Since so many have done before me I think I will put in my two cents about the movie as well. I have been given the very cool chance to see the movie twice in two days and let me tell you, I really needed those two screenings in other to make up a good opinion!
Let me first say that this movie absolutely blew me away! It is a visually very strong movie, the landscapes, sets and locations are all truly beautiful and I hereby officially envy everyone who lives in New Zealand. From Hobbiton to Mordor, all the locations looked as if PJ and crew really did fly to Middle-earth to shoot this movie! All praise to the locations scouts who in my opinion did a great job.
Who also did an awesome job were the actors. If Sir Ian McKellen won’t get at least an Oscar-nomination for his role as Gandalf I will be hugely disappointed. His Gandalf had it all, the brushy eyebrows, the look in his eyes both dangerous and pityful and the voice… spot on! Viggo Mortensen was perfect! I can not imagine anyone else playing the part of Aragorn. From the first moment we see him in Bree untill the Breaking of the Fellowship he does a terrific job! Tookish mentioned them as well: Sean Bean, Sir Ian Holm and Elijah Wood also did a tremendous good job. And let’s not forget Christoper Lee. His Saruman really did fill me with fear, and his voice… I can;t wait for the second movie to see him arguing with Gandalf again after the Ents have destroyed Isengard. The Voice of Christopher Lee is really that of Saruman.
Of the other actors I would especially like to mention the ‘devastatingly handsome’ John Rhys-Davies. I don’t know if he has a fanclub, but if he has, where do I sign up? He is the prototype of a Dwarf and I can’t really see him play another part (well, except for maybe the voice of Treebeard, for which I think he’s perfect as well). Orlando Bloom did a great job, very Elvish. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are spot on as Pippin and Merry, they have some very good scenes! Who did I miss? Hugo Weaving was good as Elrond, though at times I had my thoughts about him. Galadriel… hmm.. all of her lines are straight from the book which is very cool, now I’ve heard people say she didn’t put her hart in the character but I wouldn’t go as far as saying that. In a way she did a great job on the part of Galadriel, she really does look like the unapproachable Elvenqueen she is playing, but it’s not entirly as I imagined her to be. Of course she really does look the part which makes up for a lot! Owh, and let us not forget Liv Tyler’s Arwen! Nevermind what other people say, she makes a terrific Arwen. Sure they enlarged her part a bit, but not to such an extent that fans can’t live with it. All the other actors, I won’t name ’em all, also did a great job. PJ himself might I add did an excellent job with his cameo!:)
The story itself was great! A lot has been written about how true it really is to the books and to be honest, yes, there are a lot of good parts which are in the books missing in the movies, but (and I know this sounds familiar) the story is still true to the books. Some of the greatest quotes and dialogues from the books are in the movie and there were they weren’t it was hard to notice the difference. (gosh it’s hard writing all this stuff without being able to support it with examples from the movie, but I did promise spoiler-free).
One thing that Peter Jackson in my opinion did very well was getting the story started. In the books it takes quite a while before we really see some action (and I have to admit that the first part of book one isn’t really my favorite part), but in the movies the story really gets moves on in a good pace, leaving plenty of time for some winks to people who have read the books (A Shortcut to Mushrooms?).
One thing that did struck me at the end was that it didn’t feel like I saw a movie which clocked in at nearly three hours. As I said there is plenty of time for everyhing, with maybe the exception of Lorien, but at the end it still feels like it all went so fast. Imagine if they were to show everything which was in the books, you’d probably get a six hour movie (personally I could live with that).
Well, back to the locations because they really did give the movie a Midlle-earth/Tolkien-ish look. The involvement of John Howe and Alan Lee was hard to miss. Most of the sets we have already seen so that won’t be much of a surprise to most of you. Hobbiton and the Shire brought a tear to my eye. Rivendell looked like it just walked out of a Ted Nasmith painting. But the biggest surprise to me were Isengard and Orthanc.. man did those look awesome! And the Dark Tower gave me shivers all over. Moria rocked my world and Lothlorien was beautiful as it should be!
The special effects in this movie were amazing. All praise to Richard Taylor and his WETA-team. Sometimes it was hard to believe that what you saw was actually made by a computer. And as far as the cgi-made creatures go, well we’ve all seen the Cave-Troll I assume, and I think the Cave-Troll was the one I liked least. The interaction of the actors with the cgi-creatures was exceptionally good!
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Well, we didn’t get our own cinema for December 19/20th – we were gazumped by Meridian Energy, who are a bit bigger than us. HOWEVER on the evening of the Wellington premiere, we’re inviting all TORNadoes and Phoenix SF and Fantasy clubmembers to come to The Grand on Courtenay Place at 10pm. If you’re reading this, you count as a TORNado, so don’t hesitate.
Wellington will be humming all day – there’s a procession and live music and general street partying from 4:30 onwards. The red carpet glamour stuff with the stars will begin after 6pm.
