LOTR: TTT Discussion only... likes and dislikes *SPOILERS*

[ScottyB]

Originally posted by: neomits

Originally posted by: ScottyB

Originally posted by: neomits

The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

OMG YES!!! I saw it the first time with very few ppl so no one laughed at this part (almost everyone there was a critic for a paper or something) and I was amazed by how awesome the performance of a CGI character was. Then I saw it last night and ppl laughed. It pissed me off so much, but after seeing it a third time my friends and I agree that it was pulled off a little weird. I mean if you even have the slight hesitation that the audience will laugh at this serious part then it needs to be worked out.

Second time seeing it is DEFINETLY way better

and yes for all the small things PJ does change he makes it all good by adding things in that weren't fully described in the books. Using trolls to open the Black Gates !!! GREAT STUFF

I know the theater emplyees should just slice peoples' necks if they laugh at a part they think is funny and you think is serious. I mean who do they think they are?

I meant Peter Jackson should have figured it out before hand that "hey some ppl might think this is funny when its not supposed to be" and he should go back and make it to where it can't be misinterpreted. Unless he really meant for it to be funny.

I'm not saying the people are at fault for laughing

That's all right then. I just get upset over people you think that the rest of the audience is stupid and somehow their interpretation of the film is better because some higher deity enlightened them to movie going ways.

 

[Nemesis77]

I still have to wait 'till saturday ... But, after reading numerous comments regarding TTT here and elsewhere, I feel safe in making this assumption:

It seems to me that most of the complaints regarding the movie are that it was different from the book in some places. Not that those changes were automatically worse, just that they were different from what we were expecting. For example, Faramir. Why was he changed? Well, not much happens between Frodo and Faramir. They meet, have a debate and Faramir let's them go. That wouldn't really work in a movie, so they expanded and extended it. Also, we now had the chance to see some of the border-battles between Gondor and Mordor, something that is only referred to in the books. And the movie does show what we need to know: Faramir is the stronger of the two brothers.

About the Nazgul and Frodo, why was that scene there? So that audience realizes how the ring is taking control of Frodo. Remember: these movies aren't just targeted to people who have read the books, they are just as much meant for people who have not read the books. My GF hadn't read the books when I took her to see FoTR. After the movie, she borrowed my copy of LOTR and read it

The ent-battle? That was 100% as it happened in the books. Only difference is that we get to see it first hand. In the books we only hear about it afterwards. And would it really work in a movie (a visual media) is they go to Orthanc only to find the place in ruins. And they are then told that "OMG! You just missed the greates battle there was! Ents destroying everything in sight!". Would that work in a movie? Nope.

The only thing I haven't yet understood is the addition of elves to Helms Deep. But I'll wait till saturday before drawing my conclusions.

 

[shurato]

Since I never read the book, I didn't have too many gripes...However the ents did look a tad cheesy at times...honestly I didn'nt notice the packed audience laughing much at them but cheering...especially in the scene where they fight. Only time the audience collectively laughed was during the scenes where it was "supposed" to be funny which I thank god...I can't stand serious moments ruined by a bunch of morons laughing. Whatsup with the niece of the King of Rohan(sp?)...why does she suddenly fall in love with Aragorn...is it explained in much further depth in the book?

 

[0roo0roo]

Gollum
More than I expected. Such a great range of emotions. He was heart-breaking and vile and disgusting at the same time. Just blew my mind. He looked so good that I thought he was real at times. If he had unnatural movement/look like previous CG characters from other movies, I just wouldn't be as drawn in. Yes I knew he was CG, but it was GOOD CG. Incredible would eb a better description. The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

i think they laughed because they were uncomfortable at how real he looked, yet so foreign.

 

[LikeLinus]

<<I am as big of a fan as any...anyone who knows me, knows i'm that lord of the rings guy. Don't think I'm a fanboy here.>>

You're joking right? You have to be THE biggest LOTR fanboy i've seen, atleast on this board. Hell you create a post like every day about these damn movies. "Obessed" comes to mind when i think about you and LOTR.

 

[SaltBoy]

Best shot of the film that hasn't been mentioned yet: Legolas' AMAZING maneuver of getting on the horse while it's still moving. The jaws of both my wife and I just dropped when we saw that.

FANTASTIC movie, but it needed to be longer! I can't wait for the extended edition!

