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> So, .... what's the comparison here?
There's no complex thinking here WO'N - this is me remember! I was just surprised at your reaction to Zild's scenery and thought that you must've already seen it without realizing it in the movies and TV shows mentioned.
I haven't seen LotR yet - but will do so just as soon as I've re-read the book (last time was 1973!)
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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LotR shows New Zealand?? Hot diggety dog--I'm there!! 
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the Hercules and Xena TV series? (though I have sufficient respect for your intellectual capacity for not watching these!!)
Hafriggingrrumph!© The Hercules series was good fun. Not being able to get past the rampant anachronisms is, in my opinion, a sure sign of terminal curmudgeonry. Xena, however seemed to be a little too wrapped up in its militant feminism to admit to a sense of humor although that Georgian(?) bagpipe music in the opening credits was exquisite. "intellectual capacity for not watching these" indeed. They did miss a good chance at a pun when Hercules and Iolaus were stopped on a bridge by some toughs who said they were collecting a toll "for the Glory of Hera". Rather than simply taking the money and thanking them for it, Herc whupped on them and passed.
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old hand
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I've seen it twice now (both Wednesday and Thursday with different friends) and I loved it. The scenery and action are great. I tried to pay more attention to the music the during the second viewing and the score is excellent.
I wasn't too wild about the very beginning with the history of the ring. Sauron looks like something from Power Rangers, and the valiant little soldiers look a little corny when they first walk on.
I also, didn't mind the Arwen role too much, partially because my memory of that part of the story is a little vague. It's strange that they didn't call the old watch tower Weathertop (it's name in the book), but the LotR website has pictures of it labelled as such.
The computer graphics throughout the movie are amazing. Gollum, though not seen much in this movie, is completely computer generated, and the use of blue screens to shrink the hobbits is seamless. I think my favorite parts were the swooping camera shots of Isengard and the quarries. The Mines of Moria were great too with the forest of columns and little orcs all over the place. Lothlorien was beautiful, too, but they didn't spend enough time there.
Overall, it was an excellent movie, I hope it gets the Golden Globe for all the categories that it's in: Best Movie (Drama), Best Director, Best Musical Score and Best Original Song. I'm not really surprised that no one was nominated for Best Actor/Actress because none really stand out as a major lead.
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. I think my favorite parts were the swooping camera shots of Isengard and the quarries. The Mines of Moria were great too with the forest of columns and little orcs all over the place.
Most of the Isengard scenes were indeed filmed in a quarry, less than 200 yards from State Highway 2 at Haywards in the Hutt Valley. There were crowds of people on the side of the road and on the surrounding hills trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on while the filming was in progress. I understand they're going to open the quarry (with sets) for viewing. Or may have already done. Fancy - Disneyland in the Hutt!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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heresy? you want heresy?? here's a passage from National Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, the story of Dildo and Frito Bugger: "They asked each other countless riddles, such as who played the Cisco Kid and what was Krypton. In the end Dildo won the game. Stumped at last for a riddle to ask, he cried out, as his hand fell on his snub-nosed .38, 'What have I got in my pocket?' This Goddam failed to answer, and growing impatient, he peddled up to Dildo, whining, 'Let me see, let me see.' Dildo obliged by pulling out the pistol and emptying it in Goddam's direction. The dark spoiled his aim, and he managed only to deflate the rubber float, leaving Goddam to flounder. Goddam, who couldn't swim, reached out his hand to Dildo and begged him to pull him out, and as he did, Dildo noticed an interesting thing on his finger and pulled it off. He would have finished Goddam off then and there, but pity stayed his hand. It's a pity I've run out of bullets, he thought, as he went back up the tunnel, pursued by Goddam's cries of rage."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0451452615/reader/1/103-7102325-0032609#reader-link
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old hand
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> I haven't seen LotR yet - but will do so just as soon as I've re-read the book (last time was 1973!)
Saw the flick today and thought it was awesome. Not having read the book for 28 years I'd forgotten all the ins and outs and thus saw it pretty much as a "cleanskin" cinema goer. My wife and 2 sons (12 & 10) had not read it either - but were all blown out of the water.
We were wondering whether the hobbits and dwarves were really that small - so thanks for the post above that said it was a blue screen thing.
For the record, my 10 year old liked the underground ("mine") scenes best - the FX, the characters and the images - like I said - awesome.
As well as the cleanskin stales' tribe, we went with LotR addict friends - she has read the books nine times. Said afterwards that the scenes were exactly how she'd envisaged them over the years - and the "actualisation" of her mental images had brought tears to eyes several times. She was scathing about Frodo's rescue by the fair maiden and the Arwen relationship "thing" but was prepared to put up with both as a small sacrifice to the overall outcome.
My sons hit the nail on the head - they said that this was the best movie they'd ever seen and that it was the first one they'd ever seen that that they wanted to see again straight away.
stales
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Hmmmm. I finally got to see the movie last night from start to finish. Amazing special effects, reasonably good acting from some of the cast and lots of shots of places I know, although some of it was pretty heavily embellished with special effects. You might be interested to know that the scenes on the great river were, in fact, filmed on at least four, and possibly five, different rivers!
However I stand by my statement made in the murky depths of the earlier posts to this thread that they got the hobbits wrong. And as for Frodo ... well, I kept expecting George Michael to step into frame and put the hard word on him at any moment.
And that was a shame, since they did, as I think JazzO has said, get the blue screening exactly right, and while Ian McKellan isn't my original idea of Gandalf, he did a creditable job. The dwarves were good. If you have to have a baddy, why not Sean Penn, and the elves were spot-on. But then I knew that, because I know one of the actors who played an elven lord at Rivendell.
I was less impressed by the Uruk Hai, however. They looked like they'd been hijacked from an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
My major concern was the lack of depth, which is, I admit, almost impossible to reproduce in a movie with the breadth of this one (and its two sequels). If you'd never read LOTR, you wouldn't have known squat about Gondor, Strider/Aragorn's association with it, why the Gap of Rohan was closed to the travellers, yadda, yadda, yadda. And I must admit I was wondering how Jackson would portray Tom Bombadil. Now I know - written right out of the script! Poor old Tom. Back to the Barrowdowns, his house, and his beautiful wife, I suppose.
Oh, by the way, where can I buy a balrog pup? I need one for these cold winter nights to cut down on the heating bills ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've seen pictures of some of the characters, and they could pass for different characters, in my opinion. I envisioned Frodo as looking sort of wimpier, and Gandalf looked to much like Dumbledore in Harry Potter, except Gandalf's beard was shorter. So that's my two yen.
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