From: address@bottom.of.message (Jamie Andrews) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien Subject: Movie notes, nits and praise (SPOILERS) Date: 19 Dec 2001 18:20:36 GMT Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Western Ontario Lines: 216 Message-ID: <9vqlpk$ps2$1@panther.uwo.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: hyphocus.csd.uwo.ca X-Trace: panther.uwo.ca 1008786036 26498 129.100.11.51 (19 Dec 2001 18:20:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@julian.uwo.ca NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 Dec 2001 18:20:36 GMT Originator: andrews@csd.uwo.ca Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!torn!newshost.uwo.ca!csd.uwo.ca!andrews Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:64151 Hi... saw the movie last night. Here are some brief thoughts. Spoilers follow. s p o i l e r : : s p a c e : : a : : e l b e r e t h : : g i l t h o n i e l - Overall I thought that the look and feel of the movie was excellent and accurate. There was very little of the original dialogue, but it didn't really matter. That should be kept in mind while reading some of the more peevish nits below. :-) - I ended up sitting in the third row (got there 30 minutes ahead of time and all the good seats were taken already!), so that had a couple of interesting consequences: - (1) I couldn't follow most of the fight scenes. The orcs, arrow-shooting, etc. were all a blur. This may have been good because I wasn't looking forward to the greater emphasis on fighting that was predicted. - (2) Apologies to PJ and the animators, but the CGI did look a little cheesy to me. Gwaihir the Windlord looked more like Gwaihir the SIGGRAPH Demo to me. - The battle with Sauron in the prologue: hmm. I thought that in the book, the Elves and Men had pretty much vanquished Sauron's army and what was happening was the final battle of Elendil, Gil-Galad, and Isildur with a cornered Sauron. Elendil and Gil-Galad are killed, Sauron is defeated and Isildur cuts that one finger from Sauron's hand. That wasn't the impression that I got from that scene in the movie. - The Shire: pretty much perfect. I was glad that PJ took the courageous step of dwelling on the Shire so much at the beginning, rather than just hustling the hobbits out for the action ASAP. This is a great movie equivalent of the first half of Book I, setting the scene of "all that could be lost if Sauron succeeded". And how the heck did they do that scene with McKellen and Holm in Bag End?? That part of the special effects, at least, was great. - Merry Prankster and Scotty Pippin: didn't much like the changes in the characters. I guess they were done to give those hobbits a bit more of a unique role; but it kind of trivialized them. And what was with that Scots accent on Pippin? I know they are from different parts of the Shire, but... hmmm. - Black Riders: no complaints - Absence of Bombadil: much as I love the character, no complaints - Bree: no complaints - Aragorn: thought Mortensen did a great job, and the character was written quite well too. - Weathertop: well... as I think Aragorn says in the book, even he couldn't have held off 5 Ringwraiths; they just wanted to wound Frodo in order to make him their slave. That wasn't too clear; the implication was that Aragorn had driven them off. - Arwen Asfaloth-rider: didn't mind her coming out to meet them, but I did feel that her sweeping Frodo up and protecting him did take away a bit from his own heroism. Her calling the flood of the Bruinen was a bit cheesy... all magic in Tolkien is very understated. - Saruman: no complaints, however... - Wizard Wrestlemania: didn't like it too much. - Elrond the Suspicious Cynic: I'm not sure what the point of this change in Elrond's character was. Maybe to make his opinion more forceful and urgent? Turned him into not nearly as benevolent a character as in the book, IMHO. Still, it was nice to see him and Isildur in vivid detail. - I was VERY impressed by the accuracy of the pronunciation of the names in the movie. (I remember in the Bakshi movie some English-accented announcer intoning about EYE-zil-door... yech.) They even got right ones that I habitually mispronounce, such as Fundin and Earendil. - Aragorn and Arwen: this was a nice addition and certainly will help to motivate Aragorn's character. - Council of Elrond Ultimate Smackdown: yeah, I can see that the Council was made more contentious and physical in order to make it more interesting, but it trivialized it a little for me. - Boromir: other than the fact that his lust for the Ring is telegraphed a bit too obviously and repeatedly, I thought that the writing and direction were fabulous and I can't say enough about Sean Bean's performance. Superb. - Uruk-Hai Pod Birth: OK, now that I see it, I wouldn't say it's too much of a stretch. The movie is saying that the first ones were created this way, but it doesn't preclude them also multiplying normally. - Lurtz: this wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been either, since