Wasn’t planning on it, but watched the Twin Towers and The Return of the King extended version from 8pm to 4 am last night. Holy crap that was epic, I normally crash if I stay up past 1 am, but that kept me very wide awake

A few thoughts finally watching this as an adult:

Samwise Gamgee is undoubtedly the ultimate best friend of all time. Such an incredibly good character

The battle at helms deep is hard to beat. Third movie is overall way more epic, but helm’s deep is insane.

Best lines: “don’t go where I can’t follow Mr. Frodo”, “I am no man” and “my friends, you bow to no one”. I’m sure there are others, but those are the ones off the top off my head.

It’s hard not to be interested in a movie where I get to watch Viggo Mortenson and Orlando Bloom the whole time

Such a well produced cohesive story. The characters blend together, the storytelling is seamless, and it holds your attention easily for the 4+ hours (except the end scenes. Those were way too long, especially at 4 am).

Anyways, there are your unsolicited nerdy thoughts on LOTR from a first time viewer