From: Mike

Well I’ve just finished watching the program ‘Cinemagic’ on M-Net here in South Africa and yes, they did preview ‘The Lord of the Rings’. My oh my, where do I start? Should I start with the fact that the show’s presenter had an exclusive interview with Peter Jackson at Cannes (along with Mark Ordeksy and some other guy) and Peter answered a few questions and said something like, “The films will never be as good as your imagination, but you will see things in this film that are better than your imagination.”

Maybe I should start by telling you that they showed all sorts of photos from the films, some of which I’ve never even seen before (a lot of them from ‘Empire Magazine’), such as Arwen in Rivendell, Boromir at the Council of Elrond, Legolas at the battle of Helms Deep and Gimli, Merry and Pippin in the Mines of Moria.

I should also tell you about the clips they showed from the first Theatrical Teaser Trailer (the fire-writing being burnt onto the ring and Frodo cathing it, Aragorn throwing a torch at the screen, Orcs marching, Galadriel saying, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future….” and the words ‘The Lord of the Rings’ flash onto the screen.

It ended with the presenter, Barry Ronge, saying that he thinks that these film will not be the films of the year, but the films of the DECADE! He said that he thinks that the film “will redefine the epic genre” and he cannot wait to see it when it opens “around the world on December the 19th”. Barry Ronge’s sidekick then said something like, “Well I for one cannot wait to see the film, I’m a Tolkien fan and I think it looks incredible. However good it is, it most certainly cannot be worse than ‘Tomcats’…” [He then proceeds to review ‘Tomcats’]

All in all I was in heaven, I mean, they showed a preview of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ on TV in South Africa and the presenter actually said that he thinks it’s going to be the film of the decade!!! – lots of people watch this show. Once again ‘The Lord of the Rings’ triumphs over the evil that are film critics.