The Lord of the Rings Marathon

Yesterday I went to another movie marathon at the Megaplex and this time it featured the extended versions of the three The Lord of the Rings movies.  I love these movies so much (I saw all three of them in the theater on the first day they were released) and I had a lot of fun spending the entire day seeing them on the big screen again!  In The Fellowship of the Ring, a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) is accompanied by eight companions, including the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the hobbits Samwise "Sam" Gamgee (Sean Astin), Peregrin "Pippin" Took (Billy Boyd), and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan), the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), the warrior Boromir (Sean Bean), and the ranger Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), on a journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom after the Dark Lord Sauron (Sala Baker) threatens to use it to conquer Middle-earth.  They are betrayed by the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) when he creates an army of orcs that attack them and break the fellowship. In The Two Towers, the remaining members of the fellowship split into three groups and continue to fight against Sauron.  Frodo and Sam form an uneasy alliance with Gollum (Andy Serkis), a former ring-bearer whose mind has been poisoned by the One Ring and wants to get it back, after he promises to take them to Mount Doom.  Merry and Pippin escape from the orcs and then convince the ents to join the fight against Saruman at Isengard.  Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli rally the kingdom of Rohan, including King Théoden (Bernard Hill), his nephew Éomer (Karl Urban), and his niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto), in an epic battle against the orcs at Helm's Deep.  In The Return of the King, Pippin mischievously looks in the defeated Saruman's palantir and sees that Sauron plans to attack the kingdom of Gondor next.  While Frodo, Sam, and Gollum reach Mordor and begin their final perilous journey to Mount Doom, the others travel to Minas Tirith in Gondor to rally the steward Denethor (John Noble) and his son Faramir (David Wenham) in another epic battle.  Aragorn, the true heir to the kingdom of Gondor, leads a final charge at the Black Gate in Mordor to distract Sauron so Frodo can destroy the One Ring.  I really love Aragorn and Frodo as characters because they both go on a hero's journey as they ultimately recognize and embrace their destinies.  I also love Sam because he is the embodiment of friendship.  I love all of the locations (I actually went on a tour of many of the locations when I was in New Zealand), the sets, especially the harbor in Rivendell and the courtyard in Minas Tirith, the creature design, my favorites are the ents, and all of the battle sequences, particularly the siege warfare in the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of Minas Tirith.  The large crowd wasn't as spirited as I thought they would be but I cheered when Gandalf is rescued from Isengard by an eagle, when Galdalf suddenly appears on Shadowfax at Helm's Deep, when the beacons are lit to call for help from Rohan, when Galdalf strikes Denethor (the crowd cheered with me when this happened), when Elrond (Hugo Weaving) gives Aragorn the reforged sword that belonged to Isildur, and when Éowyn kills the Witch-king.  I had tears in my eyes when Boromir sacrifices himself to save Merry and Pippin, when Sam carries Frodo up Mount Doom, and when Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and I laughed out loud when Gimli and Legolas have a drinking contest.  I had such a great time!  These are some of my favorite movies so this is definitely my favorite marathon so far even though no one in my family wanted to go with me!

Note:  Megaplex has announced marathons for The Hunger Games in January and for Harry Potter (again) in August next year.