The Lord of the Rings

[geminigod]

got my set in the mail but havent yet had the time to watch any of it. so i just stare at it like a creepy twisted hobbit.

My precious...

I have mixed feelings about the Legolas elephaunt scene in RotK. We'll see how it rubs me this time when I watch it.

 

[elbarto1]

so i watched FOTR last night spread across two sets [1 1080p LCD, 1 1080i CRT] and while i can see the greenish timing, i dont think is a big deal because A. I know how to calibrate my screen to look right and B. it looks good for 99% of the film IMHO.

aside from a few areas [all in the snow] I never would have noticed had I not read the detailed review I posted previously.

cant wait to dive into the remaining films!

 

[elbarto1]

two towers was awesome, definitely looked better than fellowship, but again, not because of the tint.

it did however really show its age on some of the gollum fx, any fast motion or direct character interaction looks pretty "fake". same goes for the merry/pippen/treebeard scenes.

otherwise outstanding. and that LFE is outta sight. shakes the room!

 

[Sunarep]

the merry and pippin already started looking fake with the dvds but as the cast said in the interviews: the effects will look outdated very soon but the characters will remain

apparantly WB screwed up the german blu rays so i still have to wait to get them

 

[elbarto1]

yeah, its not a knock to the films or the effects, they are 10 years old [hard to believe] and the HD format really shows the seams.

what happened to the german BR's? cant you just import a UK copy? also, do you know if the german cases will be blue [like standard blurays - and the UK set] or black [like the US release]

I know that the region coding on the supplemental features dvd's is an issue which is why i didnt import the UK set [amazon uk sells stuff cheaper than amazon.com] despite the lower cost. and while totally not a huge deal, the black cases look way cooler than the blue ones IMO.

 

[Sunarep]

yeah, its not a knock to the films or the effects, they are 10 years old [hard to believe] and the HD format really shows the seams.

what happened to the german BR's? cant you just import a UK copy? also, do you know if the german cases will be blue [like standard blurays - and the UK set] or black [like the US release]

I know that the region coding on the supplemental features dvd's is an issue which is why i didnt import the UK set [amazon uk sells stuff cheaper than amazon.com] despite the lower cost. and while totally not a huge deal, the black cases look way cooler than the blue ones IMO.

Apparently they made a mistake with the formats and used the NTSC source and stretched the german audio to fit the duration - according to some buyers the german voices now sound as if the actors were falling asleep. I normally watch them in english but with blu ray I just want to have the best if i bother buying in blu - also for my parents and cousin they watch movies in german so I wait until they fix it

not sure about the case but i think the general box has the "big book look" not sure if the discs at the interior are in separate cases

 

[elbarto1]

wow that sounds like a funny error. the slow sleepy dub edition!

the outer boxes look the same, its the inner cases that differ. the uk ones are thicker and blue:

while the us ones are thin like regular us blu's but have unique black cases which just look cooler:

 

[geminigod]

I finally got around to watching extended Return of the King. There are definitely a couple scenes I could see being dramatically improved with a few small edits, but overall it is quite the masterpiece. The only thing that is overly painful for me is the scene in the dead city with all the skulls overflowing. It would be much better with a simple cut at the point where the ghost king laughs and they recede into the shadows. Leave it ambiguous so you don't know what happened until they show up on the black ships at Minas Tirith and the ghosts suddenly emerge charging behind Aragorn.

I was once again surprised by how poignant the end Hobbiton and Grey Haven scenes still are for me. Once again I got choked up. While I have never been in the military personally, it is hard for me watching those scenes not to feel a tinge of empathy for veterans that return home from war. Frodo's and Sam's different experiences upon their return just seem so symbolic for how most vets must feel to some extent. Tolkien was no stranger to war, but cudos to Jackson for capturing those difficult emotional beats so well at the end.

 

[Captain Khajiit]

Lament for Boromir – Clamavi De Profundis

 

[Captain Khajiit]

The Lament for the Rohirrim – Clamavi De Profundis

 

[Captain Khajiit]

One Ring to Rule Them All – Clamavi De Profundis

 

[Captain Khajiit]

The Ent and the Ent-Wife[font=Raleway, sans-serif] –[/font] Clamavi De Profundis

 

[TM2YC]

I plan to spend 11.5 hours in middle earth this weekend and spend the rest of the time writing excessively long reviews of the films...

