Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-03 Thread Bryon Daly
From: Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I kind of doubt that those parts of the movie expanded the appreciative 
audience very much.  And when I read below that they may cut out the 
romance between Eowyn and Faramir...
I think the romantic aspects help broaden the movie and keep it from being 
completely labeled a geek guys film.  Take the rumor about the house of 
healing/Eowyn/Faramir stuff with a grain of salt

I heard that the reason they cut the movie off where they did was that if 
they had ended it in the right place, the guy that played Saruman wouldn't 
have had any part of the third movie.  But that sounds almost too stupid to 
be true.
That definitely can't be the real reason, because Christopher Lee (Saruman) 
*is* now cut out of the third movie.  I can't imagine them rearranging 
things just to put him in the third movie, and then cutting it out 
altogether.

I hope so.  I'm going to keep my expectations low this time though.  
Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.
I hope so, too!

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-03 Thread Ronn!Blankenship
At 11:11 PM 12/2/03 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
See that star right next to the full moon? That's actually the planet Venus.
 ---The Glass-bottom Boat
by I. Velikovsky

-- Ronn!  :)

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RE: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-03 Thread Deborah Harrell
 Bryon Daly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 From: Chad Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   From: Doug Pensinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
snip 

  ... All the stuff with Elrond and Arwen was
   overdone and stupid.

 True.. All one really has to know is that Arwen
 gave up immortality for
 Aragon, and Elrond was pissed. They could have
 illustrated why Aragon
 wandered for 20+ years as a Ranger. This is more
 interesting to me. However,
 these facts were in the appendixes of the book, and
 not part of the story
 directly. It does not add much to the story.
 
 I don't really mind the Arwen/Aragorn changes, for
 the most part.  LOTR is
 rather short on female roles.  I remember when my
 mom (not a fantasy buff)
 read it, her first comment was There are almost no
 women in these books.
 I don't blame Peter Jackson for wanting to broaden
 the movie appeal beoynd
 the geek base some by expanding the small bits of
 romance that are in the
 novels.  Fortunately Liv Tyler couldn't handle
 swordplay, so they canned their
 plans to stick Arwen in assorted battles.

And speaking as a non-Y geek, I *liked* the romantic
bits!  I think Aragorn's love for Arwen is one of the
major reasons he perseveres in his lonely rangering
(in the book), and the changes in both his and her
characters (he's reluctant to seek the kingship, and
she's more active instead of being off on a pedestal)
make the movie more relevent to today's audience. 
While I love and still reread LOTR every 5 years or
so, the dearth of women characters and real
man-woman relationships means that I've always had to
imagine more; of course Tolkien essentially grew up in
Edwardian times/morals, so I'm not condemning him,
just noting that the world/Western culture has changed
greatly since.

But I'm glad they didn't make Arwen a
sword-swisher...I hope Eowyn's horsemanship and
swordplay is top-notch, though.

Debbi

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-03 Thread Reggie Bautista
Damon wrote:
 You know I find it ironic after reading Doug's rant that if I did
 the same thing for a historical movie I might be labled as being
 pedantic...
Erik replied:
Pre-emptive whining?
Pithy observation?

Reggie Bautista
Damon's, Not Erik's, Maru
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-03 Thread Reggie Bautista
I wrote:
 2)  The Gimli comic relief moments are still there, and I'm not
 particularly fond
 of that, but we also get a lot more of Gimli kicking butt.  What is 
still
 missing is
 more of the Gimli/Legolas friendship.
Alberto replied:
Maybe we should be glad he didn't: he might have introduced
a homosexual love affair between the two...
That probably would have been easier to do with Sam and Frodo.

Someone posted a link to the list a while back to a page that had
the secret journals of the various characters, and I seem to
recall the majority of them suggested various pairings of the
members of the Fellowship...
Reggie Bautista
Cleaning Out The Old Inbox Maru
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread G. D. Akin
You're in Huntsville

George A

- Original Message - 
From: Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 12:15 AM
Subject: Re: Two Towers Extended DVD


 At 07:37 PM 12/1/03 +0900, G. D. Akin wrote:

 BTW:  my wife and I leave for the States on the 18th to visit the
daughter
 and folks.  Due to a little thing called the date line, we get to Atlanta
25
 minutes before we leave (but I'm betting we'll be pretty tired).



 Due to time zones, it takes me four hours to drive to Atlanta but only two
 hours to drive back.


 Hitting I-285 At Rush Hour Adds Another Three Hours Maru



 -- Ronn!  :)

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Damon Agretto
You know I find it ironic after reading Doug's rant
that if I did the same thing for a historical movie I
might be labled as being pedantic...

Damon.

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Erik Reuter
On Tue, Dec 02, 2003 at 07:32:50AM -0800, Damon Agretto wrote:

 You know I find it ironic after reading Doug's rant that if I did
 the same thing for a historical movie I might be labled as being
 pedantic...

Pre-emptive whining? Now I've seen everything...


-- 
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RE: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Chad Cooper


 -Original Message-
 From: Doug Pensinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 9:00 PM
 To: Killer Bs Discussion
 Subject: Re: Two Towers Extended DVD
 
 
 Reggie wrote:
 
 
  Quite possibly, but it depends on why that person nearly walked out.
 
  Reggie Bautista
  Details? Maru
 
 You asked for it 8^).  Deploy rant mode
 
 It's been almost a year since I've seen it, so I can't remember 
 everything, but several things stuck in my mind.  The Warg 
 battle was not 
 in the book, not necessary to develop the story and didn't 
 add anything to 
 it other than another action sequence.  Likewise with Aragorn 
 falling in 
 the river.  Gimli as comic relief didn't work for me at all.  
 I thought 
 that the Ents were going to be cool when Pipin and Merry 
 first met up with 
 Treebeard, but the Entmoot was poorly done (were there more 
 than six Ents 
 in attendance?) 

And it took more than a few hours as portrayed. 

and the result was contrary (and far inferior) to the 
 book. 

I'll interject here and say I was disappointed in the way they portrayed the
search party finding Gandalf in the forest. 


