December 18, 2003

Trilogy Tuesday & ROTK

As I said I would, I went to see Trilogy Tuesday with N. at a theater in New Brunswick. There were several surprises:

1. My butt did not hurt. I guess the movies are just that good, and I am used to sitting down all day.

2. They gave out a prize-thing for everyone in the audience for being so hardcore. We all got these little plaques with a frame from each of the three movies inside. Everyone in the audience also received bookmarks (mine has Denathor) and mini-posters.

3. There were frat boys there. Only a few, granted, but you can imagine my surprise at seeing square-jawed fellows in fraternity T-shirts in the audience. This begs the question; shouldn’t they be beating themselves up for being such big dorks?

4. ROTK started at 10:00pm, so I got to see it before most of you (maniacal laughter, etc.)

The theater itself turned out to be a short ride from the train station via taxi, and there were a surprising number of taxis (more than one). The theater was, unfortunately, on a highway, and there were no restaurants nearby, save a barbeque place which offered a buffet that they catered in theater. N. and I had brought sandwiches and some food, but even though N. was very hungry, the barbeque seemed inedible…

On the way back we ran into two friend Hunter college boys who were also heading back for New York. The problem that faced us was that the last train from New Brunswick left at 1:15am, and the next was not until 4:15. Our movie let out around 2:00, so we ended up killing time at a restaurant near the train station that closed at 3:00am. Then we waiting on the cold platform (the waiting area was closed, you NJ Transit bastards) until 4:15.

Overall, our adventure in New Brunswick went over surprisingly well, practically without a hitch. We got there a little late than we’d hoped (10:00am), but we got good seats, behind a railing where we could put our feet up (which was ideal).

The crowd was not nearly as dorky as I would have hoped. There were only two or three people in mediocre costumes. However, a couple of women had built a chocolate Shelob of impressive size, and were giving it away before the final film. And there was one girl with a T-shirt that looked like the album cover of “Never Mind the Bullocks” but it read, “Never Mind the Balrogs,” which seemed homemade and was fairly impressive.

As for the movies themselves… the extended edition of Two Towers had valuable scenes that I can’t believe they cut for the original release. Many of the additional scenes in Fellowship I could understand why they cut, but almost all of the additional scenes in Two Towers were important background information.

Return of the King was an absolute delight. N. remarked that he’d been waiting seven years to see the film, and as no fewer than nine trailers rolled by at the beginning the audience yelled a lot in outrage, and then recanted with cheers if it was a trailer for something they were interested in, like Spiderman 2 (Dr. Octopus… well… now I might have to see it).

The crowd hooted and cheered and clapped at appropriate moments, but when Eowyn lops the head of the Nazgul, that’s when the audience cheered the loudest. It was such a wonderful moment that I’d like to watch that scene on repeat on DVD.

I really have to say that these movies are pushing the Star Wars trilogy down on my Top Ten Favorite Movies of All Time List. That’s really saying something… but the LOTR trilogy has better acting, more heart, and a more epic story. I’m sure that over the years I’ll watch these movies again and again and again. This is not to say that the films don’t have flaws…

In particular the multiple-fade-out endings of ROTK were troublesome. There were some shots that were troublesome, the occasional odd line, and some bad acting on Arwen’s part in particular, but in the end… in the end the good outweighs the faults.