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Interview with Peter Jackson on LoTR Bloopers
erth writes "Newsweek has an interview with Peter Jackson asking him what he thinks about some of the most famous and/or obvious bloopers in the LoTR series. Moviemistakes.com has more Fellowhip of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King bloopers as well for your snickering pleasure." I just wanted to give my props to Jackson and all- we took off early yesterday to see the final film. It was everything I hoped for... except for the bits that I expect I'll have to wait for the extended edition DVD to see. And I was to busy grinning ear to ear to notice any serious bloopers.
Moviemistakes.com has more Fellowhip of the Ring That's gotta be a deliberate mistake.
aterr - an open source threaded discussion board.
My /. journal entry from last night:
So, here's my review of The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (combined with the review of Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers)
The reviews in order are:
Crap, Crap Squared, Crap Cubed
Anything to me is believeable in Star Wars, because it is set in a technologically, spiritually, metaphysically, geographically distant time/setting. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy however is suppose to set on what seems like Earth (albeit mixed with fantasy). (Can anyone confirm that Middle Earth is SUPPOSE to be our ficticious past?)
So, the thing that ruins the whole trilogy is the fact that the whole trilogy is unneccesary. Why couldn't Gandalf hop on a Nuclear radiated giant eagle - fly over the top of "Mount Incinerator" and drop the ring? Poof, end of story. The people of Rohan and Gondor would've been much happier!
Ain't It Cool News, a review and movie gossip website, rated this the "ending of a trilogy that surpasses Star Wars and raises a new bar" - I will have to say that the effects (especially nuclear radiated eliphants were spectacular) - but any movie with a decent budget is going to seem so realistic you feel like it's real nowadays.
The only good thing about this movie was that I got to see the "Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow" Preview. That movie looks amazing. Even in the preview, a giant robot steps on a senior citizen. I've always liked Conan O'Brien's joke about the #1 nightmare of adults 65 and older is robots killing them in their sleep.
And what's up with clapping during the show
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
No blooper is as big as PJ being denied an Oscar these last 2 years.
If he doesn't get it this year the Oscars will become irrelevant. It's just that obvious.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Is this not a dupe!
Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
"My server is getting quite overloaded at the moment due to lots of publicity (more than quadruple my usual traffic), resulting in access problems and errors for a lot of people. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, and I'm working on improvements - if you're having trouble checking out the site, please visit again soon when everything should be back to full working order. Thanks..."
That didn't last long, now did it?
Pretty much all of the children of Rohan and Gondor and the Shire look like the offspring Peter Jackson.
Coincidence, OR FATE!???
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
My server is getting quite overloaded at the moment due to lots of publicity (more than quadruple my usual traffic), resulting in access problems and errors for a lot of people. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, and I'm working on improvements - if you're having trouble checking out the site, please visit again soon when everything should be back to full working order. Thanks...
Damn dude, what can I say.
Use the google cache
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
I'm pretty sure that the book has far fewer mistakes, as far as Tolkien could be concerned, so just go read that. I'm doing just fine with paper and ink.
The Hobbit was the first book I read and still my favorite. They say that he wants to use some of the same actors, too. All in all, it gives us something to look forward to.
Here is more info:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/3977.html
Usurper_ii
Ron Paul
That was fast. Surprises me, too, since that site is pretty popular and i would assume it would have decent bandwidth. Must be a lot of us interested in this story.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Didn't you see the text scroll on the screen saying "If you want to know what happens, read the book"? :)
Actually, when I saw it last night, the movie cut out right when Aragorn faced off against a troll in front of the Black Gate. After about 20 minutes and a theater employee apologizing, it came back on.
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
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Incidentally, what are "props"?
unless i'm mistaken, the picture accompanying the article is of a regular orc, not an uruk-hai. (the caption reads 'Why are tough Uruk-hai KO'd by mere rocks?')
wow, i'm a nerd.
Fitting punishment for their heresy. We all know there can be no "flaws" in these holy movies. The silencing of this instigator is a victory for Truth and Justice everywhere.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
Heh, they didn't even cover the good ones such as the archers without bows, the refilling quivers, the "dead" orcs that flinch when stepped on etc. Bottom line is that in my opinion Mr Jackson is not a very good director, its the actors, cinimatographer and art department that should be getting the credit for the LOR movies. They are good despite Peter Jackson and not because of him.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
This has been one of the best book to movie conversions I have seen. Especially considering that this is an incredibly difficult work to start with. The things that were removed wihtout shame (poetry), combined (multitudes of side characters) and left out intentionally, but with a sidelong glance (Tom Bombadill alone causes endless arguments because not enough detail is in the *books* to make a case for what he is supposed to represent. However, one of his poems does sneak into the second movie, although recited by Treebeard) show the dedication put into this movie. It would have been so easy to coast on the later movies (production costs were recovered from the first movie alone), but these are not the products of coasting, but of true affection for the grand story - the story that launched a thousand imitating "great arc fantasy" novels.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Google caches for the MovieMistakes.com stuff:
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Sorry, Return of the King isn't cached yet...
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
Can we have an interview with CmdrTaco on Slashdot Bloopers? Same format - list out all the dupes on slashdot in the past 5-6 years, and give Rob a good way to tell us why he doesn't read his own website. ;-)
This is a really old story. Sorry to be redundant, I'm just used to finding newer stuff on the /. front page.
In other news, I have to wait until Friday to see ROTK. The number of critical plaudits for this one is almost unbelievable, in such a usually divided field. Check out rottentomatoes if you don't know what I'm talking about.
When I clicky on the interview link, it connect to some site on an msn domain, loads a few graphics and then promptly insta-closes (crashes) my Mozilla Firebird.
...stupid msn.
browser info:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031015 Firebird/0.7
Running redhat 9 and enlightenment 0.16.5-1
Anyone else experience a problem or just me?
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
And I was to busy grinning ear to ear to notice any serious bloopers.
and apparently too busy to edit your comment.
:) i kid because i love.
They missed my two faovirtes! In FOTR when Sauraman is standing on top of Isengard before the avalanche on Caradhras you can clearly see he has a big bandage on the middle finger of his left hand, he got his hand slammed in a door but I guess they forgot he had it! Then in TTT when the riders of Rohan come to the orc incampment when the horse rears up and pippen is about to get hit by the hooves his arms are kinda like this \/ but then when he roles away they are tied again!
A little off-topic... but worthed to /. readers, a mature Open Source game based on Tolkien's
world: Troubles of Middle-Eearth.
ToME has been improved over several years. It is based on the venerable
Angband
rogue-like game. There's a lot of Angband variants. There's even
a Multiplayer
ToME in development.
:-) Do not forget to set graphics "on"... even if they're not that
good.
ToME is great for being very faithful and compliant to Tolkien's world. Ok, maybe it's not Middle-Earth Online, but it's free and honestly, this game is freaking addictive !
Animoog.org
I don't know about that. If Eminem can win some grammys, they can't be that out of touch. Seems to me that some pretty interesting and progressive artists have won lately.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
Nowhere in the link you posted is there a reference to moviemistakes.com.
The interview from msnbc/newsweek might be the same or similar, but there IS new content.
no comment
Thank you for that (good explanation)- the post wasn't intended as a troll or flamebait, but I knew it would get modded that way. (Unjustly)
That said, and to address the other posts. Why does one have to CARRY THE RING on their body. Just put it on a stick. That says little about Gandalf or the elves self control. It's just something to ME is an insurmountable fact.
For those addressing sounds in space vs plot elements - they are separate. MOST people don't KNOW that sounds can't be heard in a vaccuum AND how do you KNOW in that galaxy or galaxies that physics aren't different? Maybe that's how the force is able to be taken advantage of, physics are different and can be manipulated by thought? Hmmm.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"props to Jackson"
Has that really made it into geek speak?
I thought we were still stuck at words like "cool", "really cool", and "awsome".
As in, "I just want to say that Jackson and gang has done an awsome job, ROTK is really cool. Really, really cool!"
Geez, looks like I'm falling behind the times. Can someone please send me the latest updates to the geek protocol manual?
Thanks man.
that's a paddling
Yes, but your post was neither offensive nor remotely funny. It was fucking lame.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yet on the DVD he says "I don't know what people are talking about" - and it doesn't sound like he is kidding, simply being serious??
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Yes. It's supposed to occur in our "prehistory".
