After having marched around for months with the trailer for this film on my laptop, showing it to anyone who would hold still for 3 minutes and getting chills every time, I buzzed off from work early on Wednesday to catch one of the first matinee showings in Austin. Even today I don’t feel like I’ve fully absorbed the thing — it may take a few more viewings yet — but here are my first disordered thoughts.

Holy cow. It’s Middle Earth. Right there on screen. Jackson has brought that realm to life in an entirely realistic visceral way. The acting is good enough that you rarely notice it’s going on at all. It’s definitely not a film for children — the violence is as intense (though not as gory) as that in Gladiator. I want to see the other 2 films right now. Kathy, who is not a big fan of fantasy and who often comes away from movies wishing she’d spent the couple of hours differently, loved it as well. I want to live in Rivendell. Saruman seems better defined in the film than what I remember from the books for some reason.

Anyway, if you’ve read the books, go see the film right away. If you haven’t read the books, go see the film in two weeks, after the people who have read the books have seen it.

Wagner beware — there’s a new Ring cycle in town.