Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Return of the King opens on Wednesday!

Not only does it open (finally!) this week, but from what the critics are saying, it's the best movie of the year and a staggering cinematic triumph.

Return of the King reviews!

Right now, it has a metascore of 100 at www.metacritic.com (one of my very favorite websites.)

I remember watching the old Rankin-Bass Return of the King cartoon back when I was about 10... and then seeing the old Ralph Bakshi cartoon movie shortly after that. I was enthralled! It just seemed like such an amazing world.

Later on, my first semester in college, I read the books for the first time, and I knew that I had found a work of literature that spoke to me like few others have ever done. The good in these books is SO good... and the bad is SO bad... sometimes, living in a world of grey, we need that clarity to help us through life.

Anyway, I've been waiting for these movies all my life, it seems. Those of you who chat on AIM weekly know that I'm going to be at the Lord of the Rings special event all day Tuesday... TRILOGY Tuesday, we're calling it... watching the extended versions of Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers in all their cinematic visual amd aural splendor, and then watching Return of the King.

I expect to be more emotional on Tuesday than I have been any day since my wedding in August. What's crazy is how much I really have it bad for this movie. I spent a lot of time with Frodo and Sam in my dreams last night... and it just hit me when I woke up how much I love this stuff, and how grateful I am to Peter Jackson and co. for making it a reality.

Have a *great* time on Super-Tuesday! From the early reviews, it seems like this third film totally lives up to the anticipation -- can't wait to see it!

i am going thursday at 5pm
i wanted to see the trilogy, with the special editions, until i saw the price.
50 fucking dollars, i dont think so, i will sit at home wednesday night and watch LOTR and TT extended editions at home for free and then go to the movie the next day.
50 dollars is a JOKE!! i love the movies, but not that much, that works out to roughly 17 dollars a flick, FLICK THAT!!

Didn't your theater offer specials with that ticket price Lab? Here you got all day pizza, drinks and popcorn and a gift card to one of the shops. Made the deal a lot better. Still couldn't get it though as they sold out 2 minutes after the box office opened.

Have a great day Jeff. We'll be thinking about you. Probably won't go myself until the crowds die down a little.

Lab, it was 35 dollars here. Still a little bit more than what you would pay for a regular ticket, but not much.

open's in the UK on the same day !!! for a change !!!

Matthew.

and that's means i get to see it before all of you guy's in the US ...... !!!

Matthew.

...... although !!!

i don't actually have plans to go see it on Wednesday !!!

i'll probably wait till the weekend !!!

Matthew.

Dude! You're actually going to Trilogy Tuesday? With what you could get for those tickets on ebay , you could fly to England and see it with Matt!

Naw, seriously, I wish I was going. It's going to be a blast. Now I'll have to wait til one of the weekends the hubby is home (away on business during the week for the rest of the month) to catch RotK.

Eric

I'll catch it this weekend, I'm sure. I'm not much for fighting off crowds as dense as orcs.

KP, I hear you about being emotional when reading these books, I'm the same way. Since I read them in seventh grade, I've tried to read them every two or three years since, and I can't get through part six without shedding a few tears for Sam and Frodo! I can't wait to see the Return of the King!

I'll be thinking about you on Tuesday, I hope you have a great time!

I can empathize with everyone feeling anticipation and excitement about "The Return of the King," even though I never was a Tolkien reader. I'm glad you have such a mega-event to draw you into the cinema. Do take my word for it -- many of us would like to have a similar cause for excitement.

I saw "The Fellowship of the Ring" and was highly entertained, but not last year's epic. Looking back, I think it's a foible entirely unrelated to the movies as such that is pushing me away: the difficulty, as I inch toward that mythical "middle age," of sitting for three hours or more at any movie. (And they've sadly abandoned the practice of an intermission, by and large.)

The sheer limits of the human organism, that's really it. It's not only one's bladder, it's also the difficulty of keeping attention focused on the screen without some sheer break for the eyes. And a break for the mind's eye, to pause and absorb what has happened. I've long had the same difficulty with plays, but again, it's been mitigated by having "acts" as subdivisions.

