To me, a trip to the movies in summer is like a home away from home where I go to find solace and a feeling of excitement. There’s a spectacular sensation walking into a cold movie theater on a hot summer day.
Everyone loves a great summer flick, and none more than I.
SUMMER 2001
A lot of big name directors such as Michael Bay, Stephen Spielberg, Chris Columbus, and Peter Jackson were coming out that summer or were priming up to grace theaters.
Bay directed the sad retelling of our American history in the movie “Pearl Harbor.”
In “Artificial Intelligence,” Spielberg made a sad gut wrenching twist onto a modern day Pinocchio, about a boy robot trying to regain the love of his human mother by becoming a real boy.
The strange thing about this summer in particular was that the best part of it was the anticipation of the big films coming out in the fall.
Watching each trailer and teaser released made you more enthralled and excited then the actual summer flick you came to see.
That year, Columbus and Jackson were going to release two fantasy films that would become hallmarks of the decade. Columbus was at the helm of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Jackson directed the beginning of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, ‘The Fellowship of the Ring.’
“Harry Potter” was a big part of my childhood. How could it not be? It was a movie series that a whole generation grew up with right beside its characters.
After seeing that movie what child didn’t want a half giant to show up on their 11th birthday and tell them they were a wizard? Or that a trip to Hogwarts awaited them?
“The Fellowship Of The Ring” redefined the word epic in the world of movies.
What made this movie so amazing is that Jackson did a superurb job creating Tolkiens imagination by intwining the characters to create a complex Middle Earth.
It’s impossible to sit down and just watch one of either fantasy series without not watching the rest.
Both films were filled with magic and adventure and yet both are unique to themselves. The bottom line is they brought back the magic to movies.