The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) | 100 Movies Bucket List

My next pick for the bucket list was three movies that I'd never seen before!

When I first looked at the bucket list at the end of last year, I thought that if there was any film square that would stop me from completing the challenge, it was this one.

I have never been interested in The Lord of the Rings. I've never known anything about the movies, I've never wanted to watch them, I've never had any thoughts about them whatsoever.

I'm also completely crazy because I watched all 3 3-hour long movies back to back in one day - so I spent 9 hours in a row watching these films!

And honestly, I was really surprised.

For a start, I was surprised by how much I knew about them, while thinking I knew nothing. A lot of that comes down to being a fan of 'The Big Bang Theory' and not always knowing what they were referencing. But even through general pop culture, I knew the names of characters and places without knowing I did.

And because of that, everything felt iconic. For example, I had never given Mordor a second thought, but in watching the film and hearing the name it felt nostalgic for some reason, which was really weird!

But in addition to that, I was surprised because I thought the films would be really inaccessible, so I was surprised that I could easily follow them, understand what was happening, and actually like them.

Of the three films, I'd say I liked the second the least - it felt a bit like filler when I was just waiting for the characters to finally get where they needed to go.

But this was made up by the fact that the first one was a great introduction to the world and characters, and I really liked the third one, especially the way it tied everything together really well.

Now, would I call myself a fan of the trilogy? No, not particularly. But would I say I enjoyed the films? Yes. I'm not particularly keen on watching any of them again, but I was definitely a lot more intimidated by them than I needed to be!