 Eomer's story was inexplicably altered for the worse.  
 Theodin's 
 awakening was overdone as was his reaction to his son's death at the 
 funeral mounds.  All the stuff with Elrond and Arwen was overdone and 
 stupid.

True.. All one really has to know is that Arwen gave up immortality for
Aragon, and Elrond was pissed. They could have illustrated why Aragon
wandered for 20+ years as a Ranger. This is more interesting to me. However,
these facts were in the appendixes of the book, and not part of the story
directly. It does not add much to the story.


 
 The best part of the movie was the Frodo/Sam/Gollum thread, but they 
 managed to screw that up at the end by changing the story again.  The 
 ending was in the wrong place and completely ruined the story 
 for me.  If 
 the movie was too long to end it in the right place, they 
 should have just 
 gotten rid of all the crap they made up and ended it in the 
 right place.

True, they spend far too much time building up the drama of the impending
Helm's deep war. The whole scene with Aragon and the young boy was stupid. 
The place to end is that Frodo is dead, Sam is lost, orcs everywhere, and
Gollem on the loose. I mean, what a cliffhanger! Instead, Frodo will be dead
for only a few minutes screen time in the final movie. 


 
 The frustrating thing is that all the elements were there to 
 make a great 
 movie - the Orcs, Orthanic, Helms Deep, Edoras, Minas Turith, 
 the Gates of 
 Mordor, the Marshes of the Dead, Fangorn, etc. etc., and the 
 actors were 
 all excellent.  

What about the ending of the Helm's deep conflict. Gandalf arrives, they
rush down the hill and the orcs lose. Why deviate from the real story? I
would have rather seen the interpetation of the Ent's nighttime wholesale
killing of the Orc army, piling up the bodies and lighting them on fire 

Instead, one gets the feeling that orcs are easily defeated if you take them
by a surprise flanking attack, instead of everyone thinking, damn, if it
wasn't for a bunch of pissed off trees, the humans would be all be dead
already. God help the humans when they meet up with the orcs again!


All they had to do was tell the story, but 
 they f**ked it 
 up.  It was that much more disappointing after how well they 
 followed the 
 story in TFotR.

I agree. I left the theater mad. There was no real good reason for any of
the changes they made. The story is so much better than what they did
portray. 
 
 Now they've got to spend a good bit of time finishing book 
 two in movie 
 three and I'm sure they'll have to axe a bunch of stuff out 
 of that to 
 make it short enough.  No Scouring of the Shire, I'll bet, or if it's 
 there it will be severely truncated.
 

I feel there is just too much in the last book to do in 120 minutes,
especially since they have the last part of Two Towers to complete. While
critics are praising the movie already, I suspect I will be disappointed.

Nerd From Hell

 If I had the patience to watch it again I could probably write a much 
 longer and more specific rant, but you get the idea.
 
 Stow rant mode...
 
 -- 
 Doug
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Damon Agretto

 Pre-emptive whining? Now I've seen everything...

More like an observation...

Damon.


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RE: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Bryon Daly
From: Chad Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 From: Doug Pensinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 It's been almost a year since I've seen it, so I can't remember
 everything, but several things stuck in my mind.  The Warg
 battle was not
 in the book, not necessary to develop the story and didn't
 add anything to
 it other than another action sequence.  Likewise with Aragorn
 falling in
 the river.  Gimli as comic relief didn't work for me at all.
 I thought
 that the Ents were going to be cool when Pipin and Merry
 first met up with
 Treebeard, but the Entmoot was poorly done (were there more
 than six Ents
 in attendance?)
And it took more than a few hours as portrayed.
Best part about the Ent scenes:
-they looked fantastic.
Worst parts:
- They used John Rhys-Davies for Treebeard's voice.  I'm thinking Hey - 
it's Tree-Gimli!  Surely they could have found some other top voice talent 
who didn't already have a major role in the movie.
- The change to make Merry  Pippin trick Treebeard into going to 
Isengard, getting mad, and attacking.  How would Pippin know that Isengard 
had pillaged all the surrounding trees, when obviously even the Ents didn't?

and the result was contrary (and far inferior) to the
 book.
I'll interject here and say I was disappointed in the way they portrayed 
the
search party finding Gandalf in the forest.
That didn't bug me.  I didn't miss the stuff about them seeing Saruman 
earlier
and the spooked horses, etc. at all.

 Eomer's story was inexplicably altered for the worse.
 Theodin's
 awakening was overdone as was his reaction to his son's death at the
 funeral mounds.  All the stuff with Elrond and Arwen was overdone and
 stupid.
True.. All one really has to know is that Arwen gave up immortality for
Aragon, and Elrond was pissed. They could have illustrated why Aragon
wandered for 20+ years as a Ranger. This is more interesting to me. 
However,
these facts were in the appendixes of the book, and not part of the story
directly. It does not add much to the story.
I don't really mind the Arwen/Aragorn changes, for the most part.  LOTR is
rather short on female roles.  I remember when my mom (not a fantasy buff)
read it, her first comment was There are almost no women in these books.
I don't blame Peter Jackson for wanting to broaden the movie appeal beoynd
the geek base some by expanding the small bits of romance that are in the
novels.  Fortunately Liv Tyler couldn't handle swordplay, so they canned 
their
plans to stick Arwen in assorted battles.

 The best part of the movie was the Frodo/Sam/Gollum thread, but they
 managed to screw that up at the end by changing the story again.  The
 ending was in the wrong place and completely ruined the story
 for me.  If
 the movie was too long to end it in the right place, they
 should have just
 gotten rid of all the crap they made up and ended it in the
 right place.
True, they spend far too much time building up the drama of the impending
Helm's deep war. The whole scene with Aragon and the young boy was stupid.
The place to end is that Frodo is dead, Sam is lost, orcs everywhere, and
Gollem on the loose. I mean, what a cliffhanger! Instead, Frodo will be 
dead
for only a few minutes screen time in the final movie.
That would have definitely been a better ending.  I think the reason they 
saved
Shelob for ROTK is that there is very little story left for Sam and Frodo 
after
Shelob.  (Mostly the dreary march through the desert, and the goofy
part of the book where Sam and Frodo are mistaken for Orcs and march along
with them.)

