lord of the rings: return of the king – 5 stars

i actually did manage to make it out to opening night on this one after thinking i wouldn’t. i’ll break it down simply like this: after a full day of work, waking up that morning in the 7am hour as usual, and not sitting down until 11:30pm for this film to start, which the running time put its finish right around 3am, i did not have any problem at all staying awake. i never once started yawning or shifting around wishing it would hurry up and get on with it. i was excited for that long, at that time of day, and any film that can pass the three hour mark without feeling too long already gets high marks. the film is just plain good, and i’d say easily the best of its genre (epic battle/adventure films, that is). really wonderful. and my only complaint was the very last scene seeming unnecessary, but that was like a whole minute, maybe. and one out of 200 seeming off isn’t a bad ratio, so i forgive them.

a few addendum — the trailers were great too! you could tell they knew every geek in the country is going to see this film; i think at least half the films felt like they were based on either asimov or philip k. dick stories. but then… but THEN! i didn’t even know there was a spider man 2 trailer out, so suddenly realizing i was watching one was excellent. i LOVE superhero movies done right, and this one rides high in that crowd.

but that wasn’t all! i had heard some buzz about a movie called sky captain and the world of tomorrow, and the amazing trailer that has yet to be posted anywhere. so when we got to see that too, i was shivering with excitement. now there’s another film right up my alley. it sort of has the same stylized war-era comics feel that i really liked in the rocketeer, only this time multiplied by ten and way, way better done. i cannot wait to see how that film turns out.

oh and also, i think i might have been sitting next to thora birch in the theatre as well. i’m about 75% sure it was her, but she was so busy making out with another girl i couldn’t get a good look at her. not really though, it was just dark and i didn’t want to stare (and i guess i was technically sitting next to her backpack, which was on a seat between me and her, but it was a very nice backpack, so i think it still counts).