LORD ot RINGS - horrible, completely lacking
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2002 5:00 am
Of course I am talking about the old animated version. But since you’re here…..
Well, I saw the movie a second time and I still say WOW, magnificent effort. Loved all 3 hrs of it. Way back, when I had heard they were going to make the movie I was scared. I thought if they don’t do this epic trilogy justice I am going to be pi$$ed (and heartbroken). I was also scared because back in college I caught some animated version and can remember being so disappointed. The film was horrible, completely lacking.
I read the books in high school, starting with The Hobbit and was just swept away like so many who read them are. When I started hearing good reviews, I let myself get a little excited. But I remained guarded, because surely these people didn’t love the books as much as I had, and I knew to capture the magic of this story it would have to be a huge, magnanimous undertaking. When I heard of the budget I was even more excited, and when I heard more than one movie, ala Star Wars, I was totally sucked in and rooting for the home team.
But alas! My fears were allayed and then some. All the previous posts about excellent cinematography, f/x (there are many f/x, despite what some posts say, its just that they’re not glitzy and hollywood cheese like so many action films, they’re more subtle I guess), sound, and casting (for the most part, see my nit picks later) I agree with.
Gorgeous elves! Salt-of- the- earth dwarves. Merry hobbits (no pun). Mysterious and powerful wizards. Ugly orcs and Uruk-Hai (how bout that birthing scene). Menacing Nazgul (more later). Were all cast and portrayed wonderfully. Standouts in order are Frodo (pleasantly surprised, he worked amazingly well for me), Galadriel, Gandalf (he grew on me, looks didn’t match for me, a testament I guess to one fine actor), Gollum (which I imagined to be hard to bring to life) fit real well. Legolas, Boromir, Pippin, Aragorn, and orcs (All character races were well represented.). And no I didn’t forget Liv Tyler. She definitely gets two schwings up. But adding Arwen-n-Aragorn was just hollywood for hollywood sake and Arwen can’t be listed with those on the main theme.
Breathtaking scenery, above ground and below!!! Those dudes at the Falls of Rauros simply rock (pun). They were like Mount Rushmore x10. But, Why do I like those Moria scenes so much?! They were amongst my favorites, and I was glad to see mention of that fact in other posts. I guess it’s because when I read the books, I had so many distinct visual images of surroundings, hard not to with Tolkien, that they are implanted there. And to supplant these images would take quite a bit. New Zealand was perfect extreme scenery and complemented my concepts nicely. But getting back to the Moria question, … well reading it I guess it was hard to imagine (for me) an expansive underground, I always pictured narrow hallway-like passages but mostly blackness, that and nothing-ness. But Hollywood pulled it off. They surpassed anything that I could ever have dreamt up for that.. and I would have imagined old JRR giving it the nod himself. The records room, the shafts of light, the grand room, and those bridges… were they cool or what? Add in the near-first person shooter perspective of arrows whizzing buy and glancing off stone, a crumbling bridge with oh-so-real physics (mass, momentum ), not to mention the Balrog and that my friends makes one he!! of sequence in my book. IMOH
Jackson stayed true enough to the original story for me and in parts enhanced my perception, but being a true LotR fan I can’t help but get my nit picks in. So they are – in order of annoyance:
- The Nazgul and shire, bree, weathertop scene etc.– was it just me (for I haven’t seen this beef posted yet) or did they seem a little too keystone coppish. In the book they were absolutely, positively to be feared above all else, save the unmentionable one. They looked fantastic and it felt like they had presence, but their deeds fell way short. In the shire, the first one homed in on them. It was good at first but ‘ the ol’ throw the rock over there’ routine was a farce. Better to let the Nazgul leave none-the-wiser on his own and be left with the impression of sixth sense. The Bree scene was just disjointed. Strider and Frodo just sizing one another up (this dialogue cut way short) then cut to Pippin asleep in bed. Then all four Nazgul, at once mind you lest we wake a small defenseless hobbit up and tip him off in time to attack us Nazgul, thrashing stuffed pillows. Weathertop was no better, missed that Gandalf was passing near and had drawn several away, then again with the outnumbering of the hobbits and the OK lets wait and all walk at once towards him. For them to be right on the heels and sure of the ringbearer identity (according to the movie) and to be the bad muthas they are…. well on to other things.
- The Legolas / Gimli relationship. Legolas was great, (he’s an arrow drawing machine) Gimli was a miss. Not near enough dialogue for these guys to understand their character development. The Two Towers should have ample ground to make this up, but much I’m afraid was lost. Opportunity missed. Gimli looked good, the actor did well, but the dialogue and screenplay didn’t come close.
- Elrond: acted as if he had a stick up his arse. (acting was good but they didn’t capture the tremendous good he stood for) also barely cracked a smile.
- Arwen/Aragorn mini-fling: If your going to have it, take some time to develop the whole story. Which I’m sure most fans know is included in the appendix of RotK. But a mini-fling into a 3hr packed movie didn’t make any sense.
- They weren’t in Moria long enough. Gandalf says it’s a 4-day journey from here (or did he say weeks) then cut to the scene at the 3 path decision towards the end , in which they combine Pippin’s incident. Had they stayed truer to book, they could have done some cool Hitch****-like suspense things with the drums fading in and out.
