TLOTR: The Rings of Power

[Mister_a]

I think the YouTube comments are the best part about this series. Every trailer has something like.

"I liked the bit where Galadriel told Harry he was a wizard, and then they both took the holy grail to Asguard."

[CVByrne]

7 minutes ago, Mister_a said:

I think the YouTube comments are the best part about this series. Every trailer has something like.

"I liked the bit where Galadriel told Harry he was a wizard, and then they both took the holy grail to Asguard."

Aye they've been hilarious 

[HKP90]

28 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Yeah they were very very very bad. tbh I felt Return of the King was a big letdown for me because of what Jackson did with the Battle of Pelennor Fields and the lazy Deus Ex Machina of the Ghosts. I wanted to see that battle at least done faithfully

Each to their own, I loved all of the original LOTR trilogy, including ROTK (god they love an acronym). I see where you are coming from with the ghost thing, but the battle at the black gate, where they are all resigned to their doom gave me the feels. 

I think the worst film for Deus Ex machina I've seen in a while (and it was by no means a bad film, just used the trope extensively) was Prey, which I saw last night. Good film but

Spoiler

the Predator slays everything in sight with ease, but somehow forgets how to finish when he gets up close with the protagonist. 

 

I personally am looking forward to at least trying the upcoming LOTR series. My expectation is, however that fan pressure will end up killing it, like star wars. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by HKP90
spoiler

[villa4europe]

25 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Yeah they were very very very bad. tbh I felt Return of the King was a big letdown for me because of what Jackson did with the Battle of Pelennor Fields and the lazy Deus Ex Machina of the Ghosts. I wanted to see that battle at least done faithfully

The standard edition of RotK is unwatchable imo, its garbage 

The extended edition just about gets away with it 

[Rds1983]

32 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Each to their own, I loved all of the original LOTR trilogy, including ROTK (god they love an acronym). I see where you are coming from with the ghost thing, but the battle at the black gate, where they are all resigned to their doom gave me the feels. 

I think the worst film for Deus Ex machina I've seen in a while (and it was by no means a bad film, just used the trope extensively) was Prey, which I saw last night.

I personally am looking forward to at least trying the upcoming LOTR series. My expectation is, however that fan pressure will end up killing it, like star wars. 

Potentially a spoiler for those that haven't seen it so you might want to edit. 

Probably not for this thread but... 

Spoiler

If you mean the bit where she's stuck in the man trap that's aligned to canon where they don't kill the helpless or weak. Going all the way back to the original film where people weren't killed when unarmed as there's no sport or honour in it. 

How honour links with them shooting people from distance whilst camouflaged is a different argument but one that annoys me. 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Rds1983

[HKP90]

I've just spoilered my post, so you might want to do the same with the quote. 

I get your point but there were other times when 1 on 1, when it just felt.... restrained. 

[HKP90]

29 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

The standard edition of RotK is unwatchable imo, its garbage 

The extended edition just about gets away with it 

I think that's because you watched the extended editions. I can't watch the theatrical releases now. 

[HKP90]

Also, regarding The Hobbit (forgive the pun), it lost me when one of the creatures made a funny aside during his own death (something like 'yep, that did it' (can't remember)). I always saw them as LOTR for kids, really, so no great loss to me. 

[Chindie]

I'm pretty much only going to be watching this for the first 2 episodes. The word for ages has been that the first 2 episodes were basically all background scene setting, covering the events of the First Age, which is where all the really epic shit pre- LotR happens (mainly - Last Alliance, Numenor aside), so I've high hopes those episodes will be awesome, even if they are a whistle stop tour of Sauron's boss being a real evil word removed and getting shit done.

Rest of it? *Shrug*. Expectations set at 'just don't do anything particularly heinous with the lore please'.

[CVByrne]

10 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I'm pretty much only going to be watching this for the first 2 episodes. The word for ages has been that the first 2 episodes were basically all background scene setting, covering the events of the First Age, which is where all the really epic shit pre- LotR happens (mainly - Last Alliance, Numenor aside), so I've high hopes those episodes will be awesome, even if they are a whistle stop tour of Sauron's boss being a real evil word removed and getting shit done.

Rest of it? *Shrug*. Expectations set at 'just don't do anything particularly heinous with the lore please'.

