Lord of the Rings

[Sixguns]

I know I am like 10 years late to this party but I finally finished the last movie last night. Not sure if I liked it that much though. The battles were awesome but I got tired of Frodos crying all the time.

 

[Matthiasa]

Frodo is emo but you should have known that going in.

 

[darkewaffle]

I rewatched them all on Bluray when I finally got the set around Christmas, really outstanding. I love them all but I'd forgotten just how good Return of the King actually was.

 

[DrunkenSano]

The ending was also a super Pedo ending, it made the old wizard look like a child molester laughing jubilantly at the little kids in his bed. It was amusing.

 

[jlee]

I have the blu-ray extended box set kicking around - one of these days when I have a week or so off I might have to watch them again.

 

[Arcadio]

I got the bluray version but I'm waiting until I get a new bigger TV to watch it.

Also, I'm seriously considering reading the books. Never thought I would be interested, but somehow I feel like reading them.

 

[alent1234]

i read the book almost 10 years ago. awesome books but in ROTK half the book was frodo walking in mordor bored me

almost like Tolkein needed to fill it up to meet some minimum page number. he was originally told the book was too long and to split it up into several books.

 

[yllus]

Just like in the books, pretty much any of the screen time dedicated to purely hobbits absolutely crawls. At least on DVD/Bluray you can fast forward.

 

[PingSpike]

Don't get me wrong, I liked all of these movies...but Fellowship of the Ring is by far my favorite. Its my favorite book. Honestly, if you tacked on a piece at the end of that movie where they dropped the ring into the fires of Mordor some how instead of the fellowship dissolving I think it might have been a stronger overall story.

The other movies/books are great as well and have some great elements in them...but lets face it a lot of it is long winded and there's a number of plot holes that only are prominently seen by the end. And RotK theatrical was painful in its editing. I get that it was already running 75 hours long since they decided to put the Shelob scene into it (why? Because watching Sam and Frodo stomp around a forest for a whole TT movie was already to much excitement in one place?) but if they needed runtime they should have cut one of the 17 endings instead of chopping up that Saruman scene.

 

[xBiffx]

I just couldn't stand the never ending endings. Regardless, hobbits are all bisexual.

 

[zinfamous]

I got the bluray version but I'm waiting until I get a new bigger TV to watch it.

Also, I'm seriously considering reading the books. Never thought I would be interested, but somehow I feel like reading them.

Don't do it man. waste of your time.


You would have enjoyed them when you were 10. Now...blech.

The movies are a milliondy x better.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Frodo was actually pretty accurately portrayed if I remember the books correctly. The book itself was pretty emo from the hobbits' perspective. At least they made the battles awesome.

 

[Sixguns]

I rewatched them all on Bluray when I finally got the set around Christmas, really outstanding. I love them all but I'd forgotten just how good Return of the King actually was.

I also got the bluray for Christmas. I was amazed out how good they looked. But it did seem like they just wanted them to be three hours long and filled it with random things that didnt really need to be there.

 

[ky54]

I've read every book by Tolkien multiple times. Jackson did a good job with the movies and obviously it's impossible to condense those books into three movies but he got the spirit of the books well. The two things IMO that stand out there was no Tom Bombadil which is a minor/major character (saves Frodo early in the Fellowship) and is there when the boats leave at the end but omitted by Jackson. What really hacked me off was the way Jackson treated Faramir as sinister when in fact Faramir aided Frodo from the time they met with the only friction was when Gollum went into the pool to get fish and Frodo had to beg for him to be spared.

You want some fun read The Silmarillion. I thought War And Peace was an easier read.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Don't do it man. waste of your time.


You would have enjoyed them when you were 10. Now...blech.

The movies are a milliondy x better.

What, hell no, the books are still great.

The singing was overdone, but man the books were so much better at showing exactly how shitty the situation was. The movie simply didn't show the horrors that Sam and frodo went through in Mordor and the hardships they endured.

 

[ky54]

What, hell no, the books are still great.

The singing was overdone, but man the books were so much better at showing exactly how shitty the situation was. The movie simply didn't show the horrors that Sam and frodo went through in Mordor and the hardships they endured.

The two parts of the book that I think are the best written are the Paths Of The Dead and escaping Shelob's lair.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The two parts of the book that I think are the best written are the Paths Of The Dead and escaping Shelob's lair.

