LotR -- brief notes
2004-01-04 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbear Disappointing, on the whole. Many favorite bits cut: Saruman at bay in Isengard, the Watchers at Minas Ithil, Aragorn and Eomer meeting again on the field of battle, the Mouth of Sauron, the Houses of Healing, and of course the Scouring of the Shire.
Some of these may show up in the extended version; others (the Scouring of the Shire, for one) are known to be permanently gone. Some of the changes were simply unforgivable: the horrid bit with Sam, Gollum, and Frodo on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, for example, and Pippin lighting the signal beacon. Others were totally unnecessary, for example the arrival of the Rangers at Dunharrow, and not taking the horses through the Paths of the Dead. Elrond was the stand-in for the Rangers, but not a very good one -- he rode down from Rivendell and then, what? Just rode back? And where was the palantir of Minis Tirith?
A few were understandable; having the Dead present at the Pellennor Fields instead of being dismissed at the dockside in Umbar made the victory there a bit more tidy, I suppose.
Visually it was mostly very good. The mumakil were great, as was Grond. Minis Tirith was on the whole well-done. The signal beacons of Gondor were especially well-done, even though it should have happened when Gandalf and Pippin were riding to Minis Tirith. Sigh... It'll be a decade or two before the combination of CPU power and virtual-character animation gets to the point where we fans can put together a better version.
Some of these may show up in the extended version; others (the Scouring of the Shire, for one) are known to be permanently gone. Some of the changes were simply unforgivable: the horrid bit with Sam, Gollum, and Frodo on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, for example, and Pippin lighting the signal beacon. Others were totally unnecessary, for example the arrival of the Rangers at Dunharrow, and not taking the horses through the Paths of the Dead. Elrond was the stand-in for the Rangers, but not a very good one -- he rode down from Rivendell and then, what? Just rode back? And where was the palantir of Minis Tirith?
A few were understandable; having the Dead present at the Pellennor Fields instead of being dismissed at the dockside in Umbar made the victory there a bit more tidy, I suppose.
Visually it was mostly very good. The mumakil were great, as was Grond. Minis Tirith was on the whole well-done. The signal beacons of Gondor were especially well-done, even though it should have happened when Gandalf and Pippin were riding to Minis Tirith. Sigh... It'll be a decade or two before the combination of CPU power and virtual-character animation gets to the point where we fans can put together a better version.