Matt sends us a rare advanced look into the FOTR DVD! Take a look! ‘the transformation from the big screen to the small one is perfect. It has a great quality and gives a whole other dimension to the movie.’ !Spoilers! [More]
Month: May 2002
From: Matt
Having just received and checked this AMAZING DVD, I feel that I must share this. It is a must! Even if you didn´t like the movie, get it. Seriously.
I won´t go on to write a movie review, so let´s get right down to business: the transformation from the big screen to the small one is perfect. It has a great quality and gives a whole other dimension to the movie. It´s as if you were actually closer to the movie, if you know what I mean. If you think you entered Middle Earth when you went to the theaters, just wait until you get the DVD.
The menus are absolutely fantastic! The parts that are animated are very nice, very smooth… couldn´t ask for another thing while selecting what to do. The main screen has the menu set in a circle, like a ring. Seems obvious, but it´s so beautiful that you just don´t care. I love how they arranged the menu screens to look grainy… it gives a certain “classic/old” feel to the disc. The scene selection screen is very nice, featuring a beautiful drawing from Alan Lee. And this has only been for disc one!
Disc two has all the extra features, and it´s as gorgeous as the first one. I won´t even go on babbling about it, let´s go right to the features!
To start off, the most excellent feature: a behind-the-scenes preview of THE TWO TOWERS!! So many things… I don´t even know where to start! Andy Serkis with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin on the way to Mordor (and also glimpses of Serkis as Gollum), the riders of Rohan, flashes of Helm´s Deep, Isengard, Edoras, the old and new characters (including the white rider!)… But the image that I will keep (sadly without hearing what I wanted to hear while I saw it) was John Rhys Davies on a studio recording the lines for Treebeard! The narrator mentioned it while Davies was there, speaking at the microfone, but no Treebeard voice. In fact, Treebeard can´t be seen anywhere, but we do see Dominic Mohagan and Billy Boyd as Merry and Pippin in some bizarre set, so we´ll just have to wait. Oh, so many things… And of course the always present Peter Jackson was there, directing Bernard Hill, arranging scenes and talking about TTT and it´s preview. But more mentions of him to come.
The second best thing was the special extended dvd edition that will come out in November. We get to see all the three versions of the dvd, the reasons behind having 2 editions and three versions and some flashes of new scenes. I´m telling you, if you´re desperate to have this disc in August, after you see it you´ll be terribly desperate to have the extended edition in November and see The Two Towers in December.
And there´s still more! The 15 featurettes that were created for the official site are amazing. I had already seen some of them, but the whole pack is way better. And also you get to see it full screen in your tv, and that´s way better than seeing it on your monitor. They´re great, featuring interviews with preety much everyone involved in the movie: the cast, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Richard Taylor from Weta, Alan Lee, John Howe and more. It shows a lot of things, like how they created some pieces, original designs, talks about the characters and the people who portray them in the movie, New Zealand and other things. PJ gives some nice comments regarding the movie, and Ian McKellen does a good job too. Liv Tyler talks a little in elvish (like in National Geographic’s Beyond The Movie) and Richard Taylor speaks about the effects and everything. You can also find some scenes that you won´t be able to see until the extended edition comes out. Wait a little more and you´ll check it out !
There are also 2 programs that originally aired on TV and one from Houghton Mifflin: Quest For The Ring, that originally aired on Fox and talks about the production, the story, how they translated the books, and has some interviews that you can also find in the featurettes; A Passage To Middle Earth, that aired on the Sci-fi channel and talks about preety much the same things the first one does, but with different scenes, a different approach and exclusive interviews; Welcome To Middle Earth, the Houghton Mifflin in store special, is the best one. You see scenes that didn´t make the theater cut and that will be on the extended edition, nice interviews and more.
There’s also the trailers and tv spots, but not much can be said there.
Enya´s “May It Be” music video, wich is very nice. I saw it many times on TV, and I think it was great having it on the dvd for those who missed the opportunity of seeing it.
Last, but not least, a preview of Eletronic Arts´ video game The Two Towers, wich is thrilling. They made the game based on the movie, not on the book, so the characters you see are the ones you saw in the movie. Really dazzling work. I just don´t understand why they made the second movie the first game, but since I don´t follow game news, I might be wrong.
Sorry, but I didn´t get to check the dvd rom features.
In a nutshell, the best movie I have ever seen makes the best dvd I have ever seen. Not just for the movie itself, but for the work that was put on it. The menus, sound, features… they´re everything anyone wants in a dvd. And if the extended edition tops this one, it´s going to be hell the wait for the TTT dvd.
