The Official Return of the King topic
Wow. Just watched the brief 11 minute preview on RotK. All I can say is PJ and crew are hyping this one up. "This will be better than LotR & TTT Combined" says PJ.
100,000 of Urek Hai and other bad guys. Huge Minas Tirith. Shelob. I'm beginning to think they may be right. This has been such an Epic...I'm going to miss not looking forward to these movies. They've really provided a shot in the arm to the industry.
I'm there opening night. Should be fun to watch "Massive" in action.
100,000 of Urek Hai and other bad guys. Huge Minas Tirith. Shelob. I'm beginning to think they may be right. This has been such an Epic...I'm going to miss not looking forward to these movies. They've really provided a shot in the arm to the industry.
I'm there opening night. Should be fun to watch "Massive" in action.
Comments
I'm going to try to avoid spoilers this time around. I think I had seen almost half the damn movie on the internet by the time Two Towers was actually released. I haven't watched any of the trailers/previews this time. But I'm sure I'll break down sometime in early December.
There may be an issue with Sony and film rights though. Someone told me they hold the rights to the Hobbit animations, and you can never underestimate the ability of lawyers to re-interpret contracts when they smell major coinage in the air.
I'd even go after TV with a "History of Middle Earth." Some sort of multi part miniseries covbering the first and second ages could be cool. Like Xena/Hercules but good (good stories, production values, effects, actors etc etc...)
Seriously, my plan is to wait until it comes out, rent the first two on DVD, then go to the theater to see the final one. Should be sweet. No months of waiting to see the "next" one for me!
Originally posted by murbot
One of these days I'll have to see the first two.
Seriously, my plan is to wait until it comes out, rent the first two on DVD, then go to the theater to see the final one. Should be sweet. No months of waiting to see the "next" one for me!
Or, if you're lucky, you'll have the option that some fans do. You will be able to watch all three back to back. Yes...10 hrs of sore butt silver screen delight.
Originally posted by Moogs
hmurchison: what 11 minute preview? You don't mean a trailer do you? I've looked around for them and all the trailer geek sites have a placeholder ("coming soon") for the RotK trailer. I am totally stoked. For this and the third Matrix flick. Going to be a good fall / winter for movies I think.
It's not the 11 minute preview, but I found the trailer.
http://www.rekka.net/~martijn/weblog...%20Trailer.mov
http://weblog.zuijlen.net/archives/ttdvd_rotk.mov
Also, I read that some select theaters will be showing back to back screenings.
In case anyone is going to download, be warned that the smaller file (top link) is much lower quality and is not improved much by QT Pro's ful screen capabilities. Better to just download the big one as it contains the trailer plus inside commentaries.
As an aside, anyone know / have a rough idea of the third installment's running time in theatres? I wouldn't mind a nice, 2.5 hour exravaganza. 2 hours 45 minutes would be perfect.
I think those things will be lost in 3D renderings and PJ story line modification.
As long as they get in a line about how no man can kill the pale king and then have Aowen (sp? no book handy) kill it, that should suffice. Likewise, having gollum bite the ring off Frodo's hand.
These two scenes fit quite well with an antiquated trope about "fate", one with which Tolkien would have been aware -- as a professor of languages and student of old epics.
Originally posted by X X
Also, I read that some select theaters will be showing back to back screenings.
i saw a /. article a few weeks ago where they were talking about the upcoming ROTK. they mentioned that there are special edition dvds being released of the first two (the first one may already be out), and the special edition versions will be shown in theaters on the day of the rotk premiere, leading into the feature presentation. i don't know if there'll be breaks, but i'd guess there are. i imagine rotk will also have a special edition version, but likely to trail the theatrical release by a few months or so.
bad scenes: for instance the scene where the Rohan king is about to ride out of the Deep . . . where are all the wariors? he is standing nearly alone in a shallow hall that feels like a back-lot in a motion picture studio . .. then suddenly he is fitted with armor . . . just an awfull scene. . . the sense of epic scale immediately collapses . . and then cut to kitschy scenes of germanic women hugging their crying cuties in the caves: but it looks like a set from a museum display about pre-historic man: just as shallow, against an acrylic painted backdrop.
and that damn elf and his silly GLARING everywhere . . . !!! annoying as all hell . . . too bad he is such a terrible actor he can't even GLARE well!!
and the pacing is just too damn fast . .
the first scene where they are chasing the Uruks . . . way too fast . . the cuts were too fast you lost all sense of it being distance covered through tiring effort . . . that, to me, was one of the best scenes in the book because you got this sense that they were really trudging at a fast long-distance run, covering stretches of ground and yet still following.
