Not sure if any of you have already seen LOTR (Lord of the Rings, just spelling it out for those that haven’t read the book or have been hiding under a rock for the past six months), but as I’ve read the whole trilogy when I was a kid (and a couple times more when I was older) I just had to go see it. I, well technically we (me and my girlfriend), tried to get tickets for the premiere but surprisingly all theaters in a 50-mile radius were sold out. So we basically drove from one theater to another trying to get tickets, but we couldn’t get any.

So did I see the movie? Yes, I did, we ended up at an obscure little theater and actually got in for free through the backdoor (they left it open, on the LOTR premiere, go figure). I had to do with a crappy stereo down mix instead of Dolby Digital or DTS and the image quality wasn’t that spectacular either but I still found myself glued to the screen from the first minute on. I’m not saying that we sat that close to the screen, as the theater was only half full (I could have made a killing right there, selling tickets on the net), but I was just so eager to compare my own experience of reading the books with Jackson’s film version of it.

I was expecting another Hollywood onslaught with lots of cheap CGI and other excessive use of computer generated special effects but was pleasantly surprised that Jackson had not only pretty much kept to the original storyline but also made sure the special effects did blend in well with the surroundings of the other characters and scenery. One thing ticked me off though and that was Jackson picking Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix) to be Elrond. I kept on expecting to hear him say ‘…Mr. Anderson’ as he used to say in The Matrix, I’m guessing his performance must have made a mental imprint or something. Other than that the movie was well worth the wait, although the abrupt ending made me want to see the second and third part right away.

I’ll be searching for the book during the weekend and re-read it to see how close Jackson actually kept to the storyline and whether he’s really done the book justice. But honestly, if you haven’t read the book it is a great movie, although the ending leaves you yearning for more. If you have read the book it is even better, kind of enables you to check the mental images you have of the characters and the whole atmosphere of the book versus that of the movie. If you were planning on going to the movies during the holiday season I’d definitely recommend seeing it.

Sander Sassen