The guy dressed up as Gandalf was a bit much
Okay, so like any good ex-sci-fi fan, I made the commitment and went and saw Lord Of The Rings at like 12:01 AM this morning. And it was good. But of course, I haven’t been waiting my whole life wondering what a movie would look like. Although lets just say this probably kicks the shit out of that Dungeons & Dragons flick that came out a while ago. So of course I noticed a few things:
Bad:
1. The movie does an absolutely terrible job of introducing new characters. For people like me who have no idea who someone is until the backstory is played out, this can be very frustrating and confusing.
2. And this is only a half-bad thing, but LOtR falls into the fantasy-genre trap of it becoming after a certain point basically about what kind of horrible unimaginable monster is going to come next. Now, I admit that this novel/trilogy/whatever was the first one to fall into this trap and rather created it for everyone else to follow, so that’s forgivable a little bit. But I did find myself a little sick of the ‘zoom into a main characters widening eyes as something unspeakable comes slowly and mercilessly into view and we can’t see it yet and the music is swelling so it must be bad’ type-thing.
3. Seriously couldn’t get over the guy from The Matrix as being the head elf. He seems to only be able to talk that one way (you know which way) and I seriously couldn’t help but visualize the elf in my head as wearing those sunglasses. Terrible, but true. “The hobbits are a virus, and the ring is the cure…”
Good:
1. Don’t take this lightly, because the effects were outstanding. I mean, beyond compare. Of course this is taken from my perspective from the 2nd-row, all the way over to the very far-est right you can imagine, and in the big theatre, too. So my recollection of the film is let’s just say skewed. But from what I could tell, the effects were simply astounding the rest of the audience who could see them properly.
2. Bad-ass-ness. There’s a part with the guy and the thing and the POW and the speed and the jump-cuts and the YEAH and yeah. Action, action action. I seriously was reminded of how much I liked the elves in D & D. Which elves of course were basically entirely based upon J.R.R’s elves and so it seemed to work for me. The dwarf was under-used and I’m not sure why and he didn’t seem to have any sort of scenes that told us of who he was really, in any way. But you didn’t need to because he just kicked ass along with the rest of them.
3. I’m a huge Ian McKellen fan and he was probably the most well-played character I saw, besides whoever the hell Liv Tyler was, and she was in it for like 5 total minutes, tops. But the acting wasn’t atrocious, as some of us have come to expect from Star Wars-esque high-hype sci-fi/fantasy films.
So basically, see it if any of what I said made sense to you and see it even I didn’t. I just don’t think it was absolutely necessary for me to tear-ass around town and see the damn thing at fucking midnight on a Tuesday/Wednesday.
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14 Replies to “The guy dressed up as Gandalf was a bit much”
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i think i have a bit of hobbit hangover.
there were two groups of people in the theater (aside from the guy dressed up as Gandolf):
i was there, of course, only for the spectacle of a movie that can sell out a show at 12:01AM on a wednesday, but i can’t help but feel like i placed first in the 100 meter dash at the special olympics:
even if you win, you’re still retarded.
i completely and udderly agree with the whole hobbit hangover concept. brilliant. thats exactly how i feel. im looking forward to seeing the flick again and not leaving the theatre at 3 in the goddamned morning. the star wars trailer got laughed at in my theatre. and hey kev, you had problems with hugo weaving (matrix guy)? try watching priscilla, queen of the desert, and *then* watching the matrix. it’ll fuck you up.
looking around my theatre, there were an enormous amount of geeks around. it was good. some guy was reading comics in line in front of us.
i’m all about this movie. this is seriously up there with pre-ewok star wars. legolas the elf is such a goddamned badass. the best part is that the first book is my least favorite of the three. so i have only goodness to look forward to. my favorite quote in one of the reviews of this: “If you don’t like this film, then you’re just *trying* to be a dick.” go see it.
I want to see this movie. If nothing else, the special effects should be dazzling. I haven’t read any of the books, there not my cup of tea, but if the movie goes over well I may put it on my list of shit to read.
Hobbit Hangover = Jaxon drunk as shit before he gets to the movie theatre.
Banner hanging from the overpass on Highway 520 today: Frodo Lives.
Today my department takes us all to the movies as a treat, and all I’ll be able to think of is the whole web team running across a finish line, drooling and tripping. Thanks, Jaxon.
great copy you guys! Loved the flik and would recommend watching it in a huge theatere anywhere outside the lower neck breaker section.
i think i have a bit of hobbit hangover.
there were two groups of people in the theater (aside from the guy dressed up as Gandolf):
geeks who have been waiting for this movie to come out since high school
geeks who have been waiting for this movie to come out since junior high
i was there, of course, only for the spectacle of a movie that can sell out a show at 12:01AM on a wednesday, but i can’t help but feel like i placed first in the 100 meter dash at the special olympics:
even if you win, you’re still retarded.
i completely and udderly agree with the whole hobbit hangover concept. brilliant. thats exactly how i feel. im looking forward to seeing the flick again and not leaving the theatre at 3 in the goddamned morning. the star wars trailer got laughed at in my theatre. and hey kev, you had problems with hugo weaving (matrix guy)? try watching priscilla, queen of the desert, and *then* watching the matrix. it’ll fuck you up.looking around my theatre, there were an enormous amount of geeks around. it was good. some guy was reading comics in line in front of us.i’m all about this movie. this is seriously up there with pre-ewok star wars. legolas the elf is such a goddamned badass. the best part is that the first book is my least favorite of the three. so i have only goodness to look forward to. my favorite quote in one of the reviews of this: “If you don’t like this film, then you’re just *trying* to be a dick.” go see it.
I want to see this movie. If nothing else, the special effects should be dazzling. I haven’t read any of the books, there not my cup of tea, but if the movie goes over well I may put it on my list of shit to read.
Hobbit Hangover = Jaxon drunk as shit before he gets to the movie theatre.
Banner hanging from the overpass on Highway 520 today: Frodo Lives.
Today my department takes us all to the movies as a treat, and all I’ll be able to think of is the whole web team running across a finish line, drooling and tripping. Thanks, Jaxon.
great copy you guys! Loved the flik and would recommend watching it in a huge theatere anywhere outside the lower neck breaker section.