Watching LOTR for the first time in four years

Are you doing them all in one day? I would love to do that sometime but I'd need to plan for it well in advance.

Fuck no! I'm just watching fotR EE or trying too- I keep having to take breaks to prevent the neighbours phoning the police at my crabbit explosions (the cats have already departed the building)

FOTR-EE is only 208 minutes long though so I dunno how you could have 230 left.

...I guess unless you're including the fan club credits and your four crabbit explosions all took place in the prologue?

Pettytyrant101 wrote: Fuck no! I'm just watching fotR EE or trying too- I keep having to take breaks to prevent the neighbours phoning the police at my crabbit explosions (the cats have already departed the building)

I suppose if you are dedicated enough to force yourself through it, I haven't got any reason to put off a rewatch much longer at least I actually like the films for the most part...

Eldorion wrote:Are you doing them all in one day? I would love to do that sometime but I'd need to plan for it well in advance.

I did that once about five years ago, though at that point I already knew the films so well it was more of a novelty to say I'd done it, rather than an 'experience'.

I'm not sure I'd have the patience anymore to do it again

If they ever did an EE Marathon in UK cinemas I'd be tempted to give it a go, as I never got the chance to see LOTR on the big screen

I think home video technology has come far enough that I wouldn't call seeing the films on the big screen a transformatively different experience or anything, but it is really impressive and I recommend it if you ever get the chance.

It can be grueling though, at least the one I went to, since they don't include intermission. I saw Lawrence of Arabia at the same theatre the next year for its 50th anniversary (and also a Blu-ray release special). It's more than 20 minutes shorter than ROTK-EE but did include an intermission. At home I always take a break during the disc change so it was pretty weird not having the fade to black at those points.

Eldorion wrote:I think home video technology has come far enough that I wouldn't call seeing the films on the big screen a transformatively different experience or anything, but it is really impressive and I recommend it if you ever get the chance.

It can be grueling though, at least the one I went to, since they don't include intermission.  I saw Lawrence of Arabia at the same theatre the next year for its 50th anniversary (and also a Blu-ray release special).  It's more than 20 minutes shorter than ROTK-EE but did include an intermission.  At home I always take a break during the disc change so it was pretty weird not having the fade to black at those points.

The last time I saw Lawrence of Arabia was at a revival house sometime last year at a revival house (for the second time). I remember the intermission was 10-15 minutes long, which was exactly (if not less) enough time recollect my stamina for the following 2.25 hours of the film (and to take a pee break!) I find it hard to believe that anyone can watch a movie that long (and sophisticated) without needing any time to reminisce.

Long, long ago, when LOTRs 1st came out I watched enthralled by it at the cinema. Couldnt wait for the next instalment, couldnt believe it when each film ended as it did, especially TTTs. When I saw the posters being put up in every bus shelter billboard my first reaction was " oh no ! Not LOTRs ! " I assumed it would be a cheesy Hollywood "yo ho" romp where everyone never got even slightly grubby & al the women wore makeup & not a hair out of place even 1st thing in the morning, Errol Flynn tights & a twang of American accents. I only went because my daughter nagged. I had to eat my words. I actually enjoyed it !!! I hadnt seen any other film that made me feel so at home. It was just my cup of tea. So, when the dvds came out, I bought the lot. Every fooking weekend was a LOTRs weekend ! I must have been mad. looking back on it. Flask of tea, tray of munch & off we go. The weekend became a whole day & I still loved watching LOTRs. Now ? I dont think Ive watched the dvds for 4years ? Its been on TV several times & Ive resisted even looking. I had my moment & now its over. The final nail in the coffin is undoubtedly The bloody Hobbit, OMG ! If the hobbshit had come out first it would have made LOTRs look like a masterpiece of brilliance but, it would have confused me a tad I think ? If TH had come out first would LOTRs have been as lovely to look at ? I think not. that also would have been ruined by peejers CGI craving. He cut his teeth on doing LOTRs, it felt more natural & real, the people were real people, even Treebeard was believable. What would peejers have done with the Ents if TH was filmed first ? Same goes for the Elves. You felt that you could touch them & theyde be warm & human like, but, if LOTRs was 2nd would peejers have them flying around like Christmas fairies ? CGI horses that could gallop so fast it was a blur ? And how would Gimli be presented if the Dwarves in TH are anything to go by ?

halfwise wrote:

Mrs Figg wrote:
The only problem with ROTK is...erm......nothing. its perfect.

Weren't you the one who coined the term 'the green scrubbing bubbles Army of the Dead?'

yep I was. and when I say 'perfect' I am conveniently forgetting green scrubbing bubbles. its the only duff note. imo. I was really looking forward to the Paths of the Dead, and was disappointed when it turned out so silly. It could have been magnificently horrible, but it turned into farcical skull hopping It started off promising with the door and Legolas recounting the story, but as soon as they walked in to the passage it went awry.