I'll probably leave the series alone till it's done. Then decide if it's worth my time. I'll struggle to enjoy it I know because I'm such a big fan of Tolkien. Plus the quality of mainstream modern Hollywood writing is at an all time low right now. Just look at what Disney is churning out and what Amazon did with Wheel of Time. 

[CVByrne]

27 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Also, regarding The Hobbit (forgive the pun), it lost me when one of the creatures made a funny aside during his own death (something like 'yep, that did it' (can't remember)). I always saw them as LOTR for kids, really, so no great loss to me. 

I think Jackson wanted to make it less mature so it was in keeping with the tone of the Hobbit book itself. If he made just one movie and stuck with what was in the book it would have worked better. 

[HKP90]

2 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I think Jackson wanted to make it less mature so it was in keeping with the tone of the Hobbit book itself. If he made just one movie and stuck with what was in the book it would have worked better. 

Agree completely. Two at a push.

[Mister_a]

2 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Agree completely. Two at a push.

When i heard the Hobbit was going to be a trilogy, it just screamed pointless filler to make money to me.

I mean there's nothing wrong with making money, but not at the expense of the fanbase.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Mister_a

[Chindie]

Jackson clearly didn't want to make the Hobbit, he only picked it up when the entire project was about to collapse when Guillermo del Toro left. His hearts not in it.

So he turned it more into a technical exercise, which didn't serve to make the films as masterful as his LotR trilogy. They also rushed them massively, working with half scripts and cutting corners, and the move to make it 3 movies was purely financial in nature. They also had troubles with adjusting the tone for a modern audience - the Hobbit is a bedtime story for children written in the 30s with the time and sensibilities you'd expect, and later became a prequel of sorts to LotR, so the films had to simultaneously update the humour to a modern audience, tie into an established and beloved LotR in ways the book didn't, and meld all that into a younger focused story.

As a result they got a mess. I don't hate them, they aren't bad but they're certainly less than they could be.

[maqroll]

Will they release all the episodes at once or stagger them?

[villarule123]

First impressions are out and they're all overwhelmingly positive, even the Tolkien experts are praising it. 

Personally, I have no expectations of it at all, I haven't watched a trailer since the first one so I'm pretty much going in blind. Hope it's good but I fear for it after what they (supposedly) did with Wheel of Time. 

[CVByrne]

11 minutes ago, villarule123 said:

First impressions are out and they're all overwhelmingly positive, even the Tolkien experts are praising it. 

Personally, I have no expectations of it at all, I haven't watched a trailer since the first one so I'm pretty much going in blind. Hope it's good but I fear for it after what they (supposedly) did with Wheel of Time. 

No, no they're not. The show runners got lots of youtube Tolkein channels etc.. and flew them to London to give them special access essentially to get them to promote positivity about the show. It's just part of their promotional approach.

They fired the Tolkein expert from the show because he was pointing out how they were breaking the Lore. 

The only people allowed early access to the first episodes of the show are the ones who will give it rave reviews. None of it is unbiased.

Edited August 24, 2022 by CVByrne

[Sam-AVFC]

I don't have a problem with changes such as having a more diverse cast so there is a greater pool of acting talent to choose from, or omitting some of Tolkien's more boring rambling detours*. As long as there aren't changes for the sake of it a la the apparent character changes in The Watch.

 

*I did not miss Tom Bombadil in the movies.

[Straggler]

18 hours ago, Sam-AVFC said:

I don't have a problem with changes such as having a more diverse cast so there is a greater pool of acting talent to choose from, or omitting some of Tolkien's more boring rambling detours*. As long as there aren't changes for the sake of it a la the apparent character changes in The Watch.

 

*I did not miss Tom Bombadil in the movies.

Missing out Bombadil was possibly the smartest decision made in the making of that movie. It's odd even in the book.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Straggler
it didn't make any sense at all.

[Chindie]

Tom Bombadill also breaks Tolkein's mythology by being a supernatural being who isn't a god, or angelic creature. All the other beings in Middle-Earth with his kind of abilities are Valar or Maiar - gods or angels in essence - but Tolkein specifically said he isn't. And the other option, that he's an avatar of the Creator, also gets shot down by most people, so he's just this... thing.