Journal memfree's Journal: stuff & movies: LOTR:TTT, Adaptation, About Schmidt 8
There were lots of personal adventures for me in the last 7 days (Thursday night last week to Thursday morn this week). Lots of people, driving, buying, chaos, and of course, a few movies. Adventures with two different couples deserve whole JEs, but I probably shouldn't write about them, as they and/or their friends read me. Don't want to talk about the lives of those who might be recognized. Sooo.... on to the movies! This is Oscar season, and the movies are kickin!
The Two Towers: Woohoo! Saw it last Friday, and again on Xmas day. Some things that bothered me the 1st time around were more acceptable the 2nd time, but the 2nd theater sucked (did things like brighten the house lights when previews ended & film began). Watch the films, buy the DVDs, read the books, and do it in that order so the books don't spoil the movies for you. I'll forgive all the problems*** because I love the world the films describe.
About Schmidt: Lovely little film. Perhaps this will show the younger set that Jack Nicholson can act! Despite Hollywood's attempts to ONLY cast him as himself, the man can act! For once, he has a role where he gets to do just that. You'll know the ending within the first few minutes, but the point is the journey.
Adaptation: If you liked "Being John Malcovich" even a little, you'll like this film by the same folks (and with several cameos from the previous cast). This is a Tounge-in-Cheek flick with lots of humour. Go in with the understanding that it is self-mockery, and enjoy.
More complete reviews over here.
***All the things that bugged me about LOTR:Two Towers on their own spoiler page .
Orcs in daylight etc. *big spoilers* (Score:1)
Spoilerspace
Spoilerspace
Note to all artists:
When creating fiction, do not create a Rule, tell the Rule to your audience, and then BREAK that Rule. The audience will see, and will not forgive you.
Ok, this first one is easy. In the FOTR, Gandalf mentions to Elrond that Sarauman has crossed Orcs with "goblin-men" (whatever that means) to create an army that could "travel over great distance by daylight." Hence the fighting Uruk-hai.
Also, the Riders of Rohan obviously knew that Gandalf had something "up his sleeve" when they charged the orcish pikes. Gandalf cast some sort of spell on the orcs, that is pretty obvious from the burst of light when he approached them. Plus they jumped OVER the pikes. These orcs are not smart like Mel Gibson in Braveheart (who had his army fix its pikes at the last second), they gave the advancing calvalry plenty of advance notice about the pikes =)
Also, concerning the scene where Aragorn and Theoden charge out of the keep, knocking all the orcs out of their way. If you look closely at that scene, you'll realize that the whole thing is CGI. Every long-shot battle scene in the movie is CGI. So if the horsies don't look like they are knocking things away convincingly enough, it is probably because they didn't get the horsie algorithm down right =)
Really if you are going to nit pick about the movie, make it more specific - in chapter 3 book 2 Gandalf clearly says X Y and Z not A B and C like in the movie - ooooooooOOOH the nerve of that Peter Jackson. Worst. Movie. Ever.
Re:Orcs in daylight etc. *big spoilers* (Score:1)
I'm ONLY complaining about the world as described in the movie.
Uruk-hai
That'd be fine IF it was just Uruk-hai running around in daylight, but it isn't. There are regular Orcs all over the place! The crew that originally captured Merry & Pippin (in FotR) were theoretically Uruk-hai, but when it came time to rest, there were regular Orcs in the crew. From the comments they made, it sounded like they'd been traveling with the band of Uruk-hai. That by itself is *somewhat* forgivable, but was still hard to swallow.
The Warg-riders were absolutely regular Orcs. That's the part that bugs me the most. There was no excuse to put Orcish Warg-riders out on a sunny day. They even gave us a close up so there could be no doubt. They were NOT an Uruk-hai.
You _do_ bring up the point that there is not two but THREE easy and believable alternate ways they COULD have fixed the movie so it wasn't breaking its own rules. I'm still hating them for that. I repeat: do not create a Rule, tell the Rule to your audience, and then BREAK that Rule.
pikes
Go watch the pike scene again. Yes, the lead horses are jumping over the first series of pikes, but there are more than 20 more rows following the first, and they are positioned to do damage despite Gandalf's spell. Even Rohirric horses eventually obey gravity. More than that, it is just tactically stupid to do what they did -- even with Gandalf's help (which I acknowledge). You're wasting men and horses by charging pikes. Even if you say, "It was because of magic", there's still no logical reason that the attack should work.
horsie algorithm
I was *hoping* the horses were superimposed into that shot because otherwise the folks setting up the CGI have no excuse for allowing it to look so fake. The horses themselves are fine, but I cringed at how the enemy shot off the brigde as though propelled by Batman-esque Ejector buttons.