A lot of people seem to ask this.
The short answer is obviously "because then there's no story". Even if this is the only answer, it doesn't have to be an issue. For example, a lot of people enjoyed the first Matrix movie, even though its premise violates physical laws (since human bodies cannot generate more energy than is put into them).
However, there are perfectly reasonable justifications for why the "just fly an Eagle into Mordor" isn't going to work.
In your scenario, Gandalf flies an Eagle over Mount Doom and drops the Ring in. If you recall, Gandalf was unwilling to even touch the Ring in the first movie because he felt he would be unable to resist the temptation to use it. He felt that hobbits in general and Frodo in particular would be better able to resist the temptation. This is because they have very little ambition or desire for power, as well as having relatively little innate power.
However, even Frodo, when it came down to it, was incapable of throwing the Ring into the fire! Gandalf would have been even more unable to.
What would probably happen in your scenario, given how Tolkien has set up the story, is Gandalf would take the Ring, mount the Eagle, make it most of the way to Mount Doom, and say "Forget this throwing away business, you can all call me Lord Gandalf now." There is no way he (or anyone else, I would argue [except perhaps Bombadil]) would be capable of dropping it in.
Another difficulty with the Eagle scenario is that it's extremely blatant. There is no secrecy possible. This means Sauron would have perceived it immediately. His significant psychic/spiritual power would instantly been focused on preventing the destruction of the Ring, either by destroying, cowing, or deceiving the bearer.
These first points are derivable from the movies alone. The following one requires knowledge of the books.
The (giant) Eagles are not at the command of anyone in Middle-Earth. They are the servants of Manwe, who in Tolkien's legendarium is the head Vala (arch-angel kind of figures), the ruler of Middle-Earth. The Valar felt that defeating Sauron was the responsibility of the peoples of Middle-Earth themselves. They sent help in the form of the Wizards (including Gandalf and Saruman), but even they were not supposed to act directly, but only advise, guide, and prompt. So while it's acceptable for the Eagles (as Manwe's representatives) to assist the effort against Sauron in minor ways, they cannot act more directly.
Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.
"And I was to busy grinning ear to ear to notice any serious bloopers." Anyone else out there catch themselves grinning like an idiot in the dark during these movies? I know I did. I was worried when I heard they were being made that they couldn't live up to the material, but Mr. Jackson did himself proud.
Um, he returned.
Therefore, he's sentenced to death.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
Just like Taco's back-to-back article dupe he posted earlier this week and told us all to "get over it". It's not like this place is runned by professionals or anything.
In the edition of the books that I have, Tolkien clearly states that the LotR is a story unto itself, not analagous to anything else (like WWII, like many believe). This is not to say that Tolkien didn't have plenty of inspiration along the way, but nothing in the book was supposed to parallel anything in real life.
nt
The pages states the following;
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 29 mistakes
Revealing: In the first scene in Edoras (the capital city of Rohan). The first pan over Edoras: You can see the pan is shown in reverse, with the smoke going into the chimney and the fire at the end is burning backwards. The flags are fluttering oddly as well.
Revealing: When Theoden is talking to Eowyn before he dies one can see that he is wearing contact lenses.
Factual error: Hobbits can't grow beards, yet Samwise Gamgee has stubble in most of his close-ups in Return Of The King. Even if they could grow beards, it seems unlikely they would be in a position to be shaving on that journey.
Continuity: In one of the final scenes of the movie, Frodo is writing in the book "There and Back Again," adding his own story. As he is finishing, he clutches the wound he received from one of the Nazgul in "The Fellowship of the Ring." In the hand that he uses clutch the wound, he still holds the quill pen. At the same time, Sam is entering Bag-End. When the camera angle changes, Frodo is still clutching the wound, but the pen has found its way into the ink jar.
Audio problem: In the scene where Gandalf enters the chambers of Gondor to speak with the Steward of the throne, the sound of his staff striking the floor matches the action in sporadic patches only. In the shot where he departs, that specific sound is consistent.
Continuity: When Gollum drops the lembas from the ridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in fluttering away, and the wafers fall roughly straight down. However, when Sam finds it later, the lembas is still mostly wrapped in the leaves, with only a few morsels broken off and laying around unwrapped.
Revealing: In the scene where the paciderm animals of Mordor are introduced in the battle, there's a shot that pans the front of the line of them. One animal has wood connecting its larger tusks, complete with barbs jutting out from the wood. As the orcs flee to regroup behind the animals, several run through the contraption unharmed.
Continuity: In the scene where Frodo is helped by Galadriel in Shelob's lair (in the "dream sequence") he lays on the ground. In his hair on HIS right side (viewers' left) is what appears to be some clovers or leaves or grass. The camera cuts to Galadriel then back to Frodo, the thing in his hair is gone. The camera cuts to her again and back to Frodo, the thing is back in his hair.
Continuity: In the scene where Frodo is tied up in the Tower, part of his face and hair is partly covered in spider webbing - the only opening is his face where Sam parted it to see that he had "died". After a few scenes of orcs, the next shot shows that Frodo has clean hair/face and his hands are still tied up.
Continuity: When Gandalf enters the castle of Rohan, the shot of his back shows him holding his staff in a vertical position. When the shot turns to his front, he is holding his staff in an horizontal position. The shot turns to his back, and the staff is again in the vertical position. Then the shot turns again to his front, showing his staff in a horizontal position.
Continuity: The scene where Pippin and Gandalf are talking about "the end" in Minas Tirith, during the battle of Pelenor fields. In one close-up shot, Gandalf's sword blade is shiny and silver. In the next shot, it's coated in black orc blood, then in the next shot, it's silver again.
Continuity: In the scene where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli enter the cave where the dead army resides, Aragorn pulls a torch seemingly from nowhere (especially interesting considering that his horse, and consequently all supplies, have run off in the scene before).
Continuity: When Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli etc, ride up to the gates of Mordor, the main characters go up to the gate on their own to demand it opens. The trails the horses leave on the way towards the gate are different to those that you see in the shot when they retreat after the gate ha
Wait a minute. I got it. You could play with your magic nose goblins.
When Aragorn finds the army of the dead, they look like the ghosts of soldiers. But when they attack Sauron's army at Pellenor Fields/Minas Tirith, they look like radioactive scrubbing bubbles.
Good, God! What makes you think people wanna see that? :P
Don't let the lusers get you down.
Here's what the Prologue to The Lord of the Rings says:
Tolkien is clearly saying that a lot has changed since the Third Age, but Middle-Earth is our world.
More discussion of this question can be found here.
Do not speak unless you can improve on the silence.
we should just make a default sorry letter to all these websites.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
I noticed last night that Frodo seemed to have all of his fingers when he was hugging everyone goodbye at the harbor...
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Linguistically you are correct. Being banished on pain of death means that if you return, the punishment is death.
/. and didn't read (watch) the article (film/book) they were commenting upon...
Presumably the commenters thought they were on
Global symbol "$deity" requires explicit package name at line 2. - If only $scripture started "use strict;"
YHBT YHL HAND
sexy! i clicked twice!
Anyone else notice when Sam and Froto are running out of the cave being chased by a river of lava was a very cliche shot?
It's almost like PJ took stock footage of people running out of a cave, added some lava, and threw Rudy and Elijah in front of a blue screen.
I thought i was watching a classic giant bug movie.
There's one little girl (the really cute one from the Shire, when Bilbo's telling his story) who appears in Helm's Deep and in Minis Tirith too! ~Berj
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My server is getting quite overloaded at the moment due to lots of publicity (more than quadruple my usual traffic), resulting in access problems and errors for a lot of people. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, and I'm working on improvements - if you're having trouble checking out the site, please visit again soon when everything should be back to full working order. Thanks...
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
Unfortunately there is no cache of the Return of the King.
Perhaps when he says 'We', he means 'Someone at Weta' who erased it without telling him, since cars in the background clearly aren't appropriate, but he then found out between recording the DVD commentary and being interviewed by MSNBC?
You and the other 10 art majors of the world can hate the movie. It looks like the rest of us that watch movies for enjoyment really liked the movies.
As for this not being award material, do you think movies like Cold Mountain and Mystic River are?
