My wife and I attended The Trilogy Exhibition in Boston yesterday and in a word - fantastic!
This is the exhibit that is making its way around the world and its only North American appearance is in Boston. I was very lucky to attend as I live in upsate New Hampshire and the drive to Boston is 2.5 hours. The exhibit runs from August 1st until October 24th and you must purchase timed tickets for this event. You choose the day and time you want to attend. Once inside the exhibit you have as much time as you want to view everything. I chose a Sunday and the first time spot at 9:00 A.M. because I did not want to be in Boston on a workday and traffic is much lighter on a Sunday and this was indeed the case.
You cannot take a camera, cell phone, backpack, or bag into the exhibit and there is plenty of security to enforce this with guards stationed throughout the exhibit and overhead security cameras. There is also a LOTR's Gift Shop as you exit the exhibit but it was the only disappointment of the show and can be skipped as the items they were selling can be purchased for far less on eBay. There were no publications featuring photos of The Exhibition, no special T-Shirts, no Limited Edition Prints like the Exhibit had when it was in London, and only a very small poster that was not worth purchasing. Ok enough with the lousy Gift Shop!
The staff told me that Lurtz was there on opening day in full costume on August 1st. No stars were there when I attended. Sean Austin will be there on October 15 & 16th selling his new book about his experiences during the making of the 3 films and will sign autographs then as well. I took 12 pictures that I sent to Roz and hopefully she will add them to this topic for you to see. The photographs are of banners and large posters for The Trilogy Exhibition both inside and outside The Museum of Science where the Exhibition is being held.
Once inside you are confronted by exhibits that present the various cultures starting with The Hobbits. There are clothing, weapons, and art work depicting all the major characters. TV monitors are in each area with several short presentations by the actors, Peter Jackson, or the crew who made the movies explaining interesting aspects of the culture or technical details of making the film. You next proceed to the culture of Middle Earth with clothing, weapons, jewlery of characters such as Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Theoden, Eowyn, Elrond, Haldir, and Boromir. They had the boat Boromir was placed in after he died and a wax figure of Boromir laying there in the boat with his sword clutched and shield and I swear it looked so real as if Sean Bean himself was laying there! There were even holes in his outfit where the arrows fired by Lurtz impacted his chest!
The next area was the culture of The Magical World featuring Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, and Sauron who was decked out in his full armor suit - this was very impressive. Again clothing, weapons, staffs, and jewlery were there to see. All along the walls are framed sketches by Alan Lee, John Howe, and works by several computer generated artists.
Next to this area you have the chance to have your picture taken Gandalf and Hobbit sized for $5.00. You sit with whoever you came with and the Scaling Interactive technology does the rest. It was fun. There was a room devoted to The One Ring with it suspended in a vertical clear cylinder.
The next feature was the Motion Capture area using the technology that made Gollum come alive. There is a green room in which you pick up something that represents a sword and shield and the technician can make you look like a Gondorian Knight, Orc, or Uruk-Hai projected onto another screen in front of you. You move around and swing your weapon and shield and all this gets translated into the image - pretty cool. On a side note - I was watching what I just described to you - a Dad went to try this out, his very small son standing off to the side. Well the Dad started swinging his simulated sword and shield and did not see his little boy entering into his swing arc and you guessed it - he whacked his son right in the face with the downswing of the sword. You would have though someone was murdered the way the boy was crying. I heard the Dad say something to the effect that the sword was not as soft as it looked as he took his boy away! Moral of the story - watch out where you swing that sword!!
Next to this area was one called Warfare which had examples of every weapon used by all the cultures plus a TV monitor explaining the use of "Massive" software used to generate the huge armies in the films. They had scale models of Isengard and Barad-Dur, and even of the War Elephants used by the Southrons. After this comes the Creations of Evil area featuring the Ringwraiths, Orcs, and Uruk-Hai with clothing, weapons, and jewlery. There is a 3-D Scanning area next to this in which you can sit down and have your face scanned into a wire model and eventually into what your face would look like if you were turned into a stone colossus. Next is a large model of what the Hobbiton Mill looked like when Frodo looked into the seeing water with Galadriel and saw the future if Sauron prevailed. One of the coolest features came next and it was the Scaling Wall. A wall featured life sized depictions of characters from The Trilogy and an ultrasonic sensor determines which Middle-Earth race you'd likely belong to based on your height. It was very funny watching people of all sizes doing this and finding out what they would be. As for myself I was classified as either a Man or Wizard. Here are the relative heights you are judged against:
Hobbits 4'2"
Dwarves 5'
Orcs 5'2" to 5'8"
Elves 6'
Men 6'
Uruk-Hai 6'6"
Wizards 5'11" to 6'5"
Ringwraiths 7'
Cave Trolls 10'
I am happy to report I saw no Ringwraith or Cave Troll sized people!!
The last thing you passed was an entire wall with every culture in their armor. There was also a display of Elendil's, Islidur's, Eomer's, and Rohan headgear. You then exited out to the LOTR's Store. I am very glad I had the opportunity to see, experience, and feel many of the items used in making the 3 movies that make up The Trilogy. If it is at all possible for you to get to Boston then please do not miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.
<Edited by Roz today to add the photos, please note I have taken the liberty of including some photos taken by naughty people with cameras at the London exhibition (not me!!!)>