 The frustrating thing is that all the elements were there to
 make a great
 movie - the Orcs, Orthanic, Helms Deep, Edoras, Minas Turith,
 the Gates of
 Mordor, the Marshes of the Dead, Fangorn, etc. etc., and the
 actors were
 all excellent.
What about the ending of the Helm's deep conflict. Gandalf arrives, they
rush down the hill and the orcs lose. Why deviate from the real story? I
would have rather seen the interpetation of the Ent's nighttime wholesale
killing of the Orc army, piling up the bodies and lighting them on fire
Well, they drive the Orcs into the mystery huorn Orc Motel - Orcs check in 
-
but the don't check out forest.  Or was that only in the extended edition?

Instead, one gets the feeling that orcs are easily defeated if you take 
them
by a surprise flanking attack, instead of everyone thinking, damn, if it
wasn't for a bunch of pissed off trees, the humans would be all be dead
already. God help the humans when they meet up with the orcs again!
I never quite had that feeling from the book.  IIRC, when Gandalf shows up,
the tide starts to turn, and the Ents are the coup de grace, rather than 
sole
saviors of humanity.

 All they had to do was tell the story, but
 they f**ked it
 up.  It was that much more disappointing after how well they
 followed the
 story in TFotR.
I agree. I left the theater mad. There was no real good reason for any of
the changes they made. The story is so much better than 

RE: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Miller, Jeffrey
 Best part about the Ent scenes:
 -they looked fantastic.
 
 Worst parts:
 - They used John Rhys-Davies for Treebeard's voice.  I'm 
 thinking Hey - 
 it's Tree-Gimli!  Surely they could have found some other 
 top voice talent 
 who didn't already have a major role in the movie.
 - The change to make Merry  Pippin trick Treebeard into going to 
 Isengard, getting mad, and attacking.  How would Pippin know 
 that Isengard 
 had pillaged all the surrounding trees, when obviously even 
 the Ents didn't?

I expect something in TTT:EE to fix that

 
 That didn't bug me.  I didn't miss the stuff about them 
 seeing Saruman 
 earlier
 and the spooked horses, etc. at all.

I'm really not bothered by changes to the story at all.  Its really rather 
interesting, like watching a band cover another musicians hit song.

  Fortunately Liv Tyler couldn't 
 handle swordplay, so they canned 
 their plans to stick Arwen in assorted battles.

If only Tarantino had done the same for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.. gawd, she was awful.

   Now they've got to spend a good bit of time finishing book two in 
   movie three and I'm sure they'll have to axe a bunch of stuff out
   of that to
   make it short enough.  No Scouring of the Shire, I'll 
 bet, or if it's
   there it will be severely truncated.
 
 If you didn't read my last post: The Saruman palantir scene 
 is now cut out, and the scouring of the shire was never filmed.

YAY!  Its an appendix/addendum/epilogue, anyway.

 
 I feel there is just too much in the last book to do in 120 minutes, 
 especially since they have the last part of Two Towers to complete. 
 While critics are praising the movie already, I suspect I will be 
 disappointed.
 
 Well, it'll be *at least* 180 minutes.  I heard rumors that 
 it will be more 
 like
 210!  That's plenty of time for the remaining material.

Huzzah!

-j-
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RE: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Reggie Bautista
From: Chad Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: 'Killer Bs Discussion' [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Two Towers Extended DVD
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:20:05 -0800


 -Original Message-
 From: Doug Pensinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 9:00 PM
 To: Killer Bs Discussion
 Subject: Re: Two Towers Extended DVD


 Reggie wrote:


  Quite possibly, but it depends on why that person nearly walked out.
 
  Reggie Bautista
  Details? Maru
 
 You asked for it 8^).  Deploy rant mode

 It's been almost a year since I've seen it, so I can't remember
 everything, but several things stuck in my mind.  The Warg
 battle was not
 in the book, not necessary to develop the story and didn't
 add anything to
 it other than another action sequence.  Likewise with Aragorn
 falling in
 the river.  Gimli as comic relief didn't work for me at all.
 I thought
 that the Ents were going to be cool when Pipin and Merry
 first met up with
 Treebeard, but the Entmoot was poorly done (were there more
 than six Ents
 in attendance?)
And it took more than a few hours as portrayed.
1)  I believe this is longer in the extended version.  They even added back
in the bit about the Ent water and mention of the Ent Wives.
2)  The Gimli comic relief moments are still there, and I'm not particularly 
fond
of that, but we also get a lot more of Gimli kicking butt.  What is still 
missing is
more of the Gimli/Legolas friendship.

and the result was contrary (and far inferior) to the
 book.
I'll interject here and say I was disappointed in the way they portrayed 
the
search party finding Gandalf in the forest.

 Eomer's story was inexplicably altered for the worse.
 Theodin's
 awakening was overdone as was his reaction to his son's death at the
 funeral mounds.  All the stuff with Elrond and Arwen was overdone and
 stupid.
The sequence with Theodin works much better in the extended version, and
his son is actually shown before the funeral mound sequence.  He's shown
alive but injured.  And there's some other stuff added in, including more
Wormtongue.  The net result makes Theodin's reaction make more sense.
True.. All one really has to know is that Arwen gave up immortality for
Aragon, and Elrond was pissed. They could have illustrated why Aragon
wandered for 20+ years as a Ranger. This is more interesting to me. 
However,
these facts were in the appendixes of the book, and not part of the story
directly. It does not add much to the story.
I would have been interested in Aragorn's wanderings too, but I have no
problem with bringing in The Story of Arwen and Aragorn (or is it Aragorn
and Arwen?) from the appendixes (appendices?).  It adds more emotional
depth to their relationship, and therefore more contrast against the budding
relationship between Aragorn and... oh, god, I've forgotten her name.  The
strength of Arwen and Aragorn's love for each other is her prime motivator
and an important motivator for him.