I've heard stories about tickets for seeing all 3 went for high prices on ebay, but I never checked. Did anyone see how much they went for? Someone told me they sold a pair for $250 in Sacramento.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
Wow! The first book I read said something like "One day Ricky the magic Pixie went to visit Daisy Bumble in her tumbledown cottage. He found her in the bedroom. Roughly he gabbed her heavy shoulders pulling her down on to the bed and ripping off her..."
Oh, no, wait a minute...
And by the time they can get together an execution, Theoden has been reawakened by Gandalf. What are you expecting here? That a death sentence means everyone with a sword is supposed to jump at Eomer on sight, risking immediate death themselves rather pause to get organized and risk letting him live another 15 minutes? That a King has less power to commute the sentence his servant passed than a modern day president? That no one in Rohan has noticed that this death sentence didn't come from the king but that slimy guy who's been pushing everyone around, and from what they know of Eomer, he's a stand-up guy?
Who is John Cabal?
I haven't read the books in a while, but I remember someone (a king or something) ordering themselves executed by firing squad as they thought the war was lost and they didn't want to become slaves of the victor. I can't seem to find any information on this via google, so I'm wondering if my head just made this information up.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Saw the latest movie yesterday and was simply blown away. The thread here doesn't do the movie justice, because it just rivets you to your seat for three hours of amazing stroytelling. And I almost jumped out of my seat at one point during the big battle, which is something I never feel during movies.
This movie should win the Academy Award for best picture, btu given the track record of the Oscars being given to touch feely Hollywood schmaltz, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
spoiler alert
It fun for movie geeks to spot the bloopers in movies, but how about if we look at this movie from the perspective of somebody who isn't looking for bloopers? Which parts of the movie seem odd and out of place? For me, the only disappointing scene in Return of the King is the scene where Frodo and Sam flee the volcano and get stuck in the middle of a lava field. OK, so that was really dramatic, but could it have been plotted and filmed in a more believable manner?
It was brilliant to start out the movie with a flashback to how Gollum first came into contact with the ring.
"The movies lack the gravity and emotion of the books."
Oh please, the books are impossible to get through. Overlong descriptive prose, a ridculous attempt to make hobbits "noble" (rolling eyes just thinking about it), and the whole silly troll/hobbit/elf. Its creepy just thinking about it. I read through the hobbit (absolutely dreadful), and make it 1/3 of the way through the Fellowship and gave up. Its unreadable. The people who like this stuff are like little kids who learn the names of the dinosaurs.
At least Jackson makes this stuff interesting. He doesn't deserve an oscar, he deserves sainthood.
[Mod theory testing, other reader's can ignore]: "I know I'll get modded down for saying this..."
Both Sean's (Sam) and Peter's children are in the movie.
One of the funniest parts of the Two Towers DVD is Jackson giving direction to the child actors in the caves beneath Helm's Deep.
He says the line above with such intensity....
But by the time he returned, Wormtongue was out and Theoden was himself again. Surely the king repealed the death sentence.
1. That's not even the same site. You linked to movie-mistakes.com, but the story points to moviemistakes.com. Your first clue should have been when the images on the page loaded successfully :)
2. If you're stuck at work like me and forced to use IE, you'll be bombarded with some of the most annoying popups I've ever encountered.
Consider yourselves warned.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
..a few years ago, I got too annoyed at seeing stupid things posted that half the time weren't even mistakes in the movie, just things that the submitter thought was a mistake.
Plus in some instances it reduced my enjoyment of the film to have the stuff pointed out, where I might not have noticed it otherwise.
So just a small warning.
I think it would be interesting if they did a tv miniseries rather than a 3 hour movie. They could film with less computer generated stuff, and do more real acting, and create something that was able to express the full emotion of the hobbit (I feel this is more achievable with the hobbit than the lord of the rings). This would please me to no end. Mmmm... 6 DVD boxed set of the hobbit... (or however long a tv miniseries would be)
Fucking mods, somebody says something funny but you have to call it a troll because he hurt your precious slashdot. Retarded zealots
No really.
:)
I would like TO give a present TO you. (directional)
Sorry, that is TOO much information. (exagerrative)
I hate the RIAA TOO. (in place of also)
(words in brackets I made up 'cause I'm bored
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I launch mozilla from an e user_apps.menu, which runs /usr/bin/mozilla-firebird when clicked. This is just a script that contains
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/lib/mozilla-firebird/MozillaFirebird $@.
This was created by mozilla installation.
In this case mozilla crashes when clicking the interview link.
However, I if just run /usr/lib/mozilla-firebird/MozillaFirebird, without the $@, the link works. Someone know what the $@ is doing? Can anyone replicate this problem?
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
All the movie titles from one of the spoof trailers:
2001-The Fellowship of the Ring
2002-The Two Towers
2003-The Third One
2004-Episode I - The Hobbit
2005-FotR Special Edition
2006-Book of Lost Tales
2007-Scribbles in Tolkien's Math Book
2008-Dude, Where's my Ring?
2009-What Hobbits Want
2010-Bilbo Brockovich
2011-All the Pretty Hobbits
2012-O, Bilbo, Where art Thou?
2013-Crouching Gollum, Hidden Balrog
2014-Orc by Orcwest
(Lost by my brain, but found again here.)
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
A fellow Slashdot reader has saved the text of the Return of the King bloopers page.
Cheers to him!
And I was to busy grinning ear to ear to notice any serious bloopers.
I was looking at the wrong sentence; your asking about "props" made me completely ignore Taco's grandstanding.
Wonder if there's a Grammar Nazi Nazi? A meta-Nazi? *shudder*
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
2.) The Gandalf/Eagle comment is almost below responding to, but here ya go. Three reasons, first because Mordor is infested with all kinds of creapy crawlies, some of them capable of flight (did you watch the 2nd movie?). This would hamper matters. Secondly, because Gandalf would be corrupted by the ring. Thirdly because this would remove one of the fundamental points of the book/movie.
The Eagles aren't at Gandalf's beck and call. They do what they please.
In the Fellowship (book), the council of Elrond does discuss taking the ring to the Grey Havens and sailing with it to Valinor, but discard this plan as too obvious and thus prone by interception by Mordor. In retrospect: What the Hell Were They Thinking? I'm sure if you get Strider, Gandalf, Elrond, that elf that carried frodo over the stream, and about 40 elf warrior extras, plus three extra decoy parties (each with their decoy hobbit), the black riders are outgunned, treachery should be kept under control, and the war of the ring averted.
In the books Smeagol and Deagol are described as "hobbit-like creatures". He is never called a hobbit. I really get sick of this whole "Gollum is an evil hobbit" thing. He is neither evil nor a hobbit.
The hobbits innocence is what makes them inherently immune to the powers of the ring. Gollum (not a hobbit) was not innocent when he found the ring, thereby allowing the ring to corrupt him much more quickly.
When Gollum falls into the Cracks of Doom, he actually appears to still be alive even as he sinks below the surface. If he had actually fallen into liquid hot mag-ma he would have burst into flame long before hitting the surface. I found that very distracting.
I experienced a similar happening when first seeing FOTR in the theater. Right after Borimir tried to get the ring from Frodo, and just began defending Pippin and Merry the film turned off and a Britney Spears Pepsi add was thrown up on the screen.
As it turns out the film broke, but there must have been some sort of automated mechanism to turn on the lights and project the (still) Britney Spears add. Quite an abrupt change going from intense action to bright lights and Britney Spears' face! The theater ended up giving us all free tickets...
I disagree with that, although I didn't like his LOTR movies either. But some of his older work is more touching, like Meet the Feebles.
Thank you
Oh yes...here it is...
---anactofgod---
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
So thats where that New Zealand fellow's cruise missle went! Gandalf stole it to send the one ring on its way without the need for those pesky corruptable humans!
Since it ended up in the river where Smeagol found it however, we think we all know how good Middle Earth's GPS network is...
A lot of the continuity issues are simply "Well duh, the cows moved when the camera was panning around." I must say, however, that I did catch 4 of them closer to the end...
1) Merry and Pippen should've been taller. That was very obvious in their side-by-side shot.
2) WTF did Aragorn et all dismount before charging the enemy at the Black Gate? That's not continuity, that's just dumb.
3) Why did the eagles beating the tar out of the wyrms not actually kill any wyrms (especially compared to what we saw at Minas Tirith)?
4) Shelob's sting went straight through the Mithril Shirt, opposite where the Mordor blade struck (from before he got the shirt, as seen when Frodo is topless). That seems really bizarre -- especially since the shirt didn't have a stinger hole in it. Jackson should've made it hit the neck or something.
