Policrat
Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Rimrunner:

On 20 Jan 2002 16:01:20 -0800, ObeeKris <obeekris@hotmail.com>wrote:

Bill Anderson
Bill Anderson <billanderson601@yahoo.com>wrote:

C'Pi
C'Pi wrote:

Pleasurable to see. Entertaining to watch. All the emotional depth of a wet Kleenex.

Bill Anderson
I'll have you know that I've known some wet Kleenexes (Kleenexi?) that can get very emotional. Of course, some of them have a tendency to post here. :)

Verklempt, c'est moi.

I cried at least twice the first time I saw the dang movie, and you know what? I don't care that y'all know that, now.

Policrat
That's... *sniff*... so... *sniffle*... cute...

I hope they do The Hobbit. Give me Gandalf and Bilbo and forget everybody else.

Bill Anderson
Including the dozen dwarfs they go running around with?

That would sorta defeat the purpose...

Policrat
"Bilbo and the Twelve Dwarfs"

C'Pi
and lovers in the moonlight,

Bill Anderson
I envy Viggo Mortenson.

I'll take 'im.

Policrat
You would!

I figured going in that even if the rest of the movie sucked, he'd be good. Big, big fan of his.

And his pointy hat?

Bill Anderson
Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn. I thought he did a wonderful job with him, making him even cooler than in the book. I envy him for the kiss with Liv Tyler.

Hee hee. Me, I just, uh, drooled a lot. Or something. I do think he did a very good job. The finale with the orcs was fabulous. (I thought Lawrence Makaore was good too, and *he* had several inches of latex to act through. And not much in the way of lines, either, aside from the growling.)

Policrat
Hang on... Sauraman's Wehrmacht were... Maoris...?

Someone shoot George. Now.

Bill Anderson
The giant stone trolls in the background.

That was great. I also liked the use of maps and so forth right out of the books.

Policrat
Aye... though what language were they written in?

And Gandalf's hat.

<echo> And his pointy hat... </echo>

Bill Anderson
The dislikes (A much shorter list): The way the Hobbits leave the Shire. I think they could have done it just as shown in the book, with a few judiciously used captions.

Mm, I keep going back and forth on that. A little more detail would've been nice...on the other hand, the movie's running time stands at 2:58 and a great deal was cut. I've heard varying lengths for the director's cut; the one I hear most often is 4:30. Dunno what else they could remove to make room for more exposition on the hobbits leaving the shire.

Policrat
C'mon... they were obeying orders... which made sense...

Bill Anderson
Save for Gandalf, he knows best what dangers S&F are facing on the road to Mordor. "Their destiny lies along a different path." Well dammit, walk the path with them.

You could make that argument for how the book ends too, though. Aragorn decides to follow Merry and Pippin because the orcs leave a trail a blind rabbit could detect. "I must follow those whose trail I am sure of." Um, this *Ranger* isn't capable of tracking Frodo and Sam into Emyn Muil? Uh-huh. Methinks Tolkien just decided the group had to split up there, one way or the other.

Policrat
Consider, Frodo has gone across open water... are Rangers *that* good? Also, Aragorn probably *knows*... or maybe he's just a coward, reckons that Isengard is safer than Mordor... or maybe something dark deep inside him knows what the King-of-Gondor th?ng is with the ring... or maybe he knows that he couldn't keep away from the ring if he followed Frodo...?

Bill Anderson
Other random stuff: In the battle at the beginning, why the heck wasn't Elrond wearing a helmet of some sort? *Everybody* else is except for him.

Star Power. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Uh, maybe so he could be heard more clearly?)

Policrat
The ears...

Bill Anderson
I think they should have done something to indicate that the movie is going to be continued in "The Two Towers." At least a comment or something right after the shot of Sam and Frodo, but right before the credits. Because I have heard a couple of comments along the lines of "That's it? What happens next?" They should have done something for those who aren't aware that it's the first part of a trilogy.

At least one of the trailers out there makes it clear that a trilogy is to be expected. But yeah, a "To be continued" or something would've been nice.

Policrat
It's fairly *obvious*...

Bill Anderson
I don't want to wait another 11 months for "The Two Towers."

Me either.

Policrat
Aww...