Not at all limited to the preferable scope of the big screen, either. I've passed on the two three-hour pieces of HBO's "Angels in America" this past week for the same reason -- and since I have neither TiVo to "pause" it nor VHS blanks long enough to tape it. (Standard Play only, I can't stand to re-play it otherwise.) I'll take it in via the one-hour-at-a-sitting version.

As for the Tolkien epic, I'm going to just wait for two developments:

~ The "TRotK" extended-footage-within-it version coming out on DVD, about a year from now. (I have my own issues with Peter Jackson holding so much detail back from the cinema, even with the economics of it all, but that's another matter.)

~ Finding a local Tolkien fan who's willing to show some newbies through this epic -- all three parts on extended DVD -- on a series of nights. With keeping the characters and settings straight for me, having a bathroom readily at hand, and allowing us to bring modern versions of mead to toast Frodo's successes and Ian McKellen's acting.

Trilogy Tuesday: TOMORROW!

Have a blast, Jeff!

Woo Hoo, Me!

Yeah Jeffy. Have fun tomorrow.

I'll be thinking about you while I'm stuck behind my desk all day.

Enjoy your day today KP!

So... how was it? Everything you expected, and more?

I want to avoid spoilers for the moment... as for the event, it was absolutely brilliant. The cineplex brought in free Subway and Pizza Hut for the breaks, and the biggest surprise was the incredible keepsake New Line Cinema and WETA Workshop gave each of us... it was a stone-finish vinyl sculpture, fitted with 3 unique frames of the trilogy, one for each of the movies. I got Frodo from the very beginning of Fellowship, Legolas as he looks over the cliff for Aragorn from Two Towers, and Gimli from I-don't-know-where in RotK (I'll have to see it again and find the shot.)

Okay, as far as Return of the King... it lasted 3 hrs and 20 min, right? I have been in 90 minute films that seemed incredibly longer than this film was. It FLEW.

For the first time in my life, I wish I had been able to see a movie with no foreknowledge of the story. I wish I had been able to respond seeing everything unfold "for the first time," as it were.

It's not a perfect film. It does end 6 times. The first 5 endings were awesome. OH HOW AWESOME. #6 was... tacked on. At least for me. Return of the King is hugely more dependent on CGI than either of the other 2. This has good effects and bad... most of the effects are incredible, a few of the shots look like they're airbrushed in.

I can't wait for the extended edition. There's much more to say, mainly good and one or two things bad, but I'm going to wait until several of you have had the chance to see it so as not to give away any spoilers.

Was it good KP was it!!!!!!

I want so much to see it today as it opens that I was seriously considering missing the office christmas party to go along.

Still i decided they already think I'm weird enough without giving them that.

These films as about as close to my imaginings of the book as I think modern cinema can get. I am re reading the book now and every time I hear Gandalf it is with Mckellans voice.

Glad you had fun Jeff. And I first heard of the special gifts last night on CNN. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. Makes the price of admission so worth it.

Faraway, the more time I have to reflect on it, the more the sadness that it is, at last, finally over diminishes. I think that is the only bitterness in the whole thing for me. I loved it. And also, avoiding spoilers for now, I have decided that it was only one scene of CGI which irked me. The first such scene in 3 long movies... and it's only because the effects have been so wonderful thus far that it stuck out. I won't give away spoilers yet at this time, but I'll just say that it involved Legolas.

Okay, I have to share the latest Dork Towers with you guys, especially as it relates to the sadness fans are experiencing now that its over.

Here's the first strip:

It was just awesome. I have never been in a "midnight showing" before, and boy, was it ever fun. Screaming fans, people dressed up, the whole deal (except that we didn't get any presents! How come?). The movie is excellent, it really pulls the right strings, every single character just shines and you are happy to like them all. Problems? Yes, a few, but very few, not enough to distract.

I actually envy you, you can still look forward to go watch this for the first time. Enjoy!

Juan