Ambush_Bug
12-22-2001, 10:05 AM
Yar, I went and saw it last night... well worth the money and time.
First things first... take a bathroom break before you go in. At three hours, if you've got anything to drink, you'll have leave the theater unless you have a bladder of steel.
Cons:
Battle Scene Camera Work: The cuts were, IMO, too fast. You still got to see what all was going on, but it could have used a few pull-backs in some of the battles just to rest your eyes.
Lack of 'Time': You don't get the sense of the huge amounts of time the Company spent crossing the wilderness--it seems a little rushed in places. It still works, mind you, but I woulda preferred a little more slow-down there.
Dialog: There were places where they put in the original dialog, and yet it seemed rushed. This is, I'm pretty sure, because they had to cut two hours off the film to make it fit. No big deal, as you get the point and it works.
Pros:
Casting: PERFECT. I mean that. Ian M. IS Gandalf. I had my own visions of how Gandalf would look and behave, and he just captured them perfectly. There's going to be buttloads of Oscars for this movie. The Hobbits were well-done (though Sam needs more lines), Aragorn is just great, Legolas is marvellous, and Gimli... ahhh, Gimli was cool. :) Boromir was done to a T. At no time did a get a sense of 'These are actors, and this is a movie."
Plot Adjustments: I know things had to be rearranged in order to fit into a movie, and this was done very well. There are parts missing, and things shifted around, but you can tell that, even without reading the books, anyone will still be able to get hold of what's actually going on.
Mines of Moria: Though there's some plot-tweaking here concerning just who knew about Balin's plight, the Mines were, IMO, the best section of the entire movie. Cave troll? BAD-ASS! The drums? Better than I imagined them. The scenery? Just awesome.. you really got a sense of the whole place being carved out by Dwarves.
The Balrog.... O. M. G. This was the one part of the movie Jackson couldn't afford to screw up at ALL, and he didn't. He totally captured the sense of how powerful it is, how it looks, and how it fought with Gandalf. I can't spoil how the scene actually works, but I will say that when the Balrog came onto the scene, everyone in the theatre shut up. You could tell that everyone was actually frightened of it.. which was just what needed to happen. I haven't seen such a well-done movie monster in years.. and this guy only got at most eight minutes of screen time. Hands down one of the best scenes in the film.
Saruman: Without spoiling anything, I will say that Saruman is no longer told about by Gandalf at the Council... you see what happened. You see the tension working up, you see how his mind is working, and you begin to understand, even before its shown, that his aims are not those of the Council.
Sauron: Christ, I know he's a movie bad-guy, and even so, I still pause before I speak his name aloud. Jackson did a great job showing just what the Ring would let him do--there was always an ambiguity in the LotR books about what the Ring actually did for him. Now at last we see some of the power the One Ring gave him.
Arwen: Though some have bitched, and bitched hard about Liv Tyler's role in the movie, this was a good thing. By giving a lot of 'one-shot' roles to Arwen, Jackson keeps the character confusion down to a dull roar. And she's purty, too. ;)
Overall, I'm really impressed. I'm hopefully gonna be taking the familiy to see it tomorrow or the next day. I have some family members that have read the books, and some that have not, so it will be interesting.
First things first... take a bathroom break before you go in. At three hours, if you've got anything to drink, you'll have leave the theater unless you have a bladder of steel.
Cons:
Battle Scene Camera Work: The cuts were, IMO, too fast. You still got to see what all was going on, but it could have used a few pull-backs in some of the battles just to rest your eyes.
Lack of 'Time': You don't get the sense of the huge amounts of time the Company spent crossing the wilderness--it seems a little rushed in places. It still works, mind you, but I woulda preferred a little more slow-down there.
Dialog: There were places where they put in the original dialog, and yet it seemed rushed. This is, I'm pretty sure, because they had to cut two hours off the film to make it fit. No big deal, as you get the point and it works.
Pros:
Casting: PERFECT. I mean that. Ian M. IS Gandalf. I had my own visions of how Gandalf would look and behave, and he just captured them perfectly. There's going to be buttloads of Oscars for this movie. The Hobbits were well-done (though Sam needs more lines), Aragorn is just great, Legolas is marvellous, and Gimli... ahhh, Gimli was cool. :) Boromir was done to a T. At no time did a get a sense of 'These are actors, and this is a movie."
Plot Adjustments: I know things had to be rearranged in order to fit into a movie, and this was done very well. There are parts missing, and things shifted around, but you can tell that, even without reading the books, anyone will still be able to get hold of what's actually going on.
Mines of Moria: Though there's some plot-tweaking here concerning just who knew about Balin's plight, the Mines were, IMO, the best section of the entire movie. Cave troll? BAD-ASS! The drums? Better than I imagined them. The scenery? Just awesome.. you really got a sense of the whole place being carved out by Dwarves.
The Balrog.... O. M. G. This was the one part of the movie Jackson couldn't afford to screw up at ALL, and he didn't. He totally captured the sense of how powerful it is, how it looks, and how it fought with Gandalf. I can't spoil how the scene actually works, but I will say that when the Balrog came onto the scene, everyone in the theatre shut up. You could tell that everyone was actually frightened of it.. which was just what needed to happen. I haven't seen such a well-done movie monster in years.. and this guy only got at most eight minutes of screen time. Hands down one of the best scenes in the film.
Saruman: Without spoiling anything, I will say that Saruman is no longer told about by Gandalf at the Council... you see what happened. You see the tension working up, you see how his mind is working, and you begin to understand, even before its shown, that his aims are not those of the Council.
Sauron: Christ, I know he's a movie bad-guy, and even so, I still pause before I speak his name aloud. Jackson did a great job showing just what the Ring would let him do--there was always an ambiguity in the LotR books about what the Ring actually did for him. Now at last we see some of the power the One Ring gave him.
Arwen: Though some have bitched, and bitched hard about Liv Tyler's role in the movie, this was a good thing. By giving a lot of 'one-shot' roles to Arwen, Jackson keeps the character confusion down to a dull roar. And she's purty, too. ;)
Overall, I'm really impressed. I'm hopefully gonna be taking the familiy to see it tomorrow or the next day. I have some family members that have read the books, and some that have not, so it will be interesting.