his name is never mentioned as far as I ever noticed, and he really was just the "archetypal Uruk-Hai", not a big new separate character. - Gimli: written a bit too one-dimensional and self-centred for my taste. - Legolas: no complaints - Gates of Moria: one small place where I think PJ screwed up. The tension and resolution of the puzzle was much more satisfying in the book and even (if I recall correctly) in the Bakshi movie. Dunno why PJ decided to forego that. - Did they scan Tolkien's original calligraphy and transform it for the Ring and the Gates? If so, then that's pretty neat -- we are actually seeing the writing from Tolkien's hand in the movie. - Chevy Chase Pippin in Mazarbul: not too much of a stretch for me, though it kind of turns the alerting of the orcs into being all Pippin's fault... a bit harsh. - Plate Mail Orcs: in general, the orcs were a bit too tough as opponents. The Company were all pretty much in chain mail, and the orcs in plate, right?... it made the orcs pretty formidable. In the book, I got the impression of the orcs as being short, not very skillful, and not very well-armoured, but just very numerous and vicious. - The Interminable Mazarbul CGI Cave-Troll Battle: another small screwup for PJ and the production team. I didn't understand the point of this. The fight seemed to go on for hours, and the cave-troll was such an tough opponent that I didn't get much of a feeling that the Company was up to the task. Trolls are tough but a couple of the fighters should have been able to dispatch him pretty quickly. Where were all the orcs while they were dancing around sticking the cave-troll full of arrows? - Spider orcs: eh... mild disapproval but nothing major. - The Crumbling Staircase of Moria: I don't think this was in the book, but it was a nice addition. Didn't mind the Gimli quip; nice comic relief. - Balrog: No wings! Yay! (At least, not that I could see from the third row. :-)) Not as I imagined him, but pretty good nonetheless. - Fly you fools: it was great to hear Gandalf's challenge to the Balrog pretty much word for word (I was in the peanut gallery helping him say it :-)). - Lorien/Galadriel: very very interesting treatment. They decided to focus on the central theme of Galadriel being "beautiful and terrible". Certainly one aspect of her character, but I was surprised that they didn't focus on Lorien as a place of healing and peace for the Company and on Galadriel captivating everyone (including especially Sam and Gimli) with her beauty and grace. However, didn't dislike it. - Slow friends: even by the end of the movie, Legolas and Gimli are not really friends yet. I wonder... presumably this will be a development from the hunt for the Orcs. There was some hint of it in their final glances to each other. - Argonath: OK, now that I see it, I partly take back my "Peevish Argonath gripe" of a few weeks ago: they did indeed depict the arms as being supported by enough rock in the draperies. I still think they should have looked more like "pillars", though. :-) - Boromir and Frodo at Parth Galen: superb - Boromir and the Uruk-Hai: directed at a curiously slow pace. I imagined the hobbits fighting with Boromir protecting them, with lots of smaller, less well-armoured orcs shooting many small arrows as he fought, slowly losing blood and strength until they could take away the hobbits. Oh well. - Movie final scenes: leave the entire feeling of the movie and the prospects for the future exactly right, in my opinion. Dunno what those comments about the "art-film ending" were all about... hey critics, what you're seeing there is Tolkien's original writing! - I see I didn't mention Gandalf at all... probably means that McKellen, the writing, and the direction were so good that he just fit perfectly as the Gandalf of my imagination. Gee, guess that wasn't so brief after all. :-) My only parting comment is that although I wasn't swept away and captivated by the movie, it's mostly because all of the sweeping away and captivating was done for me 25 years ago by Tolkien's wonderful book(s). I was very excited to go and to be there with a whole big group of people who were experiencing Tolkien's vision together, some obviously for the first time. PJ didn't screw up in any major way, and their additions, changes and dialogue very skillfully preserved the overall feeling of the book, so the story could carry everything along as it did in written form. OK, one more parting comment. Let me be a bit clearer in what I'm saying: I don't want to take anything away from the enormous accomplishment of Peter Jackson and his team, but what the audience is experiencing is the magnificence of Tolkien's story. The accomplishment of Jackson et al. is that they so superbly adapted the story to the new medium, allowing the audience to experience it as fully as possible. --Jamie. (nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita) andrews .uwo } Merge these two lines to obtain my e-mail address. @csd .ca } (Unsolicited "bulk" e-mail costs everyone.)