- Sam not looking in the Mirror of Galadriel. I’ll just throw in here that most of Lothlorien was missed…Spending the night, Gollum, the blindfolds, all of which could be excellent dialogue and character insight.
- Frodo guessing the riddle of the Moria door. Also in Moria before I let it go, can orcs scamper up and down vertical columns of stone? And why shoot like hell at them then surround them without so much as arrow. Not even from some wiseass in the back?
- Bree. I missed Barleyman Butterbur's multi-tasking.
- The whole time crunch thing, which I will yield to practicality here, how do you take a 3hr deal, leave all the action in and give the perspective of a long, long journey without utterly boring everyone. I saw on other posts some would like a 4 hr movie with intermission, and for that matter stretch it to four movies… there is certainly enough material. My idea would be to play the map up. Tolkien was excellent about making maps. So show the map like in the old movies with the line progressing along the travelers’ route. Also done well in Raiders ot Lost Ark. But I’m a map freak so maybe it wouldn’t work.
- The Saruman-Gandalf dual.
- The split of the fellowship at the end. Didn’t feel right. The only example I’ll list is Sam almost drowning, yes he waded out there in the book. But after 3hrs of practically non-stop action, your gonna play Sam up as semi-suicidal by showing long drawn out cuts of him sinking. The visuals also felt too Titanic, and I kept hearing pan pipes playing while Cate Blanchetts whistle blowing and raspy voice ‘Cm back!’ Come back”!
- Casting/character development. Gimli missed. Elrond could have been better. Saruman was decent. Sam, well I couldn’t shake “Rudy”, as he was stepping out of the shire I heard “I’ve been ready for this my whole life”. Aragorn, the jury is still out. Good ranger but I’ve yet to see his growing assertion to Kingliness. But hey we’ve got 2 more movies to go. Merry, jury is still out. Sauron (practically impossible to embody an evil spirit and satisfy everyone) One question though, Why wasn’t Sauron invisible when he had it cut from his finger?
- No gaffer.
all nit-picks, some more annoying than others. But great flick.
Leaving on a good note
Some other favorite parts… the shadow world (again Hollywood enhanced this perception for me) very cool effect. Saurons Eye was also well conceived. The Boromir death scene (those are some thick arrows). The edition of subtitles when speaking in elvish was a great salute to Tolkiens dabbling/devotion in languages.
I welcome all your thoughts on these matters, especially if you agree with me.
Sorry for the cheap marketing trick, which was akin to “if you like sex click here”. But I wanted to start a fresh thread.
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
Well, I saw the movie a second time and I still say WOW, magnificent effort. Loved all 3 hrs of it. Way back, when I had heard they were going to make the movie I was scared. I thought if they don’t do this epic trilogy justice I am going to be pi$$ed (and heartbroken). I was also scared because back in college I caught some animated version and can remember being so disappointed. The film was horrible, completely lacking.
I read the books in high school, starting with The Hobbit and was just swept away like so many who read them are. When I started hearing good reviews, I let myself get a little excited. But I remained guarded, because surely these people didn’t love the books as much as I had, and I knew to capture the magic of this story it would have to be a huge, magnanimous undertaking. When I heard of the budget I was even more excited, and when I heard more than one movie, ala Star Wars, I was totally sucked in and rooting for the home team.
But alas! My fears were allayed and then some. All the previous posts about excellent cinematography, f/x (there are many f/x, despite what some posts say, its just that they’re not glitzy and hollywood cheese like so many action films, they’re more subtle I guess), sound, and casting (for the most part, see my nit picks later) I agree with.
Gorgeous elves! Salt-of- the- earth dwarves. Merry hobbits (no pun). Mysterious and powerful wizards. Ugly orcs and Uruk-Hai (how bout that birthing scene). Menacing Nazgul (more later). Were all cast and portrayed wonderfully. Standouts in order are Frodo (pleasantly surprised, he worked amazingly well for me), Galadriel, Gandalf (he grew on me, looks didn’t match for me, a testament I guess to one fine actor), Gollum (which I imagined to be hard to bring to life) fit real well. Legolas, Boromir, Pippin, Aragorn, and orcs (All character races were well represented.). And no I didn’t forget Liv Tyler. She definitely gets two schwings up. But adding Arwen-n-Aragorn was just hollywood for hollywood sake and Arwen can’t be listed with those on the main theme.