Re:Orcs in daylight etc. *big spoilers* (Score:1)
That'd be fine IF it was just Uruk-hai running around in daylight, but it isn't. There are regular Orcs all over the place!
[snip]
The Warg-riders were absolutely regular Orcs. That's the part that bugs me the most. There was no excuse to put Orcish Warg-riders out on a sunny day.
Okay, I think there is a line right at the beginning where Aragon says something like "gee whiz, these orcs are traveling by day, some evil power drives them" or whatever. After all, normal Orcs hate the daylight, but it doesn't kill them or anything. I think it is implied strongly that Sauraman has enchanted them.
Go watch the pike scene again. Yes, the lead horses are jumping over the first series of pikes, but there are more than 20 more rows following the first, and they are positioned to do damage despite Gandalf's spell.
I've seen that scene twice now...at that last second, we see Gandalf's spell overpower the orcs...the blinding light forces them to turn their pikes aside. In fact, there is a long shot of the army, showing those first 20 or so rows pike-orcs falling away as Gandalf and Rohan charges down the hillside. I think it's made pretty clear that their pikes, while nasty looking are useless.
Plus, this isn't some normal calvaray we're talking about. Theses are the Riders of Rohan. Gravity, indeed!
I cringed at how the enemy shot off the brigde as though propelled by Batman-esque Ejector buttons
Yeah that looked fake. Oh well. The few seconds right before is the best line in the movie:
Let now be the hour that we finally draw swords together!
So by the time they are on the bridge the audience is cheering wildly and technical matters such as how orcs fall off a bridge are an afterthough. Why it matter anyway? They dead. Problem solved.
I think a lot of Peter Jackson's decisions can be explained in the following manner:
IT LOOKED COOL
And furthermore, I have realized that the whole debate concerning Orcs in Daylight is moot, because Jackson never set out the rule in the first place. Jackson's movies are adaptations of Tolkien's books. If he followed every aspect of Tolkien's world to the letter they we'd have...well, a Harry Potter movie. And who'd want that? Ugh.
Re:Orcs in daylight etc. *big spoilers* (Score:1)
P.S. I updated my TTT spoilers page to include you, but if you'd rather me remove/edit them, let me know and I will.
P.P.S. sielwolf: if you're reading this, the same goes for you.
Final statement on the orc subject (Score:1)
I am still not exactly sure what the rule is...Orcs hate sunlight, big deal. That doesn't mean they can't run over land in daylight if the "whips of Sauraman are at their heals." (err...that quote is verbatim)
Anyway, the bottom line is that the movie WORKS. He did a fantastic job of transfering a novel to the screen, something that many crappy film adaptations have proven is a tough job.
Furthermore, the more FAQs I read, the more clear it becomes that Tolkien himself did not really stay to the "rules" that he himself created. For example, (according to what I've read) all elves are supposed to be unique, but somehow an elf that was killed in the Simillarion(sp) turns up in LOTR. How is this possible? Turns out Tolkien actually made a mistake, but later explains (in some other writing or letter) that this elf was a convenient "reincarnation" of the earlier elf. Problem solved. For him, this mistake wasn't that big of a deal.
My point is, Tolkien himself didn't set out hard and fast rules for his own world, and often contradicted himself (example: was TreeBeard the first living thing to walk Middle-Earth, as Gandalf states in TTT, or is Tom Bombadil the first?) So I don't see how Jackson is held to a higher standard. Tolkien created a world that was even bigger than he could imagine all at once himself - and therein is a lot of flexibility.
In short, I don't think that Tolkien would be aghast at anything that Jackson has put on the screen. No, there is no reason to "hate" anybody over anything in these movies.
Man, now I want to go out and get a copy of Tolkien's letters!
I'm dying to think what you thought. (Score:1)
I was wondering what you thought about the drama of the day. It was so bizarre to be in my own renditions of Home for the Holidays. [imdb.com]
Rather a Sureal day for us all I should think. You and Kati missed the whole thing that started it, I wanted to tell you as I walked you out to your car, but Kati was still there, and I had already told her, and you left. I want to hear your side of things, and don't hold back, I'm not that fragile.
Re:I'm dying to think what you thought. (Score:1)
In the meantime, what'd you think of LOTR? With all the other stuff, I felt like we didn't have enough time to gush over how great it was.
I'm dying to KNOW what you thought. (Score:1)