witch-king: "No man? Aww, Fuck, I've been killed on a technicality!"
No man, so he gets killed by a woman and a hobbit. Imagine his chagrin.
Am I the only one, who, on the "stairway to Shelob" sequence, thought that Frodo was sleeping rather a bit too close to the cliff-edge? Gollum: "Aww, screw this spider-shit, My love, I'll just push the hobbitses!"
D asked, "How can he sleep so close to the edge?" to which I answered, "He's exhausted, and what choice does he have?"
Aragorn is a heroic guy, but while he was playing with elves--don't get me started on elves living in their protected paradises again--and fighting battles very much elsewhere, the people of Gondor had to fight for their lives against the forces of darkness, and the Stewards had to keep Gondor going.Well, except for the part where Aragorn served Ecthelion (Denethor's father) for years in disguise as Thorongil, just like he had served Theoden's father Thengel in Rohan, during his wandering years. And the part where the "protected paradises" of the elves are attacked in the North from Dol Goldur and the Easterlings while there is fighting in the South. It's not like Gondor is the only battle front of the Ring War, Lothlorien and Mirkwood are attacked from Dol Goldur, the Dale under King Brand has to fight, and dwarves and men are under siege in Erebor until news of the victories in the South came. Also not all elvish settlements have rings to protect them, those are mostly the Noldorin settlements protected by their rings, otoh the
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Ah, someone with a deeper knowledge of the books weighs in, whereas I saw the movies once or twice each and slogged through each book after the viewing. The extended edition of The Two Towers raised Aragorn in my esteem by mentioning in a bit of detail what noble things he's done in the past, whereas prior to that he seemed to be some guy who wandered around and had a lot of battle skills that he'd used somewhere.
If you just watch the movies, it looks like the elves are living in luxurious, peaceful splendor while humanity lives in fear behind walls or fights to regain the ruins of territory lost. Since that seems to be the usual elven thing in many non-Tolkein stories, it's easy to continue making the assumption.
Aragorn has always been my favorite character in LOTR, even as kid (when most people seem to identify more with the hobbits), so I tend to be defensive on his behalf
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From my experiencejenna_thornDecember 30 2003, 06:12:27 UTC
But I think to develop that level of attachment to Middle Earth and its intricacies you probably have to have read LOTR for the first time before you're twelve or so, or it won't work.
I suspect you may be right.
I have friends who are quite into the movie and have gotten very enthusiastic about the DVDs and patiently slogged through the books while I cracked a whip over them so that we could discuss Arwen's daughters and so on.
Whereas my mother did read the Hobbit to me before I could read it myself, and I grew up wanting to be Eowyn before I got old enough (mid twenties) to realize that Sam is a much better person to grow up to be. And no one in my close circle of friends quite gets that.
Still on Shelobjenna_thornDecember 30 2003, 06:05:45 UTC
The sound work adds to how real everything feels.
The sound during the Shelob scene was great. Not just the rocks falling as Frodo spins in a vain attempt to find the threat, but when she moves, she sounds heavy. Wonderful job.
Re: Still on Shelobjenna_thornDecember 31 2003, 06:23:38 UTC
As do I. Yes, I know that whole characters and arcs and storylines were cut entirely, yes I know they made changes but they starting building Hobbiton a year before shooting so grass could grow in properly. Damn. Disregarding the changes he felt he had to make for his modern audience, for the limitations of modern theaters, for his financial backers, Jackson cared enough to find a costumer who would do the incredible work she did, to find actors who would immerse themselves for more than a year, to bring on board the artists who visually defined Middle Earth for most of the public.
I am unapologetic in my appreciation of the Trilogy, both the theatrical versions and the extended cuts. And vehement in my defense of them, I just realized, as I do sound strident, don't I? Sorry, spent a chunk of Christmas Day with a friend who saw the first movie and refused to see the others. I guess I'm still fighting with him in my head. Sorry.
Re: Still on Shelobviridian5January 4 2004, 05:25:27 UTC
You certainly don't have to defend the movie to me. Jackson had to take three large, involved books and create three movies that wouldn't be so long that an audience wouldn't be willing to sit through them in a theater. Of course he had to cut some bits and adjust others so to work around the cuts. There's a whole world of places and people that has to be explained. Filming the trilogy all at once in an area far from the actors' homes fostered a good focus and the kind of interpersonal relationships that bolsters what had to be on the screen.
