Lord of the Rings
2001-12-21 16:12:43+00 by
Dan Lyke
8 comments
We can leave the non-spoiler comments in the other Lord of the Rings thread, I'm going to put some spoilers in the comments to this entry later. If you need to link to this wihtout revealing, remember that the littke "*" below links to the entry without the comments.
Saw Lord of the Rings![[Wiki]](/adbanners/lookingglass.png)
yesterday afternoon. Art direction was awesome, script was great, direction had some stylistic things that I had issues with (I'm not much of a fan of Gladiator fight scene editing style). Even when the visions of the characters weren't exactly what I had, they were still very plausible visions, nothing was jarring relative to the book, and it's been several years since I've read the books and, loosing geek cred, I've only read them twice, so I wasn't playing language lawyer with the story.
I won't be averse to seeing it a second time this weekend when another group goes to see it. And y'all are nerds and have to see it anyway.
WARNING: Spoilers in comments
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:55+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Okay, a few of my beefs:
- Too many gratuitous "helicopter" shots in the CG.
- When on the great horse-chase, why use the confusing intercuts
when every time they come back up to the helicopter shot the
same relative position exists.
- The troll in the mines of Moria. I mean, really.
- The gate with the kings wasn't as awe-inspiring as it should
have been given the various castles. The castles of Saruman
and Mordor could have been toned down and improved the story.
There'll be more as I see 'em. On the up-side, the Shire was perfectly done.
#Comment made: 2001-12-21 17:08:18+00 by:
Pete
[edit history]
What was the problem with the troll? The only issues I noted were some sub-par effects when they jump onto it, but those certainly weren't the only rough spots in the effects.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:56+00 by:
Dan Lyke
I thought the animation of the troll was horrendously bad. It was the point in the movie where the images screamed "this is a special effect inserted for its own sake", and I was rather abruptly thrown out of the story. It took a few minutes to get back in, especially with that "orcs as spiders" scene that followed.
Other things that come to mind:
- During the final battle I had this image of Merry and Pippin as Bill
and Ted. If George Carlin had showed up and said "be excellent to
each other", I'd not have been surprised.
- In the heat of battle, whenever a story point occurs, how come the
whole fellowship stops and turns to look at the person to whom that
story point is about to occur, oblivious to their own danger for
those seconds. In the first bridge crossing, everyone's clustered in
the landing spot. Oh, there's a good idea. Then in Gandalf's fight
with the Balrog, there are orc arrows whistling around them, and
rather than trying to provide covering fire for Gandalf, they all
stop and watch Gandalf. Two symptoms of a larger issue with the
staging of combat scenes that interfered with the story for me.
- Playing up Saruman's "super fighters", which then get dispatched by
the dozens by essentially two humans. I realize that the film needs
a distinct evil, rather than playing up the more abstract evil that
gets reflected in each of the good characters, but I think Saruman's
a little over-played in that point.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:56+00 by:
Pete
Sure, it wasn't essential to the story, but it wasn't nearly the cinematic waste that, say, the Quidditch match was. I remember it as pretty brief, and it gave one of the good "boo" moments for the audience I saw it with.
Separate point: I have the impression that about a half-hour goes by from when we first see Boromir to when the word "Boromir" is first spoken. Some folks said I was right, other folks said I was wrong. That might give me an excuse to go see it again. :-)
#Comment made: 2001-12-21 20:29:18+00 by:
flushy
[edit history]
Dan, I *think* the spider-orcs in Moria were supposed to be goblins not orcs. And I agree with you about the Shire!
The plot alterations bothered me a bit.
- The fact that Arwen carried Frodo to the ford (and the fact that the Trollshaves [?sp?] was supposed to be several days away). I felt it was important to note that Frodo had that Hobbit-Inner-Strength which helped him survive.. not some elf-gift of life... though Liv Tyler is always beautiful and a joy to watch!
- The fight in the dell near weathertop was rather disappointing. The ringwraithes had all that time; they could have chopped his head off and taken the ring.
- I kinda missed Tom Bombadil and old man willow. Granted, it might have been a bit wierd (and lengthened the movie considerably), but I wanted to see what Peter Jackson's interpretation was of the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs.
- I feel the elves should have been more light-hearted and pranksters. Not so serious as Elrond. "welcome to Rivendell.... Mr. Anderson."
- Lothlorien was pretty close to what I had imagined, though Galadriel was a bit scarier than I had hoped!
I may sound critical, but all in all I thoroughly enjoyed the movie! I have already planned on seeing it again.
The plot alterations I attribute to poetic license, and thus I can deal with them. No harm, no foul.
Oh, and tell any Tolkien fan that is going to see it for the first time: "pee first, you will want to hold it during the last hour and a half..."
#Comment made: 2001-12-21 21:22:07+00 by:
Pete
[edit history]
Some bits from Dark Horizons:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: During press conferences and interviews yesterday, Peter Jackson revealed some great stuff about the current status of the second chapter. First off a rough cut of all three films is done (the third one is still just loosely assembled but the second one is pretty much complete). He also confirmed each film in the series includes 500-600 FX shots and will be between 2.5-3 hours long each. "The Two Towers" will definitely see the Ents and Treebeard, and increasd roles for the king's son character. The actors are scheduled to head back to NZ in May & June for any reshoots/touch ups required but as of now there's no exact words on what'll be changed/added.
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring: Various other answers to questions emerged during the aforementioned interviews. Producer Barry Osborne indicates the final budget for the trilogy stands at $270 million. The first film's original rough cut running time stands in at a little over 3.5 hours so expect that 30-40 mins of extra footage to show up on DVD - though Jackson confirms there's no "Director's Cut" as such on the drawing boards. Amongst these deleted scenes include more characterisation in regards to how the supporting characters feel about being in the fellowship, whilst another sequence where Gimli falls for Galadriel. Meantime the film scored a $18.2 million opening day take, a record opening day for any film in December.
And Dan's parser is screwing up valid html coding.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:56+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Huh. I'll go snag the text for that entry and see what the <blockquote> handling is screwing up.
#Comment made: 2001-12-21 23:46:56+00 by:
TC
[edit history]
Still in the afterglow of watching it so I'm extra bias in saying it was brilliant! It's been over 20 years since I read the trilogy for the 2nd time so I rember some things differently and I'm not sure if it's my memory or cinematic license. May have to watch it again in the theater before it leaves and will most definately own the DVD.
Things I loved
1. hobbits & The Shire (just how I remeber them. If you see it again look at the detail of the inside of the hobbit holes OHMYGAWD!
2. second breakfast I don't remeber it from the book so when it came up I laughed aloud
3. CG detail just the right amount of moss and lichens on the ruins and properly lit(YEAH!) but I agree with Dan where they do too many helicopter pans.
4. color saturation changes (made the elves pop) (wraiths drop into shadow)
5. Horse chase (well I thought it was rather cool and realistic)
6. Saraman's tower change. it was great for showing progression of time and the build up of evil. I think they spent too much time with Saraman though.
7. Balrog was yummy
doh! have to run to a party now. I'll come back and add the hate list later...cave troll?? ok gotta go
Things I didn't love
1. The wizard battle belonged in a Xena episode
2. Saraman's super orcs again it's a Xena thing
3. The numbers of enemies defeated by our heroes (9 heroes wipe out 60 orcs??)
4. As Dan mentioned the pause middle battle so everyone can watch something
5. The Cave troll? Idunno what that was about
6. Over sauturating the scene after Gandalf falls in Moria (just looks washed out)