Eldorion wrote:I think home video technology has come far enough that I wouldn't call seeing the films on the big screen a transformatively different experience or anything, but it is really impressive and I recommend it if you ever get the chance.

It can be grueling though, at least the one I went to, since they don't include intermission.  I saw Lawrence of Arabia at the same theatre the next year for its 50th anniversary (and also a Blu-ray release special).  It's more than 20 minutes shorter than ROTK-EE but did include an intermission.  At home I always take a break during the disc change so it was pretty weird not having the fade to black at those points.

you HAVE to see LOTR on the big screen at least once. To get the full majesty of ROTK in particular the final two battles in Gondor.

as soon as they walked in to the passage it went awry- Figg

This section had already gone awry when their was no Grey Company or sons of Elrond No instead we are meant to believe Elrond, Lord of Rivendell came alone, with no guards all the ay to Rohan in the middle of a war to help Aragorn overcome his fear of his own bloodline ( because he was apparently raised by an elf who thinks humans ae all useless and cursed to failure so I suppose apart from making Elrond a complete arsehole that at least makes one sort of twisted sense).
But its clear PJ had no idea how do do the Paths of the Dead scenes, and instead for creepy for some reason best known to himself he went for Ghost-train at a cheap fairground, then thought he could get away with it if he had the characters react pretty much as if they knew they were on a shit ghost train.
For creepy Tolkien gives you some gems, like the guy who died seemingly desperately scratching at a closed door- the imagining of how he died, why he felt he had to get through that door, is so much better than Gimli trying to humorously tip toe over piles of bones. Or a waterfall of enough human skulls to account for most of North America.

its all very well criticising him for Alton Towers but showing a skelington on a cave floor would be pure Ghost train.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:as soon as they walked in to the passage it went awry- Figg

This section had already gone awry when their was no Grey Company or sons of Elrond No instead we are meant to believe Elrond, Lord of Rivendell came alone, with no guards all the ay to Rohan in the middle of a war to help Aragorn overcome his  fear of his own bloodline ( because he was apparently raised by an elf who thinks humans ae all useless and cursed to failure so I suppose apart from making Elrond a complete arsehole that at least makes one sort of twisted sense).

I think the hardest to believe thing about Elrond's appearance at Dunharrow was that he didn't think to use one of the convenient taxis eagles.

Haven't seen the films in years, but was it ever explained as to why Elrond didn't just kick Aragorn in the arse and make him see sense before leaving Rivendell?

Elrond's either very overconfident or idiotic if he travelled all the way to Dunharrow assuming Aragorn changed his mind...kinda lucky he got there just before he enters the paths of the dead as well

I thought the Dunharrow scenes were brilliant cinema. It had the right slightly spooky moonlit atmosphere. Elrond was magnificent and Théoden in the tent was an amazing bit of understated acting. If they could only have kept up that sombre and tense feel through to the Paths it would have been spellbinding.

malickfan wrote:Haven't seen the films in years, but was it ever explained as to why Elrond didn't just kick Aragorn in the arse and make him see sense before leaving Rivendell?

Elrond's either very overconfident or idiotic if he travelled all the way to Dunharrow assuming Aragorn changed his mind...kinda lucky he got there just before he enters the paths of the dead as well

Elrond didn't really believe in Aragorn during FOTR; he dismissed him as having "chosen exile" and thrown away the possibility of becoming king. The only reason he changes his mind, has Narsil reforged, and takes it to Aragorn in ROTK is because Arwen begs him to from her deathbed (though the whole "Arwen is dying because of the Ring" thing doesn't make sense itself).

I'm waiting for your re impression of TT Eldo! Where is it?

I thought it was due to Galadriel and Elrond having a telepathic pep talk?. Basically her telling him to get his arse in gear.

davidjoneshoward wrote:I'm waiting for your re impression of TT Eldo! Where is it?

I'm glad you're still interested. Today is the last of six days in a row at work for me and I have two of the next three off so I'll probably watch it on one of those.

That scene didnt sit well with me when I saw this at the cinema ? I didnt get why she was supposed to be dying ? This so called "light of the Eldar" ?... why ? she looked alright to me when she popped up for Aragorns coronation ? But how can she be dying when Elrond had a "vision" of her son ?

Mrs Figg wrote:I thought it was due to Galadriel and Elrond having a telepathic pep talk?. Basically her telling him to get his arse in gear.

That was why he sent the Elves to Helm's Deep (even though they were Lorien Elves, they arrived "bring[ing] word from Elrond of Rivendell"). But at the end of TTT (continuing into the beginning of ROTK) he tries and almost succeeds at sending Arwen to the Grey Havens. Only after Arwen has her vision of Eldarion early in ROTK and returns to Rivendell does Elrond change his mind and approve the reforging of Narsil.

even though they were Lorien Elves- Eldo

Not to mention the orcs we are told are i the Westfold, and then attack Helms Deep, which only happens in the film because Theoden decides to, the same day Gandalf leaves to get aid, and they evacuate to Helms Deep which seems to take two days, with one night camp. Which means the elves in order to arrive on time had to leave before anyone knew there was going to be a battle at Helms Deep.

like you notice that during the film.

only you would notice that.

