ROTK

We went to see Return of the King yesterday. After being such a humbug and not being so terribly fired up about it, I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I would say I enjoyed it most of the three movies. I know I’ve heard grumblings online about “they ruined this or that” or “that was nothing like the book.” I read the books once 20 years ago and have no perticular emotion tied up in them – hell, I could barely remember any of the details anyway so anything they changed is fine with me. I wanted to see this one in a theater, since the experience of seeing The Two Towers on TV paled in comparison to having the surround sound shaking your booty and the giant screen in front of you.

Interestingly enough, today listening to my first CD of saved radio programs I heard the episode of Sound and Spirit devoted to music of Lord of the Rings. Michael Swanwick, one of my favorite writers and coolest guys I ever interviewed, was on talking about his experience of reading the trilogy to his son. I’m more excited about LOTR now than I have been since I was a kid. Somehow seeing the finale just stirred it all up in me. I was silently (or loudly) making fun of all the people who have to have the extended DVDs on the day of release. Now I could actually see myself buying a DVD boxed set that had extended versions of all the movies and some extras. It was a slow build, but I’m now finally to life on this one. I’m still not worshipful of it the way many of my tribe, but I’m not snorting derisively at them so much anymore.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.