The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[Overtaxed]

Ooooohhh.....you're from KC? What's it like in general around there?

[Long Cut]

We went to see it at a local MoM&Pop type theater, as the behavior by the local multiplex teens is usually an order of magnitude WORSE.

I really have a hard time blaming the theater...it's tough enough to make a profit these days without being a multiplex, and besides, theyy have almost ZERO legal authority to actually do anything.

No, I'll stick to blaming the ones truly responsible...the parents of the little terrors.

[2Jedismom]

I see a very LARGE coffee mug in your future.

LOL! Good idea! Like a soup mug!

He's gone to pick her up at the airport...I have little time, but really not much as I'm putting the finishing touches on the house.

[2Jedismom]

And yes! It's supposed to start snowing here tomorrow and continue through Tuesday! Yippee!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

By the way...today is our anniversary...Steve and I have been married 11 years today...at 1:00pm central.

[Long Cut]

The behavior comes from what you'd expect...there is no real threat of punishment, either on the spot OR at home.

Think about it...most folks are strangers nowadays, and wouldn't have a clue whose parents to call and tell. The theaters can't have ushers anymore because they would be unable to throw anyone out (and in some areas, they would be under threat of harm themselves). The persons who arwe affected can't do anything, because the kids and their parents would sue them silly, and besides, the owners are trying to make money.

Sadly, the situation has placed all power in the hands of the brats, with NO reasonable recourse from the adults, save to leave, in which case you miss the movie.

[Overtaxed]

congratulations! Any chance he'd be okay with you freeping all day as an anniversary gift? :)

[BibChr]

Congratulations to you! You hang in there, keep those promises you made cherished and sacred.

Isn't it sad to realize that even such a relatively brief time as eleven years seems like "a lot!" to our contemporaries?

Dan

[HairOfTheDog]

Congratulations on your anniversary! - Are you going out tonight for a nice dinner?

[HairOfTheDog]

Make that dinner and a movie?

[Scott from the Left Coast]

The "Legolas moment", as I am beginning to name it, received a very different reaction from our audience: there was an audible gasp (in unison, almost) across the crowd, followed by a stunned silence where you could see peoples heads turning away from the screen toward each other, as if to silently say: "Did you see what I just saw?"

I should note that our movie experience was very positive at our very pedestrian Lacey multi-plex. We arrived very early -- but we were going to the first showing of the day and had bought our tickets on Fandango. So we could walk right into the (very clean) theatre and choose our seats (it was about 1/4 full one hour before the movie -- and a total sell out a movie time). No waiting in line at any point. The crowd was a bit older than I expected,and watched the movie in a pleasant enthralled silence. And of course there was a healthy applause at the end.

Some parts I found very satisfying that I don't think I mentioned in my earlier posts: I was very impressed by the actress playing Eowyn. PJ doesn't have a multitude of important female parts to work with, so I think he puts extra care into those he has (well, he's a little overboard on Arwen here, but that's another matter). Eowyn's part was very satisfying to me, I can't find a single weak point in it...and I think this bodes well for her critical role in the next movie.

I went for the battle scenes (I'm a guy) and I was not disappointed in the least -- but what I didn't expect (and maybe should have) was the marvelous presentation of the smaller battle or pursuit scenes. The pursuit across Rohan was truncated of necessity -- but it was presented in a very convincing manner (I would have liked to see a little more finese and detail in Merry and Pippin's escape from the Orcs -- but here is where we will see something, I believe, in the Director's Cut DVD).

As we know, the Osgiliath scene never happened but its presentation on the screen was highly effective (and impressive) in presenting the viewer with the sense of the desperation and terror of Gondor.

I cannot compliment JenB enough on her insight regarding "why we fight", her post that I read before the movie. That concept was indeed the axis upon which the entire movie was built. And I thought that focus was very satisfying as well. It actually got me thinking along a new "path" in regards to the overall story -- something that I did not think the movie would do. Again Jen -- that was a magnificent take and IT DID enhance my appreciation of the movie.

I keep coming back (in my mind) to Frodo-Sam-Smeagol. It's hard for me to describe the sense of surprise and strangeness that I have in the aftermath of my viewing, I am a person who really enjoys battles and action in movies and who was going to this movie looking specifically for that presentation. And when I look back on the movie now, those are not my first thoughts or impressions -- it's the psychological and spiritual interplay between those three characters -- in the context of the ring which is also amongst them -- that makes this movie. The power and evil of the ring was not nearly as well portrayed in the first movie as in this one, and the interplay between those three characters are what brings out the true evil of the ring (and of Sauron, who is its master and yet its slave all at the same time).