Now here you see Mrs Figg why I am no gentlehobbit- a gentlehobbit would notice it but say nothing, only a crabbit bastard has to point it out.

Eldorion wrote:

Mrs Figg wrote:I thought it was due to Galadriel and Elrond having a telepathic pep talk?. Basically her telling him to get his arse in gear.

That was why he sent the Elves to Helm's Deep (even though they were Lorien Elves, they arrived "bring[ing] word from Elrond of Rivendell").  But at the end of TTT (continuing into the beginning of ROTK) he tries and almost succeeds at sending Arwen to the Grey Havens.  Only after Arwen has her vision of Eldarion early in ROTK and returns to Rivendell does Elrond change his mind and approve the reforging of Narsil.

oh yeah I forgot it was in TTT. sorry.

When I made this thread I had every intention of moving on to watch TTT in a couple of days or a week at most, but life intervened in the form of me meeting this girl who I started spending a ton of time with.  Fast forward about a month (which has flown by despite how much happened during it) and I figured I'd try to go back to my LOTR rewatch.  Fortunately, my girlfriend likes LOTR too (which should surprise no one ) and though it's been a long time since she read the books or saw the movies she was down with jumping in at TTT.  However, due to its length we watched in two sittings a couple days apart, and we got interrupted several times from other people in the house, so viewing conditions were less than ideal.  But we did finish the movie recently and I wanted to leave a few thoughts.

Those of you who remember my "in defense of The Two Towers" thread from (I think) last year know that I like the second movie a lot and think it gets unfairly maligned sometimes.  I was really psyched to come in and make another big post in that vein about what a (comparatively) overlooked masterpiece TTT is, especially given how I had basically no criticisms at the end of FOTR.  Unfortunately ... that's not what happened.  There is a lot of great stuff in TTT but the flaws stood out to me more this time.  Part of that might be getting interrupted, or it might be a question of overly inflated expectations, or both, or neither.  But the film really does start slow (they all do, but this felt unnecessarily so), the endings get dull after a whiled (granted, this complaint I made even in the defense thread), and there are plenty of weird/dumb moments in there.  The warg battle I was okay with in principle, but the furtherance of joke!Gimli and the pointlessness of Aragorn's fake death make it hard to sing too many praises.  Helm's Deep is great but ... I can't believe I'm saying this ... it really does go on for too long.  I like the added Rohan scenes in the beginning but Eomer doesn't even merit getting his head photoshopped onto an extra in the final group shot.

You guys can go ahead and say "I told you so" now.  I'll take it.

Anyway, it is worth noting that these complaints are made in contrast to the sublime near-perfection of FOTR, and that TTT is still an excellent film by any reasonable standard (IMO obviously).  The major characters all grow in small but appreciable ways, and one thing that stood out to me that hadn't so much in previous viewings was Gimli's "let him go, lad" to Legolas -- which Legolas accepts -- which helps convey some sense of their friendship as equals rather than Legolas as invincible action dude and Gimli as butt monkey.  Bernard Hill is great even though his character is very different from the book.  I've loved movie!Rohan for a long time but I forgot just how much of it is found in the first half of ROTK (which as I've said before is probably my favorite part of the trilogy as a whole).

Perhaps the most notorious change in TTT (other than Elves at Helm's Deep which we've already talked about) is Faramir.  I think David Wenham is good in the role and the EE goes a long way towards fleshing him out.  Trying to apply my earlier metric of "does he work well by the standards of this sort of movie", I think he does.  It was pointed out to me a long time ago that much of the difference in how Faramir treats Frodo is down as much to changes in the way movie!Frodo acts (ie, much more suspiciously and immaturely) compared to his book counterpart.  The beating of Gollum scene I don't like but I kinda see what they were going for.  However, having Faramir continue to manhandle and beat Gollum in the finale after his change of heart leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Seeing Gollum limping and dragging himself through the tunnel, with his suffering completely ignored by Sam and Frodo, casts him in far too sympathetic a light (especially since the films already left out a lot of his nastiest actions, like baby-eating).  Sort of a prelude to Sam acting like a domestic violence PSA in ROTK that kinda makes me want to root for Gollum.

Anyway, to end on a positive note, my favorite scene in the movie is probably "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".  It's got it all.  It follows right on the most famous Gollum/Smeagol split conversation, which is itself an awesome scene, and so it's got some crucial character development for Smeagol and for the whole group at that point.  It's got some of the funniest lines of any of the films ("stupid fat hobbit!").  It's got the sense of wonder at the oliphaunt.  It has a neat little action with the ambush and then concludes with a thematic statement that, while delivered by Faramir rather than Sam, is still nice to see.  Also, it turns out that my girlfriend is a little creeped out by Gollum and especially by the line "raw and wrrrrriggling", which I have always enjoyed quoting, complete with lip flapping on the "r" sound in "wriggling".