Kevin's Watch

Peter Jackon's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19, 2001. So let's call it ten years, although we're short about 5 weeks as I write this.

Has anyone changed their opinions or feelings about this movie, or these movies, since it came out? Any haters become admirers? Any fans become ex-fans?

For me I like it now as much as I ever did. Of course I'd like to re experience the trilogy in the theater. I break out my disks every so often. The hardest part is finding 9 hours of free time to watch. I prefer to view LOTR in its entirety.

I think it's fairly timeless, so I don't see how this is going to age, except in the special effects world. There are some glaring moments that take me out for a second or two, but it only adds to the charm a bit for me.

With that said, I'm anxiously awaiting The Hobbit. PJ recently posted another video blog on the set. If you folks have not checked any of these out, then either you are spoiler-phobic or are missing out. You can definitely find them on Peter Jackson's facebook page.

Funny enough, I was a moderator of the Fanclub Message Boards and am still moderating a spin-off site of our own that we started when Decipher got so crazy...

I was able to see two of them (FOTR & ROTK) in the theaters this summer (TTT was during vacation...sigh). I must admit that I like them better now than when I first saw them. Not that I didn't like them then, my name is in the extended credits so hey, how can you not be a fan?!? But after a decade of coming to grips that PJs LOTR and Dr.G's LOTR are two different stories, I am better able to see and appreciate them for what they are -- excellent films that tell a great story (albeit, different from the books...).

Doc

I watched the Extended Blu-rays this summer. Fantastic. I had a blast. These movies just keep getting better for me. I could watch the Moria sequence over and over. Gandalf's "You shall not pass!" never fails to send chills down my spine. Good lord that's a perfect cinematic moment! Pure magic.

Has anyone seen what Jackson is doing with the Dwarves for The Hobbit? If not, prepared to be shocked. These look nothing like Gimli. Every Dwarf has his own look, actually. And they're pretty freaky.

Zarathustra wrote:Gandalf's "You shall not pass!" never fails to send chills down my spine. Good lord that's a perfect cinematic moment! Pure magic.

Absolutely. I remember some trailer showing just that moment, and just being blown away in my expectations. And you're right - I still get chills as well.

Zarathustra wrote: Has anyone seen what Jackson is doing with the Dwarves for The Hobbit? If not, prepared to be shocked. These look nothing like Gimli. Every Dwarf has his own look, actually. And they're pretty freaky.

Yeah, well, it would be hard to keep them straight if they all looked the same, wouldn't it? I understand why he did it. But I do agree that they look freaky. Kind of plasticky. I remember one of the first times I saw them all together, I thought it was action figures until I looked a bit closer.

I looked it up after reading Z's comment. I notice Gloin actually does resemble Gimli a little, as he should.
i.huffpost.com/gen/313139/THE-HOBBIT-DWARVES.jpg

I think one or two of them look more like Hobbits. I like what they've done overall, though.

just reading these posts about Gandalf in Moria sends chills through me.
My favourite part of the book, and I couldn't wait to see it on the big screen.

I am still blown away by so many things in the films, and I still have some of the same objections. But so many things were spot-on for me (having read the trilogy I don't know how many times since 1976) maybe those things just glare all the more because of that.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw the movies first, I simply expected too much for what was, in reality, logistically possible.

Over the years I have acquired the extended versions on DVD and the more I watch the films and the special features the more impressed I have become. And even though it was an addition, the part where the Elves arrive in Helm's Deep always gives me a shiver and a lift. We get to see so little of the Elven Armies that to get an extended shot of them is very satisfying.

As time passes, when I think of the length of time spent filming the attention to detail and the sustained attempt to honour the spirit of Tolkien's story, my admiration for Peter Jackson et al. deepens ever further.

Probably the element of the film that has impressed me most on watching the films again is the music. It was only years afterwards that I realise that it was being very carefully used to go along with different landscapes, different races etc. A few notes now and I know if I am in Rohan or Gondor or the Shire. Wonderful!

u.

