vasudeva
Bad Taste in your Mouth   SSHOLE |
Posts: 4540 Registered: 3/8/2002 Offline
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12/19/2002 at 14:33  |
Rocked. Better movie than the first, if you're an action prick. Again, if I explore quibbles, it's because there are so few, they're worth picking over, and almost more interesting than painful.
Last time, I was cringing over the few glances we got at Gollum, but he actually is a lot less cartoony than I suspected. The eyes were a bit much, but his movements were believeable and so was his skin. Great facial expressions. They did a better job than the book of underscoring the moral ambiguity surrounding Gollum's relationship to Frodo and Sam -- in fact, they underscore it to the point of melodrama near the end, when Gollum decides to pit the hobbits against Shelob, but whatever. I can deal. At least it makes Gollum's intentions clear and his position sympathizeable-with.
Eowyn? Blah. Eowyn was not attractive to me, at least not until she started crying. (!? Yeah, I don't know either.) She suffers from that foreshortened-head thing that unfortunate Scandinavians do. I like plain and all, but she was just *plain*. I'll stick with brunettes like the elf bitch, thanks.
Helm's Deep was the shit. It was pretty much just as I had envisioned it, in scale and setting if not architecture. I won't even bother describing it, other than to note that it's really really fuking cool to see a well-crafted war on such a gigantic scale.
The Ents were rad. Pippin and Merry tried to convince them to join the defense against Saruman's onslaught, but the Ents were like "Nah." Then the Ents saw all the trees Saruman had wasted and they were like, "Fuk this noise" and went over to Saruman's piece and started fuking his shit up hardcore. Saruman was all "OH NO!" and whatnot. It was great. But I digress.
I tried not to read any reviews of the movie before seeing it, but I did catch a snippet of one over on Slashdot that mentioned Gimli being comic relief, and, oh man, is it true. I was sad the last time about how underused Gimli (Sallah! I am the monarch of the seas!) was, and hoping for him to be more used, but if I have a choice between dwarf as background entity or dwarf as constant comic relief, I choose silence for the runt. I think it's almost safe to say that Gimli has been made the Jar-Jar of the LOTR filmic franchise.
Arwen's looking good. Aragorn's stubble was in full effect, as always.
The few departures from the book were mostly solid and fine, like treating Saruman's spell over Theoden as a conventional demonic possession. It didn't really detract, and probably was necessary to make those fools who didn't read the book catch on.
And that's about all I can dredge up at this juncture. The final analysis: great movie. Go see it.
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slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you.
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HOBO
* b0bo has quit IRC ('Exit')  SSHOLEPosts: 1144 Registered: 3/19/2002 Offline
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12/19/2002 at 14:54 |
yeah, everything I've heard or read was confirmed by your post. This movie will probably crush alot of box office records. I'm hoping teh foodpile holds out another couple of nights so I can see it Friday.
What was wrong with JAR-JAR
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" I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question." ~Spock~
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vasudeva
Bad Taste in your Mouth SSHOLEPosts: 4540 Registered: 3/8/2002 Offline
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12/19/2002 at 16:15 |
P.S. In honor of Gimli's new (in)significance as Keeper of the Dread Jar-jar Asshattery, it is proper to link to this:
MY NAME IS GIMLI, I'M A FUCKIN DWARF
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slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you. |
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splorp!
Tender vittles  Posts: 2 Registered: 12/20/2002 Offline
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12/20/2002 at 07:38  |
Gollum was great. I especially enjoyed his Sméagol/Déagol "conversations".
The Wargs charging the Rohirrim was amazing. Fast little bastards. Horse-sized wolves are not part of the recipe of a great day. Lightning fast and vicious. And heavy. Just ask Gimli son of Glóin. :/ The "nobody tosses a Dwarf" line in FotR was funny enough, but the joke should have stopped there. Yes, Dwarves are short. We get it.
Edoras was, to me, reminiscent of the Vikings. Set atop that rise in the middle of that valley... it looked like the land was made especially for this movie.
The battle scenes at Helm's Deep were, to say the least, incredible. 10,000 Uruk-hai converging on the stone battlements, arrows flying over the walls to take out dozens of Uruk-hai at a time. Just... vast.
The Ents looked pretty good. I expected them to be very difficult to create, but Jackon's crew did a very good job.
The Dead Marshes were perfectly spooky. It did go a bit too quickly for my tastes, but when Frodo fell into a pool, my girlfriend did jump and grab my arm.
Now for the picky "I've read these books 15-20 times over the last 20 years and feel like bitching about inaccuracies"...
The Ents' Entmoot lasted 3 days, if I remember correctly. The Hobbits spent time with another Ent, Quickbeam, while Treebeard led the Entmoot. As for Merry and Pippin, they had no idea who Saruman was, exactly, nor where Isengard was located. The Ents decided on their own to attack. They needed no external convincing. There was no talk of the Entwives nor did we see Merry and Pippin drink the Entdraught, which is important later on, as these two Hobbits ended up growing taller.
