Lord of the Rings: reviews

ah, that should be Faramir, Boromir’s brother. Boromir’s father Dennethor meets a rather fiery …oops, better not give that away…

can’t wait to see ttt myself, good to see all the raves. Sandman is just jealous of the NZ scenery.

You got me bang to rights on that score, for sure.

ah, that should be Faramir, Boromir’s brother. Boromir’s father Dennethor meets a rather fiery …oops, better not give that away…

can’t wait to see ttt myself, good to see all the raves. Sandman is just jealous of the NZ scenery.[/quote]

You are correct of course…I meant Boromir’s brother…thank you for spotting that.

And yes…the book does not have any elves showing up at Helm’s Deep. If you recall, the woods come alive and swallow up the Orcs. Peter Jackson must have decided on Elves for a good reason. I happened to be thinking to myself ‘Hmmm, I wonder why Tolkien didn’t have the Elves come to fight’ and lo and behold, Jackson saves Helm’s Deep with a little director’s slight of Elven ex Machina…added something to the film? Yes! But I would much rather have seen the trees.

The thing I really loved were the Wolves of Isengard…COOOOOOOOL!!!

The movie was fantastic. From the opening fight scene with the Balrog through to Helm’s Deep, I was completely enthralled. I enjoyed the way the production interspliced the 3 story lines and I also agree Gollum/Smeagol steals the show. Now I have a whole year to finish the last book…wwoooooohhooooo

[quote]
Off-topic, but I find it amazing that there is no Chinese translation of the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, nor has there been a big-screen adaptation of those books[/quote]

I’m a big fan of the Narnia’s.

There are Chinese translations of ‘the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’. In an effort to get some reading practice, I bought two versions - one with bopomo and one (different translation) without. I know the story so well, I figured it would be good practice reading the Chinese without having to worryabout what’s going on. But I’m a lazy bastard and have only got up to chapter 5 or so. Hopefully when my Chinese gets superhot (probably 20 years or so at current rate), I’ll be able to write the translation for the other books myself :wink:

Movies: There were BBC adaptions of the first 4 (publication order) books. I thought they were crap, but they have some fans. Personally I think Narnia really needs a mega-budget to work, otherwise you get the powerful lion Aslan looking like a guy in a sewn up lion’s suit. There is a Hollywood movie on and off again in the pipeline, but I think it’s off agin at the moment.

Brian

They call that artistic license, and as much as I usually complain about book translations to film, this one would have to be one of my favourite renditions.

If you think about how long it takes to read the ‘Rings’ due to the backgrounding of the characters and history, the only way to interpret them successfully to the screen is to play up the action sequences and flesh out the danger, heroism, and suspense of the novels so movie audiences can find themselves enthralled by the grandeur, while the underlying message of the tale remains.

Never got past the Hobbit myself but the real nuts will want to buy the fourth volume - a bunch of appendices and alternative endings from Tolkein.

Have anyone seen it in Caves?

[quote=“Mr He”]The uninitiated are many on this board. The films are great and the book is OK too.

Stop your bashing based on ignorance and get into the cinema or read the book.

Merry Christmas.[/quote]

Bashing? Based on ignorance? Since when is it ignorant to find sci-fi and dungeons & dragons-type stuff boring to the point of slumber?
I wish I could enjoy it – but alas, I’m not 14 anymore. Come to think of it, I never enjoyed that kind of stuff even when I was a teenager.
And my Amazon wish list is already running to more than 300 titles, and Tolkein doesn’t, and won’t feature on it.

And a Merry Christmas and Happy Hogmanay to you and yours too Holger!

Edit: I’ve seen all the Ring books in FNAC. There seems to be a total of five – the Hobbit, the trilogy, one called Marillion or something, and another one which is maybe a book of maps – All bound in nifty and suitably goth chick-like black. Enjoy.

[quote=“sandman”]Amazon wish list is already running to more than 300 titles, and Tolkein doesn’t, and won’t feature on it.[/quote] Mine either. However, the “fourth book” is in fact “Sauron Defeated” and is the final part of Christopher Tolkein’s history of the Lord of the Rings.

We saw it last night. Two thumbs up. I liked the humor provided by the Gimli character (“You’ll have to toss me”).

T.

[quote=“sandman”]Bashing? Based on ignorance? Since when is it ignorant to find sci-fi and dungeons & dragons-type stuff boring to the point of slumber?
[/quote]

Sci-fi and D&D leave me cold as well, but the ring is different because of the arthistic depth of it. This book has been consistently popular among a wide audience since the 1950’s. I have a hard time seeing the quenn of Denmark illustrating D&D figures, but she nevertheless illustrated the Danish edition of LOTR (And got free movie tickets as payment :wink: ).

I thought it was great. I loved the part where Dumbledore is kicking that bull’s ass while they fly through the air. The oompa loompas where pretty good as well. How come that one fairy-dude that was the leader of the fairies that came to help at helm’s deep was so fat?
Oh yeah, remember when Aragorn, the midget and the fairy are running after the oompa loompas? I thought it would be funny if they had a shot of Aragorn and the fairy smoking up while they waited for the midget.

[quote=“chainsmoker”]I thought it was great. I loved the part where Dumbledore is kicking that bull’s ass while they fly through the air. The oompa loompas where pretty good as well. How come that one fairy-dude that was the leader of the fairies that came to help at helm’s deep was so fat?
Oh yeah, remember when Aragorn, the midget and the fairy are running after the oompa loompas? I thought it would be funny if they had a shot of Aragorn and the fairy smoking up while they waited for the midget.[/quote]

And the southern gentleman takes the prize for funniest post on the thread. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Are you allowed to say “midget” these days?

Well, I was dragged kicking and screaming to see this film last night and OK, OK, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But I could only stay until the part when the king bloke started whining about burying his child, then I had to leave. Yesterday would have been wee Caitlin’s fourth Christmas.

I saw it with my little sister when I visited my family for Christmas…

I slept through all but maybe 15 minutes of it. I woke up during battle scenes and fell asleep before they were over. I remember the many times I woke up and thought, “The movie’s still going? Okay, I’ll try to stay awa—zzzz”

I’d blame it on the 13-hour jet lag I experienced, but for some reason I don’t think that was all of it. I read the books with zeal (meaning all three read within three days’ time) and own the DVD of the Fellowship of the Rings so it’s not because I didn’t like the books. Maybe when it comes out on DVD I’ll try to watch it again.

Of course, I preferred Jack Black and Sarah Michelle Gellar’s version better…
ifilm.com/ifilm/product/film … 57,00.html

This is cheaply done but gives you side by side pictures of the characters in real life and on screen.

theargonath.cc/pictures/spli … reens.html