 

[Ketteringo]

1st of all, BEST MOVIE EVAR
And now some critiques:
Gollum = Dobbie from Harry Potter? I dunno, they just seem kind of similar. I though Gollum was going to be more like a frog with bigger eyes and whatnot.

Ents - some of the stop motion/ blue screening looked kinda crappy. I expected better graphics (like all CGI) from the biggest movie of the year. It kind of reminded me of Evil Dead or Army of Darkness at some parts. Also, you could really tell some thing were miniatures, like Sauron's tower with the eye, and some of the wooden structures during the attack of the ents.

Faramir: WTF? Nuff said.

It also pissed me off that people were laughing at Gollum when he was doing his whole split personality thing. I guess too many people brought their kids to this movie.

After seeing that article on the Alabama baptist thing yesterday about Frodo and Sam being gay their acting just didnt seem right

Dwarf tossing = best thing ever

I didnt like how the biggest part of the movie (the battle at helms deep) was put off until the VERY VERY end of the movie. I guess it was all right but there should have been more stuff after that IMHO.

Oliphants = awesome and huge

Balrog fight in the begining = awesome

Helm's deep = awesome

All the elves dying = sad

Ent attack = very cool, esp the one who caught fire and put himself out when the water flooded in

Overall the best movie of the year, and prolly one of the best movies ever made. LotR is as good as if not better than the whole Star Wars trilogy (4,5,6).

We have to wait a WHOLE YEAR for the next one? DANG GINA!

PS - cant wait for the extended version of this one!

 

[SaltBoy]

Originally posted by: ANY5546

It also pissed me off that people were laughing at Gollum when he was doing his whole split personality thing. I guess too many people brought their kids to this movie.

I admit I laughed at it quite heartily (as did much of our audience), but not because I thought it was cheesy. I thought it was truly funny and very well done. I think PJ meant for parts of it to be funny. If he didn't, oh well. As for me, I loved it!

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: SaltBoy
Best shot of the film that hasn't been mentioned yet: Legolas' AMAZING maneuver of getting on the horse while it's still moving. The jaws of both my wife and I just dropped when we saw that.

FANTASTIC movie, but it needed to be longer! I can't wait for the extended edition!

Agreed! That was like something from The Matrix where everyone else was slowed way down, but Legolas was moving at almost full speed. Really cool.

 

[LethalWolfe]

The audience I was w/reacted very well to gollum. I mean, you could hear a pin drop when he was "argrueing" w/himself. Everyone was captivated. Even all the kids in the audience (of course many school systems have you read The Hobbit around 6th or 7th grade so it's not like this is a "grown up" story). I was amazedy by gollums performance, and then i was amazed I got amazed by a CG charactor (thanx for the link talking about the actor behind gollum).

Of course everyone laughed, well at least I did, when Gollum was beating that fish after it almost got away from him. That was funny.


Lethal

 

[joohang]

Originally posted by: lirion

Originally posted by: SaltBoy
Best shot of the film that hasn't been mentioned yet: Legolas' AMAZING maneuver of getting on the horse while it's still moving. The jaws of both my wife and I just dropped when we saw that.

FANTASTIC movie, but it needed to be longer! I can't wait for the extended edition!

Agreed! That was like something from The Matrix where everyone else was slowed way down, but Legolas was moving at almost full speed. Really cool.

Yup. Definitely got a lot of "wow" points from me and many others in the theatre.

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: shurato
Whatsup with the niece of the King of Rohan(sp?)...why does she suddenly fall in love with Aragorn...is it explained in much further depth in the book?

Yes it is...basically she sees him as the only way she could ever gain honor or prestige; there's a great passage about it in Return of the King.

 

[mithrandir2001]

This wasn't LOTR. This was "big budget action adventure epic packaged under the LOTR name."

ROTK will probably add a subplot of Gollum stealing the Ring back from Frodo temporarily to "add tension". Heck, the Ring will probably change hands many times in ROTK. Perhaps there will be a face-to-face battle with Sauron on Mount Doom ending with Gandalf flying in on his broomstick (the Nimbus 3000 no less), wielding the Ring and becoming some godlike monster who throws Sauron in the fire and then casts himself in afterwards as a final sacrifice. Aragorn and Arwen then have a prolonged makeout scene as the sun sets and the credits roll.

 

[benliong]

Originally posted by: KevinH
The Real Story Behind Gollum


In essence, there IS a real actor behind him.

There's almost always a real actor behind every CGI character, especially if the character take such an important role as Gollum. With the exception of Yoda, which obviously no one person can fight like yoda.