Then we get the extended editions that we can watch on our own couches and pause when we need breaks. Very smart.
I said almost the exact same thing about Eowyn to my dad after we saw RotK. And I think just about everyone was bothered by the 'wait, we're not quite finished yet!' syndrome. *g*
The one at the lava field was the worst. Many people told me that they thought the movie was going to end there, with Frodo and Sam slowly baking, unrescued.
God I loved the movie but I didn't like having to sit all the way through it in the second row looking straight up at the screen cause we got thier late.. However since I was mostly aware of what happend in the books( I have read the Hobbit, Fellowship, and Two Towers all the way through.. I couldn't finish the whole seige of Gondor thing in Return of the King, I was kinda puttering along and I just put down the book and never got back to it. Though I sitll knew the basics of what happend even after I left off in the book.) I knew I was in for a long haul and so when the ending came near I was kinda hoping that they would go all Hollywood and cut out a lot of the ending part (Though I knew that would probably not be the case as they had treated the books with such respect so far
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I had good seats so neck cricks weren't a problem. But my knees fell asleep, so I had to limp out of the theater.
Even the books can be very slashy, though the movie didn't have to change anything to pander to slashers. It's not like I'm complaining....
Several friends have mentioned a desire to see The Hobbit go the movie route. Since Holloywood tends to respond to movies making a lot of money by pushing a lot of similar product out afterward, I think it's possible that we'll get it sometime.
Don't get me wrong I am totally not complaining about the pandering to the slashers as I am one... lol I just meant that there were scenes in the movie that if they weren't pandering I just don't know what the hell else they were actually thinking about when they filmed and put together the scenes lol..
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Now that's love.
witch-king: "No man? Aww, Fuck, I've been killed on a technicality!"
No man, so he gets killed by a woman and a hobbit. Imagine his chagrin.
Am I the only one, who, on the "stairway to Shelob" sequence, thought that Frodo was sleeping rather a bit too close to the cliff-edge? Gollum: "Aww, screw this spider-shit, My love, I'll just push the hobbitses!"
D asked, "How can he sleep so close to the edge?" to which I answered, "He's exhausted, and what choice does he have?"
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Hey!
D asked, "How can he sleep so close to the edge?" to which I answered, "He's exhausted, and what choice does he have?"
Let's hope he doesn't sleepwalk!
No man, so he gets killed by a woman and a hobbit. Imagine his chagrin.
-Never be able to show his face amongst the other Nazgul again!
Wirrrn
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The extended edition of The Two Towers raised Aragorn in my esteem by mentioning in a bit of detail what noble things he's done in the past, whereas prior to that he seemed to be some guy who wandered around and had a lot of battle skills that he'd used somewhere.
If you just watch the movies, it looks like the elves are living in luxurious, peaceful splendor while humanity lives in fear behind walls or fights to regain the ruins of territory lost. Since that seems to be the usual elven thing in many non-Tolkein stories, it's easy to continue making the assumption.
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I suspect you may be right.
I have friends who are quite into the movie and have gotten very enthusiastic about the DVDs and patiently slogged through the books while I cracked a whip over them so that we could discuss Arwen's daughters and so on.
Whereas my mother did read the Hobbit to me before I could read it myself, and I grew up wanting to be Eowyn before I got old enough (mid twenties) to realize that Sam is a much better person to grow up to be. And no one in my close circle of friends quite gets that.
Reply
The sound during the Shelob scene was great. Not just the rocks falling as Frodo spins in a vain attempt to find the threat, but when she moves, she sounds heavy. Wonderful job.
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I am unapologetic in my appreciation of the Trilogy, both the theatrical versions and the extended cuts. And vehement in my defense of them, I just realized, as I do sound strident, don't I? Sorry, spent a chunk of Christmas Day with a friend who saw the first movie and refused to see the others. I guess I'm still fighting with him in my head. Sorry.
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Then we get the extended editions that we can watch on our own couches and pause when we need breaks. Very smart.
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Even the books can be very slashy, though the movie didn't have to change anything to pander to slashers. It's not like I'm complaining....
Several friends have mentioned a desire to see The Hobbit go the movie route. Since Holloywood tends to respond to movies making a lot of money by pushing a lot of similar product out afterward, I think it's possible that we'll get it sometime.
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