12.18.01: This Newspost Is About How Cool Lord of the Rings is. Okay, so, I saw it. I waited for so long to see the movie (which I might add is technically entitled The Fellowship of the Ring, whereas LOTR is the name of the trilogy. Just so we have that much down. I'll try not to spoil anything about the movie for those of you who have not seen it (which at the moment is most of you...muhahahahaaaa...I will pride myself, however nerdily, on having seen it twice before it opens). Someone said that some group of reviewers who had seen it told the press that this movie (or more accurately, the trilogy) is going to change the way movies are made. I hope not--only because if all movies could be this good, then a lot of people would be broke, spending all their hard-earned cash on multitudes of shows that are good. See, we need bad movies to serve to space out the good ones. For a long time I was excited about seeing it, but was afraid to the core of my being that it was going to end up on the Babylon-5 or Hercules sort of level of quality. But fear not. It was way better than that. I think this is the type of movie Mr. Tolkien would have wanted to see made out of his books. It's not a swordsman-meets-girl story like other fantasy movies tend to be. It is a journey through an autumnal, failing world. The scenery in New Zealand made for the perfect Middle-Earth: full of life and ages of history. But in all the ruins and falling leaves, you get the same feeling you get reading descriptions of the Shire, of the Barrow-downs, of Rivendell, of Bree, every all the lands that Tolkien described in detail. The world around the main characters is winding down, slowing gradually as an effect of the power in the conflict between good and evil (which is somewhere far away, of course) becomes gravely imbalanced. But for those who haven't read the books and don't care about ancient (albeit fictional) civilizations and their importance in Tolkien's world of mythology, don't worry. Peter Jackson did not leave us without any action. Some of the best I can remember, I might add. Tolkien fans will not be disappointed, and as they leave the theater, the memory of all the characters and elements that are in the books that were muted or skipped over completely will begin to creep over them. In the next few days, once you have all (hopefully) seen the movie, I'll probably mention that in the newspost (hey, it's important to some of us). ____________________ (a few hours later) Okay, just got back from seeing it again. That movie still rules. I think right now, I'm lacking words and have an abundance of fried brain. So go watch the dang movie already. -stub out-

Oh, and by the way: for those that were as afraid of it happening as I was, fear not--Liv Tyler doesn't turn into a Xena, Warrior Princess. She doesn't have much air time, but she really does a good job. More proof that chicks dig guys that speak Elvish. Not that I speak Elvish. Because I don't. Seriously.