What's amazing is the facial expression of Gollum. The fear, the anger, the joy, all conveyed effortlessly through his expressions.

I though the movie wasn't as "smooth" as the first one in term of pacing. But then maybe that's because I haven't seen it a second time. I think the biggest problem I have is when they kept cutting between the Big battle and the trees fighting. They switch back and forth like some of us pressing alt-tab.

Action's awesome. That MASSIVE software that they developed really kicked some major A$$

 

[Czar]

I saw the Fellowship of the Ring for the first time few days ago and then saw The Two Towers yesterday, for the first time I realy must say DVD QUALITY SUCKS!!!!! I demand that after the third movie is released every movie theater that can shows all of the three films, extended versions in film quality.

anyway, my good and bad

Gandalf and the Balrog, just an amazing scene, loved the view when they were falling down into the big cave with the water:Q only thing that I found a bit too much is in the begining when Gandalf took the sword and flew at the Balrog like Superman or something, but thats probably because I was NOT expecting it.

The whole Frodo, Sam and Gollum part, the character build up was exactly right. Gollum, dont know what to say other than for the first time ever I think a CG character should get an Oscar ( discussion on a profesional 3D forum about the movie, just to see what pro's think of Gollum )

Gate to Mardor and the new armies, the gate was waaaaay more impressive than I had imagined from the books. The two cave trolls opening it was a nice touch. The new armies were also very nicely done, different from what middle earth knows.

The Rohan, Begining, they did this exactly like I remembered it from the books for the most part. Only bad bit is the King while Sauron controled him, he was just too old lookng compared to how he was later on. The saddes moment in both movies is definetly when the king by his sons grave.

The Wargs, not from the book, but probably the best change from the book in the whole book. Only complaints is when Aragon fell into the river, asked my friends who were with me if they remembered that from the book and they didnt and I didnt either so it realy didnt matter that much.

Merry, Pippin and the Ents, just perfect like usual for the most part , only complaints and this is a big one, all the scenes where the hobbits where on Treebeards back it just looked so FAKE, extremely fake. The lightning was all wrong, the movement was all wrong and the transittion from the foregroudn to the background was all wrong. All the Ents where... perfect

Faramir and his lot, he was very different from the books, he ought to have been like some here have said the good brother compared to Boromir and not just exactly like his brother in every single way:disgust: They might fix this a bit in the extended version like they did with first film.

Arwen, ok this time Arwen is like she was in the Books, not a hero. Still dont like how Liv Tyler overacts the character, only bad casting so far.

Helms Deep battle, jaw dropping

Isengard battle, jaw dropping only thing I missed is that the forest didnt move like they were supposed to in the books. The Dam was a nice surprise to end a rather complex battle. Hopefully the finish the battle in the next movie.


364 days and counting

 

[Schnieds]

Some thoughts:

Overall: Great and Disturbing at the same time

Good:

-The imagery was incredible.
-The scene where Frodo, Sam, and Golumn were looking down at the Black Gate way exactly how I had imagined it while reading the books over and over...
-The battle scenes were incredible.
-Gandalf was wise, powerful, and incredible in his scenes.
-They did a wonderful job with Smeagol / Gollum.
-Frodo's struggle with the power of the Ring.

Disturbing:

-Faramir. As someone else posted, he represented a Man who was wise and good hearted. It didn't play out much in this movie. But in ROTK Faramir's relationship with his father, his struggle as the son that his father didn't love as much as Boromir, his relationship with Aragorn, and his eventually becoming a king is abosolutely vital. I can't believe that Jackson changed this because Faramir is now a lot like Boromir in a lot of people's eyes.... wrong. This really bothered me. Kinda ruins Faramir for the next movie.

-Entmoot: The ents decided to go to war on their own. I did not like how they decided not to help and then they all of a sudden got mad because of their bretheren being killed. Ents are not hasty, that is the whole point. They would not have lashed out at the end like that. Why change the story?!?!?!?!?

-Aragorn almost dying: Stupid. What a waste of movie time that could have been spent developing the Entmoot and Ent storyline.

-Elves at Helm's Deep: Stupid. Hurons would have been so much cooler. The elves shot a few arrows and died. What a waste. The Hurons were so mysterious and would have added a huge wow factor to the movie.