How on (middle?) earth did one of the Twentieth Century’s most mythic and popular works literature, JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, end up being translated into cinema in the largest movie project ever undertaken by a team led by a maverick New Zealand director refusing to budge from his home-made studio at the edge of the planet … a director previously best known for his DIY Kiwi-schlock horror flicks and an art-house film about teenage matricide? [More]
Ian Holm (Bilbo) will be appearing on stage this Saturday at TheaterSounds with Roger Rees in Kingston, New York. It’s for a play reading of George Bernard Shaw’s “Don Juan in Hell.” [More]
It is always easy to drop a handful of devastating rares into your deck, and re-use the same tactic against your unwitting opponent, thrashing at their poor Dwarves with your Ringwraith’s might, but what if thats not so easy to do? What happens when the rare pool dries up and you’re left without the cards to prefect your devastation? Well thats the question many players posed, so I’m here to offer a low cost strategy option using only Common and Uncommon cards!
The Fellowship of the Ring
For our low cost Fellowship we’re going to go with a Hobbit Culture Strategy, beginning with Frodo: Reluctant Adventurer, and the Common One Ring: The Ruling Ring, with the starting fellowship consisting of Sam: Son of Hamfast, Merry: From O’er the Brandywine, and Pippin: Friend to Frodo. The goal in this deck is to avoid confrontation, while still getting your Hobbit’s on their way to Site 9. I’ve included Stealth events like Hobbit Intuition, and Hobbit Stealth that either add Strength to your Hobbit Companions or cancel a skirmish all together. I’ve also added Nice Imitation, which is handy when you just can’t avoid a skirmish and end up taking a wound, simply discard this condition to prevent that wound. With use of the Hobbit Swords, the Tale: There and Back Again, and multiple Bounders; you should be able to rush your fellowship to Site 9 with little to no loss. Boromir: Son of Denethor has been tossed in as his ability to add 3 Strength to a hobbit comes in handy, and hes often a useful card to take damage away from your Hobbits!
Frodo: Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring: The Ruling RingFrodo: Reluctant Adventurer [this is a second copy for healing purposes]
Sam: Son of Hamfast x2
Merry: From O’er the Brandywine x2
Pippin: Friend to Frodo x2
Boromir: Son of Denethor x2
Bounder x4
Hobbit Sword x4
There and Back Again x2
Hobbit Intuition x4
Hobbit Stealth x4
Nice Imitation
Not Feared in Sunlight
Extraordinary Resilience
The Shadow
With the Shadow Portion of our Deck I’ve gone with the swarm tactic using only common and uncommon cards to pit against your opponents Fellowship. Using multiple copies of Moria Scout, Goblin Spearman, Goblin Marksman, Goblin Scavengers, and Goblin Flankers you’re never left without something to play. Including weapons like Goblin Spear and Goblin Scimitar allow me to boost these otherwise low strength minions to even the score against your opponents supported companions. The only condition in this deck is Plundered Armories as it allows you to keep your discarded weapons from going to waste. This swarm of minions coupled in with a copy of the common Balrog is sure to drop the jaw of your opponent when they struggle to decide where to assign all of Moria’s Fury!
Balrog: Durin’s Bane
Moria Scout x4
Goblin Flankers x4
Goblin Spearman x3
Goblin Marksman x4
Goblin Scavengers x4
Goblin Scimitar x4
Goblin Spear x4
Plundered Armories x2
Adventure Deck
With the Adventure Deck it is rather simple to stay within a budget as all of the cards you may wish to add are Common or Uncommon anyway, I went with the Locations that I did as I felt they gave a bonus of some kind to my strategy or as small of a bonus as humanly possible to my opponent.
1. Westfarthing
2. Buckleberry Ferry
3. Council Courtyard
4. Moria Stairway
5. The Bridge of Khazad-Dum
6. Dumrill Dale
7. Anduin Wilderland
8. Brown Lands
9. Summit of Amon Hen
This deck is far from unbeatable, but as you play against your friends and expand your collection, you will come to find new strategies and new twists that every collection can adapt to. Keep playing, and keep comparing cards, you never know when you might come up with the end all strategy!
What do you use to devastate your opponent? How do you get your Fellowship to Site 9 unharmed?
Tell us about it! E-mail Flinch at flinch@theonering.net!
ElrothielGLeaf wrote in to let us know that the Two Towers preview will be aired during the MTV Movie Awards on June 6. We’ll keep you posted with more information about this as it becomes available.