The reason I rewatched the LOTRs was because my local cinema was showing the extended editions in the cinema for their 25th anniversary. My friend and I decided to watch the Two Towers as the Fellowship was on too late and the Return of the King is so long that I don't think I could sit in the cinema for that amount of time. Also the Two Towers is widely considered (aka professed by LOTR nerd friend) as being the best of the trilogy. So on Saturday (31/JAN) night we watched the extended Fellowship of the Rings at my friends house in preperation for the 9:20am viewing of the Two Towers the next day. The first film is so good, seeing Hobbiton and the Fellowship coming together and everything being hopeful is a good start. I love Gandalf, I love the meeting in Bree where "Strider" takes care of them. It's so fun and Rivendell is beautiful. I'm a transluscent Elrond hater but he and Arywen are iconic. It's such a solid film with one of the saddest deaths in the series. Sean Bean– I mean Boromir, you will always be missed. I would've followed you my Brother, my Captain, my King!!?! I'm crying and throwing up.

The Two Towers on the big screen was really good! The battle of Helm's Deep was iconic and most of the film was a good quality despite being 25yrs old! I think everything was shot on 2K? Apart from the very end, I think they might've needed to composite the actors from a green screen when the Fellowship at Helm's Deep is on the hill. It was cool that it and the other showings opened with Peter Jackson talking a bit about each film and what it was like to make! Although it was clear he didn't have a script and did it in one take,, it was cool to see him. Although I was watching the behind the scenes on yt after each film he really doesn't look like he did 25yrs ago (aging, crazy!).

Then over a week later we managed to watch Return of the King. Oh my gods is the extended edition long. It was fun to be able to shout and groan and quote the film during it. My friend made a pasta bake for us both, it was class. I do like the last film but we kept going "ohhh wait there's more to go" every so often. Tbf it doesm't feel long because we keep jumping around between Sam and Frodo, Gondor, and the people of Rohan with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. It's a lot of battles. Also I was, as I have been with the rest of the series, disappointed in just how obviously racist the Orcs are. As in they either are lean and skulking with hooked noses, or beastly and dark with flatter noses and such. It's not subtle. Melanin clearly doesn't exist in the humans of this world. Overall, the films are a good for-film adaptation of the books. When I first watched them after reading the series I was a tad confused cause Peter Jackson reordered some events but it is a true mastery in adaption, visual and practical effects, and acting. You will always be loved the 2000s LotR!!