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Fellowship

Well, I saw a midnight showing of the Fellowship of the Ring last night (or this morning, rather). Me, Nancy, Mike, Eric, Byron (holy crap, Byron!), Randy, Don, Nicole, Christina, Berkeley, Nate, and the inestimable Barbara. Nancy, bless her heart, got the tickets and arrived early so we could stand in at the front of the line and get the good seats. Yes, we were the jerks who took the entire front railing row. Ha ha.

The film was unbelievably good. If there's a better fantasy movie out there, I haven't seen it.

Not only does the film do the big details well (the Shire, Isengard, the Balrog)... but again and again it casually tosses off smaller details that blend in seamlessly. Legolas's demonic speed with the bow. Centipedes and crawling things boiling out of the earth as a Ringwraith looms near. Saruman hauling down the trees (oooh, you're gonna pay for that later...) I was riveted, wide awake all the way to 3am. Although that might have had something to do with the vast quantities of Skittles I consumed.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing it again with my family. It's going to be our Christmas Day movie. Some Jewish families get Chinese food on Christmas Day. We see a movie.

Long ago, this was a kind of special tradition. Crowds were sparse, and it was almost as if we had the theater to ourselves. But in recent years all the frickin' goyim have caught on, and the theaters are as crowded as ever. Oh, well. Perhaps you can only open presents for so long. After that, everyone's kind of sitting around the house staring at their relatives... wondering what there is to do besides talk...

At least that's just my guess.

Posted by Evan Goer on Dec. 22, 2001 at 2:56 PM