My pal Kristin posted that there was an Amazon deal-of-the-day for the extended, blu ray version of Lord of the Rings. This has been on my wish list for a long long time so I did the right thing and went and plopped my money down. A couple days later the mail person had delivered it to my door and there was rejoicing in this part of east bejeesus.
First off, the packaging is pretty incredible. It’s in this fancy schmancy box that closes with a magnetic latch, it’s all shiny and inside has a map and of course three DVD cases. The cases are masquerading as antique books which is fun. They open up to reveal quite a few DVDs and a bit of printed material too. Amazing.
I was torn between wanting to see it and deciding if I wanted to somehow spread watching over time or waiting until I could just binge-watch the whole thing. In polite society that is called “a marathon” but binge it is.
I watched the first, Fellowship of the Rings, the other night and last night watched the first disk of The Two Towers. One of my wonderings was how the film would be broken into two disks. I was relieved the first night that the break was in a story break so it didn’t make me run gasping to change the disk and carry on. Last night I didn’t want to stay up and watch the whole thing until the wee hours so I knew it would be ok to watch just the first part.
My main reason for writing though is to say just how completely blown away I am by these films. Granted the story is important to me and the story itself is compelling. Everything about these – cinematography, music, casting, sound, scenery – goes to making it wonderful on screen. I wondered how the second film would connect to the first and it was so well done I wanted to applaud.
I was nervous that I would be disappointed, although I remembered how exciting they were when seeing them in the theater. Frankly though I didn’t remember too much about the films and I’ve gone on re-reading the books and understanding more about them in the meantime. Apparently enough time has passed that I did not remember too much about the films themselves, just recognizing scenes from oft-shown photos. In many ways it is like watching it as new again. For this I am especially grateful!
I didn’t have to worry about that. Peter Jackson, thank you for a wonderful portrayal of this huge story. I look forward to seeing the Hobbit.
