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thewayneAside from taking one night off between the two series, we saw them one night apiece, and it was quite a slog as each of the Lord of the Rings movies were the extended editions and those things are 5 hours each! And we had a bit of a heart stop when the DVD player locked up about 10 minutes in to the first movie! No idea what happened, ended up having to unplug it to free it up, it was fine thereafter. Also odd was that I split the sound so that the audio from movies comes through my Onkyo receiver and my B&W speakers, and that worked for the first movie, but then I don't know what happened, but maybe the receiver died? Fortunately the new TV has pretty good sound, but it has to be turned up loud, like around 80+ on a 0-100 scale. We also ended up renting The Return of the King through iTunes: turned out that the surplus of Hobbit movies at the two used book stores in Las Cruces was entirely in my mind. We could have bought a new one easily enough, but were kind of fixated on a used copy. Of course when you look at the cost of the rental plus the used, we're probably at the cost of a new.
Now whenever someone does something stupid in traffic I'm likely to exclaim FOOL OF A TOOK! for some time.
It was nice seeing all of the movies in logical order since the movies were made in the Rings/Hobbit order. I have no idea what order I originally read them in, it's far too many years and books ago. I remember when my wife first found me online that one of the reasons she wanted to come to Phoenix was to see one of the movies in a good theater, which we did.
My wife made the observation that pretty much all of the female roles were added in, such as Tauriel in the Hobbit series - created whole-cloth for the movie, otherwise there wouldn't be any women in the first movies except for Galadriel's cameos, and I don't remember if she appeared in the book, too long since I've reread it. You had Eowyn, vital in the third Rings movie and just a foreshadowing in the second, and Arwen who wasn't much more than a plot complication except early in the first movie.
While I know we watched the Rings extended editions when we got them, apparently I really didn't remember them. The additional footage was quite good, and I think Peter Jackson - for the most part - did an excellent job bringing the books to the screen. There are somethings that were big mistakes, like Aragorn's "death", and some things that just did not work for me on a technical basis like when they used children or little people as stand-ins for the hobbits in long shots. They just didn't work. I don't know if costume alterations could have made it work or what, but a straight stand-in substitution just didn't work for me. I didn't spot a couple of editing mistakes that were made in the theatrical releases, so those must have been corrected for the extended DVDs.
The extended release DVDs are on two discs, I wonder if a single BluRay could hold the full five hour movie. Obviously it couldn't hold the movie and the bonus content. Maybe it's best to have it on two discs so you have a convenient intermissions point.
Still, we really enjoyed doing something that we've never done before. It's a heck of a time commitment, but my recovery made this an ideal time to do it. My one regret was not laying down a hard and fast rule to start the Lord of the Rings movies at 7pm, getting to bed for me at close to 3am was rough, but my wife had to do some remote work on the telescope so starting early wasn't in the cards. She really appreciated it as Middle Earth is a really special fanfic for her and she's written some really good stuff on AO3 for it.
Now whenever someone does something stupid in traffic I'm likely to exclaim FOOL OF A TOOK! for some time.
It was nice seeing all of the movies in logical order since the movies were made in the Rings/Hobbit order. I have no idea what order I originally read them in, it's far too many years and books ago. I remember when my wife first found me online that one of the reasons she wanted to come to Phoenix was to see one of the movies in a good theater, which we did.
My wife made the observation that pretty much all of the female roles were added in, such as Tauriel in the Hobbit series - created whole-cloth for the movie, otherwise there wouldn't be any women in the first movies except for Galadriel's cameos, and I don't remember if she appeared in the book, too long since I've reread it. You had Eowyn, vital in the third Rings movie and just a foreshadowing in the second, and Arwen who wasn't much more than a plot complication except early in the first movie.
While I know we watched the Rings extended editions when we got them, apparently I really didn't remember them. The additional footage was quite good, and I think Peter Jackson - for the most part - did an excellent job bringing the books to the screen. There are somethings that were big mistakes, like Aragorn's "death", and some things that just did not work for me on a technical basis like when they used children or little people as stand-ins for the hobbits in long shots. They just didn't work. I don't know if costume alterations could have made it work or what, but a straight stand-in substitution just didn't work for me. I didn't spot a couple of editing mistakes that were made in the theatrical releases, so those must have been corrected for the extended DVDs.
The extended release DVDs are on two discs, I wonder if a single BluRay could hold the full five hour movie. Obviously it couldn't hold the movie and the bonus content. Maybe it's best to have it on two discs so you have a convenient intermissions point.
Still, we really enjoyed doing something that we've never done before. It's a heck of a time commitment, but my recovery made this an ideal time to do it. My one regret was not laying down a hard and fast rule to start the Lord of the Rings movies at 7pm, getting to bed for me at close to 3am was rough, but my wife had to do some remote work on the telescope so starting early wasn't in the cards. She really appreciated it as Middle Earth is a really special fanfic for her and she's written some really good stuff on AO3 for it.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-18 06:24 pm (UTC)I didn't even notice the little people stand-ins until after viewing the bonus material, some of which focused on how the scale issues were handled. Now, sadly, it is noticeable to me -- no matter how much the stand-ins practiced, they still move differently from their taller characters.
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Date: 2018-08-18 11:47 pm (UTC)Yeah, Arwen at the ford was what I meant. Russet told me that her father Elrond had the Ring of Water, which is why Rivendell was surrounded by water and she was able to summon the water horses to destroy the Wraith's mounts. Russet is much more the Tolkien lorist than I, i.e. any number > almost zero. I noticed the stand-ins when I first saw the movies in the theaters, there were three giveaways that threw me: arm/leg size, the way they walked, and head size/hair. Sometimes you couldn't tell the arm size because of the clothing. I'm too much a movie geek and photographer that I frequently see things like that, and it sometimes can send me crashing out of willing suspension of disbelief. Fortunately I had enough of an investment in Tolkien that I was able to rein in back in and still enjoy the movies, though I had to suppress a shudder every time it was done.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-18 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-18 11:48 pm (UTC)Oh, you're most certainly to make off with it! Use it in good health and vehicular safety and Confusion to the Enemy!
no subject
Date: 2018-08-19 10:47 am (UTC)I did not particularly care for the movies (though they were a bit better than the Rankin Bass adaptation). These were like the Star Trek reboots where you had the same characters in name, but had to forget what you knew about the story itself. That being done, it was acceptable entertainment :o)
no subject
Date: 2018-08-19 04:31 pm (UTC)I have no problem with people passing me - let them show where the cops are hiding and collect tickets! I can't afford them! I was cruising to Las Cruces once and wasn't going exceptionally fast and saw a car that, based on license plate and slightly unusual car configuration, I suspected it might be an unmarked cruiser. And he blipped his lights at me and I slowed down. Apparently an 18 wheeler didn't notice the light blip, and when the speed limit increased past the Air Force Base, he just kept speeding up and that little black car little up like a Christmas tree and pulled him over. THEN I increased my speed and cruised on my merry way. Yeah, the Star Trek reboots are painful, and the ignoring of physics - especially the ignoring of distance - really gets me. It had been long enough since I had read the books, too many pages under the bridge, so to speak, that I was able to get enough distance so that the movies didn't bother me too much. My main disappointment was the lack of the Scourging of the Shire. It was a key point, a capstone, in Merry and Pippin's story, but the people responsible for the Scourging were already killed, so it would have been a bit more tricky to machinate. It still would have been cool to see them have one big battle of the two of them together. At least IMO.