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LOTR Internet-Only Trailer
fjordboy writes: "The Lord of the Rings.net official movie site has an Internet-only teaser available tonight on their Web site and on their Real Channel. Go to the Web site to see the film, (or you can go to see the movie Thirteen Days in theaters to view the first theatrical release of the LOTR teaser)." If you're still awake in California (or in sympathy) and have power, guess you have first dibs.
It is 6:00 am. Your alarm is going off. Your first class is at 8:30.
>get up
It is 6:10 am. You have turned off your alarm.
>take shower
Halfway through your shower, Block B of Edison's interruptible load is taken offline.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>grab towel
You are in the shower, holding a somewhat wet towel. The shower is no longer hot but is still warm. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>turn off shower
You are in the shower, holding a somewhat wet towel. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>dry off
You dry off as quickly as you can using the wet towel.
As soon as you finish, you are eaten by a group of racketeers of underregulated electricity.
They need not mangle the story at all. The story is perfect as it is. However, hollywood has a tendancy to try to "improve" a good story by adding in more modern elements in an attempt to draw a larger audience. This is the ultimate failing in a great many movies that are based upon a book. I can see many possible "modifications" that they might attempt to make to the trilogy. First of all, the characters in the books are predominantly male. Certainly, there are female characters, but they don't have much "screen time" as compared to the male characters. This is not all together a bad thing. There is an underlying moral to be gained from this as in Return of the King it is a female (one who was ordered to remain behind for her safety) who ends up slaying the King of the Nazgul. This makes several powerful, if somewhat subliminal statements.
However, someone will probably tamper with the script to add larger roles for female characters and this will ultimately serve to undermine the underlying themes. And this is only one example. I can think of many other ways they could screw it up.
In addition, a big problem with the other LOTR movie was the fact that too much time was spent on scenes that should have been fast and furious (the end of book 1 where Frodo is being chased toward the Ford by all 9 riders). This is a 3 minute scene in the movie, but I can read the entire sequence in the book in less time. Other scenes which explain the history and background of the entire legend that the story is about, will be quickly skimmed over, leaving out a great deal of information which is useful to digest the rest of the story with (the council meeting).
I DO believe a good movie can be made though. I just don't know if hollywood is capable of making it.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Here is an amusing parody of the trailer. Best line: "One shiny ring to rule them all."
To the first person to remove the "internet only" part so we can just download the damn thing!
Mike.
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
BTW, did anyone else find it strange that even though the movie is being shot with spherical lenses, all the computer-generated lens flares in the trailer are oval-shaped (like those produced by anamorphic lenses)? A minor detail, but it's a tad sloppy. I would have expected them to be more careful about little things like that...
Free Hans!
1. Looks nice. Seamless effects, has that "big-budget" look. As long as they don't mangle the story, this could be great.
2. I didn't know, but it's a trilogy! Three movies, each to be released at Christmas a year apart. The Fellowship of the Ring 2001, The Two Towers 2002, The Return of the King 2003. Enough screen time to do the story right? Maybe... I hope so!
3. There is a review of this trailer on Ain't It Cool News.
4. It made me want to pull the books out and read them again!
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Anyway, the preview was very nicely done. Starts off showing a ring floating, spinning, et cetera, with the narrator saying the "one ring to..." poem. It had a different tone than I would have imagined, but it was nicely done. Additionally, they did some effects as the ring came to rest in a hand (whose, I don't know). It's hard to describe, but it looks like the magical powers of the Ring will be conveyed quite well.
They went on to show some epic scenes of the band wandering along. There wasn't much of Gandalf, but there was a quick shot of him slamming down his staff with some resulting lightning flashies. I recognized Legolas, Gimli, and the hobbits, plus a short narration by someone I presumed to be the Lady Galadriel, who seemed to be portrayed quite well (beautiful, poised, etc).
There were a few quick scenes with the Nazgul, as well as one breathtaking shot of a tremendously large army (of Orcs) swooping over the plains. To be quite honest, the preview itself was rather disappointing, but as the story itself is already known, it didn't matter so much. I'm looking forward to the movie(s) a lot; this did a great job of whetting my appetite.
--
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
1) There will be no Tom Bombadil in the movie, that part of the plot will be left out.
2) Arwen's character will be expanded. I'm not sure the implications of this, but some have said Arwen will be more like Xena: Warrior Princess. This is probably an exagerration. In addition, the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn will be seen more often, and sooner than it surfaces in the books.
3) Some of the events that are told about (such as the fight between Saruman and Gandalf) will happen real-time in the movies, rather than 'as told by Gandalf'.
4) a few minor characters will be left out, and a few will be added.
5) the scouring of the shire will be rather different, though it is not certain how.
For more stuff like this, there's about a dozen LotR movie fanatic pages, with all sorts of images and details.
Back off, man. I'm a scientist.