 The best part of the movie was the Frodo/Sam/Gollum thread, but they
 managed to screw that up at the end by changing the story again.  The
 ending was in the wrong place and completely ruined the story
 for me.  If
 the movie was too long to end it in the right place, they
 should have just
 gotten rid of all the crap they made up and ended it in the
 right place.

True, they spend far too much time building up the drama of the impending
Helm's deep war. The whole scene with Aragon and the young boy was stupid.
The place to end is that Frodo is dead, Sam is lost, orcs everywhere, and
Gollem on the loose. I mean, what a cliffhanger! Instead, Frodo will be 
dead
for only a few minutes screen time in the final movie.
Having the Shelob sequence in the second movie would have been too
much and would have undercut the emotional impact of the victory at
Helm's Deep.  To me, it would have made the movie more cumbersome.
But in reading the books, I always thought the Shelob sequence would
have fit better into the beginning of the third book anyway.  The
cliffhanger in the book did nothing for me.  I'm just weird that way.
 The frustrating thing is that all the elements were there to
 make a great
 movie - the Orcs, Orthanic, Helms Deep, Edoras, Minas Turith,
 the Gates of
 Mordor, the Marshes of the Dead, Fangorn, etc. etc., and the
 actors were
 all excellent.
What about the ending of the Helm's deep conflict. Gandalf arrives, they
rush down the hill and the orcs lose. Why deviate from the real story? I
would have rather seen the interpetation of the Ent's nighttime wholesale
killing of the Orc army, piling up the bodies and lighting them on fire
Instead, one gets the feeling that orcs are easily defeated if you take 
them
by a surprise flanking attack, instead of everyone thinking, damn, if it
wasn't for a bunch of pissed off trees, the humans would be all be dead
already. God help the humans when they meet up with the orcs again!
In the extended version

Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Bemmzim
In a message dated 12/2/2003 12:00:21 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
writes:

 Now they've got to spend a good bit of time finishing book two in movie 
 three and I'm sure they'll have to axe a bunch of stuff out of that to 
 make it short enough.  No Scouring of the Shire, I'll bet, or if it's 
 there it will be severely truncated.
 
 If I had the patience to watch it again I could probably 
 write a much 
 longer and more specific rant, but you get the idea.
 
 Stow rant mode...

I actually think that axing much of the stuff in book 3 after the ring is destroyed 
was poor. Almost half of the book was therefore an anti-climax. The dire things 
happening to the shire seemed artificial, an anti-industrial rant that made it clear 
to me where Tolkein's sympathies lay. I don't agree with the view that a bucolic 
agrarian culture is pure and an industrial culture is bad. The pre-industrial 
societies were long on inequality routine cruelty and short on democracy fairness and 
hope. Tolkien's view was a fantasy and a nasty one at that. Most of this was not overt 
in the books so I could ignore this but I will not be unhappy to see some of this 
stuff disappear from the film. I thought TT was great and the extended version even 
better. I am not believer in absolute fealty to the source in any case so I took the 
movies on their own merit 
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Steve Sloan II
G. D. Akin wrote:

You're in Huntsville
I am. Ronn's in the Birmingham area.
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Bemmzim
  - The change to make Merry  Pippin trick Treebeard into going to 
 Isengard, getting mad, and attacking.  How would Pippin know that Isengard 
 had pillaged all the surrounding trees, when obviously even the Ents didn't?

There is a scene where Pippin and Merry are riding with Treebeard where Pippin looks 
off and sees smoke rising from Isengard. So he knows something is burning. I thought 
the changes were actually for the better. The Ents may be charming on the page but 
they do rather slow down the movie. One of my friends told me it drove him crazy to 
have all the action stop while Treebeard spent five minutes saying ten words. 
.
   
 
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Bemmzim
  - The change to make Merry  Pippin trick Treebeard into going to 
 Isengard, getting mad, and attacking.  How would Pippin know that Isengard 
 had pillaged all the surrounding trees, when obviously even the Ents didn't?

There is a scene where Pippin and Merry are riding with Treebeard where Pippin looks 
off and sees smoke rising from Isengard. So he knows something is burning. I thought 
the changes were actually for the better. The Ents may be charming on the page but 
they do rather slow down the movie. One of my friends told me it drove him crazy to 
have all the action stop while Treebeard spent five minutes saying ten words. 
.
   
 
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Reggie Bautista
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Killer Bs Discussion)
Subject: Re: Two Towers Extended DVD
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 18:28:56 -0500
In a message dated 12/2/2003 12:00:21 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 Now they've got to spend a good bit of time finishing book two in movie
 three and I'm sure they'll have to axe a bunch of stuff out of that to
 make it short enough.  No Scouring of the Shire, I'll bet, or if it's
 there it will be severely truncated.

 If I had the patience to watch it again I could probably
 write a much
 longer and more specific rant, but you get the idea.

 Stow rant mode...
I actually think that axing much of the stuff in book 3 after the ring is 
destroyed was poor. Almost half of the book was therefore an anti-climax. 
The dire things happening to the shire seemed artificial, an 
anti-industrial rant that made it clear to me where Tolkein's sympathies 
lay. I don't agree with the view that a bucolic agrarian culture is pure 
and an industrial culture is bad. The pre-industrial societies were long on 
inequality routine cruelty and short on democracy fairness and hope. 
Tolkien's view was a fantasy and a nasty one at that. Most of this was not 
overt in the books so I could ignore this but I will not be unhappy to see 
some of this stuff disappear from the film. I thought TT was great and the 
extended version even better. I am not believer in absolute fealty to the 
source in any case so I took the movies on their own merit


I'm really of two minds about The Scouring of the Shire being taken out.
On the one hand, Tolkien uses it to show that bad things were happening
already even as far away as the Shire, and uses it to show how all of the
adventures the hobbits went on really changed them.  It shows the
consequences of their actions and their ability to apply all they learned
without having Aragorn or Gandalf or anyone else around to bail them
out or point them in the right direction.  I guess I liked the Scouring of
the Shire for the same reasons I liked the fifth season of Babylon 5.
On the other hand, from a film perspective, it would have seemed tacked
on, not really having the same dramatic weight as the stuff that happened
before it.  With a big epic movie like this, you want to end with the big
victory and not with a small victory.  Scouring of the Shire could have
been a big letdown.  Of course, a lot of people thought the fifth season
of Babylon 5 was a letdown...
Reggie Bautista

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Alberto Monteiro
Reggie Bautista wrote:

 2)  The Gimli comic relief moments are still there, and I'm not
 particularly fond
 of that, but we also get a lot more of Gimli kicking butt.  What is still
 missing is
 more of the Gimli/Legolas friendship.