Frodo was perfectly portrayed, I think. Sam was as near perfect as you can be -- with only his speech in Osgiliath as a small drawback (Sam is a fellow who would think those great thoughts in simple terms, but is not a fellow who would make a grand speech about those thoughts). Smeagol was masterful, with only a couple of "ET" looks that I thought were too much. The screen portrayal of his split personality was absolutely marvelous.

Faramir was a bit of disappointment, his thoughtful nobility was missing, and his character is more subtle than the one portrayed on the screen, I think. He's not quite the person here that Gandalf admires so much.

The portrayal of the Ents worked on the screen -- which is amazing. They too are more industrious and contemplative (and wise) than what we see here, but to make something this strange come off at all is astounding. What is shown is that the Ents represent the natural world rebelling against the effort to use nature as the fuel for the machinery of evil (and the evil of machinery!) They use nature as the means of defeating Saruman, their weapons are rocks and water, whereas Saruman tries to destroy them with axes and fire and the very unnatural Orcs.

Now aren't you unhappy you pressed me to elaborate on my WOOO HOOO, Overtaxed?? This is a ludicrously long post!

[2Jedismom]

Well, we did do the "night on the town" thing the other night for the Line Party. Out to eat and then the movie. Tonight is my mother's Christmas special at her church, so as a gift to Steve, I'm going and letting him filch out! LOL Seriously, he can't stand to go so I'm using his mom being here as an excuse for him getting to stay home.

Unfortunately, the boys and I are priviledged to get to go...

[Ramius]

You're quite welcome! Enjoy... I've sure had a lot of fun with mine.

In case you need any further inspiration, a friend of mine who is skilled in metalwork has constructed what may be the king of potato guns. I haven't seen it yet, but the parts list contains 22 feet of 2 inch stainless steel pipe, a pressure container made from a CO2 fire extinguisher, and a piezo-electric trigger. The fuel is mapp gas (a mixture of petroleum gases like propane, and methylacetylene). Should be dangerous and spectacular.

He hasn't fired it yet... but I've asked for video. Calculations indicate that the potato should still be subsonic when it exits the barrel, but only barely so. :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Don't you think it is cool when the audience applauds? I do. The performers can't hear it, but I hope they know it happens.

I am glad that you liked the quiet moments too, because those are my favorite parts. To see Frodo turning anger towards Sam at times, weary and conflicted, was heartbreaking. Elijah Wood is an old soul indeed, to understand his character as well as I believe he does.

Sam's speech doesn't seem natural to me, and I am not sure why. I can see him giving a rousing pep-talk to Frodo, and the words are right that he says, but I would have seen it as a quieter, closer delivery. I wish it hadn't cut away for other visuals during that. It made Sam speak for the whole film, and he wouldn't do that.

And I saw more subtlety in Faramir on view two. He doesn't do anything out of personal evil or lust for the ring... only loyalty to the rule of his father. He takes the prisonors because of law, and intended to give the ring to his father, because that would be the right thing to do in his mind. He was not selfishly driven, so I respect him, and see why Gandalf would. He did alright.

[Overtaxed]

Now aren't you unhappy you pressed me to elaborate on my WOOO HOOO, Overtaxed??

Me? I'm not unhappy....or make that happy (2 negatives = a positive, right?) with your long post!

I still think that a lot of the "why we fight" speech sounded too much like a summary of the movie so far. Maybe it was just because it didn't sound like Sam.

[Penny1]

Congratulations, 2J!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Don't you think it is cool when the audience applauds?

Yes. What was more cool to me was that my neighbor, who had not read the books since high school, had to borrow my copy last night because the movie captured her imagination so thoroughly. Her body language and facial expressions during the movie were of rapt attention and amazement throughout the three hours.

That was really cool.

[HairOfTheDog]

How neat. My friend who hasn't read the books at all also really enjoyed it. She called the next day to thank me for taking her. I was amazed she stayed awake! And pleased that she enjoyed it. She is an early-to-bed type like myself, and I was quite surprised that she went to the midnight show.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Yes, the speech was strangely out of character and you wonder why PJ had Sam giving it. The speech was fine as a summation, but it certainly wasn't Sam.

[2Jedismom]

Thanks! Ahh, it hasn't been so difficult...

I gotta go, though...I'm vacuuming the carpets and they should be home soon. See you all when I see you!

[osagebowman]

Congratulations on the anniversary, it's but better watch out, once you hit the double digits they start coming a lot faster. lol, first thing you know, you and steve will be the "old folks down the block" like we are, Susan and I celebrated 30 years in September.