Two of the people who were going to see it with us in south Florida sold their tickets for 250$ on ebay. They could have gotten more but Florida only allows you to double the face value. Of course these were loveseat / recliner style balcony seats with a bar and bistro, so they were 60$ face value.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Why do you think Smeagol was a hobbit?
As far as I remember Smeagol was one of the "river folk" which were "not so different from hobbits".
However, it does seem weird that it corrupted Smeagol so fast. There was an implication that the corrupting effects were stronger when Frodo carried it because Sauron was returning. Bilbo was not corrupted though he had it for decades, but it took under 13 months for Frodo to become corrupted.
Blunder No. 3: "When Saruman is talking to Sauron through the palantir, his lips aren't moving."
Jackson: Well, that's because he's engaged in a psychic session. That was deliberate.
Even my 5 year old cousin got that.
The scene where Gandalf is talking with the Hobbit about "the end" and his sword, Glamdring, goes from silver to black to silver.
I thought this was done to illustrate death.
How come anyone who was clean-shaven had zero-stubble all through the film? even frodo and sam who were miles from bloody anywhere looked like they had been on the mac-3 like crazy!? Also that giant spider moved abit to fast for my liking, the physics didnt seem right, but apart from that yeah it was cool
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Maybe someone with more nerdosity than me can explain this one... why was the ring important?
I understand why Gandlaf could not have eagle'd the ring into Mt. Doom, as mentioned either. But why could Big Bad Red Eye not just forge another ring, or something else of equal or greater power. He did it once.
Was his soul somehow part of the ring after his body was destroyed? Or something like that?
David Whatley
Shelob stings Frodo, and I'm pretty sure it looked as if the stinger went right in his gut. That would have made sense to me, as it would've been possible that his Mythril shirt was pulled up at the time or the stinger somehow punctured it. However, later we saw that the shirt had no holes in it as the orcs raided Frodo's belongings. Also later, we see Frodo's scarred body with the knife wound and the sting, which is somewhere around his chest.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Both Blade Runner and Tron lost the best special effects Oscar to .....E.T. the Extra Testical
No, it'd be even better if the Galactica 2003 guys do it - then Bilbo would be a woman, Gandalf would be a woman, the dwarves would be gay, and the dragon would really be Gollum in a rubber suit.
Since you're answering questions, do you know what happened to the entwives? I thought the description of trolls as twisted entwives made a lot of sense, since they're missing and all.
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
403 - Gone.
When Sauron forged the Ring, he put a great deal of his power into it. When Isildur took the ring(how varies from book to movie), much of Sauron's power was lost to him. He was able to gain some strength back, but until he regained the Ring, he would not be powerful enough to take over Middle Earth.
Given that he returned to save Rohan with the only remaining army of any significance, saving Theoden along with everybody else, I suspect the people of Rohan simply overlooked the death sentence. Between the army, Gandalf, and Theoden, they should be able to save him, even if he did give Aragorn a hard time when they met previously.
Did any one else see the Darth Maul Orc in Minas Tirith? He had all the head makeup of Darth Maul and a black robe. AS they pan over Minas Tirith the 1st time, there is one rose bush(?) that really sticks out. By the looks of it, the bush has to be huge. I was just wondering if anyone else saw this or can explain it.
Josef
I'm surprised I dont see anyone else making a comment about gandalf's santaclaus beard in the retakes. It's VERY obvious with his first meeting with Denthor as they cut between denthor and gandalf several times and each time, Ian is wearing an obviously fake beard which is rounded, and curly/puffy, or the other one that is straighter hair, and kind of pointy at the bottom.
Anyone else notice this?
Its a big trilogy
To my understanding (from the extended DVDs), so big, that it took three completely separate locations for filming (aside from the studio sets), combining to stretch out over 14 months. For a single person to (follow me here), direct this massive undertaking, and painstakingly boil it down the the parts that matter requires great directing skills.
It has very nice CG
For which the pencil-to-paper decision making goes all the way back to 1997. Again, Jackson was the goto guy that approved this stuff. For someone to put together a team (Weta) that brought about the Ents (prior to which, few artists were able to render to any likeable levels), and the unbelievably detailed Lothlorien, again, takes great directing skills.
Theme music is great
Well, it didn't come off of a CD. Again, much time was spent by (of all people) Jackson, in choosing the music and directing its specifics with RE to the movie.
But is this worthy of a "Best Director" award?
I can't think of a single movie made in the last decade that is as massive an undertaking as LOTR was. Jackson was the man that directed all of it. Even if you don't appreciate things like its character development, or the music, for one person to be the nexus for this creation, IMO (and clearly, many other lowbrow movie fans), certainly demands recognition.
Q: What do you think about American Culture?
A: I think it's a good idea.
(adapted from Gandhi)
** SPOILERS ** obviously
Since it's reasonable on topic, I'd like to voice my thoughts on the Return of the King.
I walked in with advance warning that right about the point where you think the movie is finished, be prepared for another 20 minutes of wrap-up. Even knowing this, I was totally unprepared for the lame and completely unncessary scenes at the end and honestly it ruined the experience for me.
First of all...okay, Frodo and Sam are good friends, but could Peter Jackson have made it any more homosexual? The audience where I watched kept laughing every time there was a scene with Frodo and Sam all dewy-eyed staring at each other with sappy music. I swear for a split second everyone thought Frodo was going to kiss Sam on the lips as they said goodbye at the boat.
Second, after blowing our load at the battle of the black gate, all everyone wants to do is roll over and go to sleep. I don't know if my experience was the same as everyone else's but for the next twenty minutes I witnessed the combined figiting of 300+ people, standing up, then sitting back down, murmuring, sighing loudly, leaving, groaning...it was pretty damn distracting and unpleasant.
Now, giving that this movie is aimed at the masses and not particularly at die-hard LOTR fans (given that the plot was changes to give it more mainstream appeal), why in God's name would Peter Jackson decide to throw in all this extra crap at the end which a) pissed off real fans because it wasn't the Scourging b) pissed off mainstream fans because it was irrelavant crap.
Everyone I talked to was in agreement that the movie should have ended with (ugh) Gandalf on the eagles rescuing the hobbits. Particularly the view from on high with Frodo flying over the mountain. Everyone at that point knows they are safe, that the bad guys are gone, good guys win, fade to "The End" and stick the rest of the movie on DVD.
But no...cut to the coronation scene. Okay, we'll indulge Jackson and sit through a completely predictable closing scene. Oh he gets the girl, yay. Oh, the hobbits are honored okay...allright, perfect ending now, right?
Nope...okay, back to the shire, back to the pub, having a nice homey scene. Clink the glasses, hey that's a perfect place to end it, we've come full circle from Shire to Shire. End, right?
NO...now we drag Bilbo's withered carcass around to take him to the Elf ship. Why? What mainstream fan even remembers this all started three years ago with Bilbo? As far as anyone knows, he died of old age from not having the ring. You leave Sauruman's ending out of the movie, a character that played a much more pivotal role, but instead show what happens to basically a bit character? Why not tell me the life story of the doorkeeper at the bar too? I really want to know if he was able to pursue his dream of becoming a lute player. Okay, so Bilbo asks about the ring, Frodo lost it, cute scene. Cut, it's a wrap.
AAAAAAAAH NO. Now we have an interminally long and weepy scene at the boat. Oh, Frodo's going too? Boo hoo, boo hoo, boo hoo. Okay, he's going on board with Bilbo and Gandalf, the book has been turned over to Sam, and now the ship sails into the sunset in terrible movie cliche number #412. Fade out...perfect time for "The End"
MOTHER#@#@!%!% JACKSON NO DAMMIT...(sound of entire audience groaning at once) we are back at the shire to show Sam coming home? WTF? Did anyone think he was going to run away and go whoring? We knew he was married and had kids. Why do we need to see it? Who cares? And so we end staring at the round hobbit door...did the movie even begin with a round hobbit door...ah forget it, is this the end?
Okay...The End. Now I can go take that leak I've been holding in for a kidney-busting three and a half hours.
WTF? My four hour validation doesn't cover Return of the King? I have to pay an extra $4 because no one from the theater bothered to memo the parking staff about the insane length of the number one box office draw?
And maybe now you can see why I didn't particularly enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped.
-JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Wake me up when somebody makes "Bored of the Rings".
Holy krap. Nicely done. I guess we know what hits a nerve around here, huh?
Yet on the DVD he says "I don't know what people are talking about"
He's clearly joking. The post-production commentary track for the same scene says how they removed the car.
RTFBYISC (Read The Fucking Book You Insensitive Sacreligious Clod!)
Based on the first two movies and DVD Extended versions, I'd suggest skipping the movie and just waiting for the Extended DVD.
If you open your mind too wide, people will throw trash in it.
When was the last time you saw 3 good movies in a row, 3 good epics in a row, 3 epics by one director with a cast of hundreds in a row? This is not a movie, or an epic. New Line cinema took a chance. If you agree with what the cinematic world has considered good and praiseworthy then this movie is a flop. New Line and Peter Jackson threw out all concepts of movie making and built Theatrical Story telling. LOTR is not a conventional book... the frames, the pace, and continuity gets a jolt from both Jackson and Tolkien, thow out convention and read! - don't watch the movie, watch the story... enjoy the world of Middle Earth, a disjointed mix of people places and events that are not streamlined for your viewing pleasure, ending in a climax of violence without result, disaster without rebuilding. Go watch Independance day or some other joke of a story / kick butt movie.
I don't think anyone that has gone through a war themselves would be able to possibly write a story about a war without paralleling it closely. Even if Tolkien didn't mean to write a WWII allegory, you can be sure that he definitely did.
21 Grams, Last Samurai, Mystic River, and The Cooler are just the ones I've seen recently.
I do agree that LoTR is badass but badass isn't a category in the Oscars.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
Shouldn't the trolls all be turning to stone in daylight? In FOTR Bilbo tells his troll story to the kids and later we actually see the troll statues after weathertop. Why then are trolls running around in broad daylight in ROTK? Sunblock perhaps...
Tyler you took the words right out of my mouth...er...fingers...whatever.
Yes, Jackson deserves an Oscar...VERY much so. This will be looked at for years to come as how to do things right.
Not only did he direct it, which is monsterous in itself, but he was also one of the producers...which in itself if a monsterous thing.
There's a lot of love and care in those movies. They didn't go for the "fast buck" like so many other adaptations have.
Kudos to your reasons. You need to be modded up!
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Well, the worst one was deliberate. This is an intentional reuse of a scene from an older editing version in a completely different moment.
After the HD battle is over, we are given a brief shot of Eowyn hugging Aragorn. We are supposed to think she is happy to see him return safely from the battle. But the truth is that this is a scene of Aragorn's arrival into HD (check his clothes and background). We can also clearly see that originally PJ didn't intend to drop Aragorn to lose the pendant before dropping from the cliff, because it is clearly visible on his neck.
But the intentional mistakes do not end here. Check out the HD scene where Aragorn bumps into Legolas and Legolas returns the pendant to him. It may appear on the first viewing that Eowyn looks at this scene and is sad. The truth is in this scene she actually looks in a different directions (check the background, pay attention to the columns), she looks down the stairs at Aragorn, who just arrived and is dismounting the horse. She looks at him with hope and with happiness and in the original version she ran down to him and gave him the hug we all saw.
I can forgive a blooper or two, but I don't really think intentionally moving scenes in such a haphazard way can be forgiven.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Those guys may do what they say but the last words out there mouths after doing so are: Is this what you want, Mr. Director?
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
The eagles are not pets or domesticated. They are wild and intelligent friends of an old and powerful wizard. They do what they do out of thoughtful consideration, not because someone says "giddy-yup". The eagle rescued Gandolf from Orthanc because it measured the danger to Gandolf as high, and the danger to itself as relatively low, and presumably because it didn't have anything better going at the time.
That's a bit different than intentionally going into Mordor carrying the most dangerous and desired item in the world and facing flying whatever-they-were that the Nazgul ride. The rescue of Frodo was a little different because Mordor was already is disarray and the Nazgul lost their power when the ring was destroyed. Presumably, it was considered a slightly less dangerous effort.
But, I agree. The difference between carrying Frodo in and Rescuing him out is a thin line.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
> Smeagol was NOT a Hobbit. They describe him as being "not unlike a Hobbit" in the movie, but a Hobbit of the Shire he was not.
Be careful with the label. Not all Hobbits hail from the Shire, as described in the book. There were three major segments of the Hobbits, and those river-folk living by the Anduin were among them (the Stoors if I recall the book correctly).
Virg
In FOTR watch the scene where the hobbits enter Bree. There are sundry mean and ugly characters in the streets. One of them is holding a carrot. That's Peter Jackson.
Revealing: When Theoden is talking to Eowyn before he dies one can see that he is wearing contact lenses.
Audio problem: In the scene where Gandalf enters the chambers of Gondor to speak with the Steward of the throne, the sound of his staff striking the floor matches the action in sporadic patches only. In the shot where he departs, that specific sound is consistent.
Continuity: In the final battle scene, when Aragorn and crew are creating a "diversion" outside the gates of Mordor, everyone is on horseback. Later in the scene, when Aragorn and the other warriors charge the enemy, they are on foot. Even if they did dismount, where are the horses?
Continuity: When Gollum accuses Sam of eating the lembas bread, the crumbs on his shoulder don't appear until the shot when Gollum brushes them away.
Continuity: In the scene where Frodo is helped by Galadriel in Shelob's lair (in the "dream sequence") he lays on the ground. In his hair on HIS right side (viewers' left) is what appears to be some clovers or leaves or grass. The camera cuts to Galadriel then back to Frodo, the thing in his hair is gone. The camera cuts to her again and back to Frodo, the thing is back in his hair.
Factual error: Hobbits can't grow beards, yet Samwise Gamgee has stubble in most of his close-ups in Return Of The King. Even if they could grow beards, it seems unlikely they would be in a position to be shaving on that journey.
Continuity: When Gandalf enters the castle of Rohan, the shot of his back shows him holding his staff in a vertical position. When the shot turns to his front, he is holding his staff in an horizontal position. The shot turns to his back, and the staff is again in the vertical position. Then the shot turns again to his front, showing his staff in a horizontal position.
Continuity: When Gollum drops the lembas from the ridge, you see the leaves it was wrapped in fluttering away, and the wafers fall roughly straight down. However, when Sam finds it later, the lembas is still mostly wrapped in the leaves, with only a few morsels broken off and laying around unwrapped.
Continuity: When Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Gimli etc, ride up to the gates of Mordor, the main characters go up to the gate on their own to demand it opens. The trails the horses leave on the way towards the gate are different to those that you see in the shot when they retreat after the gate has opened.
Continuity: In one of the final scenes of the movie, Frodo is writing in the book "There and Back Again," adding his own story. As he is finishing, he clutches the wound he received from one of the Nazgul in "The Fellowship of the Ring." In the hand that he uses clutch the wound, he still holds the quill pen. At the same time, Sam is entering Bag-End. When the camera angle changes, Frodo is still clutching the wound, but the pen has found its way into the ink jar.
Other: As Aragorn leads the army from Minas Tirith towards the Black Gates, look at "Pippin" sitting in front of Gandalf. Rather than the usual scale stand-in actor, it is a rather stiff dummy.
Revealing: In the scene where the paciderm animals of Mordor are introduced in the battle, there's a shot that pans the front of the line of them. One animal has wood connecting its larger tusks, complete with barbs jutting out from the wood. As the orcs flee to regroup behind the animals, several run through the contraption unharmed.
Continuity: In the final scene of the film, as Sam returns home and his children rush out to meet him, the cows in the background change position each time the camera goes back to Sam.
Continuity: In the scene where King Theoden is dying under his horse after Eowyn has slain the Witch King, there are three spots of mud on Theoden's right cheek that are so clear that they almost appear to be a tattoo. The camera cuts to Eowyn, then back to Theoden, and the spots on his face are faint, smudged, and in different locations. The camera cuts again from Theoden to Eowyn and back, and the sp
People always bring this up. I don't know why it's so hard to figure out.
The standard answer everyone gives is that the Eaglers weren't so concerned with the world of Men, but that answer never flew for me (pardon the pun), because there was more obvious logic to turn to.
Which is more discreet? A flock of HUGE FUCKING EAGLES, or two little Hobbits sneaking into Mordor and dumping it into Mount Doom?
