Well, time is about to tell, and—structured person that I am—I suppose I’ll go in chronological order. Up first then is the long-awaited “Trilogy Tuesday” Lord of the Rings Marathon. So on Tuesday, December 16th, I got up at a reasonable hour in the morning and gathered all the things that I thought I would need like tickets, stuff to study, lunch, etc. I then set out to the seminary where I had arranged to pick up Nick. We arrived around 11 or something like that IIRC, and found a rather long line outside the theater. At the head, some people had set up a table with a seating chart so that people could reserve seats and not have to stand out in the cold. Nick and I grabbed a block of seats for everyone in our party. Although a good idea, the whole thing ultimately turned out to be pretty useless as they let us into the theater maybe 15 minutes later and the powers that be gave us name tags to use to reserve our seats. Before picking up said tags, we got cool VIP passes on lanyards, and were able to buy vouchers that entitled us to unlimited popcorn and soda for only $10.
The VIP pass
With seats in our possession, the wait began. Our group gradually showed up, as did several people from my church who either got tickets on their own, or were part of Brian’s group. I found the DDR machine in the arcade and played a round, which revealed to me how awesome the hard pad is. I ate my lunch in the theater’s cafeteria. The McGarrys got a game of Nerts going. Unfortunately, I was a bit distracted because show time was approaching and Jed had not yet arrived.
When show time arrived, I left Jed’s ticket at the customer service counter and went into the theater just in time for the beginning of the Extended Edition of Fellowship of the Ring. However, not long after, a confused figure entered the darkened theater. Jed had arrived and had gotten the powers that be to allow him into the theater to fetch me. I took him to the customer service desk, grabbed the ticket (which was just sitting there unattended, mind you), and took our seats in time for Gandalf’s arrival in Hobbiton.
During the breaks, Sarah McGarry and I challenged each other to some rounds of DDR. And during the break before our 11 PM premiere showing of RotK, we got to feel special with our VIP passes as we walked past the people lining for the two midnight showings.
Our fellow Trilogy Tuesday goers were a fun bunch. There was much cheering throughout, and the humorous portions still captured laughter even though everyone in there had probably seen the first two movies more times than anyone would care to count. When all was said and done, this 12-hour experience was definitely worth it. It was a little difficult watching the first two with all the anticipation for RotK having reached its climax. Part of me just wanted to skip ahead. Nevertheless, I managed refocus my attention, and I was able to enjoy the grand perspective that one receives when watching all three films together.
As a special bonus, when RotK was done, everyone attending Trilogy Tuesday received a collectible film frame from Sideshow Weta that was commissioned especially for Trilogy Tuesday and is not available in stores (although there were plenty up on eBay the very next day). Each frame contains a unique film frame from each of the three movies.
An example Film Frame Collectible from Sideshow Weta
The images in my Film Frame
My best guesses for the frames that I received are:
- FotR: Frodo laying under Bilbo’s trolls after being stabbed by the Witch-King.
- TT: Eomer riding with the nigh dead Theodred back to Edoras.
- RotK: Close-up on Pippin standing in front of Gandalf before Denethor.
Finally, after claiming our Film Frames, my group said goodbye and goodnight. However, just as we were doing so, much to my surprise, one of my professors came bounding out of one of the midnight showings for a pit-stop. Brief greetings were exchanged, and then I went home to crash.
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:P my premiere showing was at 10PM. I rule.. course my theatre didn’t have lanyards or any other such coolness.
my frames were gandalf in Moria, Merry at the Entmoot and Elrond & the back of Arwen’s head in Rivendell.
(so are you going to say anything at all about my birthday? :P_
wait for it… like I said: chronologically!
BTW: I was a little disappointed with the theater out here after I found out that some places had all-you-can-eat buffets! That sure would have beat popcorn and soda for dinner.