Courtenay Place will be jam-packed with people, so we thought we’d give it a few hours for the fuss to die down before meeting up at The Grand. We’ll be there by 10pm (Heck, might get there earlier, who knows?) and plan to wander down to the Midcity around 11:30pm – many of us have tickets to the midnight screening there.
I hope you can join us – please drop in and make it a celebration! I’ll be in an Elven cloak and/or a TORN t-shirt (striking what kind of blow for fashion, I hate to think). Norm, the Phoenix ringleader, will PROBABLY be in a white dress jacket. So if you don’t know us already, come and introduce yourselves!
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Elijah Wood (Frodo) is certainly making the rounds on all the major chat shows this week, he’s a hard working actor (and don’t think we don’t appreciate it Elijah). Take a look at these pics from his appearances on Wednesday’s ‘Regis & Kell’ and ‘Today’.
Today:
Matt Lauer interviewed Elijah on ‘Today. The interview was extremely low key, Elijah spoke about the film and his adventures. Matt asked the usual questions about Frodo and making 3 films at once. The clip they showed was with Gandalf and Frodo learning about the ring
Regis & Kelly:
Elijah was much more animated during this interview. Regis showed clips of Elijah when he was much younger, and they showed the clip from the Buckleberry Ferry scene.
Clips from Elijah’s apperance on Conan later today!
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Frosty writes: Track 16 Gallery, located in Santa Monica, will be hosting New Line Presents Pierre Vinet: A Lord of the Rings Photographic Journey. More details at The Corner of Viggo
Also please check the Track 16 Gallery for further updates.
And a reminder that Track 16 will also be hosting a show by Viggo Mortensen, “Singlanguage”, from February 2, 2002 to March 30, 2002.
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From: Kentti
I’m pleased to inform you that the rating for the Lord of the Rings in Finland has been lowered from the initial K-15 to K-11 after the Finnish distributor had complained about the decision when the movie had received its K-15 rating over a week ago. It was a tight call; the votes in Valtion elokuvatarkastamo (the board responsible for rating all movies in Finland) went 3-3, but in the case of a draw the movie was rated in favor of the appealer. “The decision was a relieving one. Now all countries in Scandinavia are unanimous in rating this movie,” said Lasse Hyyti, the CEO of FS Film, the distributor in Finland.
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From: Jeremy Rose
Al at scoop told me to get in touch about a fundraising auction of a copy of the Lord of the Rings signed by Peter Jackson and containing an original pencil sketch by Alan Lee.
Volunteer Service Abroad is something like the New Zealand equivalent of the Peace Corp (we tend to send older and better qualified volunteers.)
Peter has very generously provided us with a signed copy of LOTR to auction off and I was hoping you might be able to spread the word among the world’s Tolkien fans. I understand you have an email list as well as your site and it would be choice if you could let the die hard fans no about the auction. It’s for a good cause and with the New Zealand dollar the way it is we suspect we will be able to get a better price from someone in the States or Europe than at home.
Thanks for you time
Jeremy Rose
Press Release
(For immediate release)
Gandalf is VSA’s latest supporter
With Peter Jackson’s signature becoming as rare as dragons’ teeth, New Zealand’s Volunteer Service Abroad is hoping for a good return when it puts a copy of the Lord of the Rings, signed by the film director, up for auction this week.
Jackson, who is under instructions not to give out autographs during the film’s international release, signed a copy of J R R Tolkein’s work earlier this year for VSA to use for fundraising purposes. Jackson also arranged for Alan Lee, the film’s art director and a well-known illustrator of Middle Earth, to draw a pencil sketch of the wizard Gandalf in the book’s opening spread.
VSA fundraiser Jo Prestwood says it’s hard to put a value on the 1991 Harper Collins edition of the Lord of the Rings. “It’s a fine edition of a classic work. Not only does it contain the trilogy that makes up the Lord of the Rings but it is beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee and has an appendices which includes the Annals of the Kings and Rulers and a Hobbits family tree.”
Jackson has written ‘Best wishes from Middle Earth in the book,’ and Alan Lee has written ‘Greetings from Gandalf’,’ Prestwood says.
VSA is a not-for-profit international development agency that has been placing New Zealand volunteers in developing countries since 1962. At present it has more than 80 volunteers working in the South Pacific, Asia and Africa.
The book is being auctioned on the Internet site www.ebay.com from Friday 14 December until Friday 21 December.
Proceeds from the sale will go towards continuing VSA’s work in the Pacific, Asia and Africa.
For more information contact VSA communications coordinator Jeremy Rose or fundraiser Jo Prestwood, Ph 472 5759.
Jeremy Rose
Communications Coordinator
Volunteer Service Abroad
Ph: 04 472 5759
Fax: 04 472 5052
Mobile 025 247 2491
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