Éomer and Aragorn battled TOGETHER at Helm's Deep. They called out their swords' names as they attacked. (Can't remember Éomer's sword's name...) There were no Elves there, aside from Legolas ("It has been knife work up here." <~~always loved that line) Éomer and Gimli were seperated from the rest of the group and came back with Riders of the Mark and Gandalf.
The treatment of Faramir was terrible. Aside from the deletion of Tom Bombadil (which was important because, as you may or may not know, they received their swords from the Barrow-Wights after Bombadil saved them and Merry used the sword on the Nazgûl on the battlegrounds in front of Gondor), this is what I liked least in these films so far. He was supposed to have the strength of will that Borimir did not. "I would not take this thing if it lay by the highway." He didn't even know it was the One Ring that Frodo carried.
They didn't finish the entire book, either. What about Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli going to Isengard with Gandalf and finding Merry and Pippin alive there? And Wormtongue throwing the Palantír out of Orthanc? And Pippin stealing a look at the Palantír and being interrogated by Sauron? And Gandalf presenting the Palantír to Aragorn? And Gandalf riding off to Gondor with him? And Cirith Ungol? And Shelob? I mean, geez, they left half the book off!
Now, that being said... I still enjoyed the movie and I can't wait for the DVD version with more scenes in it, as well as seeing my name in the credits, again. 
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splorp!
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vasudeva
Bad Taste in your Mouth SSHOLEPosts: 4540 Registered: 3/8/2002 Offline
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12/20/2002 at 13:48 |
Good memory, you bastard.
I dug Bombadil, he was cool and all, but he was one musical bitch, and if keeping him out of the film keeps FotR from becoming "The Sound of Music" with hobbits, then rock. I always hated the song passages in the books, anyway.
The part they took out that I really wanted to see was the barrow-wight scene. That's a favorite. Then again, so is the whole of Moria, which they did in serious detail, so...
The one bit I'm really looking forward to is the Palantir being thrown and then used. Actually the entire breaking of Saruman. And the Shelob scenes. That's two or three bits, I suppose.
I thought the encounter with Shelob happened in book 3?
[Edited on 20/12/2002 by vasudeva]
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slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you. |
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splorp!
Tender vittles Posts: 2 Registered: 12/20/2002 Offline
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12/21/2002 at 10:03 |
I thought the encounter with Shelob happened in book 3?
Nope. The last thing in The Two Towers was Frodo being taken by the Enemy after Sam left him for dead and then being locked outside the gate.
And yeah, Tom was a song-singing son of a bitch, I agree. However, by neglecting the whole Tom Bombadil section, you lose Old Man Willow trying to eat Merry and Pippin and drown Frodo and the Barrow-Wights, where they got their swords.
And Moria was too short. The were in there for days. That said, the Orcs crawling out from everywhere just before the Balrog (so much better than I ever expected-those wings! the flames! the whip and sword! Excellent. ) arrived was a great scene. They looked so much like army ants covering all available surfaces.
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splorp!
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vasudeva
Bad Taste in your Mouth SSHOLEPosts: 4540 Registered: 3/8/2002 Offline
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12/21/2002 at 19:03 |
I thought the encounter with Shelob happened in book 3?
Nope. The last thing in The Two Towers was Frodo being taken by the Enemy after Sam left him for dead and then being locked outside the gate.
And Moria was too short. The were in there for days. That said, the Orcs crawling out from everywhere just before the Balrog (so much better than I ever expected-those wings! the flames! the whip and sword! Excellent. ) arrived was a great scene. They looked so much like army ants covering all available surfaces.
"Ah, I cherish these moments."
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slippedhole> I am on to you and your evil intentions. I am the true protector of this website and am willing to do battle with you. |
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HOBO
* b0bo has quit IRC ('Exit') SSHOLEPosts: 1144 Registered: 3/19/2002 Offline
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12/23/2002 at 20:54 |
I went to see the movie Friday, but the 6:30, 7:30 and 8:00 shows were all sold out! 
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" I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question." ~Spock~
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PsychoChick
Tender vittles  Posts: 9 Registered: 12/3/2002 Offline
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12/24/2002 at 02:57 |
I can beat that sad story. I was going to see it the night that it opened. A "friend" of mine that works at the theater told me it was already sold out and that I shouldn't even bother coming down. In reality, they were not yet sold out. My "friend" thought that it would be highly amusing to lie to me. The next day when I finally figured out his hi-larious prank, he laughed and laughed and laughed, until I punched him in the stomach. Then he stopped laughing and started gagging. That is when I started laughing. Fun times! |
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MOMAD
That Weird Stain on the Ceiling  SSHOLEPosts: 449 Registered: 3/12/2002 Offline
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12/25/2002 at 19:56 |
I saw that shite the other day here in AZ, fukin quality. My brother and I were talking like Gollum for the rest of the night, mostly to entertain the parents. I almost had to punch someone in the stomach too - my brother, for almost making us miss the beginning, and for eating my gummi bears. Bastard. That fat hobbit, he KNOWS!!!
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