Lord of the Rings - Review

We had a bit of a movie marathon this past week, Scott picked up the new LOTR blueray special edition big shiny box release.  How many copies of LOTR should one family own?  Really?  One set?  We're in trouble, then. 

I first read The Hobbit when I was in Mr. Norville Mitchell's grade four class.  That was a good year.  I read The Hobbit, and all of the Chronicles of Narnia.  I tried LOTR a few times, but never made my way through it until I was 18-19 years old.  A short attention span, I guess.  Anyway, I remember reading in a long marathon stretch, which included a bout with the flu.  (I had some hallucinatory dreams about Smeagol when my fever was high.  Truly terrifying!)

Therefore, it was a very big deal when LOTR was made into a trilogy.  Scott and I saw all three in the theatre.  Then we bought each one when they came out on DVD.  And then the special edition with all the crazy behind the scenes discs.  We got that one, too.  And now, the big shiny special edition blueray, also with behind the scenes, how it was made documentaries.. Sigh. 


So, various groups of the children and parents sat down three separate evenings this week, to watch The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King.  These movies really stand the test of time.  I'm sure you all know the storyline, and if you don't, go to the library and check out the books.  Read the books before you watch the movies, please.  I'm a purist.

I'm going to go out on a limb, and say I've never been a huge Frodo/Sam/Smeagol road trip fan.  Both in the book and in the movies, I'm always waiting/wading through their scenes to get back to my favorite parts of the story, which are anything with the riders of Rohan, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Faramir, Theoden, Merry and Pippin.  All the secondary characters and storylines are my favorite part of the trilogy. 

The new HD version of the movie is great, very clear and sharp.  But the story continues to capture and amaze me, from the time I was a little girl.  That's the true beauty of the trilogy, JRR Tolkien's classic tale.    This one gets a zillion thumbs up!