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Back in 2001, I was a bit too wedded to Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated movie and the 1981 BBC radio series (also starring Ian Holm) which I had grown up with to fully appreciate Peter Jackson's film. After years of re-watching I now can't imagine how I ever thought this was anything other than a practically perfect translation of the first volume of Tolkien's novel. The Extended Edition clocks in at 3.5 hours but slips by so easily. The trims and changes to the source are almost always assiduous and smart. e.g. Bakshi wisely changed Glorfindel to Legolas to get the character in early but Jackson takes that change one further and changes him to Arwen, giving her a key scene that instantly establishes her as a hero. There are some beautiful film-making moments like when Boromir picks up the ring from the snow and we only cut to Aragorn's hands on his blade after the tension has dissipated, or the spectacular crane shot sweeping down through the woods of Amon Hen as the Fellowship battle the orcs. Howard Shore's score is so beautiful, his themes sing out strongly from each other. Is there anybody who couldn't hum the Shire theme right now?

It could be that this represents a pinnacle of film-making, never to be repeated. Where at least 90% of this massive fantasy movie is accomplished with practical FX but made at a point where CGI was just getting good enough to make the other 10% possible. The old techniques going back to the silent era, like forced perspective, miniatures and makeup are blended with the latest FX techniques. So 19-years later, just about every shot still holds up, where as the more recent mostly CG Hobbit trilogy didn't even hold up when it was first released. To my mind, the vast helicopter shots of the real actors running along the tops of real New Zealand mountains backed by Shore's soaring music, is far more "epic" than any shot stuffed with 100 CGI creatures, explosions and battles. This deservedly won the Oscar for Makeup and Hairstyling. It's like Jackson decreed "I don't want to see a single hair in place, a single inch of skin that isn't splattered in mud and sweat, or a patch of clothing that isn't worn and frayed". It's the unsung hero of the project, there is literal "dirt under the fingernails" of this otherwise outlandish world, which also makes the pristine ethereal Elf characters stand out even more. The ensemble is almost faultless but Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Sean Astin are my highlights. If there is such a thing as a "Van Dyke Scale" ranking Americans doing British accents and Dick Van Dyke's chimney sweep is at the bottom, then Sean Astin's note perfect West-Country accent might be at the top.

If I was looking for faults, I never quite liked the awkward way Gandalf's death was handled, him not being pulled down into the chasm but weirdly letting go just so he can deliver his last line down the barrel of the camera. It's much better done in Bakshi's film, with Gandalf's last words echoing from the depths. The removal of Barliman Butterbur (the innkeeper at Bree) as a significant character was a mistake. Not only because he's a charming character in his own right but because we see the low opinion in which Strider is held through his eyes and then get to chuckle when we see how astonished Barliman is to learn who Aragorn really was in 'The Return of the King'.

By the way, since the grade on the official blu-ray of FotR looks truly horrible, I watched 44rh1n's fan re-grade, which brings it in line with the Theatrical Cut visuals. Great work that fellow!

Here is Richard Roeper back in the day ranting about how terrible it is to an incredulous Roger Ebert :

 

[Gaith]

Howard Shore's score is so beautiful, his themes sing out strongly from each other. Is there anybody who couldn't hum the Shire theme right now?

I distinctly remember thinking, the first time after seeing Fellowship, that the movie was pretty great, but it was a pity there wasn't a main musical motif tying it all together, only for someone to assure me that there very much was. Guess I was just too mind-scrambled by the epic-ness of my one theatrical viewing to retain it!

 

So 19-years later, just about every shot still holds up, where as the more recent mostly CG Hobbit trilogy didn't even hold up when it was first released.

Agreed. I think there's one shot of the Fellowship walking past some CG mountaintop ruins during a montage where the digital stonework has a wonky, pixelated look, but that's about it. Well, that and the car, of course. (Which I certainly didn't notice in my one theatrical viewing.)

Actually, I do have one honest-to-goodness quibble with the movie. I only read the books once, but I distinctly recall a moment in the woods at the end when Frodo dons the Ring, looks all around his sweeping vantage point, and sees orcs (or a kind of vision of orcs) on the march in all directions, like ants swarming a picnic. It would only have needed half a minute or so, but could have been a beautiful addition.

