Long but great. The 10:30am screening was packed. I shouldn't have read reviews before going, but how could I have avoided it--the bloody newspaper was raving about the movie each day for the week before the release.
There are three talking points for everyone who sees the movie: the battle, Gollum, and the Ents. Thanks to the hype from the reviews, I wasn't as overwhelmed by the big battle as I could have been, but I was totally blown away by Gollum. Very believable--effects so well done that you forget they're effects, and really good acting. The Ents were ... Ents. Nothing to talk about here unless you're one of those nutters who complains that the movie didn't have every nuance and line of dialogue from the book, or that the directors (gasp) changed some things. I, needless to say, am not one of those people. The only time I've done that was for the new "Bourne Identity", which was only incidentally related to the book and original movie.
I turned to Jenine on the way out. "Can we move to New Zealand for a year so I can have my name in the credits for the next one? Can we can we huh huh?" I'll keep working on her ...
--Nat
12:01AM Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. And yes, I was in pain most of the day at work Wednesday.
