Trilogy Tuesday - a report

To quote Samwise Gamgee, "Well, I'm back."

My day started at about 8am. My brother had swung by theatre Monday
evening, and decided that everyone that was going to do the overnight
wait was already there, and went home. He went back at 5:15 and
staked out a place in line, and I joined him at around 8:30. My
sister-in-law and 12 year old niece straggled in around noon, just
before they started seating.

The seating was done first come, first served, but once you chose your
seat, that was your seat for the rest of the day. Each person had
three items (the Three Stigmata of Trilogy Tuesday), a big plastic
pass on a lanyard to hang around your neck, a wristband with your seat
number on it, and your ticket stub. With these three in your
possession, you could leave not only the theatre but the complex, and
wander through the mall.

The extended version of FOTR was scheduled for 2pm, but didn't
actually start until 2:15, since seating hadn't been completed. There
was about a 20 minute break between each of the movies.

There was general agreement that most of the added-back-in scenes in
the extended versions did help the storyline (for instance, one of the
added scenes shows why Treebeard hadn't realized the devastation in
the southwest part of Fangorn forest).

In ROTK, there were, of course, deviations from the books, just as
there has been in the first two parts, the only one that bothered me
was the scene in Rath Dennen, which I wish had been handled a little
closer to the book.

New Line gave away a little (not all that little) deskstand, with a
single frame of film from each of the three movies (different frames
for each set) to everyone who went to see the trilogy. And, hey, I
won a cave troll plaque in the trivia contest (easy questions like 'In
what land did Man first awaken in the 1st Age' and 'Who was the first
Steward of Gondor').

I'm taking tomorrow (today) off to sleep in.