Maybe we should be glad he didn't: he might have introduced
a homosexual love affair between the two...

Alberto Monteiro

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Julia Thompson


On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, Damon Agretto wrote:

 You know I find it ironic after reading Doug's rant
 that if I did the same thing for a historical movie I
 might be labled as being pedantic...

And you think that people aren't in their minds labeling Doug as pedantic?  
:)

Actually, if you did the same thing for a historical movie, I'd be very 
interested in the criticism.  Probably forget the details within an hour, 
but for at least a little while, I'd know something I hadn't known before.

(A mind is a terrible thing to have wasted.  And right now, mine is 
somewhat wasted.)

Julia

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Robert Seeberger

- Original Message - 
From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 8:35 PM
Subject: Re: Two Towers Extended DVD


 (A mind is a terrible thing to have wasted.  And right now, mine is
 somewhat wasted.)

I knew there was a reason That I wanted to visit!
G

xponent
Singular Lack Of Waste Maru
rob


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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Damon Agretto

 Actually, if you did the same thing for a historical
 movie, I'd be very 
 interested in the criticism.  Probably forget the
 details within an hour, 
 but for at least a little while, I'd know something
 I hadn't known before.

Well one of the things that really bugs me -- mainly
because its so easy to get it right -- are the
costumes. With the wealth of information available on
historical, especially military, costumes, I think its
hard to justify getting it wrong except for the fact
that the directors/writers don't care so much...

Damon.


=

Damon Agretto
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Medievalbk
In a message dated 12/2/2003 8:21:55 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 Well one of the things that really bugs me -- mainly
  because its so easy to get it right -- are the
  costumes. With the wealth of information available on
  historical, especially military, costumes, I think its
  hard to justify getting it wrong except for the fact
  that the directors/writers don't care so much...
  
  Damon.

You rant about costumes.

I'll rant about ordinance.

Before Pirates of the Caribbean came out, there was talk about the curse of 
all pirate movies.

Cutthroat Island failed miserably.

Cutthroat Island had cannon firing bright orange fireballs.

Where did they get all of these cannon that used gasoline/kerosine?

And Highlander used a London pattern anvil 200 years before London pattern 
anvils were invented.

but I'd expect 99.95% of the audience to never even know the difference 
between a step and a flat anvil.

William Taylor
--
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Doug Pensinger
On Tue, 2 Dec 2003 07:32:50 -0800 (PST), Damon Agretto 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

You know I find it ironic after reading Doug's rant
that if I did the same thing for a historical movie I
might be labled as being pedantic...
And I would agree that my criticisms are based on my intimate knowledge of 
(and love for) the books and admit that if I hadn't read them or if I had 
read them only once or twice over the years, the movie probably would have 
been pretty good.  But

And hey, I would agree with you that historical movies should take pains 
to be accurate.  I couldn't even finish the first half hour of that 
god-awful Gibson movie The Patriot.  So rant on, I promise to lend a 
sympathetic ear. 8^)

--
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Doug Pensinger
Chad Cooper wrote:

I'll interject here and say I was disappointed in the way they portrayed 
the search party finding Gandalf in the forest.
That part didn't really bother me that much.  It was (IIRC) reasonably 
close to the original.

The best part of the movie was the Frodo/Sam/Gollum thread, but they
managed to screw that up at the end by changing the story again.  The
ending was in the wrong place and completely ruined the story
for me.  If
the movie was too long to end it in the right place, they
should have just
gotten rid of all the crap they made up and ended it in the
right place.


What about the ending of the Helm's deep conflict. Gandalf arrives, they
rush down the hill and the orcs lose. Why deviate from the real story? I
would have rather seen the interpetation of the Ent's nighttime wholesale
killing of the Orc army, piling up the bodies and lighting them on 
fire

Yea, the whole battle just didn't come off right IMO.  It is one of my 
favorite parts of the trilogy and they just didn't do it completely 
right.  I agree with you that they spent too much time bu


I feel there is just too much in the last book to do in 120 minutes,
especially since they have the last part of Two Towers to complete. While
critics are praising the movie already, I suspect I will be disappointed.
Well, its actually almost 3 1/2 hours long from what I read today, so they 
should be able to get it right.  And it sounds like it's getting rave 
reviews.  I can only hope for the best.

--
Doug
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Doug Pensinger
Bryon wrote:


I don't really mind the Arwen/Aragorn changes, for the most part.  LOTR 
is rather short on female roles.  I remember when my mom (not a fantasy 
buff) read it, her first comment was There are almost no women in these 
books. I don't blame Peter Jackson for wanting to broaden the movie 
appeal beoynd the geek base some by expanding the small bits of romance 
that are in the
novels.  Fortunately Liv Tyler couldn't handle swordplay, so they canned 
their plans to stick Arwen in assorted battles.
I kind of doubt that those parts of the movie expanded the appreciative 
audience very much.  And when I read below that they may cut out the 
romance between Eowyn and Faramir...

That would have definitely been a better ending.  I think the reason 
they saved Shelob for ROTK is that there is very little story left for 
Sam and Frodo after Shelob.  (Mostly the dreary march through the 
desert, and the goofy
part of the book where Sam and Frodo are mistaken for Orcs and march 
along with them.)
I heard that the reason they cut the movie off where they did was that if 
they had ended it in the right place, the guy that played Saruman wouldnt 
have had any part of the third movie.  But that sounds almost too stupid 
to be true.


Well, they drive the Orcs into the mystery huorn Orc Motel - Orcs check 
in - but the don't check out forest.  Or was that only in the extended 
edition?

I don't think that was in the version I saw.  If they put it back in, it 
can't but help the story.