Breathtaking scenery, above ground and below!!! Those dudes at the Falls of Rauros simply rock (pun). They were like Mount Rushmore x10. But, Why do I like those Moria scenes so much?! They were amongst my favorites, and I was glad to see mention of that fact in other posts. I guess it’s because when I read the books, I had so many distinct visual images of surroundings, hard not to with Tolkien, that they are implanted there. And to supplant these images would take quite a bit. New Zealand was perfect extreme scenery and complemented my concepts nicely. But getting back to the Moria question, … well reading it I guess it was hard to imagine (for me) an expansive underground, I always pictured narrow hallway-like passages but mostly blackness, that and nothing-ness. But Hollywood pulled it off. They surpassed anything that I could ever have dreamt up for that.. and I would have imagined old JRR giving it the nod himself. The records room, the shafts of light, the grand room, and those bridges… were they cool or what? Add in the near-first person shooter perspective of arrows whizzing buy and glancing off stone, a crumbling bridge with oh-so-real physics (mass, momentum ), not to mention the Balrog and that my friends makes one he!! of sequence in my book. IMOH
Jackson stayed true enough to the original story for me and in parts enhanced my perception, but being a true LotR fan I can’t help but get my nit picks in. So they are – in order of annoyance:
- The Nazgul and shire, bree, weathertop scene etc.– was it just me (for I haven’t seen this beef posted yet) or did they seem a little too keystone coppish. In the book they were absolutely, positively to be feared above all else, save the unmentionable one. They looked fantastic and it felt like they had presence, but their deeds fell way short. In the shire, the first one homed in on them. It was good at first but ‘ the ol’ throw the rock over there’ routine was a farce. Better to let the Nazgul leave none-the-wiser on his own and be left with the impression of sixth sense. The Bree scene was just disjointed. Strider and Frodo just sizing one another up (this dialogue cut way short) then cut to Pippin asleep in bed. Then all four Nazgul, at once mind you lest we wake a small defenseless hobbit up and tip him off in time to attack us Nazgul, thrashing stuffed pillows. Weathertop was no better, missed that Gandalf was passing near and had drawn several away, then again with the outnumbering of the hobbits and the OK lets wait and all walk at once towards him. For them to be right on the heels and sure of the ringbearer identity (according to the movie) and to be the bad muthas they are…. well on to other things.
- The Legolas / Gimli relationship. Legolas was great, (he’s an arrow drawing machine) Gimli was a miss. Not near enough dialogue for these guys to understand their character development. The Two Towers should have ample ground to make this up, but much I’m afraid was lost. Opportunity missed. Gimli looked good, the actor did well, but the dialogue and screenplay didn’t come close.
- Elrond: acted as if he had a stick up his arse. (acting was good but they didn’t capture the tremendous good he stood for) also barely cracked a smile.
- Arwen/Aragorn mini-fling: If your going to have it, take some time to develop the whole story. Which I’m sure most fans know is included in the appendix of RotK. But a mini-fling into a 3hr packed movie didn’t make any sense.
- They weren’t in Moria long enough. Gandalf says it’s a 4-day journey from here (or did he say weeks) then cut to the scene at the 3 path decision towards the end , in which they combine Pippin’s incident. Had they stayed truer to book, they could have done some cool Hitch****-like suspense things with the drums fading in and out.
- Sam not looking in the Mirror of Galadriel. I’ll just throw in here that most of Lothlorien was missed…Spending the night, Gollum, the blindfolds, all of which could be excellent dialogue and character insight.
- Frodo guessing the riddle of the Moria door. Also in Moria before I let it go, can orcs scamper up and down vertical columns of stone? And why shoot like hell at them then surround them without so much as arrow. Not even from some wiseass in the back?
- Bree. I missed Barleyman Butterbur's multi-tasking.
- The whole time crunch thing, which I will yield to practicality here, how do you take a 3hr deal, leave all the action in and give the perspective of a long, long journey without utterly boring everyone. I saw on other posts some would like a 4 hr movie with intermission, and for that matter stretch it to four movies… there is certainly enough material. My idea would be to play the map up. Tolkien was excellent about making maps. So show the map like in the old movies with the line progressing along the travelers’ route. Also done well in Raiders ot Lost Ark. But I’m a map freak so maybe it wouldn’t work.
- The Saruman-Gandalf dual.
- The split of the fellowship at the end. Didn’t feel right. The only example I’ll list is Sam almost drowning, yes he waded out there in the book. But after 3hrs of practically non-stop action, your gonna play Sam up as semi-suicidal by showing long drawn out cuts of him sinking. The visuals also felt too Titanic, and I kept hearing pan pipes playing while Cate Blanchetts whistle blowing and raspy voice ‘Cm back!’ Come back”!
- Casting/character development. Gimli missed. Elrond could have been better. Saruman was decent. Sam, well I couldn’t shake “Rudy”, as he was stepping out of the shire I heard “I’ve been ready for this my whole life”. Aragorn, the jury is still out. Good ranger but I’ve yet to see his growing assertion to Kingliness. But hey we’ve got 2 more movies to go. Merry, jury is still out. Sauron (practically impossible to embody an evil spirit and satisfy everyone) One question though, Why wasn’t Sauron invisible when he had it cut from his finger?
- No gaffer.
all nit-picks, some more annoying than others. But great flick.
Leaving on a good note
Some other favorite parts… the shadow world (again Hollywood enhanced this perception for me) very cool effect. Saurons Eye was also well conceived. The Boromir death scene (those are some thick arrows). The edition of subtitles when speaking in elvish was a great salute to Tolkiens dabbling/devotion in languages.
I welcome all your thoughts on these matters, especially if you agree with me.
Sorry for the cheap marketing trick, which was akin to “if you like sex click here”. But I wanted to start a fresh thread.
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