Overall:

I can understand cutting some scenes from the book for time sake, and even taking changing very minor things to adapt to the screen better (like in FOTR.)
However, I cannot accept blatant changes to the storyline. I can't believe the huge ego that Jackson and his cohorts must have to change one of the most loved and heralded storylines of all time. How in the world could you think that you could improve upon the Two Towers storyline written by Tolkien? It flowed so well. The characters were balanced so well. That is why it has been so popular for so long. I just can?t believe that they changed so much of the storyline in such huge ways.

I loved the imagery and the portrayal of most of the scenes and characters in the movie. But I was and am disgusted with the storyline changes. They had no purpose.

 

[GTaudiophile]

So, im summation, are you all saying that TTT is not as true to the book as FOTR is? Which is the better movie, FOTR or TTT?

 

[joohang]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
So, im summation, are you all saying that TTT is not as true to the book as FOTR is? Which is the better movie, FOTR or TTT?

I didn't read the book but I personally think that FOTR was better overall.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: mithrandir2001
This wasn't LOTR. This was "big budget action adventure epic packaged under the LOTR name."

ROTK will probably add a subplot of Gollum stealing the Ring back from Frodo temporarily to "add tension". Heck, the Ring will probably change hands many times in ROTK. Perhaps there will be a face-to-face battle with Sauron on Mount Doom ending with Gandalf flying in on his broomstick (the Nimbus 3000 no less), wielding the Ring and becoming some godlike monster who throws Sauron in the fire and then casts himself in afterwards as a final sacrifice. Aragorn and Arwen then have a prolonged makeout scene as the sun sets and the credits roll.

Agreed. I think that people who didn't love the books with love the movie. However, for those who actually fell in love with the books I can't imagine them accepting the heinous storyline changes that were made... I was actually very disappointed when I left the theater.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
So, im summation, are you all saying that TTT is not as true to the book as FOTR is? Which is the better movie, FOTR or TTT?

both have their moments, FOTR mostly for the adventure feel, TTT to morph the first and third movie together, with an adventure feel and epic battles and the dark and gloomy feel.

 

[Schnieds]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
So, im summation, are you all saying that TTT is not as true to the book as FOTR is? Which is the better movie, FOTR or TTT?

If you haven't read/loved the books you will probably like TTT better. If you have, I would say that FOTR was better because it didn't obliterate the true storyline.

 

[Czar]

this true?

I also think the movie was a bit fast-going, but I heard that the
dvd that comes out will have 40 mins extra movie !!

 

[Czar]

http://millimeter.com/ar/video_ai_armies/
article about Massive, the program used to create the armies

 

[FettsBabe]

LOTR will go down as a masterpiece. In my opinion it supercedes Star Wars! I loved the TTT. Absolutely Amazing MOVIE!!!!!!!

 

[kami]

This wasn't LOTR. This was "big budget action adventure epic packaged under the LOTR name."

ROTK will probably add a subplot of Gollum stealing the Ring back from Frodo temporarily to "add tension". Heck, the Ring will probably change hands many times in ROTK. Perhaps there will be a face-to-face battle with Sauron on Mount Doom ending with Gandalf flying in on his broomstick (the Nimbus 3000 no less), wielding the Ring and becoming some godlike monster who throws Sauron in the fire and then casts himself in afterwards as a final sacrifice. Aragorn and Arwen then have a prolonged makeout scene as the sun sets and the credits roll.

However, I cannot accept blatant changes to the storyline. I can't believe the huge ego that Jackson and his cohorts must have to change one of the most loved and heralded storylines of all time. How in the world could you think that you could improve upon the Two Towers storyline written by Tolkien? It flowed so well. The characters were balanced so well. That is why it has been so popular for so long. I just can?t believe that they changed so much of the storyline in such huge ways.

Jackson has mentioned for over a year that TTT will be the most changed, and FOTR and ROTK will follow much closer to the books. Translate the book word for word and not only would the movie be a little dry ( a la harry potter's exact translation...boring and uninspired i'm told) but you would NEVER EVER fit it into 3 hours unless you cut out other parts completely instead of changing them. TTT just has way too much stuff to cover.

I can't even imagine how hard it was to write this script and try and keep in as much of the story as possible while letting it FLOW LIKE A 3 HOUR FILM at the same time.

These are movies guys, not books! Once you learn to seperate the two (like I did) you'll enjoy it 10 times more. The books are a seperate entity to me, and what I imagined in them won't be destroyed by what I see in the movies. If I couldn't do this, I'd be bitching about it right now too.