Well, it'll be *at least* 180 minutes.  I heard rumors that it will be 
more like 210!  That's plenty of time for the remaining material.

I'm trying to think what will need to be covered, given what we know is 
missing:
- Reuniting of Merry/Pippin with Aragorn  co, then splitting 
Merry/Pippin up
- Paths of the dead
- Theoden's ride to Gondor ( Dernhelm stuff)
- Frodo killed by Shelob  Sam's subsequent rescue.  (I suspect this is 
going
to be an extended bit of the movie covering this)
- Frodo  Sam's dreary march through Mordor
- Frodo  Sam march with the Orcs
- Honkin-big battle at Gondor, with Aragorn and Theoden arriving,
- Witchking/Eowyn battle, Theoden death scene
- Denethor's despair, Faramir on the pyre
- Faramir/Eowyn house healing stuff (IIRC, I saw a rumor this is cut out)
- Aragorn's march to challenge (distract) Sauron, and the battle at the 
Black
Gate.
- Frodo/Sam/Gollum at Mount Doom, deus ex eagles
- Aragorn's coronation and presumable marriage to Arwen

I think that's doable in 3 - 3.5 hours without shortchanging things or 
making any
other cuts.  Overall, I'm expecting that it will be a great movie.

I hope so.  I'm going to keep my expectations low this time though.  
Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

--
Doug
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-02 Thread Doug Pensinger
Reggie wrote:

It adds more emotional depth to their relationship, and therefore more 
contrast against the budding relationship between Aragorn and... oh, 
god, I've forgotten her name.
Eowyn

Having the Shelob sequence in the second movie would have been too
much and would have undercut the emotional impact of the victory at
Helm's Deep.  To me, it would have made the movie more cumbersome.
But in reading the books, I always thought the Shelob sequence would
have fit better into the beginning of the third book anyway.  The
cliffhanger in the book did nothing for me.  I'm just weird that way.
I just disagree.  I think the endings of both FotR and TTT are in the 
perfect places.  What I _can_ see is that the proper ending for TTT may 
have been too much of a cliffhanger for those that don't know the story.  
I know the ending of the first movie pissed a few people off (I have to 
wait a year to find out what happens!!!)  but you know, when it's all said 
and done, it would have been better for the story to do it right.

??  They left out and/or changed a *lot* in FotR.  For example the whole
Tom Bombadil sequence was removed, the barrow wights were removed,
instead of having several months between the birthday and Frodo's exit
it seem like days at most, the entire character Fredegar Bolger was 
removed,
The major cut - from Crickhollow to the Barrow Downs really didn't detract 
from the story the way the haphazard changes in TTT did, IMO.  Bombadil 
and the Old Forrest were wonderful parts of the book, but not essential to 
the story.

 there were lots of changes during the Council of Elrond,

Nothing very substantive that I recall.

there were  *massive* changes during the Moria sequence,
They added that part with the pathway (or whatever) collapsing (which they 
could have cut completely IMO) but other than that there weren't any big 
changes that I can think of.

the movie ends at a different point than the book...
I may be wrong, but I thought it ended in exactly the same place.

I could go on but I won't because most of those cuts and changes made 
sense.  Pacing works entirely different for movies than it does for 
books, and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy could easily have taken 
six long
movies to adapt.  The trick is to tell the emotional core of the story, 
not to stick slavishly to the details.  Some things work really well on 
paper but not at all on film, and vice versa.
I agree, and I think they did very well with the first movie - better than 
I expected.  Maybe that's the biggest reasoning I was disappointed with 
TTT.


I disagree.  The changes shortened the story to manageable length,
strengthened the characterization without resorting to cheesy
voice-overs to show the thoughts of the characters, and worked as
a very effective short-hand for the more complicated events of the
book.  The movie (the extended version, at least) tells the same
emotional story as the book, but does it in a more succinct and more
visually-oriented format.  All IMHO, of course.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one - at least as it concerns the 
theatre version.  I think the changes lengthened the movie in places where 
it didn't need to be, and was truncated prematurely.  And I don't think 
any of the changes strengthened the characters with the exception of Arwen.

YMMV, of course.  If you're interested in giving it a chance, maybe you
should consider renting or borrowing a copy of the extended version,
so if you're still disappointed at least you won't be out thirty bucks.
Oh, I'm sure I'll get a look at it...

--
Doug
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread G. D. Akin
Reggie Bautista wrote:

snip

 There is no reason anyone should ever watch the
 theatrical release of _The Two Towers_ ever again.
 The extended DVD is so much better.  The
 flow and pacing work better for me, the motivations
 of characters made more sense (especially Faramir),
 we get to see a nice flashback with Boromir, and
 the ending is miles better.  I really liked the theatrical
 release of _TTT_  but this extended release is
 kilometers (Hi, Alberto!) better.

You hit the nail on the head.  TTT extended version is much better.  I
remember reading an interview with Peter Jackson where he said they were
worried about TTT because it really had no beginning or ending, it was just
transition between the two other films.  I enjoyed the theatrical release
but was thought it was not nearly as good as FoTR.  This DVD is well worth
it.  One of the extras is some commentary on the trade-offs they had to make
in making TTT.

 Personally, I can't wait until I can see the extended
 versions of all three in a nice long theatrical marathon.
 I haven't heard yet that this is planned, but to me it
 seems like a no-brainer of a marketing gimmick...

I want to see it all on the future blue laser DVD (26Gb IIRC) and have
them put out a Special Edition Extended Directors Cut that has everything
filmed.

BTW:  my wife and I leave for the States on the 18th to visit the daughter
and folks.  Due to a little thing called the date line, we get to Atlanta 25
minutes before we leave (but I'm betting we'll be pretty tired).  Anyway, on
the 19th, we WILL be seeing The Return of the King.

George A


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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Ronn!Blankenship
At 07:37 PM 12/1/03 +0900, G. D. Akin wrote:

BTW:  my wife and I leave for the States on the 18th to visit the daughter
and folks.  Due to a little thing called the date line, we get to Atlanta 25
minutes before we leave (but I'm betting we'll be pretty tired).