I don't get why people don't think it through. The first thing Sauron would do if a bunch of HUGE FUCKING EAGLES came flying over the borders of Mordor is just send flying Nazghul after them, and probably also strike them down with flaming lava or wind or something. Plus, Sauron would immediately know where the Ring was, what they're trying to do with it, etc. All plans would instantly be revealed before they even really entered Mordor (he'd immediately see a flock of HUGE FUCKING EAGLES coming from Gondor, no doubt).
Meanwhile, two little Hobbits--a little unimportant, insignificant race completely out of Sauron's mind and most everyone else's in Middle-Earth--sneaks into Morder essentially through a backdoor and actually climbs Mount Doom as Sauron's gaze is distracted by Gondor forces.
Having HUGE FUCKING EAGLES flying it there is an incredibly stupid idea. What makes the Hobbit idea great is that it's incredibly stupid, but so stupid that it's out of Sauron's mind, which makes it the best plan of action (what other choice was there?). That's why the story works so well, and how Sam and Frodo actually made it. Nobody even considers or regards Hobbits. They're not an essential race at all in the mythology of Middle-Earth. Orcs and other baddies don't even really care all that much about them, so they're constantly underestimated. Middle-Earth is so concerned with the main controlling races of Men and Orcs and Sauron and Elves, that out of the blue, a couple of creatures of one of the lesser races from some goofy, ignorant place called the Shire sneaks in and drops the ring in the mountain.
The Eagles only come flying in after the Ring is destroyed, and it's safe for them to.
So, no, HUGE FUCKING EAGLES flying in doesn't even work logically.
"Sufferin' succotash."
"Grinning from ear to ear"? What was he smoking?
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
I guess Gollum Rapping music video is a blooper that wasn't included on the DVD sets. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I notice people asking about who commands the Eagles, where Trolls came from, and so on.
Just go here: Encyclopedia of Arda
"Sufferin' succotash."
Is this the same volcano that Ben Kenobi throws Anakin Skywalker into?!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I was wondering if one had copied the other, since both he Hobbit and Snow White have silly darves. However, they both came out in 1937.
How about the fact that not only does the movie smash the barrier for being the biggest, most epic capper to a trilogy of films ever made, but it plays to all the themes Oscar-voters love, like friendship, betrayal, self-control...the list goes on and on...
It's got all the high-art, surreal scenes...it's got the incredible action scenes...it's got major character drama...I mean, it's really emotionally overwhelming in the way it just seems to have everything.
But I guess I'm arguing for Best Picture here. Obviously he should win Best Director, because this was a huge directing task, and the directing is excellent, from the battle scenes to the quieter moments. Every shot is a money shot.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Well, make up your mind, is it for people who didn't read the books or is it pandering to masses of LOTR fans, Mr. Contradiction.
Oh, I think the melancholy feeling from the books is missing a bit from the films. The business with the travelogue through middle-earth is one, stylistic, and two, meant to emphasize the fact that war and evil touches everywhere- a pt which deleting the scouring of the shire is almost lost in the movies. The characters aren't so much the focus though, of the books, as the world. If anything, only Frodo is a real person in the books.
That said, the books characters were always a little simplistic (thats not meant as a knock) characterwise, and the movies did the best job of adapting the story that I could ever have imagined. The characters develop and have so much more emotional weight in the films- Boromir being the best example. Gimli's take is unfortunate, but he's a bit better in ROTK than in TT. Its ironic, though, that his lines are comedic in the stories, and were taken whole for the most part...
In the end though, I could have done less with crowd-pleasing and more with grand in the trilogy. You can see a bit more of his frighterners and horror buff background than his heavenly creatures in the last two films. But this bit is to taste, and I its an astonishing set of films.
The scene on the balcony with Gandalf and the hobbit (I forget which one), where they are talking about the upcomming battle starts with Mt. Doom directly to their left (to the left of the balcony). Then when they are shown looking at it in the distance, it's in front of them (in front of the balcony).
On one of the aerial shots pulling into Edoras' Great Hall, the smoke is going into the chimneys, and the flags are blowing backwards. The shot was obviously done as a pull-out, and it was reversed to become a pull-in. It looked really weird to me until I figured out what was going on.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Whenever cool movie series get to the third movie they suck dicks like they're trying to become Emperor of Dicksuck-ylvania. George Lucas had Star Wars, and then Empire Kicks Ass, and then all of a sudden it's Planet of Furry Faggoty Fuckheads. Then he had to make two more to feed the Suck Demon that was holding his children hostage, and those movies went beyond gay to where they're paying old people to take a dump on them.
Even this summer, with MATRIX: SUDDENLY GAY and TERMINATOR: I LOVE COCK, the Rule of the Suck-y Third Movie got re-proven. If the third X-Men movie had come out this summer it probably would have been some crippled crock of crap where Wheelchair Charlie traps Fuck Yeah Wolverine in an illusion mind-trap where Wolverine thinks he's a time traveler from a hundred years ago romancing Meg Ryan in right-now New York. Of course, the X-Men movie would try to redeem itself in the third act by having Wolverine realize it's a mind-illusion and cut Meg's head off and play dodgeball with it, but it would be too late and here comes my extra large Sprite at the screen.
But guess what? One movie series turned that rule on its head. One 3-movie series said, "Wait a minute, we're going to make the 3rd movie SO tits it will make the FIRST two movies look gay."
I just saw HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS and that's the movie I was talking about in the last paragraph. This movie will make you forget that if you stick a knife in your belly you'll bleed to death so do not bring a knife to this movie.
It's also, thank fucking God, LOUD. Even if you bring an iPod so you can listen to VH during the Elf parts you'll take it off because I swear to fucking Roth you do NOT know where the next big bang is going to come from, or when something big is going to crunch someone's skull while you picture that person getting their skull crushed is really your neighbor upstairs that plays Dido all day or that dude at the Starbucks who's always reading and looking all smart.
Oh yeah, the movie is also 3 hours and 20 minutes, and I think it's almost four hours if you sit through all the credits (it was all pencil sketches of the characters, which I think means they ran out of money). So if you bring some chick who's all like, "I have a spinning class tomorrow" or "I'm thirsty" tell her to go home and watch Gay Dudes and the Straight Guy because this movie takes fucking commitment. I saw the one dude in front of me who was with this girl, and the President of Warner Brothers came out and said, "This movie is three hours and twenty minutes," and before I could say, "So what, gaylord" the chick says to the dude she's with that she has to GO. And he LET her go because this movie kicks so much ass you can SENSE it even before it starts. And this chick was a stone fox, and he probably could have made out with her, but he was like, "I'm going make out with this movie," that's how good it is. See ya, hottie.
This movie starts with the origin of Golem - that creepy guy who looks like Iggy Pop and wears Tarzan pants and wants the invisible-ring. He's still on a quest with the two hobbits - Rudy from the film RUDY and Fredo - to throw the ring into a volcano (this is like a serious version of JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO). The ring is also evil but you keep thinking, while you watch it, that someone should put it on and check out some boobs. I have a feeling those scenes will be in the DVDs.
At the same time, the two other midget-men and the giant hippies have seriously fucked up that one evil guy's tower (he was Count Duke in Star Wars: Every Cock in the Universe Up My Ass Part II), and they hook back up with Magneto, and also that chick with the bow and arrows and finally the Giant Midget with the Axe. Oh, and also that I Don't Want to be the King/I Am Destined to Be the King Dude is with them, and he has this whole other story where he pretty much decides to be the King because, I mean, pussy for miles. This is where I started getting
Maybe the armor was made by the same company that makes Storm Trooper armor for Star Wars
The final ending with Sam going home was there because it was the ENDING of the series. The last paragraph of The Return of the King, sans appedi is "He drew a deep breather. 'Well, I'm back,' he said."
Wouldn't make much sense for Sam to say that at the docks.
Yes the end dragged, in the theater I was in people laughed when the fade out went to another scene. But that is how Tolkien wrote it and thus that is how Jackson ended it.
That was a major change and I (and a few other people in the showing I was at) spotted it and remarked on it. Personally I think the change was pretty reasonable - it gave the defenders of Minas Tirith a way to defeat that horde(!!!) of attackers and the timeline fit the film better than would have the "beat off the invaders of the coastal area, collect a bunch of folks to get in the ships, sail upstream and attack" that was in the book.
at least the versions in Debian's Sid.