Anyhow, I've said it before, but this is the one film of the trilogy where I prefer the extended cut. With so much to set up, the theatrical version feels under-developed and a bit too action-heavy; I saw it once more several years after the trilogy came out, and it simply didn't feel right. For TTT and RotK, however, the extended cuts just drag the pacing down, diffuse too much tension, and vary the tone to excess.

Personal note: I went to a boarding school in the fall of 2002, and, to prepare for TTT, organized a Saturday night screening of someone's Fellowship dvd in our main assembly hall, getting a faculty sponsor to loosely supervise our use of the digital projector, which seemed like a super-expensive piece of precious equipment at the time. Despite the lack of theater-quality seats, it was a magical night of geeky... well, fellowship.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

Whatever happened to the LOTR "TV" series that was being produced. Is that still a thing?

 

[Masirimso17]

Whatever happened to the LOTR "TV" series that was being produced. Is that still a thing?

Yes but it is currently halted due to Covid-19

 

[TM2YC]

Whatever happened to the LOTR "TV" series that was being produced. Is that still a thing?

Yes but it is currently halted due to Covid-19

I heard the budget for that one LotR show was larger than the entire yearly budget for the BBC (which produces years worth of TV, Radio, News and online content). If and when it does get completed it's gonna be lavish as hell.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
'The Two Towers: Extended Edition' is another absorbing 3.5-hrs spent in Middle-Earth but it's not got quite the same polish as the first film. You feel the mild desperation in the writing and editing to find ways to keep characters like Arwen and Elrond (and the Elves generally) in play when they originally took no part in the story. So they add characters, add subplots and employ flashbacks and flashforwards to material that was originally from the FotR part of the novel. They insert an Aragorn fake-out death for all of 5-minutes, to add some extra drama but you never believe he is dead. Although that scene is part of the beautiful little Brego horse subplot, so I'll let that one go. The Gandalf redesign they did for the 2nd and 3rd films always looks off to me, he should have kept that big long beard. It feels like Sam and Frodo are in a holding pattern for this entire film (and much of the next one), waiting for the other characters to accomplish things. There is a lot of dramatic and emotional meat on those scenes but little physical advancement, they just wonder to and fro in grey landscapes skirting the borders of Mordor. I understand the problems they must've had because Tolkien did make things very difficult for the writers by keeping the two plot threads entirely separate in the novel. The arrival of Gandalf at the battle is good but it's not as powerful as in the Bakshi film. Don't get me wrong, it's still a terrific movie but it doesn't have the same finesse as the first one.

Most of the 2nd half is devoted to the Battle of Helm's Deep, probably one of the greatest medieval-type siege sequences in any movie. Despite all the mayhem going on, the geography of the location, the placement of the characters within it, the dangerous dramatic stakes, the larger importance of the battle, the plan and the execution of said plan are conveyed with total clarity. Our heroes are all given their moments to shine and change the course of the battle. They are all shown being plagued by fear and doubt but also all raising the spirits of their comrades. On top of that it's just plain fun, with Gimli and Legolas getting the biggest laughs and cheers with their friendly rivalry. Again Peter Jackson's subtle skill as a filmmaker and director of actors shines through all the epic action. The inspired use of a chance shot of a Rohan flag being ripped from it's pole by the wind to symbolize the state of the kingdom is one example. I can't imagine these films (and the film industry since) if they hadn't been lucky enough to get Andy Serkis, or agreed to have him on set with the other actors doing what would become known as "performance capture". Peter Woodthorpe's voice was great too but Serkis also nails the different physical movements and facial personalities of Gollum and Smeagol.

 

[TV's Frink]

Really enjoying these @"TM2YC"

 

[Gaith]

^ Indeed!

It seems to me there isn't much LotR-centric content on YouTube, maybe because the movies are too great to pick apart in isolation, and their virtues too obvious, but I'll just leave these ones that do exist here...

 

[TM2YC]

^ Those two video are excellent, thank you. I wish I had a fine tuned ear for music like that guy. I can't pick out themes, instruments and structure like that I can just marvel at them.

Really enjoying these @"TM2YC"

Glad to hear I'm not boring people .