Off Forum - Lord of the Rings

[Kimball]

I have never read the books, so I don't have a stanted view, but I thought the movie was fantastic. A little too long (3h or so), but worth it.

[Growltigga]

sounds excellent, I think you have decided for me what I am doing on Friday night

I have read the books (about 30 times) so will be going along nervously

[Spyder]

We're going to catch a matinee tomorrow right after work

I have read ALL the books, a couple of times and I'll post a critique Monday

[ZeroAdunn]

Me and some of my friends have recently been watching some movies that are done by the same guy who is doing lord of the rings: Peter jackson. For people who are unuware of his filmography I thought I would post a few interesting titles here:

The Frightners (1996)
Dead Alive (1992) hailed as the gories movie ever (one scene has the hero killing hordes of zombies with a lawnmower of all things)
Bad Tase (1987) A real screwey movie about an intergalactic fast food company that wants to serve the human race as its main food.

All off these are horror/comedies with very comical special effects. After having seen many of his movies I begin to wonder about Lord of the Rings.

[Val]

I saw it yesterday afternoon with 4 of my friends (that are actually a rather diverse group from a die hard gamer to someone who had no real interest in the movie) and everyone of us loved it (though there were some comments on it being a little too long).

It followed the books pretty close, though I don't actually recall one of the characters (the female elf - Tyler's character) in the series, but I haven't read it in forever.

The special effects were superb, and the fight scenes are vicious. The opening fight reminded me a bit of the beginning of Gladiator, but it didn't have that weird 'stepping' effect during combat scenes, it was more fluid.

The characters are true to Tolkein's books and are a thrill to see on the big screen. The monsters are well done and the way the made all the characters the 'correct' height was unreal.

Even though the movie was 2 minutes shy of 3 hours, I would sit through it again gladly.

Hope you enjoy it!

[Growltigga]

Has anyone seen this film yet and if so, what's your critique?

[Will]

I saw it opening night, and the only regret I have is that there wasn't a midnight showing nearby

About the time, I didn't even notice. If I didn't know better before I went into the theatre, I would have sworn it was only an hour long.

* Some stuff below could be considered spoilers, so shield your eyes if you don't want to see those *

It follows the book fairly closely, leaving only a few main parts out (most notably, Tom Bombadil and the barrow-wight), and changing the order a bit to make it a stand-alone movie. People who had not read the books would be wondering, "What the heck is going on?", had the introduction not told of the 3 Elf Rings of Power, 7 Dwarf Rings of Power, 9 Man Rings of Power, and the forging of the One Ring by Sauron.

The increased role of Arwen (Liv Tyler) wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She is barely mentioned in the first book, only saying a few words and being seen with Aragorn/Strider by Frodo in Rivendell. You don't really find out what that's all about until the end of Return of the King, where Aragorn marries Arwen. In the movie, the only thing Arwen does is carry Frodo to Rivendell after his wound on Weathertop.

Also something that I noticed is that it seems Saruman has become a servant to Sauron in the movie, where in the book he only feigns cooperation while conspiring to replace him as the Dark Lord. It may turn out that way in the Two Towers movie, but it doesn't seem like it in the Fellowship of the Ring.

The parts that are sticking the most in my mind are the two "scenes" from the book that I was most anticipating to see in the movie: the Balrog of Moria, and Boromir's "Last Stand" (technically should be in Two Towers, but I don't care too much about that). I wasn't disappointed, both were done well.

Only other thing I can think to say of the movie, is that there wasn't nearly as much singing as there is in the book (which is about once every three or four pages on average, IIRC). That's probably a good thing, as it would get annoying after a while

Go see it!

[Puke]

i thought they spent too much time hamming things up when they could have spent it developing characters.

the effects were great, the fights were fair, everything looked convincing. most things i expected to be skipped were skipped, and the major scenes i expected to see were there. i guess it met my expectations..

its just that there was so much ham. instead of spending time dwelling on little things or hamming up scenes to try and make them dramatic (and ending up sappy) they could have given that time to a little more dialogue. Gimli and Legolas hardly said two words to each other, when they could have had a constant banter.

its mildly irritating that Aragorn was swinging a sword around when half his character revolved around his being broken, but i guess thats to be expected from hollywood. i hear JRR Tolkien had the same complaint about a script that was written for the book during his lifetime.

[dogscoff]

So it *is* th bad taste guy. I'd heard rumours, but...

Bad Taste is a brilliant film. It was made on a budget of just about nothing at all but the splatgore special effects are fantastic, and the whole film is just really funny. A cult classic.

[Growltigga]

Although off topic, I thought this would be a useful thread.

I saw LOTR Last night. Given that I am a complete Tolkien purist, I was absolutely delighted and 3 hours flew past.


The movie is FANTASTIC, ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC

thanks to you all for your comments.