LORD OF THE RINGS poll (film version)

i broke my vegetarianhood on christmas in paris

I don't really have much invested in LOTR and haven't seen any of these more than once, but the second was the only one I enjoyed watching.

"like they were all having funny dreams"

Possibly they were dreaming about seeing a good movie.

possibly they were trying to avoid the ugly american in the room

back when they came out i probably woulda said the third one cuz it gave me, like, emotions - NOOOO MISTER FRODO ;___; - but in retrospect the first one is the most memorable so idk. mixed feelings about the second one - omar's right in that the rohan stuff kinda owns what with brad dourif and all those cats but at the same time it feels really out of place to me, like something snipped from the fucken 13th Warrior or somethin. i never read the books so i have no attachment to any of this shit, they probably could've just made one REALLY bitchin movie out of all that material tho

d*mn sean bean owns too

btw what is the scouring of tha shire

In brief: in the book, Saruman and Wormtongue are left isolated under the watch of the Ents but eventually are let free by Treebeard. They end up going to the Shire, where Saruman's been corrupting some of the populace, and take over the place with some leftover half-orcs/hillmen/thugs, and pretty much wreck it (the bit in the movie in the Mirror of Galadriel showing that the Shire's been trashed is Jackson's nod to this). Frodo and company return and inspire an uprising against all this and win, though Frodo's pretty wearied by the war already and doesn't directly participate. Saruman and Wormtongue die kinda like in the movie (no Legolas) after Saruman tries to kill Frodo, and the Shire is eventually restored.

And yes, that was in brief.

what is going on with that hobbit movie?

scouring of the shire is like some bizarre afterward and is a total letdown dramatically, thank god it wasn't in the movie, it had enough endings as it was

what is going on with that hobbit movie?

Fully underway, Guillermo del Toro directing and Jackson producing, filming starts next year, two films being planned (it'll be the story covered over both films, but with various things supplementing it drawing on the rest of what was happening at around the same time via Tolkien's retconning of the background in later years). http://theonering.net will have everything you need to know.

i think I'm just gonna ask you about it, okay, cuz I don't want to get sucked into theonering black hole

Two Towers, easy. it really blew my mind the first time i saw it and how well they pulled off Gollum.

i think I'm just gonna ask you about it, okay, cuz I don't want to get sucked into theonering black hole

Wise man. (Even I'm not going to completely obsess over the filming this time around -- ten years back I think I was already checking the site daily.)

scouring of the shire is like some bizarre afterward and is a total letdown dramatically, thank god it wasn't in the movie, it had enough endings as it was

agreed.

I probably like Two Towers the least, for how they portrayed the Ents and Faramir (or whatever the fuck his name is)

My wife had never read the books and didn't know it was all one story in three parts. She was so pissed when we walked out of the theater after the first one, raging about how she'd been waiting for three hours for them to get rid of the damn ring and then suddenly the movie just ended.

We bought a new TV last Christmas and watched all three extended editions over a three day period of utter sloth and it was the best. I've got to go with the Two Towers, though the Moria / Balrog stuff in Fellowship was probably my favorite segment of any of them.

i think two towers, for sort of the same reasons it was my least favorite of the books. in longform, it has the shortcomings of a middle chapter -- it just feels like it's getting you from one place to another, and it doesn't have the excitement and discovery of the beginning or all the grandeur and significance of the end. but in the movie, that means it's just like wall to wall action, with minimal thomas kinkadey elfin pastoralism. and the battle of helm's deep is A+ stuff.

plus there's the great wizard of oz nod at the black gate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhSRGYyBJU

I need to see the long versions of all of them. But only the third one brought actual tears to my eyes. It's the triumph that gets me, not the deaths.

Fellowship one is the only one that's not a travestied fucking betrayal of the books.

First one for me; it's an adventure film, rather than a war film, and that really sucks me in. The camaraderie maybe?

Fellowship one is the only one that's not a travestied fucking betrayal of the books.

except Tom Bombadil is missing.

first one is my favourite anyway, the introduction of Aragorn, Bree, the Shire.

I never understood why they cut Gandalf versus the Witch King, the scene at the Black Gate with the Mouth of Sauron and the death of Saruman from the theatrical cut of the third movie. That really pissed me off, it only would've added about 10 mins to the running time.

The first one, definitely. Nick is right that the second one is a war film, and the battle of Helm's Deep is amazing, but I'm just not that into it. And the Ents are rubbish.

(However, I AM in it! My friend was an animator on the Golumn team, and they had to do a lot of Golumn without Andy Serkis as a reference as they'd changed the shot or whatever. I went to visit while he was out there, and we acted out a scene with me as Golumn and filmed it and he then used my movements. It's where Golumn has Sam by the throat and Frodo threatens him with Sting. Just one shot, so about a second and a half. Also, the Mirror of Galadriel was done by a different animation house, and when they had a screening for the Weta animators, they booed, apparently.)

Thinking more about this, The Two Towers might be the best of the theatrical versions, but Fellowship absolutely kills in the extended release.

The breaking of the fellowship is one of the best bits of the book, and they do it really really well. The psychology of Boromir in that scene, and the ring as a symbol of how power corrupts, is excellent.

