- Oct 9, 1999
- 17,627
- 5
- 81
Oh christ, I am about to crap myself.
======================
I looked up at Gandalf, afraid to ask him anything. He's much more imposing in person, keep in mind. "Ummm... this is very nice," I said, smiling as broadly as I could, "but I actually saw this already a few times..."
The fire I saw in his eyes, the fire that had burned away his old persona at the bottom of some forgotten pit of Moria, caused me to cringe back a bit, afraid I had offended him. When he spoke, though, it was with a deceptive sort of quiet, a hush. "Keep watching," he said.
So I looked again, and I saw the last shot of the film fade to black, and the first of the end titles came up...
... only it didn't. It wasn't the first of the end titles. The screen said "Coming this Christmas," and a sudden electric shock ran down my spine as I realized what Gandalf was showing me. "The journey continues" came up, then gave way to a shot of a pin lying in the grass, shaped like a leaf. Someone leaned in, picked it up, and the camera TILTS UP to the face of Aragorn.
And as soon as you see those shots of Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas on the hunt for Merry and Pippin, you know that everything you liked about FELLOWSHIP is going to be back this time around. Andrew Lesnie's Academy-Award winning cinematography is just as grand and sweeping this time out. The first few images show us the search for Merry and Pippin, but quickly, we are reintroduced to Gandalf The White in an image that should give you some idea of what I encountered here in the Labs tonight, a powerful wizard, bristling with barely restrained might. This is not the frail old man of the first film; not at all.
The dialogue flew past, and I wasn't prepared to write it all down. "So... Gandalf Grayhaven believes he has found the Lost King Of Gondor," muses Saruman, even as Gandalf speaks directly to Isildur's conflicted heir. "Sauron is not yet so powerful that he is without fear. He fears you, Aragorn. He fears what you may become." There are shots here hinting at the future of Aragorn, at the destiny that is his to claim, and the trailer just keeps ramping up, building steam.
We see Sam and Frodo in the Dead Marshes. "The Ring..." says Frodo. "It grows heavier." Galadriel speaks to someone, pain on her face: "Frodo will not survive this task."
And then it's just one shot right after another, and we're getting our first looks at the characters. We're seeing Theoden and Grima Wormtongue (dear god, Brad Dourif looks perfect) and Faramir and Eowyn, and then two particularly striking shots of Arwen laid out as if dead, and at this point, the images just race by, and we're seeing landscapes and that glorious Howard Shore score just keeps building, and every single frame of Helm's Deep is intense, foreboding, with a couple of battle shots that will make your jaw drop (the ladders being thrown up against the wall and knocked away just as fast while sheets of arrows volley back and forth), and then, HOLY SH!T WAS THAT TREEBEARD?! And even more shots flash by, and wait a minute, was that four minutes? How can that already be four minutes? I WANT MORE!! I WANT MORE!! I WANT...
... and then those last few shots creep up on you, Gollum creeping down the side of the mountain towards the sleeping Sam and Frodo, hissing under his breath about "the cursed hobbitsesss... cursed thievessssss..." and just as he's reaching out for the Ring, Frodo opens his eyes, and...
... Gandalf snatched the Palantir away from me. I cried out and reached for it, but he shook his head. "Greedy boy, I have others to show this to, and far to travel still tonight."
======================
:Q can't wait til this Friday! link
======================
I looked up at Gandalf, afraid to ask him anything. He's much more imposing in person, keep in mind. "Ummm... this is very nice," I said, smiling as broadly as I could, "but I actually saw this already a few times..."
The fire I saw in his eyes, the fire that had burned away his old persona at the bottom of some forgotten pit of Moria, caused me to cringe back a bit, afraid I had offended him. When he spoke, though, it was with a deceptive sort of quiet, a hush. "Keep watching," he said.
So I looked again, and I saw the last shot of the film fade to black, and the first of the end titles came up...
... only it didn't. It wasn't the first of the end titles. The screen said "Coming this Christmas," and a sudden electric shock ran down my spine as I realized what Gandalf was showing me. "The journey continues" came up, then gave way to a shot of a pin lying in the grass, shaped like a leaf. Someone leaned in, picked it up, and the camera TILTS UP to the face of Aragorn.
And as soon as you see those shots of Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas on the hunt for Merry and Pippin, you know that everything you liked about FELLOWSHIP is going to be back this time around. Andrew Lesnie's Academy-Award winning cinematography is just as grand and sweeping this time out. The first few images show us the search for Merry and Pippin, but quickly, we are reintroduced to Gandalf The White in an image that should give you some idea of what I encountered here in the Labs tonight, a powerful wizard, bristling with barely restrained might. This is not the frail old man of the first film; not at all.
The dialogue flew past, and I wasn't prepared to write it all down. "So... Gandalf Grayhaven believes he has found the Lost King Of Gondor," muses Saruman, even as Gandalf speaks directly to Isildur's conflicted heir. "Sauron is not yet so powerful that he is without fear. He fears you, Aragorn. He fears what you may become." There are shots here hinting at the future of Aragorn, at the destiny that is his to claim, and the trailer just keeps ramping up, building steam.
We see Sam and Frodo in the Dead Marshes. "The Ring..." says Frodo. "It grows heavier." Galadriel speaks to someone, pain on her face: "Frodo will not survive this task."
And then it's just one shot right after another, and we're getting our first looks at the characters. We're seeing Theoden and Grima Wormtongue (dear god, Brad Dourif looks perfect) and Faramir and Eowyn, and then two particularly striking shots of Arwen laid out as if dead, and at this point, the images just race by, and we're seeing landscapes and that glorious Howard Shore score just keeps building, and every single frame of Helm's Deep is intense, foreboding, with a couple of battle shots that will make your jaw drop (the ladders being thrown up against the wall and knocked away just as fast while sheets of arrows volley back and forth), and then, HOLY SH!T WAS THAT TREEBEARD?! And even more shots flash by, and wait a minute, was that four minutes? How can that already be four minutes? I WANT MORE!! I WANT MORE!! I WANT...
... and then those last few shots creep up on you, Gollum creeping down the side of the mountain towards the sleeping Sam and Frodo, hissing under his breath about "the cursed hobbitsesss... cursed thievessssss..." and just as he's reaching out for the Ring, Frodo opens his eyes, and...
... Gandalf snatched the Palantir away from me. I cried out and reached for it, but he shook his head. "Greedy boy, I have others to show this to, and far to travel still tonight."
======================
:Q can't wait til this Friday! link
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