies shows what a company can do with five years/three films, they should've shot and canned the Hobbit while things were still hot. But that's to be fixed soon.
Several times my husband has tried to talk me into making a day out of Lord of the Rings.To me,it really seems like a big waste of time.The part that I remember the most about watching them in theatres is sitting there wondering when it would be a good time to go pee.
When we went to see Return of the King I was about 9 mo. pregnant.I look back and think wow I sat through that whole thing without going to the restroom once,that was WAY too much committment LOL.
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Let me preface this with the fact that I try to do something cool or interesting or adventurous or even relaxing for my birthday. I've done Lazer Blaze. I've went to Destin, Florida and camped out. I even spent a week away from society doing nothing and hangin' out with the 'rents. Since I wasn't here for my birthday I promised my friends that when I returned we would do something I had always been interested in doing:
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