Samwise (Sean Astin) also starred in that movie as a kid. Coincidence? I think not!
--
Power to the Peaceful
Every single one of the things you complain about can have cinematic justifications to give the story more impact.
# Cheap thrills. For example, in Moria, when all the orcs surround them, and then run away. It's just stupid, it doesn't make any sense.
It's tension. They're completely surrounded and about to die, then suddenly, all the Orcs run away, signalling something MUCH more evil and powerful approaching that even they fear. It's just some nice tension to give the appearance of the Balrog more impact. You find it "cheesy" because you're a book purist.
# Cheap action-flick fight scenes. So, there's nine people standing on a narrow staircase out in the middle of nowhere, with thousands of orcs shooting at them, and they all miss. Legolas is shooting at orcs spread out, behind shadows and in cover, and hits every one. Now, orcs aren't as good as elves, but they're not *that* bad.
There weren't "thousands" of Orcs. Looked like a few dozen. Why wouldn't they be poor archers? They're just a bunch of Moria orcs trying to hit some little targets on a distant bridge. Of course Legolas would hit some (it's not shown whether he hits every one), because he's a skilled Elf bowman. You don't like it because you're a book purist.
# Cheesy dramatic scenes. Frodo gets hurt, and all the action stops. Gandalf "dies", and all the action stops. Boromir dies three or four times.
Oh, stop. Borimier dies once. The action stops to give the scenes more impact. My brother who hadn't read the Fellowship, freaked out when Gandalf fell. "I didn't know he died!" In fact, these movies use slow-motion way more tastefully than the two Matrix movies. It gives the death scenes a sense of surrealism.
All in all, you're just a book purist who didn't like the fact that these are movies and have to behave like movies.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Some of the things listed are so chinzy...personally I would have listed that crappy Balrog fight Gandalf had as one of the most screwed up scenes in the trilogy.
Basically the Balrog thrashed around while Gandalf wailed on it, it was the worst actor-CG interaction I've ever seen. Screwing up one of the most powerful enemies like that also drove home the fact that all of the monsters were basically push overs.
Much worse than someone's hand moving off someone's shoulder and back between scenes, no?
I was waiting for the inevitable, "In the book, it says..."
These aren't the books. In the movie, Denethor is a prick.
"Sufferin' succotash."
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In the books, it's mentioned that Hobbits are known for stone-throwing. With that in mind, I can accept the fact that they can target Orcs in the right spot on the head with enough force to knock them down. It's not like the Orcs are shown going unconscious...they probably just got right back up again and kept charging. Peter Jackson actually mentioned the stone-throwing of Hobbits being in the books, so that's where that comes from.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Gandalf was one of the Maiar (as was Sauron), of the same kind as the Valar, but of lesser power. There is even an allusion to this in The Two Towers, when Faramir quotes Gandalf: Many are my names in many countries, he said. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkun to the Dwarves; Olorin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incanus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not.
It seems that Olorin was Gandalf's name as a Maia in Valinor.
The caption in the article by Newsweek reads "Why are tough Uruk-hai KO'd by mere rocks?" But, the picture is of a mere Orc! What's going on here?
Let me put this 191-minute movie in the following light. It was certainly a technological masterpiece and is certain to make an indelible mark on many, but bodies were thrown around like sparks from a stirred campfire and severed heads were used as throwing weapons. And the use of evil (sorcery/witchcraft/wizardry) for good continues so this movie continues the trend of the LotR movies to violate the admonishment of Isa. 5:20 which warns "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" With a final score of 56 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the lowest scoring of the three LotR movies. It is indeed equivalent to the scores earned by PG-13 movies in the comparative baseline database of movies but is just two points out of one hundred above R-13 . Though The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a magnificent work of art it is "hardcore" PG-13, fortunately not because of the hardcore language and sexual immorality typical of PG-13s, but unfortunately because of intense and graphic violence [Prov. 3:31-32] and issues of occult - witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry (Offense to God). [Deut. 18:10 - 12; 2Chr. 33:6; Rev. 22:14-15]
How can I call The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King a work of art? Because of the skill and talents that went into a beautifully choreographed and orchestrated symphony of visual and audio excellence in a story of conrapositioned good and evil. Then how can I find issue with it if it is so magnificent? Because, in nutshell, art does not equal sin and sin does not equal art. Art becomes sin when art uses sin. The inference drawn from the beauty of the manner used to contraposition good and evil may lead some viewers to believe more of evil than evil is due. Whether intentional, such presentation of sensory and spiritual food can be trickery. And that leads me into a mini-sermon about trickery.
Satan is the greatest trickster known to man. Satan has been very successful at tricking us. His first trick was mixing God's Truth with lies in fine-sounding argument and smooth talk -- Eve was the first victim of such deceit. And we have all suffered for it. One of Satan's greatest tricks is to convince many that God does not exist, keenly mixing that trick with the trick of convincing many others to think they don't need God: that we can deal with life, and death, all by ourselves, all on our own. Frosting for that trick is Satan convincing many of us that even he does not exist. Yet another great Satanic trick on mankind is to convince many that there are more than one god ... and goddess. Masterful is Satan in tricking us to believe that sin is not really sinful or that sin is relative: that there are no absolutes. Yet another of Satan's great tricks is convincing many that the Bible is no more than mortal man's attempts to control the populations with fear and calling it interpretation of God's Word thus making His Word seem subject to the personal and social preferences of the times the Bible was written. Satan has even convinced many of they who will not reject Jesus that God can be measured by their own standards. Another very successful trick of Satan's is to convince us at a young age that we do not have to answer to any authority, especially parental, and in doing so making it easy for us when grown to not submit to Jesus -- and be comfortable with it. Arrogantly. Amidst it all, Satan has tricked many of even the best of the believers that they have their heels dug in, steadfast in their faith as they compromise God's Word, situationally redefining it, counterfeiting it and conditionally applying it to fill their own bellies. All in the name of "interpretation." And the greatest of all of Satan's tricks is to convince us we are immune to his tricks, leading us by the nose into sin and away from Jesus while we think we are safe. These are just a
Both.
But, while it should not be faulted for for not being a great recreation of the books, it cannot be credited for it either.
It also deserves no credit for a horrible musical score, mostly bad CGI where it is used (excellent effects otherwise), uninspiring acting, etc...
Steve Jackson takes great actors, a great special effects team, a great budget, a great story, a huge library of artwork, and produced...
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I noticed one. Oh, what was it? Uh....oh, that's right! The fact that it was 3 hours and 22 minutes.
Pelé!
Now, is this factual error about a fictional character? No, this is fiction. So, this is a fictional error about a fictional character. From which we deduce:
Therefore:
I finally understand how my ex-wife thinks.
"When I grow up, I'll be stable."
Sorry you can't handle male intimacy that gets closer than slapping backs and leery grins. I thoroughly appreciated Jackson's efforts to convey just how close Sam and Frodo were.
Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
So, Gandalf is forced to lead out a merry game of misdirection to keep the attention of Sauron focused away from the hobbits while trying to preserve as much of middle earth as possible. If Gandalf were to charge directly into Mordor with the ring it would be like lighting a huge beacon fire and jumping up and down, shouting "Over here! Over here!" The only reason that Frodo is not overwhelmed by Sauron is because Sauron does not know that Frodo has the ring. If Sauron were to directly bend all of his will on Frodo, the ring bearer would quickly become a mindless zombie. (which is why the entire story is obliterated when Peter Jackson has Frodo reveal the ring in Two Towers)
Because Gandalf can only be in one place at a time, he has devoted the last several hundered years to choreographing events in such a way that others will perform the actions required to bring about the desired outcome of destroying Sauron's power and saving the free world. (see: "reverse temporal engineering" Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless)
the above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of the little voices in my head
I just saw the 3rd movie last night at the theatre, and I swore that the eye color of one of the characters changed from scene to scene. I don't remember the character's name, but she looked a lot like snow white with fair skin and long dark hair. If you watch this movie, watch for it.
Next time we see Gandalf after he escapes, he has his staff back. How does he get it back?
"Consider the lillies of the goddamn field."
I just saw one of his earlier movies, Bad Taste. I've also seen Dead Alive... These are among the grossest and silliest zombie movies ever. How in the world did he convince the studios that he was the best choice to make LOTR? I'd worry we'd be seeing close-ups of blood and brains spurting out of the orcs, people tripping over their own intestines, etc. He certainly did rise to the challenge but you'd expect the Hollywood types to go with a Lucas or Spielberg ...