But in the film its just fast-cut, fast-cut, Dwarf says something 'cute', Elf glares, King pouts, and Gandalf OVER-ACTS! . . .
and
the battles scenes should also have better pacing: some long establishing shots that allow for a sense of the scale to sink in . . . so that we feel the epic scale, not just visually, but in terms of how Long the struggle will take, how much must be put into it....
There is a battle scene in a Monty Python movie (forget which one) that does it right . . .and they never even complete the battle . . . they spend some time focusing on small things like hands gripping weapons, a wagon wheel turning, feet in the mud, and with this, paced well, they convey a sense of epic scale .. . without a hundred thousand computer characters!
and
to top it off
This sappyness with Samwise! . . . at least LAY OFF of the music for a MOMENT will you !!! . . . and the sense of the distance traveled in their case is also completely missing . . .
and
they both still look fresh and healthy as if they just got out of bed and did some digging in the garden!
oh . . . and not to mention the TRAVESTY of Gollum . . . it is simply impossible to make a character out of Computer Graphics and plop him in to a live action film for any length of time without it being WRONG!!
it looks like a cartoon
and
then the Nazgul: they fly terribly and unbelievably, and, they lost all scarriness because they look like they are Green-Screened badly in the close-ups when they are flying without any WIND . . . .
as well as the fact that all nine of them were beaten with one sword and a torch in the first film and in the TT a simple arrow shot drives one completely away!!! come on what's so scary about that . . . just get a torch . . . .
there are more reasons why I think that the TT failed but mostly it was the paceing that made it impossible to care about . . . his editing is atrocious... I mean really awul, way to fast and never a moment to let teh scenes develop themselves
But, I can't wait for yet another movie to completely destroy the images that I constructed while enjoying the books
Im looking forward to it
Originally posted by pfflam
the TT was a serious disappointment to me. There were some outright bad scenes, and that awfull comic relief with the dwarf thrown in at every chance . . . ugh . . .
But in the film its just fast-cut, fast-cut, Dwarf says something 'cute', Elf glares, King pouts, and Gandalf OVER-ACTS! . . .
and
to top it off
This sappyness with Samwise! . . . at least LAY OFF of the music for a MOMENT will you !!! . . . and the sense of the distance traveled in their case is also completely missing . . .
and
they both still look fresh and healthy as if they just got out of bed and did some digging in the garden!
and
then the Nazgul: they fly terribly and unbelievably, and, they lost all scarriness because they look like they are Green-Screened badly in the close-ups when they are flying without any WIND . . . .
as well as the fact that all nine of them were beaten with one sword and a torch in the first film and in the TT a simple arrow shot drives one completely away!!! come on what's so scary about that . . . just get a torch . . . .
there are more reasons why I think that the TT failed but mostly it was the paceing that made it impossible to care about . . . his editing is atrocious... I mean really awul, way to fast and never a moment to let teh scenes develop themselves
But, I can't wait for yet another movie to completely destroy the images that I constructed while enjoying the books
Im looking forward to it
Well, I respectfully disagree. I felt the comic relief mirrored the comic relief in the book.
As far as the distance being covered, well, it's hollywood. They can't spend too much time on trivial matters when they is as much events to cover as there are and they only have 3 hours to do so. For bad editing, watch the Harry Potter movies. Atrocious! The director just tries to cover every single minutiae in the books and so jumps from scene to scene to scene without any devolopment of them. No character devolopement, build up, or transistions from scene to scene.
