Posted on 12/17/2002 7:32:02 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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.
Your rein of terror must stop. No more trotting out of bits of levity. What do you think we're discussing? Canterbury Tales?
*grin*
*groan*
That's cool, Corin!
HA! HA! Bravo!
My nephews are coming over tonight. My wife's sister and her husband are celebrating their anniversary, so we get the honors. They're not bad kids, but they can destroy a house in no time flat. They're 4 and 2, and with our little one...well, let's just say I'm not up to this tonite...but we'll do it anyway.
I may be back on later. If not I'll see y'all tomorrow.
:)
My sister has my PC at her house, where the XP demon has been vanquished and is being replaced by Windows 98 2nd Edition.
Thus, no online time tonight, but I'm hoping for tomorrow night! ;) Bye bye!
The problem with XP Home Edition is that it has practically NO backwards compatibility. Thus, none of Becky's CD-Rom games will work on it. Also, it won't allow me to properly install Norton.
The final decision to kill it was made when XP decided I didn't really need to use Internet Explorer, MSN Explorer or check my Hotmail account anymore. In other words, I'd click and nothing would happen. XP forced me to use my AOL browser which is horrible! I feel like I'm trapped in a carnival!
So, I went to Windows Update to find a patch that supposedly would fix the problem and guess what? Nothing happened. It kept giving me an error message. After all of my sister's efforts, she announced it was futile. Thus, we killed it. :)
I'll see you tomorrow, Hair!
Yeah well, so do these people...
Okay, I'm really gone now...
I actually had trouble identifying Hama, and keeping some of the Rohirrim straight. The fellow from the Westmarch - name escapes me - who in the book helped Gandalf round up the scattered fighters and lead them to Helm's Deep also got short shrift. I hope Halbarad and the Grey Company still make it in to ROTK, but I doubt it.
Quite agree about the build up to Helm's Deep. The one scene that brought tears to my eyes was when the Rohirrim went through the refugees and separated out the older boys for battle. Seeing this with my wife and 10 year old son, I was heartbroken.
I actually liked all of the scenes with Rivendell, Galadriel, and the elves. Just in terms of pacing, they added the reflective counterpoint to the action sequences that was lacking due to the elimination of the friendly scenes of Merry and Pippen in Fangorn. You bring up a good point about Elrond though. Odd that he is portrayed as the elf with the least hope in men, while Galadriel, Arwen, Legolas, and Haldir all are much more supportive of men. Odd due to the fact that he is Elrond the HALF ELF! I don't think the movie ever introduces his human parentage, though, does it?
I sorely missed visiting Treebeard's home, and in general thought the ent scenes were too rushed. Even without sighing over whole scenes that were missing, a couple of little things bothered me. For instance, you see the ents emerge in force from the forest, and then cut away. When next we return to the ents, they are already inside the walls of Isengard sewing destruction. I would have liked even 10 seconds of their first storming the walls, and the utter disbelief that must have been felt by the defenders.
I loved the flaming ent dipping his head in the drink though.
Another nit. I would have liked more outrage from Saruman as he looks down on their havoc. To me, he underplayed the scene. Could have been looking down at some kid breaking his windows rather the destruction of his indestructible fortress.
I thought Faramir worked as a character, for the most part, and wasn't too troubled by the changes. I did think, though, that his release of Frodo didn't make sense within the internal logic of the movie. ESPECIALLY with all those other fighters standing around gauking. NO WAY that wouldn't have happened in private. All it would have taken would have been Faramir approaching them, and speaking to them in a quieter voice. Would even have mimicked Aragorn's last scene with Frodo at Amon Hen.
Our CGI friends? Gollum was wonderful, of course. Yummy rabbit, nasty taters. Balrog and fell beast perfect. Wargs pretty good. Uruks, and orcs in general, better than first movie. Especially like berserker orc and "looks like meat for dinner". Didn't care much for the oliphants.
And of course, the ending was too abrupt.
A few more quick hits...
Favorite moments/lines/scenes:
Nazgul sweeping over the Dead Marshes.
The Black Gate opens.
"You're late."
The fact that Rohan fires the first shot at Helm's Deep. Lingering over that first arrow shot, and dead orc, from the old Rohirrim.
The rain starts.
Eowyn almost let Grima kiss her! Yuck!
The filming and staging of Theoden's household bringing to mind King Lear.
Theoden's exorcism was a little too much.
The breaching of the wall.
Dawn.
Final thought. PJ has started each flick with a major action sequence. The fall of Sauron in FOTR, and the Balrog in TTT. I'm certain that we'll see Shelob within the first 10 minutes of ROTK.
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