How have you seen it?

[Lalwendë]

I have to admit that one of the reasons I watch the films quite so often (at least, excerpts) is that I like to watch TV while I eat and they are always on Sky Movies and amongst the 500 channels of rubbish they are quite often the best thing on!

Now that the full extended edition marathon is behind me I just don't have the 'urge' to watch them in full, but every so often I might stick one of them on to watch a favourite scene again. But like all films I enjoy, I have no doubt that the urge to watch them properly again might take me at some point in the near future.

It would have been impossible to go alongto the cinema and try to forget the storylines, but I did go feeling not only fear but excitement about what each film might be like, and I was open minded and prepared to enjoy them despite what I feared. This is how I approach most films apart from typical action/cop films (which I go along to quite prepared to be bored out of my mind)so its not surprising. What did surprise me is that I'm often cynicqal about anything which remakes books/films etc which I already loved, and yet I didn't have this sense of cynicism about LotR.

[Mithalwen]

I have to admit. that despite meaning to do the marathon, I still haven't watched the ROTK EE all of the way through - just the missing scenes and I still haven't retrieved TTT from my god daughter....... but a friend's husband adores ROTK EE as it keeps him amused while he does the ironing!!!!!

[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

When I rewatch the movies, I rewatch them because I love them, and the action, acting, and cinematography is brilliant. They're just great movies. I am not aware that I make any conscious decision to attempt to convince myself that I am watching them for the first time.

Something I do try to do, though, is to go to a special place mentally and emotionally. This is big especially with the last two. I have to be in the right, Middle-earthy mood to watch them. I can't be feeling too silly or energetic.

I never skip parts. I can't really interrupt the flow of the movie. It's like skipping pages in a book: only to be done in extreme cases.

The movie I have seen most is FOTR. This is mainly because it has been out the longest, so I've had the most time to view it. It's also the lightest and easiest to just sit down and watch. The tone is very different from that of the other movies, and I can casually pull it off the shelf when I'm looking for something to watch, and enjoy it. The same is true of TTT, to a certain extent.

ROTK is a different story all together. It's the best movie I've ever seen, and also is pretty emotionally intense. Because I love it so much, I do need certain circumstances to take place in order for me to watch it: I need to be in a slightly melancholy mood to start with. If I'm feeling too silly, it just won't work. Also, I need to be alone at home. It's so hard for me to fall into Middle-earth the way I want to when everything that takes place in a normally busy household is happening in the background. Especially my brother. He's usually great about movies, but the emotional stuff in LOTR makes him feel a little awkward or something, so he makes himself a nuisance to take his mind off of it.
I haven't seen ROTK since April of '04 right before it left theaters. I have this fear that somehow the movie will lose its magnificence when viewed on my humble home TV. And I just don't want it to happen. I have, however, decided that I need to get over that so I have laid plans to watch it again sometime before the end of the month. It's been over a year since I last saw it.

Another thing for me is spacing. I like to watch any movie sort of independently from other movies. That means that I'd like a space around my viewing of almost any movie of at least a week, so that it's less influenced by other movies I may have seen within the past few days. I find that my enjoyment of all movies that I watch is increased by doing that. (it also keeps me from spending too much time on my bum in front of the TV!)