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| Ringers / Lord of the Fans : 2 of 5 | |
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9.21.2007
7:32 AM | Link0 comments |
 I'm not sure when I put this documentary in my Netflix queue, but it was probably a suggestion based on other geek documentaries that I've enjoyed in the past. Ringers covers the history of fans of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (capitalizing on the success of the movies, of course), but unfortunately spends too much time trying to be funny and not enough time showing the fans themselves! The film begins with a long background on the writing of the books and their initial reception, all presented in cut-out cartoon Monty Python style, which is interesting for about five minutes, but terrible when you realize that this method of expression is used for most of the movie. There are lots of short interview segments, of course, but along with Tolkien scholars, Peter Jackson and his actors, other celebrities are included that seem to have nothing to do with Lord of the Rings (Why are we supposed to care about what David Carradine has to say about Tolkien?). There are also some truly overblown generalizations, including that 60s hippies were all into three things: flower power, LSD, and Lord of the Rings (and this is "demonstrated" with some hilarious reenactments of hippie kids hanging out and reading The Hobbit out loud)! To be fair, some of the movie is really interesting, and it was easy to sit through the whole thing (watching with my pals). I enjoyed the "Tolkien confessional" booth where fans expressed their feelings alone with a camera, so at least I saw a sampling of the kind of fans I like to watch. Overall, I wouldn't really recommended Ringers, but if you've watched your Extended Editions too many times and want to see something new, I suppose it's OK.
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| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King / Special Extended Edition : 5 of 5 | |
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11.25.2006
9:49 PM | Link0 comments |
 I've just completed a major milestone in Operation DVD Catch-Up by finishing this massive four DVD set, which I've been watching for the past few days as breaks between video editing sessions. I absolutely loved the previous two Extended Editions, and Return of the King is no exception, although I will say that this extended cut seems just slightly more disjointed than the other two. Besides enjoying an over four-hour long movie, the two discs of bonus material are simply amazing, containing the same quality of incredible documentaries as the previous releases. For some reason, I really enjoyed the segment on costume design, and was impressed by all the intricate detail that never even shows on film - Ian McClellan comments that there's absolutely no reason to create all that detail, except to make the actors' feel that it's real (and I'm sure the Tolkien devotion of most of the staff didn't hurt either). I also found myself getting miffed at Peter Jackson as everyone went on and on about how he continued to make changes that kept all departments (effects, sound, even scoring) working all hours until the last possible moment. Sure, the result is fantastic, but you eventually have to call it finished! Watching four DVDs is quite a journey, and I feel like I've been to Mordor and back, but now that it's over, I have the strange urge to watch Fellowship of the Ring over again!
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| The Two Towers / Original Soundtrack : 3 of 5 | |
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4.06.2004
10:06 PM | Link |
 I got this second soundtrack CD soon after the first one, but it's taken me a while to give it a good listen. I think that's mainly because it's much more somber - of course, there are some serious dramatic passages, but there's many more ethereal, mystical slow sections, which are cool, but not so much fun to listen to in the car. Most of the themes from the first movie are scattered about, but there are several new themes as well - my favorite is the Rohan theme, predominantly heard on The Riders of Rohan (big surprise) and The King of the Golden Hall tracks. There's quite a bit more singing, too - mostly in other languages like Elvish, but also in English, such as Gollum's Song, which is interesting, but I can't get over how much the singer sounds like Bjork! Overall, it's a nice CD that I'm glad to have in my collection, but I'm hoping the third will be a better listen.
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| Puffing like Gandalf | |
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3.16.2004
6:27 PM | Link0 comments |
 Any pipe smoker who saw the Lord of the Rings movies (and all of us did) wanted to have a pipe like Gandalf's the moment he came riding into the Shire. These long stem pipes are known as "churchwardens", and are available everywhere, but not in the same style as good ol' Gandalf's. Over Christmas I was surfing around and found MacQueen Pipes, a Canadian company that creates hand-made churchwardens, completely catering to Middle Earth fans like me. My parents ordered one for my birthday, and I just got it a week ago (it takes a long time to make a pipe from scratch!). It's totally amazing - I've never smoked a pipe that didn't feel "machined". The stem is over a foot long, so it takes some getting used to (lots of suction), but the smoke is so cool and nice that it's worth it! I've also never had to completely break in a non-carbonized bowl before - the first smoke was an on-and-off experience, but now it lights up quickly. It even has a special stand to display it! I can't wait for the extended DVD of Return of the King so I can puff away while watching it.
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| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring / Original Soundtrack : 4 of 5 | |
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1.31.2004
11:34 AM | Link |
 After I saw Return of the King and watched my Two Towers DVD, I found myself really wanting to listen to the wonderful themes of the soundtrack - such a great accompianment to reading and relaxing. I decided to get the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack first, because I love the "Hobbits/Shire/Frodo" theme (for lack of a better description), especially the version played in the early scenes of the Shire - it uses something like a recorder/flute and fiddle that just sounds so playful and peaceful. Of course, the triumphant "Fellowship/Aragorn" theme is excellent, too, and overall, the entire soundtrack is great. I was amazed to see in the liner notes that all of the choral singing and chanting that you hear is actual lyrics in Elvish - the notes even provide the translations! It really adds a lot of depth to the music now that I'm aware of that. I think I'll have to get the other two soundtracks, now - maybe I'll listen to them and re-read the books someday.
