Well, imagine my disappointment that no one is in Rikchat at 4:15 am, my time zone. I just got back from seeing the 12:01 premier with a friend at a local theater of Fellowship of the Ring.

I had planned to wait until Thursday to see it (skipping first day crowds), but my best bud called Tuesday saying he'd gotten a couple free tix to the sold-out premier, and i'm not one to refuse a friend who offers cool stuff for free.

Declarations that these movies might beat the original Star Wars trilogy were not grossly overestimated. As some of you know, the New Zealand countryside in which the films were shot is breathtaking. A couple of CG pans through caves made me dizzy, but the movie doesn't use much noticeable CG throughout, and the special effects do not distract from the movie's "real" look.

The tape rolled at 12:01 and credits rolled at 3:00, including 3 trailors for movies i likely won't see (Blade II, Austin Powers III, and a new Tom Cruise action flick with one of the dumbest titles i've encountered, Minority Report). Yes, the movie does noticeably alter a bit from the book, but it works quite well. Some of the battle scenes are strong, but not to the gut-wrenching extreme of a Mel Gibson action flick.

So go see it at least once this week. Finally, a decent movie with the potential of booting Titanic and its fellows from the top of the record books.

Penny "Did i mention i liked the film?" stamp

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