Due to time zones, it takes me four hours to drive to Atlanta but only two 
hours to drive back.

Hitting I-285 At Rush Hour Adds Another Three Hours Maru



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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Reggie Bautista
I wrote:
I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
_The Two Towers_ yesterday.
[snip]

William T Goodall replied:
Sounds good! What about the two disks of other stuff?
Since I also finally bought Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3,
I haven't had a chance to look at the third and fourth disks
for _The Two Towers_ yet.  But the easter egg feature on
the first disk is very funny (although not exactly kid-safe).
That hidden feature is accessed exactly the same way as the
one with _Fellowship_.  You put in the first disk and go to the
scene listing and go down to the very last scene.  Then you
press down one more time and a small gold ring appears at the
bottom of the screen.  Press select, and it starts.
From what I understand, this extra was left off the Region 2
release of _Fellowship_ because it would have changed the
rating of the disk.  They might have done the same for this
second one.
Reggie Bautista

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Reggie Bautista
George wrote:
BTW:  my wife and I leave for the States on the 18th to visit the daughter
and folks.  Due to a little thing called the date line, we get to Atlanta 
25
minutes before we leave (but I'm betting we'll be pretty tired).  Anyway, 
on
the 19th, we WILL be seeing The Return of the King.
Have a safe trip!  My wife and I will probably be seeing _RotK_ on the 20th.
I'm scheduled for an extreme amount of overtime earlier that week.
Reggie Bautista
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Reggie Bautista
Ronn! wrote:
I haven't had a chance to watch those, either.  Nor to look for the Easter 
eggs I understand reside somewhere on the first two disks.

But I, too, was very impressed with the extended version of the movie 
itself.  Even if the screen I watched it on is actually smaller than this 
monitor.
Doug replied:
Hmmm... I wonder if it's different enough so that someone who nearly walked 
out of the theater release might feel better about it.
Quite possibly, but it depends on why that person nearly walked out.

Reggie Bautista
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread William T Goodall
On 1 Dec 2003, at 5:57 pm, Reggie Bautista wrote:

I wrote:
I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
_The Two Towers_ yesterday.
[snip]

William T Goodall replied:
Sounds good! What about the two disks of other stuff?
Since I also finally bought Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3,
I haven't had a chance to look at the third and fourth disks
for _The Two Towers_ yet.
In the UK they are releasing new cheaper editions of the Buffy Region 2 
DVDs on Boxing Day - Presently the 'full' seasons have a RRP of £79.99 
and Amazon.co.uk sells them at around £58.99. On Boxing Day they are 
releasing 'Amaray'[1] editions of seasons 2-6 with RRP of £34.99 and 
Amazon.co.uk price of £26.24 - which is also enough to qualify for free 
postage for buying one season. Which is nice.

But the easter egg feature on
the first disk is very funny (although not exactly kid-safe).
snip

From what I understand, this extra was left off the Region 2
release of _Fellowship_ because it would have changed the
rating of the disk.  They might have done the same for this
second one.
I'll have to check that out.

[1] Cheaper packaging.
--
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Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Julia Thompson


On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Reggie Bautista wrote:

 George wrote:
 BTW:  my wife and I leave for the States on the 18th to visit the daughter
 and folks.  Due to a little thing called the date line, we get to Atlanta 
 25
 minutes before we leave (but I'm betting we'll be pretty tired).  Anyway, 
 on
 the 19th, we WILL be seeing The Return of the King.
 
 Have a safe trip!  My wife and I will probably be seeing _RotK_ on the
 20th. I'm scheduled for an extreme amount of overtime earlier that week.

I'll probably end up going on my own at some point on a weekday when I
have enough bottles of milk for the babies stored up.

And it will probably be the only movie I see in a theater before the 
babies are 4 or 5 months old

Julia

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-12-01 Thread Doug Pensinger
Reggie wrote:


Quite possibly, but it depends on why that person nearly walked out.

Reggie Bautista
Details? Maru
You asked for it 8^).  Deploy rant mode

It's been almost a year since I've seen it, so I can't remember 
everything, but several things stuck in my mind.  The Warg battle was not 
in the book, not necessary to develop the story and didn't add anything to 
it other than another action sequence.  Likewise with Aragorn falling in 
the river.  Gimli as comic relief didn't work for me at all.  I thought 
that the Ents were going to be cool when Pipin and Merry first met up with 
Treebeard, but the Entmoot was poorly done (were there more than six Ents 
in attendance?) and the result was contrary (and far inferior) to the 
book.  Eomer's story was inexplicably altered for the worse.  Theodin's 
awakening was overdone as was his reaction to his son's death at the 
funeral mounds.  All the stuff with Elrond and Arwen was overdone and 
stupid.

The best part of the movie was the Frodo/Sam/Gollum thread, but they 
managed to screw that up at the end by changing the story again.  The 
ending was in the wrong place and completely ruined the story for me.  If 
the movie was too long to end it in the right place, they should have just 
gotten rid of all the crap they made up and ended it in the right place.

The frustrating thing is that all the elements were there to make a great 
movie - the Orcs, Orthanic, Helms Deep, Edoras, Minas Turith, the Gates of 
Mordor, the Marshes of the Dead, Fangorn, etc. etc., and the actors were 
all excellent.  All they had to do was tell the story, but they f**ked it 
up.  It was that much more disappointing after how well they followed the 
story in TFotR.

Now they've got to spend a good bit of time finishing book two in movie 
three and I'm sure they'll have to axe a bunch of stuff out of that to 
make it short enough.  No Scouring of the Shire, I'll bet, or if it's 
there it will be severely truncated.

If I had the patience to watch it again I could probably write a much 
longer and more specific rant, but you get the idea.

Stow rant mode...

