Opinion Thread

[Wayfarer]

Because, you know, I wouldn't want to be redundant in my redundancy.

And reiterating and already established thread is redundantly so.

Ya know?

[Darth Tater]

There are already so many threads to discuss it I doubt I'd end up closing ALL the redundant ones, so reduntantize away

[Wayfarer]

Okie then...

There were a lot of little things missing in the movie.

As an example...when the Hobbits enter Bree, [Spoiler] teh camera sorta zooms over the fence, and I kept thinking 'dark figure climbs over the fence'. From the books. But, if it was there, I couldn't see it. I found that to do that scene, and have it set up so perfectly, and then comepletely ignore something like that, to be a major irritant.

It shows them sitting under three trolls with absolutely no explaination who they are and why the're there. Yeah. there's bilbos little story at the beginning, but that was all.

Or when the fellowship goes RIGHT By Mirrormere and doesn't stop.

Or narsil, being shown once, but no indication being made that Aragorn had it reforged.

Or Gollum being tortured in some sort of rack by a bunch of Orcs.

My biggest gripe is, as expected, Arwen. She takes the place of an Istar, Two Elven lords, A Ranger, and Four hobbits in the ford scene. I fail to see how it is nescessary to depict her that way.

Even though I'm not really too mad about the loss of glorfindel... I find the fact that she helps heal Frodo (instead of Aragorn), carries him by herself to the fords, defies the nazgul (instead of frodo), brings down the flood (instead of elrond and gandalf) and then does some weird life force transfer thing, to be excessive.

ANd I found it to be a lot less exciting than in the books. Being chased by all nine through the open wasn't anywhere near as edgy of being trapped between two groups. And Arwen's little spell thingy was all too predictible. When the flood came in the lotr, it genuinely surprised me (the first time).

The moth thing was really stupid. He could have just as easily done something else.

Caradras FAR overstretched Saruman's power. And he didn't strike me as particularly subtle.

Some of the usual mistakes as well... Samurai elves, Green Orcs, Wizard's duel.

On a positive note....

I like the rest of it greatly. Moria was wonderful. The balrog was stupendous. The death of boromir was sad. The orcs were evil and scary. The nazgul, clawed gauntlets and cheezy weakness aside, were cool.

Lovely movie. A bit too short, but overall well done. I give it an A.

[Wayfarer]

Now that I think about it...

there are other nitpickey things I didn't like. But they were slipped into the movie in such a way as not to be dangerous.

Sauron, for example. He looked pretty good, not 'terrible' enough, imho. But, losing three fingers? And then exploding? (ok... didn' tmind the explosion. Domino effect with the soldiers was cool!)

Also... this is a moot point, but he killed Gil-Galad by burning him to death with his hands, and i assumed Elendil was as well.. Since Gil-Galad wasn't even in that scene, It was pretty stupid.

Another thing... In the beginning, Galadriel says something like history becomes legend, and legend becomes myth, and much is forgotten...' Does anyone else find that to be just a cheap, stupid, inserion of Robert Jordan into Middle earth? (if you don't kno whwat I'm talking about, read the first page of any of the wheel of time books)

[Lelondul]

You didn't think Sauron on the battlefield was terrible enough Wayfarer? I couldn't disagree with you more on that one - sheesh, sweeping away half a dozen warriors with a single swipe of his mace? That incredible armour? Pretty fearsome to me. The 'wave' effect when he was killed was awesome!

On another thread, someone made a great point about them not including the blindfolding scene before entering Lothlorien. That could have added alot more depth to Gimli and Legolas's relationship without being too long.

What was the chronology again of Narsil's reforging? I thought it occured in Imladris before the Fellowship departed, but others have said it wasn't till sometime in 'The Two Towers'. Could someone refresh my memory? When did Aragorn first open wield Anduril?

- Lelond, despite his grumblings, anxiously awaiting a second viewing

[Wayfarer]

Sauron did not scare me. I suppose that's understandible, seeing as his 'terribleness' was more of an aura/magical thing anyway.

Bit I really missed Gil-Galad.

And while sweeping away dozens of enemies at once was a neat trick... it's innacurate, and i don't like that.

The blindfolding should have been in there, I agree. Although I thought that scene was rather humorous.

The movies had the timetable correct, but the only way you could tell it was narsil is if you recognized the hilts. They should have made it more obvious.

Along that line... Did anyone else think that both Narsil and the Barrow Blades looked too mundane? I mean, I've always thought of the Barrow Blades as Red and gold, with serpant designs. In the movie, they just looked like normal swords.

[Captain Stern]

"And while sweeping away dozens of enemies at once was a neat trick... it's innacurate, and i don't like that. "

I can't see why that is inaccurate in itself. Sauron is the most powerful Angel in Ea ( the Valar being Arch Angels ) so he should be TERRIBLE in battle. What was inaccurate was the 'weakness' of Elendil e.t.c in comparisson to him.

Powerful Lords such as Gil Galad are the only children of Illuvatar who can possibly hope to withstand the assault of such a being. The film didn't try to show how much more powerful hero's/ lords such as Gil Galad and Elendil are in comparisson to common soldiery.

[Wayfarer]

Ok, I give. The ability wasn'ty innacurate.

But when it's clearly stated 'Gil Galad was killed by burning from sauron's hands' I think that that ought to be in there.

