A Trilogy in Many Parts

As some of you know, I went to the Tuesday Trilogy event for Lord of the Rings yesterday. And I wasn’t the only one there.

It was a lot of fun, albeit exhausting. I arrived at the theater at 7:30 a.m. in order to stand in line for seats. The first two guys in line showed up at 8 p.m. the night before but the next folks didn’t show up to get in line until 5 a.m. So those 8 p.m. guys were dolts. *lol*

When I arrived at 7:30 a.m., I was about 30th in line. A few moments later a guy got in line behind me and we quickly started talking since we knew we’d be stuck next to each other for the next few hours. His name was David and he was very concerned that his girlfriend was not going to arrive in time (apparently she was an hour late to their first date). He reminded me a lot of Warren on the tv show “Ed”. A few minutes later his pal Edwin showed up. The epitome of the loud, obnoxious Bronx boy, he was also hilarious and so completely different from David that it was hard to believe they had been friends since high school (Dave and all his pals are in the mid-20s now). Then Stefan showed up, a Swede who was the “normal” one of the group.

It was freezing cold and at one point Stefan and I were commiserating about our toes having no feeling. He then volunteered to go buy socks. I gave him a $3 donation, and within 15 minutes he was back with thick gym socks that we all quickly put on our feet.

Edwin and I had a good chat about child actors. He was an actor throughout his childhood until he became a teen, then he quit. He was in a few movies, a few tv shows (guest spots), and a number of commercials. I told him that Denis and I were getting CootieGirl into modeling and he gave me the name of his talent agency and said he really liked the way they handled his career choices.

Around 10 a.m., Mare-Bear and Sully showed up – introductions were made to Dave, Edwin and Stefan (the girlfriend at that point had not shown up). We all downed some fresh Starbucks coffee and hot cocoa, and before we knew it, 10:30 a.m. had arrived and we were being shuttled into the theater. BW and his mom had still not arrived, but they had their tickets so we just planned on saving seats for them.

We ended up with great seats – about halfway back, and just on the middle right. I won’t go into the whole day, but suffice to say that the extended editions were fabulous.

The intermissions were great because for $25 you got all the free drinks and popcorn you wanted, and also had access to hot food between each movie, including all the hotdogs, chicken tenders, slices of pizza, fruit, chips/salsa, french fries and popcorn shrimp you could want. Sully and I each paid the $25 and ate well all day (and definitely got our money’s worth).

So after the second movie ended, they announced that they wanted us back in our seats by 9:45 for a special surprise. I had already talked to a girl that said she heard a rumor that part of the cast was going to show up, and there were a lot of camera crews around as well. Sure enough, at 9:45 p.m., we hear Gollum’s voice throughout the theater, and he introduced Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dom Moynaghan (sp?) and himself, Andy Serkis. The crowd went WILD, and it was awesome when the whole theater erupted into cheers of “Rudy! Rudy!Rudy!” when Sean Astin was introduced. I took pictures with my camera phone but at that distance they are merely a blur, which is disappointing.

After a few words from the guys, they turned down the lights and started the third film. Now all during the day, the LOTR fans would clap at particular lines or events in the movie. The most ridiculous was when they clapped when Shadowfax came onscreen. So I figured for RotK they would finally settle down and be quiet, but NO. They kept on clapping throughout that movie as well.

I won’t go into details on the movie itself, but suffice to say it was a great ending to a great trilogy and I can’t wait to see the extended version next year when it’s released on DVD. Will I ever do an all-day trilogy again? It would depend on the movies. I can’t think of any series that I would do this for, other than LOTR. It was worth every penny and every minute!!

As a gift for all in attendance at these events yesterday, they gave away pieces of film in a little decorative frame. From FotR I got a pic of Aragorn. From TTT I got a picture of Gimli, and for RotK I got a group shot including Aragorn and Legolas.

And finally, as for the film clip that I linked to on the top of this post, the black girl is the one I spoke to about the cast appearance rumors. She’s a HUGE Legolas fan and was very disappointed that Orlando Bloom wasn’t in attendance (as I am sure ALL female fans last night were – they cheered whenever he even BLINKED in RotK).

All in all a GREAT experience and you should all be jealous.