January 05, 2004
The Fellowship of the Ring (extended version)
We've seen this movie in the original theatrical version at least half a dozen times. We have watched the extended version of the movie off DVD repeatedly with and without commentary. We pretty much have it memorized.
So why a review now?
What are you? Living under a rock?!
In preparation for the theatrical release of volume 3 (The Return of the King in case you're living under two rocks), New Line released the extended versions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers to theatres so legions of rabid fans (like us) could get all charged up for the release of Return.
Here in Seattle, this feeding frenzy of Jackson's epic was taking place at the Cinerama a fine old big-screen theatre that has been restored by Microsoft gajillionaire Paul Allen. Becky and I had never been there before. We went to see Fellowship on a Tuesday night two weeks before the release of Return. We weren't quite sure what to expect in the way of crowds so we got there pretty early to get a good spot in line, but we needn't have worried as there were only a few score people there when the doors finally opened at 8pm.
We took seats in something like the 8th row of the center section. It's a beautiful theatre with red velvet seats, a real curtain, and a screen thiiiiiiiis wide. I moved up a row when it turned out that the guy sitting behind me was unable to sit still without kicking the back of my seat for two minutes let alone 3-1/2 hours, but other than that, the Cinerama provided a near-optimal environment for appreciating the spectacle of film one.
Oh, you thought this was going to be about the movie itself?
Just go read the book. Skip the Tom Bombadil section and you pretty-much get Jackson's movie of Fellowship. About as much fun as you can have in a theatre these days.
Posted by jeffy at January 5, 2004 10:54 PM