[Captain Stern]

'Gil Galad was killed by burning from sauron's hands'

Cool, where does it say that? I can't remember it saying that in the book Is it in a HOME book or something? I'd love to know more details about the combat with Sauron

I agree with you that it should have been in the film, a lot of things should have been.

[Selwythe]

My biggest gripe was the total exclusion of songs/poetry from the book. I read a lot of Peter Jackson interviews and thought they would be used as background music/chants so I was rather disappointed when it proved otherwise. I was on the edge of my seat at Elrond's Council waiting for Gandalf to go "Ash nazg..."

As discussed in the other thread, Narsil was only shown once, when Boromir saw it in Rivendell, where it lies in wait for the next movie, while in the books, Aragorn unsheathed the Broken Sword at Bree and had it reforged at Rivendell.

I can't wait till 2003 to watch the siege of Gondor.

[Lightice]

Originally posted by Lelondul
What was the chronology again of Narsil's reforging? I thought it occured in Imladris before the Fellowship departed, but others have said it wasn't till sometime in 'The Two Towers'. Could someone refresh my memory? When did Aragorn first open wield Anduril?

In book Aragirn got Narsil when the Fellowship departed, but at movies Arwen brings it when he leaves to the Paths of the Dead. That is told in some interview.

I was on the edge of my seat at Elrond's Council waiting for Gandalf to go "Ash nazg

Aye. Me too. Although if you'd listen carefully enough, you heard, that the Ring itself chanted that when Frodo was looking at it at the Council. "Ash nazg durbatuluk. Ash nazg gimbatul. Ash nazg thrakuduluk agh burum ishi krimpatul!"
I can't remember those...umm...what are those little markings over letters called in english again? Anyway, I can't remember how they went, so I just left them out...

[Comic Book Guy]

Its not exactly clearly stated that he burnt him by his hands, it requires a bit of thought to notice.

deem it to be a tongue of the Black Land, since it is foul and uncouth. What evil it saith I do not know; but I trace here a copy of it, lest it fade beyond recall. The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed; and maybe were the gold made hot again, the writing would be refreshed. gut for my part I will risk no hurt to this thing: of all the works of Sauron the only fair. It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain.

[Wayfarer]

Sauron's hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed

That seems pretty straightforward to me.

[GoldenMallorn]

My word, how bad can you get? Frodo is crying out in pain, his eyes are glazed over and blood shot, he's white and turning into a Ringwraith. His fellow hobbits are freaking out and REALLY worried about him, Sam is near distraction. Aragorn needs to find Athelas and all YOU can worry about is that the Trolls are'nt even mentioned. AND Frodo just slippe don the Ring after his loud mouthed scottish cousin starts blabing and YOU worry about the Fact that Strider was'nt seen going over the gate in Bree.
Will post more
Mallorn

[FrodoFriend]

I can't say most of those little things really bothered me....... they had to cut a bunch of stuff out cuz of time constraints.

the big thing i hated was that they took out almost all of Merry & Pippin's good scenes!!! it's never mentioned that they're friends with Frodo and that they come on the quest out of friendship and loyalty. the whole point of having them figure out that Frodo means to leave the Shire and insist on going with him is to emphasize their good character (friendship, loyalty, perceptiveness, competence, etc.) Instead they just blunder into the journey while stealing carrots. how embarrassing!

i thought arwen was all right except for the spell part. in the books elves are magical but they don't do magic in the form of spells, wands, potions, etc, and I thought it was good that way.

i loved elrond's council. it was great how they showed the Ring's influence on everyone there (making them argue n' all) except Frodo. who could fail to love a hobbit?

[Renille]

Hi and welcome FrodoFriend!!!

As Selwythe said, the lack of poems/songs was really dissapointing to me. I missed "all that is gold does not glitter" and Boromir's 'funeral song.' Those are my two of my most favorite parts in the book. That was really weird how Gimli just broke out at the council like that...and also I was sad that Legolas didn't say that he didn't want the ring. But the end with Boromir and Aragorn...that was so sad!!!
I never thought that the orcs would look like slimy slime bags. They were utterly disgusting. But in a way, that's good! Oh by the way, I loved the moth thing.(For a crazed minute, I thought Gandalf was going to eat it!) So anything better than that was good to me.
Anyway, I thought it really stupid of Aragorn to tell Frodo that "he'll turn into a wraith." That probably didn't help him much. And cutting Bombadil AND the Barrow scene was crazy! But other than that....it was the coolest thing in the entire universe; ten times better than Star Wars and a trillion times better than Harry Potter could ever hope to be.

[ringbearer]

They don't have the songs?...GREAT...maybe I'll go see it then!

I honestly hate most of the poetry except "The Lord of the Rings" and "Aragorn's poem"!

[afro-elf]

captain stern

i think the valar are considered gods

there is a thread in the ME section on this


also isn't capt stern the name of the guy from the 1st heavt metal movie?

[Captain Stern]

I know they are. However If you compare the Middle Earth pantheon to Christianity I think they are obviously:

Maiar = Angels
Valar = Arch Angels
Eru = God

Oh and I call myself Captain Stern after a character from Warhammer 40,000.

[Finglas]

I didn't like that Merry and Pippen were so much alike. In the book, they are almost complete opposites.