I'm not sure if this is in the movie, it might be on the uncut version. But the part that really stands out to me as the clinching line of the entire book is, "Are we almost there yet Sam?" " I have no idea Mr. Frodo, because I don't know where I'm going"

Such a holy fuck moment.

 

[IcePickFreak]

The ending was also a super Pedo ending, it made the old wizard look like a child molester laughing jubilantly at the little kids in his bed. It was amusing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QAlt4Sfl7Q

 

[dainthomas]

You want some fun read The Silmarillion. I thought War And Peace was an easier read.

I realize it's not for everyone, but Silmarillion gives such great historical background to LOTR. And as long as you approach it as a collection of individual stories it's not difficult to read. I actually enjoyed it.

And the battles in Silmarillion are way more epic than anything in Lord of the Rings. The Nirnaeth Arnoediad makes Pelennor Fields look like a ping pong tournament.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Re: Emo Frodo

You have to remember that among Tolkein's perspectives that he wove into the story were his WWI experiences. He served in the 11th Battallion of the British Expeditionary Force, fought in several historic battles, and spent a great deal of time seeing friends and fellow soldiers die:

Although Kitchener's army enshrined old social boundaries, it also chipped away at the class divide by throwing men from all walks of life into a desperate situation together. Tolkien wrote that the experience taught him, 'a deep sympathy and feeling for the Tommy; especially the plain soldier from the agricultural counties.' He remained profoundly grateful for the lesson. For a long time, he had been imprisoned in a tower, not of pearl, but of ivory.

By the time WWI ended, all but one of his childhood friends had been killed.

So, that's where the "emo" or "homo-eroticism" comes from. That kind of criticism from a bunch of spoiled internet addicts who do not have the faintest concept of the absolute horror of trench warfare in WWI (and specifically the raw efficiency as technology entered warfare in a brutally efficient, and absolutely hellishly inhuman manner) is so ridiculous that it should be embarassing.

FWIW, Tolkien had a real revulsion with the cost of massive industrialization. Much of his mooning over the shire and nature in LotR stems from watching farmlands at home paved over and replaced with the bleak grime and soot of early industry. He was a bit of a naturalist, and would probably be dissed as a "hippie" today, despite the pipe, tweed jacket, and background in academia and languages.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I loved the trilogy on film. Fantastic!

 

[zinfamous]

I realize it's not for everyone, but Silmarillion gives such great historical background to LOTR. And as long as you approach it as a collection of individual stories it's not difficult to read. I actually enjoyed it.

And the battles in Silmarillion are way more epic than anything in Lord of the Rings. The Nirnaeth Arnoediad makes Pelennor Fields look like a ping pong tournament.

The Silmarillion is the only good thing--literature-wise--to come out of Tolkien.

I think it's the type of work that he wanted to create, all along.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Re: Emo Frodo

You have to remember that among Tolkein's perspectives that he wove into the story were his WWI experiences. He served in the 11th Battallion of the British Expeditionary Force, fought in several historic battles, and spent a great deal of time seeing friends and fellow soldiers die:



By the time WWI ended, all but one of his childhood friends had been killed.

So, that's where the "emo" or "homo-eroticism" comes from. That kind of criticism from a bunch of spoiled internet addicts who do not have the faintest concept of the absolute horror of trench warfare in WWI (and specifically the raw efficiency as technology entered warfare in a brutally efficient, and absolutely hellishly inhuman manner) is so ridiculous that it should be embarassing.

FWIW, Tolkien had a real revulsion with the cost of massive industrialization. Much of his mooning over the shire and nature in LotR stems from watching farmlands at home paved over and replaced with the bleak grime and soot of early industry. He was a bit of a naturalist, and would probably be dissed as a "hippie" today, despite the pipe, tweed jacket, and background in academia and languages.

:thumbsup:That makes a lot of sense actually. Kind of gives me an even deeper appreciation for the story knowing that.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I miss the scouring of the shire much more than Tom bombadil being left out. I just love that these hobbits go back home and show how much more grown up they are than when they left.

 

[Via]

Bromance is strong in these movies.

Not only between Sam and Frodo, but also between Pippen and Merry. The elf and the dwarf were also touched by it.

I almost feel like one of Peter Jackson's hidden themes was to show that it's ok for men to love each other.