Aragorn actually just fought off 5 wraiths with a torch and a sword. As far as the arrow shot, maybe you remember in the Fellowship book that Legolas killed a dragon that a wraith was flying on. I don't think the wraith would've wanted to stay around too much longer and have that dragon killed. Legolas may not be the best actor in the world but after watching the American pie movies and that crappy as excuse for an actor kid who wanted to get with Tara Reid in the movie, everybody seems like a shakespearean actor to him. It sickens me that that kid made a crapload of money of the American pie movies when my dog could've been trained to do a better job than him.
The Lambas <sp?> bread that Frodo and Sam received from the Wood Elves helped them maintain their health; not to mention the extra food they would get from Faramir and co. and anywhere groups of people they may have come across in the books.
Maybe your mind is too slow, which is why everything seems to happen so fast. Just kidding! Don't take it personally. I actually love the movies and thought PJ did a great job with them. I like your criticism because not everyone is going to like the movies, and it's nice to know the opinions of someone who actually read the books and saw the movies.
Just out of curiosity, did you watch the Harry Potter movies? The flying in those movies was far worse than any green-screening I've seen in my life. Maybe because I had seen those two movies before I saw the TT, skewed my views in favor of everything, but Harry Potter movies were absolutely terrible. They truly were made with a child audience in mind.
One last thing, I read an article about all the new technologies that were developed for the LOTR, and I was mightily impressed with that knowledge. So when I see some computer graphics and other effects, it just impresses me to know that a lot of these effects are from the best technology currently available.
Originally posted by X X
Just out of curiosity, did you watch the Harry Potter movies? The flying in those movies was far worse than any green-screening I've seen in my life. Maybe because I had seen those two movies before I saw the TT, skewed my views in favor of everything, but Harry Potter movies were absolutely terrible. They truly were made with a child audience in mind.
you never saw "the worst witch" did you
I like the movies so far.
I wish that the extended editions were longer though
I preordered my copy of TTT extended, that will be good.
I liked the Rohan theme music.
hmm...I want to see a live action hobbit movie.
who here has seen dead alive?
Originally posted by X X
Just out of curiosity, did you watch the Harry Potter movies? The flying in those movies was far worse than any green-screening I've seen in my life. Maybe because I had seen those two movies before I saw the TT, skewed my views in favor of everything, but Harry Potter movies were absolutely terrible. They truly were made with a child audience in mind.
I like the Harry Potter movies, except for the first part with this lame Dickens parody.
I take this movie for what they are : intertainement.
For TT, i have just a problem with the principle door of the castle : a drawbridge should have prevent the evil army to enter. Any middle aged castle have this type of feature.
Anyway if the castle do not have this feature, no army will be able to take it ... so ... dont think to much about credibility with heroic fantasy movies.
Originally posted by Powerdoc
I like the Harry Potter movies, except for the first part with this lame Dickens parody.
I take this movie for what they are : intertainement.
For TT, i have just a problem with the principle door of the castle : a drawbridge should have prevent the evil army to enter. Any middle aged castle have this type of feature.
Anyway if the castle do not have this feature, no army will be able to take it ... so ... dont think to much about credibility with heroic fantasy movies.
Just to clarify my opinions on Harry Potter, if I watch the movie as you say, just for entertainment, I enjoy the movies very much. My wife bought both the movies and I've watched them both with her several times. However, if I watch the movies as pfflam did the TT, then I think it was one of the worst movies ever edited/thought out because the books (which I've read all them) have so much stuff going on all the time, to have a decent movie, you can't try and include everything, which the director tries to do. The movie just tries to rush through all the scenes without actually trying to develope the scenes and the characters.
P.S. Your drawbridge comment crossed my mind, too, but like you said, you can't analyze the movies to death or else there won't be any good movies to watch. Movies are for entertainment and they'll never be perfect.
Regards!
Originally posted by murbot
One of these days I'll have to see the first two.
Seriously, my plan is to wait until it comes out, rent the first two on DVD, then go to the theater to see the final one. Should be sweet. No months of waiting to see the "next" one for me!
I'd recommend checking out the extended versions of FotR and (when it gets released in a couple of months) TT, rather than the original theatrical cuts. The added material enriches the story for me.