Search results

The Aragorn "poster" from New Year's Day was actually an ad in the New York Times. They did it the last couple of years for the other two movies, and New Line wound up selling posters of the ads through their shop. I would expect that will turn out to be the case with this one, too, though I...

I kind of like the Smeagol/Deagol opening, mainly because it keeps the format similar for all three movies of having an opening that's separate from the main action of the film and exists between the The Lord of the Rings title screen and the individual film's subtitle onscreen. In the first...

From a post on the last page, re: Theoden's "possession" I just read that chapter ("The Hall of the Golden King") in the book yesterday, and while it's true that Theoden's condition is brought on by the words of Wormtongue and not a spell of Saruman, he has been reduced to the visage of a...

In the Two Towers book, it is noted as strange that the creatures who've taken Merry and Pippin at the beginning can move as quickly in the day as in the night (I believe the wording says that orcs generally operate by night, "as is the way with all creatures of evil" or something), but there...

I'm just getting into The Two Towers in the books (I'm up to "Treebeard"), so I'm going on how it seems to be presented up to that point and I may be misunderstanding (so correct me if I'm wrong), but here goes... In the chapter "The Uruk-Hai," which details the kidnapping experience of Merry...

I think a lot of that stems from the amount of screen time we get in the films to get to know the Rohirrim (vs. the little time Gondorians get). By the time we've seen their villages burned, their soldiers killed, their stronghold broken, and their king mourning his son, we're really invested in...

Great link, Tim. I guess we can expect that to be the specialty poster in the New Line online shop in coming months. As for Oscar chances, I think Director is the only one I'd call a "mortal lock." I think the Academy members have been waiting for the total package to be complete in order to...

The more I reflect on it, the more I love Theoden's inspirational call to the Rohirrim: "Ride now! Ride now for ruin and the world's ending! Forth Eorlingas!" Chills, I get. Thanks for the info on the US concerts, Phil. I'll have to keep my eye out for any dates closer, though Atlanta's not...

He's come a long way since leading the Saturday Night Live band, hasn't he? I think this score, with its clear themes for the different peoples, groups and characters (like the Ring having its own theme, and the Fellowship, the Shire, Gondor, Rohan, the Nazgul, Gollum, etc.) is one of the...

My only complaint about this track is that it's placed at the end of the LE soundtrack, after all the TTT music. Which makes sense, as it's not part of the same movie, but it keeps the haunting "Gollum's Song" from being the final track you hear on the album, which is the way "Gollum's Song" is...

I don't think that the surprises should be taken out of the extended cuts, despite the fact that the vast majority who buy them will have already seen the theatrical editions. I think every edition of a film should be set up as to best entertain a first-time viewer, and none of that should be...

I agree about your Army of the Dead point, Alex. I've heard arguments for letting us see the fight, but to show them (even to show them starting a fight with the sailors and not showing them winning) would effectively ruin the great hero moment when the boats pull up to Minas Tirith. I've also...

Okay, to change the subject from Elijah Wood's bare chest (sorry, folks)... I've just started reading the Tolkien books, and was surprised to read in Fellowship that the Old Gaffer is Sam's father, Hamfast Gamgee. I don't think that point comes across well enough in the movies (even with the...

More than just throwing money away, it would have likely ended New Line as a business entity. Someone made the comment far upthread (well before the first-weekend totals were in) that even if the movie had played strongly to the built-in audience of Tolkien/fantasy fans, it wouldn't have been...

I wouldn't read too much into it. It's rare that any DVD commentary/documentary actually names "another actor" who was hired or considered for a part, unless there's been a special accomodation to show screen tests or something (like Tom Selleck in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a casting possibility...

I think it was even less than that. If I remember right from the commentary/documentaries, he was getting his swordplay choreography one shot at a time on-set during the Weathertop fight, because he pretty much hadn't had any training before that (his first day of filming). As to the...

It's been pointed out above that the teen-girl demographic played a large part in this, and it's true. Remember, this was the first part of 1998 (the film opened in December 1997, but really hit its stride close to the turn of the new year), when all of the articles in Time and Newsweek were...

Yeah, they basically gave him a temporary face-lift with clips (or tape, I can't remember); I can't imagine that was pleasant.

I really like the maturity of those two characters throughout the film. Watching the first half of Fellowship again really brings out the stark difference in their demeanor (really, that of all four hobbits) between the beginning and end of the tale. I think it's a major growth point for them...

Shane, I agree that the people of Rohan (the main Rohan characters as well as the common folk and soldiers) were among the most interesting in the films. When I first saw The Two Towers, I was a bit annoyed at their presence, worried they'd be a cul-de-sac that kept our heroes from going forth...

Rob, I agree that audience atmosphere dies off after the first days. I went Sunday night for the second time, and it was totally different than Wednesday evening. The theater I went to for both showings was formerly the premier cinema in my town for years and years--a multiplex that expanded...

Stephen, that seems like something that could be an extended-edition sequence. Merry is riding with Eomer at the Black Gate, so it's possible there's been filmed an acknowledgement of Merry's bravery by Eomer. On a second viewing, the length of the ending sequence worked a lot better for me...

I, too (again, not yet familiar with the books), expected we'd see more death come to familiar characters than we did. Before the film started, I fully expected Eowyn to be in the death pool, after PJ stated in the Two Towers DVD commentary that she would "break your heart in Film 3" and...

I think it was kind of a mix of the two factors. If it hadn't been Anduril (the reforged Narsil, sword of the king in whose time these souls had been banished), it wouldn't have stopped the dead man's blade. Also, though, if the king's sword hadn't been wielded by the true heir to the throne, it...

I have to say I was even more impressed by the Gollum effects than I was a year ago, which I didn't think was possible. There was one shot--outside Shelob's lair, if I remember right--where I honestly thought I was looking at Andy Serkis in an extreme makeup for a minute, and was amazed at how...

As someone who hasn't read the books, I will say that there were a couple of places I assumed we'd lost a bit to the running-time limitations, especially with regard to the Houses of Healing everyone's talking about. I spent half the Black Gate scene trying to figure out if all the severely...