Very cool, if true

I LOVE the extended version. Love love love. I love the scene with Aragorn singing. He sings so much in the book. It was just a great scene.

What did you think of Two Towers? We simply MUST discuss this!

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I liked it a lot. Gollum's MPD was great, the scenery was great and the battle scenes were marvellous too.

It did feel a little fragmented and Treebeard wasn't as imposing as I was hoping for. Also, the final action sequence seemed to easy. From utter defeat to victory in about a minute because of 100-odd warriors seemed too abrupt.

But I did enjoy it a lot and the opening sequence blew me away.

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In the movie, I thought they had this part where they talked about the 1000 riders that were with Eomer.... It was a far greater number than in the book.

Treebeard was.... Well, I love the Ents. I was disappointed that they kind of changed the Ents motives for going to war -- in the book they didn't need to see Isengard to know that a terrible thing was happening.

The opening sequence is astounding. I sat there with my mouth agape in awe the whole time. And the battles.... I love the Elvish army. The fact that they were all stunningly attractive certainly didn't hurt, but the precision and the coordination was really awesome.

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Aah, I thought Eomer had 100 riders. Seeing as they were trying to defend Helm's Deep with about 300 people, 1000 riders means that (a) the bulk of of the people Rohan were in the army (b) they really should have been a lot more fussed about Eomer leaving with the whole of the army.

And yeah, I'd have preferred Pippin or Merry to have used a stirring speech to point out that if Sauron won the forests would all be destroyed, rather than tricking him like they did.

Oh, and both films have had real problems with foreshortening - people hiding 3 seconds before someone else arrive have usually been visible for about 5 minutes - Treebeard should have realised there was devestation ahead long before he's standing there. When Gimli says "The walls of Moria", they must have been visible to all of them for the last 15 minutes.

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And all of that is true. But it's still a damned amazing movie.

*grin*

Merry and Pippin are so cool. They are such a big part of Two Towers that I was a little disappointed when the movie didn't start off with them and the Ents. But I suppose for your average film-goer, it would have shot the continuous narrative.

Which, by the way, I thought they handled admirably. Given that they were juggling three different plot lines and time chronicles. The best cut of the whole movie I think was when Aragorn was tracking what happening to them with the Orcs and he's envisioning them running into the forest. And then we're back the night before running into the forest with them. I thought that was just incredibly well done.

As for Helm's Deep.... It was just handled strangely. Because Theoden isn't that pig-headed and wacky. At least not quite. And while Rohen was not as populated as it used to be in legends past, it was still a much bigger city than depicted in the movie. Trying to defend Helm's Deep with 300 people.... That was a little silly. Still, it was one of those impossible odds moments that stir us all. Even we cynicals, so don't try to pretend you weren't impressed by it, too. *grin*

I love this movie. I'm already looking forward to the extended release of it -- just think, if Fellowship was so much better and so many things were cleared up, then that should be doubly true for this one. It drives me crazy that I have to wait an entire year for Return of the King. I swear, they made them all at the same time, they should have just released them all in some kind of megablockbuster frenzy for one night only or something and then gone on this year by year schedule. Though I don't know if they're finished with post-production so perhaps that wouldn't have been feasible.

What did you think about Gollum? Gollum the creepy. Gollum the incredibly creepy.

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There's about 6 months of pre-production and reshoots per year going on, plus all the work going into the special editions.

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Yeah, well, I still want it now!

*grin*

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rainstorm.livejournal.com

okay, i'm *really* looking forwad to it. can i borrow the extended version at some point?! :D

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Sure thing. Of course this means meeting up somewhere so I can lend it to you.

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rainstorm.livejournal.com

well, if you're on msn at any point i'm quite likely on in evenings etc, so i'm sure i'll bump into you online..

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Sorted!

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Yes, We got the extended version and the projector at about the same time. It is SO much better - it'a amazing how the little bits and snatches put in erally improve it. I'm with Andy, the Hobbiton arrival sequence is a LOT better.

4 hours 'til the Two Towers....

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Tell me more about your projector....

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It's an Epson. I can't recall the model (I did all the research and told Sean what to get only for nobody to have on in (nor likely to for months) so he bought what he could find). Tell you tomorrow.

Sean made a frame that matched the size of the max projected area (about 7ft by er, 3-4 ft) and stretched a white double bed sheet over it. We had a white wall (but textured wallpaper), so this is OK. Those with dark walls would need more sturdy opaqueness. It sits on a board screwed to a camera tripod which lives behind the 2 seater couch that is in the bay window. (Of course we have very lightproof curtains, but mainly it's dark when I want to watch films anyway). We end up sitting the width of the living room (er...couple of meters?) away. It will do up to 20m if you had that far, though. Of course we have the proper sound setup (except the front centre speaker is a bit wussy - must buy one with its own power)

It is ace. We call it Cinema Earlswood!

We have a *lot* of DVDs. Sean buys (on average) 4 a week these days.

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It sits on a board screwed to a camera tripod which lives behind the 2 seater couch that is in the bay window

By this I mean "the projector sits on a board ...." not that screen does.

The screen is hung on the opposite wall.(Just to be conventional)

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I wish I had your budget.

Thankfully the Tivo keeps me flooded in cool things to watch, or I'd be envious of your DVD collection too.

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Well I wish you had my budget too :-) You are much more of a film fan. Actually Sean bought the projector,IIRC.

As I put it to Sean, we have all this tech stuff cos we don't spend money on what most folks do (car, kids, stupidly expensive house). Oh yeah, and I've always been good at spending as little as possible on necessities.

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