--
Doug
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Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Reggie Bautista
I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
_The Two Towers_ yesterday.  The extended version
of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ was very good, but
this one...
There is no reason anyone should ever watch the
theatrical release of _The Two Towers_ ever again.
The extended DVD is so much better.  The
flow and pacing work better for me, the motivations
of characters made more sense (especially Faramir),
we get to see a nice flashback with Boromir, and
the ending is miles better.  I really liked the theatrical
release of _TTT_  but this extended release is
kilometers (Hi, Alberto!) better.
A friend that watched the DVD version with my wife
and me said that he liked it so much better that he's
almost considering not watching _Return of the King_
until it comes out in the extended DVD version.
Personally, I can't wait until I can see the extended
versions of all three in a nice long theatrical marathon.
I haven't heard yet that this is planned, but to me it
seems like a no-brainer of a marketing gimmick...
Reggie Bautista

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread William T Goodall
On 30 Nov 2003, at 8:18 pm, Reggie Bautista wrote:

I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
_The Two Towers_ yesterday.
I got it from Amazon last Tuesday, but I still haven't found time to 
watch it :(

The extended version
of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ was very good, but
this one...
There is no reason anyone should ever watch the
theatrical release of _The Two Towers_ ever again.
The extended DVD is so much better.  The
flow and pacing work better for me, the motivations
of characters made more sense (especially Faramir),
we get to see a nice flashback with Boromir, and
the ending is miles better.  I really liked the theatrical
release of _TTT_  but this extended release is
kilometers (Hi, Alberto!) better.
Sounds good! What about the two disks of other stuff?

--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
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telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my 
telephone. - Bjarne Stroustrup

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Ronn!Blankenship
At 08:48 PM 11/30/03 +, William T Goodall wrote:

On 30 Nov 2003, at 8:18 pm, Reggie Bautista wrote:

I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
_The Two Towers_ yesterday.
I got it from Amazon last Tuesday, but I still haven't found time to watch 
it :(

The extended version
of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ was very good, but
this one...
There is no reason anyone should ever watch the
theatrical release of _The Two Towers_ ever again.
The extended DVD is so much better.  The
flow and pacing work better for me, the motivations
of characters made more sense (especially Faramir),
we get to see a nice flashback with Boromir, and
the ending is miles better.  I really liked the theatrical
release of _TTT_  but this extended release is
kilometers (Hi, Alberto!) better.
Sounds good! What about the two disks of other stuff?


I haven't had a chance to watch those, either.  Nor to look for the Easter 
eggs I understand reside somewhere on the first two disks.

But I, too, was very impressed with the extended version of the movie 
itself.  Even if the screen I watched it on is actually smaller than this 
monitor.



-- Ronn!  :)

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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Doug Pensinger
Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

I haven't had a chance to watch those, either.  Nor to look for the 
Easter eggs I understand reside somewhere on the first two disks.

But I, too, was very impressed with the extended version of the movie 
itself.  Even if the screen I watched it on is actually smaller than 
this monitor.

Hmmm... I wonder if it's different enough so that someone who nearly 
walked out of the theater release might feel better about it.

--
Doug
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Damon Agretto
Personally, I asked for the ExEd gift set, with the
statue of Gollum for Christmas. Since I already have
the Fellowship gift set...

Damon.

=

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Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html
Now Building: 


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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Bemmzim
In a message dated 11/30/2003 3:18:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
writes:

 
 
 I just purchased and watched the extended DVD of
 _The Two Towers_ yesterday.  The extended version
 of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ was very good, but
 this one...
 
 There is no reason anyone should ever watch the
 theatrical release of _The Two Towers_ ever again.
 The extended DVD is so much better.  The
 flow and pacing work better for me, the motivations
 of characters made more sense (especially Faramir),
 we get to see a nice flashback with Boromir, and
 the ending is miles better.  I really liked the theatrical
 release of _TTT_  but this extended release is
 kilometers (Hi, Alberto!) better.
 
I agree but I think as theartrical release it might have been very long and might have 
turned off some viewers. I got the extended version on Wednesday and on Friday I had a 
hi def 55 inch TV delivered (I had ordered it months ago). So the first thing I 
watched was the two towers. Some time life is good
 A friend that watched the DVD version with my wife
 and me said that he liked it so much better that he's
 almost considering not watching _Return of the King_
 until it comes out in the extended DVD version.
 
 Personally, I can't wait until I can see the extended
 versions of all three in a nice long theatrical marathon.
 I haven't heard yet that this is planned, but to me it
 seems like a no-brainer of a marketing gimmick...
 
 Reggie Bautista
 
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Re: Two Towers Extended DVD

2003-11-30 Thread Bryon Daly
From: Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
I haven't had a chance to watch those, either.  Nor to look for the Easter 
eggs I understand reside somewhere on the first two disks.

But I, too, was very impressed with the extended version of the movie 
itself.  Even if the screen I watched it on is actually smaller than this 
monitor.

Hmmm... I wonder if it's different enough so that someone who nearly walked 
out of the theater release might feel better about it.
Depends on why that person walked out.  If he/she (you?) were annoyed by
the Faramir/Osgiliath changes from the book (as I was), the TT Extended
Edition doesn't fix those.  It does give some clearer perspective on 
Faramir,
though, so he doesn't come across as quite so much of a jerk.

Overall, I agree with Reggie and Ronn that the EE is a fairly big 
improvement on
the theatrical release (which I thought was great, aside from that 
Faramir/Osgiliath
stuff).  A lot of the extra stuff (43 minutes!) was likely cut for time, but 
fills out
a lot of scenes nicely, and seemlessly:  None of it feels out of place or 
like it was
just stuffed in afterwards.

I think they could have left all this footage in the theatrical release:
My wife (who's *definitely not* a sci-fi/fantasy fan), watched it with me, 
and
1) liked it (suprisingly, since she didn't care that much for the standard 
ed.
Fellowship when we watched that) and 2) never complained about the running
time (which she did in watching Fellowship).

And since I'm in LOR movie mode, I'll bring up my current annoyance: has 
everyone
heard about the deletion of the Saruman scene from ROTK?  Gah!  The 
reasoning for
it sounds really lame, and I'm wondering if they were motivated by wanting 
to have
some prime footage to put on the ROTK:EE version net year.

Between that, and the lack of the scouring of the shire scenes, I'm afraid 
that
ROTK if going to take more liberties with the canon than the other movies, 
unfortunately.
But, I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.

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