(I've made the music of LOTR a bit of a hobby. If you're interested in the various themes in the score, whether from a casual "what does that represent?" to second-by-second analysis, I recommend A Magpie's Nest to anyone. It even has clips of the themes so you can hear them for yourself. (So you can understand the difference between the Gondor-in-Decline theme from the Gondor-in-Ascension theme, for example.)

Wait, did I miss something? I thought Jackson was NOT directing "The Hobbit"

I loved the movies when they came out, loved em even more for the extended director's cut versions and will love them always. I think he did a great job with a huge monumental project. Then again I have a tendency to empathize with the director and get annoyed by people getting all up in arms over changing things from the books. Sometimes things just gotta give in order to fit time/main plot/dramatic effect constraints.

wayfriend wrote:(I've made the music of LOTR a bit of a hobby. If you're interested in the various themes in the score, whether from a casual "what does that represent?" to second-by-second analysis, I recommend A Magpie's Nest to anyone. It even has clips of the themes so you can hear them for yourself. (So you can understand the difference between the Gondor-in-Decline theme from the Gondor-in-Ascension theme, for example.)

Cool site. Thanks!

Yeah, CJ, you've missed something. Jackson is directing.

Yeah, what Z said. Del Toro was initially supposed to direct, but once it got tied up in legal battles and such, he bowed out. Then Jackson took the reins back. I, personally, am relieved.

I checked out: A Magpie's Nest. Very, very interesting site. I'll be spending a lot of time there soon. One quick note, however, I noticed in the section which lists resemblances to other musical works, one glaringly obvious example was missed. The Rivendell Theme is almost exactly like the music Shore wrote for the movie Dogma, near the end when god (Alanis Morissette) makes an appearance.

like it about the same as i ever did.

first film, yay, good job
the other two, meh, too many unneccesary
changes for me and really really too many
frodo closeups

as for the music, i know a lot of people loved it but i am in the "why didn't they use led zeppelin and jethro tull (or robert plant and ian anderson) for the soundtrack" camp.
seriously.

luci, had the Beatles ever finished production on their LOTR movie, you probably would have loved it.

I liked it more watching it on DVD, recently, so for me it got better as time went on. Why? I was with my college friends and the cracks we made watching the movie made it more fun (except one of my friends didn't appreciate cracks about homoeroticism the rest of us perceived in the first movie). I didn't really even remember the films enough to know for sure which parts changed from the "extended edition" features - there was at least one scene in Fellowship where I asked if it was a new scene and my friends said it was old (don't remember what scene it was).

I do feel like The Two Towers drags a bit - it feels like a lot of the movie is just walking/running places, or sitting on Treebeard's shoulders as he walks places. I guess that's true of all three to some extent but somehow it gets to me more in the second movie.

I also took special notice of how pissed off Elrond is during the course of the movie. He always looks so angry! Especially when Gandalf speaks in the black tongue of Mordor!

TTT is my least favorite movie of the three. Mostly because it is the 'Middle' No expectant beginning, not resolution, just...Middle. Well...that and Faramir's morphing into Boromir Lite...

I remember getting the soundtrack a week before the first film opened and listening to it loving it and picturing in my mind what was happening...except at "The Sign of the Prancing Pony" which seemed totally wrong (and for the book, it would have been!). Then going to see the movie and thinking "Oh. NOW I get it!"

DoctorGamgee wrote: I remember getting the soundtrack a week before the first film opened and listening to it loving it and picturing in my mind what was happening...except at "The Sign of the Prancing Pony" which seemed totally wrong (and for the book, it would have been!). Then going to see the movie and thinking "Oh. NOW I get it!"

That was very close to my experience, too. I already had the music memorized by the time I saw the movie, so that there was this wierd familiar/new mixture that enhanced the experience for me. Even when I had no idea what image was going to occur next, I was carried into each new scene by the expectation of knowing the emotional "language," knowing what musical theme was going to happen next.