Then you have Gandalf's "I am a servant of the secret fire. You shall not pass." bit with the Balrog, the "drums in the deep" stuff, the first appearance of the black riders.

that means it's just like wall to wall action, with minimal thomas kinkadey elfin pastoralism

lmao i was just talkin about that master of light shit w/someone the other day, those movies all look like paintings u would buy at a comic convention

i forgot about helm's deep tho, that owned

something else that owned - KKK grand wizard gandalf leading the charge against a bunch of savage hottentots in Rotk, i swear some of those shots were straight out of birth of a nation

fuckin' helm's deep, man. was only about 13 pages in the book. took up the entire movie. shield surfing bullshit.

welp the books sound p gay tbqh

thank christ for ledge. i felt like i was gonna draw all the SB action on this thread. also- OTMFM.

challopsin here but the movies are wayyyy better than the books

Jeez, are these still not out on BluRay? :-/

http://www.amazon.com/Rings-Trilogy-Extended-Editions-Blu-ray/dp/B0026L7H20/qid=1239958479

i never read them, but i tried to read the hobbit when i was a kid and i didnt get far because it was boring and dumb, i'm sure the lotr books arent as good as the movies so why bother

I never understood why they cut Gandalf versus the Witch King, the scene at the Black Gate with the Mouth of Sauron and the death of Saruman from the theatrical cut of the third movie.

Agreed, although the version of the death of Saruman that Jackson filmed has such stilted acting and staging.

One thing that was a bit annoying in the books and not in the movies = the alternating chapter structure sometimes. (e.g. I seem to remember The Two Towers being: what happens to hobbit a & b / what happens to hobbit c & d / what happens to hobbit a & b / what happens to hobbit c & d / what happens to hobbit a & b / what happens to hobbit c & d / what happens to hobbit a & b / what happens to hobbit c & d - other examples too: history / adventure / history / adventure / history / adventure / history / (etc) )

Also: very much OTM, IMHO:

The Two Towers might be the best of the theatrical versions, but Fellowship absolutely kills in the extended release.

― EZ Snappin, Friday, July 24, 2009 1:16 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'm sure the lotr books arent as good as the movies

you're incorrect

Agreed, although the version of the death of Saruman that Jackson filmed has such stilted acting and staging.

True, I remember it being a lot more awesome in the book. There was a great moment on the commentary of the extended edition though with Christopher Lee talking about how Jackson was trying to tell him how to act when he gets stabbed and he was all,'Peter, i KNOW what it's like when someone gets stabbed', because he did a bunch of secret work for the government or something. It just made me think that Christopher Lee was a real badass who could take down anyone.

"what happens to hobbit c & d / what happens to hobbit a & b"

Been a long time, but I'm pretty sure the Two Towers book is just split half down the middle.

first time around in the theatres i remember 'fellowship' being the only success of these. thought 2 & 3 were boring as hell.

second time around, i re-watched them (the extended versions) this past march. totally changed my mind - they're all pretty awesome, and i think 'two towers' is prob the best. the rohan shit was awesome and really well done.

whoever said rohan looked like smelly heavy metal dudes was OTM, but i thought that was a good thing! rohan was some serious black metal shit right there

i havent seen these since they were in the theaters but i want to get them when they come out on bluray and have the longest hangover (new year's day?) session ever

two towers (book) does flip back and forth a lot, but that's classic creative writing 101 "how to maintain tension".

i havent seen these since they were in the theaters but i want to get them when they come out on bluray and have the longest hangover (new year's day?) session ever

― julien schNAGL (s1ocki), Friday, July 24, 2009 9:24 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

these are so perfect for that

"two towers (book) does flip back and forth a lot, but that's classic creative writing 101 "how to maintain tension"."

It doesn't flip between the hobbits though. Hobbits C/D are in the first part and Hobbits A/B the second. Hobbits C/D flip with Human A/Elf A/Dwarf A a lot though.

still remember sitting in the theater when it suddenly hit me, 'wow, they're really gonna do this RIGHT.'

^^^this. it is very very rare for me to get that rush from any film adaptation.

― girlish in the worst sense of that term (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, July 23, 2009 11:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Thirded.

the third one brought actual tears to my eyes. It's the triumph that gets me, not the deaths.

"My friends... You bow to no one" is the bit that does it to me.

Fellowship absolutely kills in the extended release.

Yeah, the extended edition is the only one which is a significant improvement. None of the added scenes feel superfluous or nerd-pandering.

i havent seen these since they were in the theaters but i want to get them when they come out on bluray and have the longest hangover (new year's day?) session ever

― julien schNAGL (s1ocki), Friday, July 24, 2009 9:24 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah I watched all of these back to back on a day I was really sick last winter. It was a pretty good time except for the occasional vomiting.

Fellowship in its extended form adds depth to what was in the theatrical version; Two Towers and Return add shit that was cut for time.

Must heavily disagree with chap/EZ re: the extended version of Two Towers -- Faramir's character/motivation is much more fleshed out/less immediately capricious (important given the alterations from the book) while the Ents don't seem as, well, dumb. Return's additions are less crucial but there's still a couple of good parts.

The Two Towers aka the Dumbing of the Ents. That was what pissed me off the most. Grr.

I really didn't like that in the theatrical version. The extended version places the burning of Fangorn as having just started, so Treebeard's ignorance of it makes a *lot* more sense, even if the end result is still rushed.