Geez!!! WTF? Why is everybody (well, too many people, anyway) bitching and moaning about these movies? "Legolas didn't say that! Where's Tom? Why no death and destruction at the Shire? Arwen this/that!" Jesus H. Reynolds Burtovski Christ! IT'S MOVIES!!! There is NO way to put the true books into cinematic form. PERIOD! Deal with what you got. Just because they didn't include this scene or that line, or combined this characters lines with that scene or whatever doesn't take away from the fact that these films are the closest we will likely ever get to the true source on the big screen. I am sick of all the whining little pussys pointing out the retarded little "factual, anachronistic, continuity errors", and pissing and moaning about the changes made in order to make solid, wide-reaching, engrossing, entertaining, visualy and audibly stunning/gorgeous/fantastic/kick-ass films for the public to behold (or not to behold, as may be your preference). Yes, there were some things that I was disappointed about, and some errors that glared at me a bit, but I don't give two shats about that stuff because the spirit of the books, the basic (and most of the more intricate and in-depth) story remained wholy intact. Who cares if Tom Faggity Buttrammer Bombadil was discluded from the films? He didn't do anything important anyway. He IS a cool character, and I enjoyed his appearance in the books, but for the purpose of bringing this MASSIVE, COMPLEX work to millions (even billions) of people worldwide, sacrifices had to be made. I personally would love to see the exact same movies with all the extra stuff put in and some changes reverted back to the original premise, but it AIN'T GONNA HAPPIN!!! Just be happy that someone (thank you P.J., we're not worthy, we're not worthy!) had the brass testicles and connections to give us all what we have been given: the best three movies to hit theatres in many many years (not to steal thunder from other great films of recent years, but c'mon! Lord of the Rings! C'mon!) So, please, stop bitching, stop whining, stop pussy-ing, stop party-pooping (except in designated rest-areas), get a sense of entertainment, get a life, and BE HAPPY THAT WE HAVE WHAT WE HAVE!!! P.S. This is a fantasy trilogy, and as such, you have no lisence to bitch about Gollum still being alive in the magma, the ring of power being clean in one shot and dirty in the next (how do you know that the ring isn't a bit dainty about dirt?), Sam having stubble (yes, hobbits can't grow beards, but NOWHERE does it ever say that hobbits don't get stubble, and besides Sam may be related to the Stoors [I think that's the right vein] who were more rugged and primitive, or he could be a bit geneticly challenged), Legolas' eye color changing (he IS an elf), etc, etc, etc. Shut the fark up and enjoy something for once.
Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. DUDE!!!! Duuuudde. Yeah, I guess you have a point there. (Baseketball)
Not exactly a blooper, but I noticed that some scenes and musical score from the trailer were not anywhere in the movie. That kinda bothered me, actually.
The real question bout all those continuity errors is this
Who cares?
its a movie
if you dont like it, dont watch it
but dont pick it apart until you do something better
At least Gollum didn't give a "thumbs up" just before he disappeared under the lava.
Hmmm...tricksy voters, electing poor Smeagol...
...naaah.
They complain on the site that after Shelob stabbed Frodo, we didn't see a big wound in his chest. Well, if we did, he would be very dead (shelob sting IS poisonous) but I don't remember him taking his mithril chainmail off, so it was just the same as with the troll in Moria...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Nobody has stated the biggest problem of RotK. Agmar of the Ringwraiths should have been portrayed as a cloaked, hooded wraith like the others, even with his fight with Eowyn. That kick ass helm in the film should have been reserved for the Mouth of Sauron, seeing as it was directly derivative of Sauron's own helm. Riding out to meet Aragorn, Eomer and Gandalf at the Black Gate on something CGI cooked up that looked a little bit like a giant black horse and a dragon combined - he should have been allowed to speak to Aragorn. Why is this important? Because other than hearing a few words from Sauron via the Palantir, you never hear him. You hear him "whisper" the name "Aragorn" on the wind as his eye sees Aragorn through the gate, which is silly IMO. With the Mouth of Sauron, he could speak directly to the main protagonists. He could give that speech he does in the book, or they could edit it slightly. It speaks of Sauron's sense of entitlement. Malkar's flunky is what some other Slashdotter called him, and it's true. He thinks he's somehow entitled to rule Middle Earth and enslave it. I need to go back and re-read RotK and read that passage again, but without the Mouth of Sauron in the film, you never get to hear from the bad guy. And as Milton proved in Paradise Lost, it's very compelling to hear the ultimate bad guy talk. it gives balance to the story. However, I must give PJ credit for the way he filmed the fall of Sauron. You were expecting the nuke effect, but the way he fell, the fire eye looking back and forth, you could see the terror in Sauron's "eye", I was amazed - here was a CGI effect emoting better than many actors can. I still think the Mouth of Sauron was very important.
...is Peter Jackson's sense of scale: he seemed to place locations much closer to each other than they should be according to the maps and the feel from the book.
Osgiliath, for instance, is about 15 miles from Minas Tirith according to the map in my Houghton-Mifflin edition. It looked like it was about 2 miles away in the movie. Similarly, the Barad-dur and Orodruin appeared to be right next to each other in the movie, when they're over 20 miles apart in the maps!
This, honestly, is my biggest problem with the movie. Otherwise, I thought the changes were okay and the rest of it rocked.
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Actually, Elves did once exist, and Tolkien knew this, as he was a professor of history.
There was a frankish line of kings called the Merovigians. They were the keepers of the holy grail, or more simply, Jesus' blood line. The populace at the time believed they lived forever, and called them Elves.
It is said around 800AD, when the Catholic church got swinging, they basicially said: "look, god says the pope will decide who is king, the Merovigians must go." They outlawed and expelled the Merovigians.
There were still a lot of people who believed in the holy grail, but were no longer alowed to talk about it due to new found power of the catholic church. As a result, they made up fairy tales, which are great stories, but to the initaited, have very special meanings. Stories like Cinderella, Rupenzel etc.
Rupunzel is a great example. The grail has been locked in a tower by a dark force. The prince must climb Rupunzel's hair to get to her, and destory the dark force. Ie. journey to the grail, ie. frodo must journey with ring, destroy dark force, etc..
Another interesting one is the faries, who were from Ireland.
Sam possesed the ring for a short time. He even used it in the book. He too, then, was exceptional in giving it up voluntarily.
Why should Peter Jackson get the Oscar?
Trust me, it takes a great director not to f*ck up a great book.
With a good book, you do have more to work with... but also the stakes are higher, and your choices are more tested, more scrutinized. It's double or nothing. If you do well, you are more worthy. With a great book, it's quadruple or nothing.
"Artistically incorrect?" Perhaps.
--LP
Does this count as a blooper?
When I saw the movie there was this person with the worst body odor imagineable scrawling on a mcdonalds napkin what appeared to be notes on theatrical details in the film's production. After the showing it was obvious he had shat himself and soiled what may have been his only pair of sweatpants.
Come on guys. This has been around since Dec 1st.
The Riders of Rohan seems to be loosely based on vikings, and interesting thing about viking society is that they had only had two of the branches of government the lawgiving and the judging. They did not have the excecutive branch. So a person might be sentenced to death like Eomer, but there wasn't anyone whose job it was to execute him. Any person would have the right to do so, but nobody would want to do it because Theoden is "insane" and the order is from Grima who most people dont like.
.
for a clear example of this see fx: Ravnkel Frojgodes saga (i cannot find an english translation of this)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/
have a lot of saga and other interesting medieval litterature
Wolfric
Did anyone elase think that the Orc general from the battle outside Gondor sounded like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. I did.
Saw the movie last night. Really enjoyed it but thought it was a bit rushed. The series could almost be made into 4 movies.
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
Tie the ring to a rat, tie the rat to Gandalf. Then the ring corrupts the rat, not Gandalf. He could keep the rat on a rope. Then he flies the eagle over Mount Doom and drops it in. Hell if they rescued him from Saruman I'm sure they wouldn't mind giving him a lift; there's thousands of them.
Basically the story is wildly flawed.
Well, duh, of course you don't like them, you're a troll, and you rockheads never did like how Tolkien treated you :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I DON'T WANT YOUR AUTOGRAPH!