The Glade 4.0

Apparently some people really can't wait...

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I'm almost temped to wait for the box set so I can fast forward through the parts that were added to forcibly make it a trilogy.

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Fine idea, that.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Just got back and penned a few thoughts...

http://farsky.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/ ... d-journey/

**** loved it.

_________________
Raell Kromwell

Same. Took me back to my young days.

Perfect review.

Also, Radagast the Brown is awesome.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Overall liked it.

Wasn't particularly happy with how campy some of the scenes were made and some of the ridiculous abuse that the laws of physics got, but I was surprised when the end came as it didn't feel like almost 3 hours.

yup. right with you Aizle. Had a real issue with the Great goblin and the 3 trolls. (yes, thats how they're written, but I could have done without troll snot, didn't we see that in Harry Potter 1?)

My biggest gripes were

I have a love/hate relationship with Jackson and his handling of Tolkien. On many fronts he gets it exactly right. The first 10-15 minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring is as perfect as I've seen in the theatre.

But he seems to have this huge blind spot for understanding some of the most critical and central characters and the drive behind them.

Faromir's interactions with Frodo are completely wrong and completely **** up what is THE single most important point in the entire trilogy.

Similarly in the Hobbit he seems to not understand the core of Bilbo's character or where his strengths lie.

And how.

Like, say, how he messed up the entire core the LotR plot.

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

I'm curious what core you think that is.

To me the biggest part I felt he messed up was Faromir when he finds Frodo with the ring. That moment is to me the entire essence of the book. Faromir is able to see immediately that the ring is evil and must be destroyed, unlike his brother. This realization AND his ability to resist the lure of the ring is the example that shows that Elrond is wrong and the blood of Numenor is NOT all but spent.

I felt that Faromir's apparent immunity to the ring in the book completely undermined Tolkien's entire story. I actually liked that change in the movie, because it showed that everyone was corruptable, nobody was ultimately immune.

My biggest complaint in the movies was the anticlimactic battle at Pelenor Field and the army ghosts added to it. That really bothers me.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

We've discussed before how you simply do not understand that not all Men are created equal. Numenoreans are simply better in Middle Earth. They are wiser, longer lived, and have superior wills. They are the Kings of Men, blessed with the light of Arda and meant to rule their dimmer (pun intended) cousins.

Boromir didn't have that blood. It ran true in Faramir. Unless Everything You Really Need to Know About Middle Earth You Learned in a Movie Theater, which would be a terrible book and not worth the ink with which it was printed, let alone the paper. (Apologies to Robert Fulghum)

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And in Isildur.

But Isildor was corruptible and his bloodline was stronger than Aragorn's. Frodo leaves the company precisely because he sees that all in the party would eventually lose out against the ring.

Farimir had less ambition, in part because of his father rejected him, he had an older brother and thus no claim on the throne (such as it was, since Denethor was just a regent) . That made him less temptible, not so much his blood.

The core of Tolkien's story is the journey, character, and transformation of the Hobbits. The core of Jackson's story is the Ring.

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

What TheRiov said. Isildur had stronger Numenorian blood than Faramir, and the ring took him. Aragorn had stronger blood than Faramir, and he was more tempted. The Isle of Numenor had a history of corruption and even rebelled against the Valar at one point, pride, ambition and vanity causing the death of nearly all of those on the island. Numenor was far from incorruptible.

For that matter, the blood of Numenor is Elf-blood intermingled with the blood of men. Elves were as susceptible as men were. The Maiar themselves were susceptible, and they had purer souls than either elves or men. In fact, Tolkien went to great pains to prove that apart from the abomination that is Bombadil, ALL were susceptible to the ring. Hobbits were just a little less so than anybody else (and even then, given enough time with it, they would fall under its spell.)

Tolkien undermined the evil of the ring by making a man with the ring under his control appear immune.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Faromir was not immune to the ring. He just was wise enough to realize what it was and recognize the evil behind it. It was this wisdom that helped pave the way for the Age of Men.

Saw in 2d, since the wife can't handle 3d stuff.....and it was very entertaining. When Cate appears, it was jaw dropping swoon

I was surprised how much I enjoyed it; then again I had pretty low expectations. I had no problems with the CG nor the runtime, and since I remember almost nothing from the book, any discrepancies went unnoticed. The repetitiveness of some of the scenes was a bit disappointing, but then again that's Jackson's style, and the entire escape from the goblin caves scene was like watching a silly 3D platformer.

By the way, were there stone giants in the book? Because in the movie they seemed a bit...excessive and out of place.

Having said all that, I'm actually looking forward to the next one.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I was pretty skeptical walking in. I saw it in 3D/HFR (48fps) and thought it was excellent. As my friend put it, some scenes felt like watching a superbly done cut-scene. My mind isn't used to seeing that kind of fast motion, but I was prepared for it and I actually enjoyed it. A couple scenes looked like they were playing in high speed but these were the exception. 3D hasn't ever really sat right with me, but I will say the HFR made it look nicer and easier to process. It didn't give me a headache whereas some flicks have. I think Jackson did a good job of structuring his scenes to properly take advantage of the format rather than simply using it because of the novelty. If you're the type to see a movie more than once, I'd recommend seeing it this way first for no other reason than you're likely not going to ever see it this way again unless your TV can run it this way.

I have only two critiques of the movie's content. Spoilered since I didn't remember these from the book:

_________________
The Dude abides.

What really gave me the chills was when Gandalf was reading the message about how to find the secret door. After 30something years? I remembered every word of it. I swear, I wore that cassette/book combo out.

_________________
"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."