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| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers / Special Extended Edition : 5 of 5 | |
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1.09.2004
9:48 PM | Link |
 After seeing Return of the King and loving it, there couldn't have been a better time to enjoy the second part of the Tolkien trilogy, so I jumped right into this Christmas gift first! This is a four DVD set, including the extended cut of the film on two discs (over four hours), plus two more discs of bonus material. The movie was fantastic - I loved all of the new scenes, especially the ones centered on Faramir, which really establishes his relationship with Boromir and their deranged dad. Lots of scenes set things up nicely for the third film, so it was interesting seeing this after Return of the King and knowing where things were headed. The bonus material is spectacular (as expected), but I was a little overwhelmed by the photo galleries (over 1,500 stills, and I had to spend a few seconds looking at every single one!). Just like with Fellowship of the Ring, I was amazed at the use of miniatures - half of the things I suspected were CG were actually models! I only wish I had the extended Return of the King right this very minute, but that's what next Christmas is for.
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| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King : 5 of 5 | |
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1.04.2004
3:17 PM | Link0 comments |
 I had really been looking forward to this final part of the Tolkien trilogy, since I seemed to remember less about it than the other stories, plus I was excited by all the fantastic reviews. I saw it with my parents in Oklahoma City, and my dad and I watched both Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers the day before, so we were totally prepared and ready for the show! Needless to say, the film was everything I hoped for! There's no point in even describing the effects and cinematography, because it's all beyond excellent, and everything from the music to the acting and yes, even changes to the original story, are all perfect. My favorite parts of the three movies are where the action stops and a character tells a touching speech - I was a little worried that this film was going to be missing that, but thankfully Gandalf gives a wonderful description of the afterlife, and Aragorn's speech to the troops at Minas Tirith is pretty cool, too (very Henry V!). I can't wait for the DVD so I can watch the whole trilogy in one ass-numbing day!
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| Return of the King : 1 of 5 | |
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6.08.2003
7:17 PM | Link0 comments |
 I think I saw this animated movie on TV many, many years ago, because I remembered some of the wacky songs, but I wanted to rent it as kind of a finish to seeing the Ralph Bashki film recently (plus is was cool to get a refresher in how the trilogy ends!). The animation style of the movie is much more like The Hobbit, and not anything like The Lord of the Rings (no rotoscoping), which means the Hobbits are all goofy little Cabbage Patch kids. Roddy McDowall does the voice of Sam, who seems to have more lines than anyone else, but the craziest voice is Casey Kasem as Pippin (Casey used to do tons of animation voices at the time this was made) - he sounds completely ridiculous. The songs are terrible, but who doesn't want to see Orcs singing "Where there's a whip, there's a way"? It was kind of fun to watch this again, but I'm so glad the third live-action movie will be out this year to help me forget.
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| Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Platinum Series Extended Edition : 5 of 5 | |
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5.15.2003
7:13 PM | Link0 comments |
 At last, I've watched every last minute of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Platinum Series Extended Edition, which has both the longest title and the most DVDs of material I've ever seen. Seeing the movie with the additional material was amazing - it was a joy to notice both the small scenes and the completely new ones, including the new opening montage as Bilbo begins to write his book and the giving of Galadriel's gifts. I really think it's a better movie with the extra material, though I can appreciate the difficult task of editing for a movie-going audience. The bonus DVDs contain tons of mini-documentaries, stills, and some extra-cool features like a navigable map of Middle Earth following the journeys of the Fellowship and Gandalf, plus an interactive map of New Zealand so you can see where they filmed all the beautiful locations. My favorite surprise from the bonus material was learning about the extensive use of miniatures! I thought for sure most of the movie was CG, but instead it was the hard work of model makers!
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| Lord of the Rings : 2 of 5 | |
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5.13.2003
7:11 PM | Link0 comments |
 I decided to rent Ralph Bashki's animated Lord of the Rings as a visit to my childhood memories of the story, back when I was playing D&D at the library and reading the Monster Manual every day. I remember really loving this movie, because it was my first image imprinting of what this amazing story might actually look like. It was no problem for my high school brain to stay interested in this long, long movie, which covers the first two books of the trilogy. Unfortunately, that's not the case today - I think the live action masterpieces have spoiled me. It was fun to see how the same scenes were handled in animation versus the recent movies, but other than that it wasn't that exciting. Most of all, looking at the movie with my animation critic eyes, I can't believe how much of the film was rotoscoped (filming a scene in live action and then tracing over the film to transform it into animation). Most of it is painfully obvious and distracting. This movie was certainly an amazing effort, but it's time has come and gone, I'm afraid.
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| Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers : 4 of 5 | |
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1.03.2003
6:05 PM | Link0 comments |
 After waiting a year for this second part of the Lord of the Rings, I waited a couple more days to see it with my parents over Christmas. We had a great time and all enjoyed it! I liked how they just immediately picked up where the last movie ended - very little rehashing (basically only Frodo's nightmare). Gollum was really well done - the close-up shots of his reactions and facial acting were fantastic! Of course, the battle scenes were dramatic and long - this is a war, after all! I think they did a nice job of keeping them interesting by focusing on the characters (like Legolas and Gimli counting their kills). The Ents were great, too - I would love to ride in their branches like Merry and Pippin!
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| Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring : 5 of 5 | |
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12.29.2001
6:44 PM | Link0 comments |
 I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy sometime around 7th grade - all of my friends were reading them and we were all playing D&D, and I really enjoyed them. I even liked the animated film, though it was so hard to follow. This time they've done it right, and then some! All of the acting is fantastic - no stupid "catch phrase" lines to ruin it. The scenery is incredible (now I want to live in the Shire) - every time I was completely blown away by some beautiful city, there was another even more spectacular one just around the corner! Of course, this first movie is a total cliffhanger - I predict someone will steal footage from the next film (already shot) very soon!
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