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I sent out the holiday cards for my LJ friends yesterday, so if I told you I'm sending a card and you don't get one by new years, lemme know. There are people who I want to send cards to, but didn't mention they are doing the holiday card thing (like me) and I didn't want to approach anyone individually in case you like me fine as an LJ friend but fear I could be a deranged stalker in real life and wouldn't know how to politely say "you ain't getting my address, you strange fucker." So anyway, if you would like a card from me but haven't given me your addy yet, and don't think I'm a deranged stalker, or are hoping I am, lemme know and I will send one.
And Eeeeee! I got a beautiful Plastic Town card from Abandonada plus a wonderful Bingo ornament she made by hand! It's a little quilt square with some of Bingo's icons copied onto the fabric. It is now a prized possession of mine.(-: Precioussss. And I got a card from Spork with a fantastic drawing of reindeer Fatty wearing THE hat inside! I also got a lovely card from Meli.
And for those who know what my current subject of angst is, yes, I am getting work done on that Tolkien paper now! I think I can have it all done by Monday. And I found out today that the deadline that I feared I acceded and, hence, would end my academic career just short of being an ABD-- because I'm a dork who just had to push my limits--is not so hard and fast. If I can just keep this fire burning under my butt for the next couple of weeks, I will have a lovely new year.
So I went to the midnight showing in DC last night and joined up with the nice folk from TORN's Line Party who I met last week. Many of them were people of my age group, so that was cool for me. The woman next to me had the greatest pair of hobbit slippers that I sooo covet, even though I probably wouldn't wear them anywhere, but I must get me one! (-: I used to run all over the place in medieval clothes and sometimes armour without batting an eye. Now I felt sheepish putting on my green wool cloak in the cold last night. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! (-: However, I did take my Bingo and Frodo action figures in my purse who cuddled up together under the little quilt from Abandonada to watch the movie.(-:
I went in with low expectations because I don't like TTT as much as the other books to begin with, so it met those for me--it was good but not great, like the book. But I was also stressed out about my work, and Bingo's in a worried mood (yes, I'm a MESPT wacko), so I wasn't in the good hyper fan space. Everything was well done, but like in the book, too much time is spent on battle so that gets me bored. I do think there's a lot I will appreciate more on a second viewing though.
Most of the character presentation was very good, except for Faramir who was totally ruined! I mean, Boromir came off as the much more sensitive brother--what's with that? I realize that some of the issues that make Faramir the great character he is are given to Aragorn in the first movie, and I liked that addition to his character (in the movie, Aragorn's afraid of being a macho jerk like Isildur and abusing power, rather than just being fit enough for power as in the book--I love that change of PJ's) but I miss seeing that wisdom in Faramir. And none of Farry's discussion with Frodo, which is one of my favorite parts of TTT, was included. )-: There are some wonderful things said in their talks that I would have loved to cut time from Helm's Deep to include.
But the ents were terrific and some of Treebeard's best
lines were included--yay! And the battle at Isenguard was just wonderfully satisfying as in the book and visually stunning. I do think they should have done more with Merry and Pippin than just have them sit on Treebeard's shoulders most of the time--like they could have visited Treebeard's home and drunk the ent draft during their dialogue at the very least.
I love looking at Liv, and that is the saving grace of the Arwen/Aragorn scenes for me, but I still find Arwen's tale as boring and disappointing as it is in the apppendix. And they should have Liv moving and prancing more--she doesn't come near catching the Elvishness that Orli does. The Legolas/Gimli dynamic was just perfect--they caught all that is wonderful about it in the books in this film. And they definitely played up Aragorn/Legolas purely for the slash fans which made me smile. Eowyn felt faithful, so we won't get to see her shine until next movie. Theoden felt a bit drippy to me; once cured, he has more spunk in the book that I would have liked to have seen in the movie.
Gollum was great--and that they gave him Lij's eyes was just hilarious. Yeah, I know it's symbolic of the connection between them, but it still makes me LOL. His schizoid scene when he banishes Stinker was wonderful. Frodo and Sam were good--the kind of tension they presented is just right, so I didn't have trouble with the added fight in Osgiliath. And I'm so glad they did not play up the addition of Frodo wanting to save Gollum so he knows he can be saved, as Lij indicated in interviews, so that it overshadowed Frodo's sense of pity for Gollum. But they really seemed to cut back from the touching between Frodo and Sam, and only really started picking up the affection between them in their last (still untouchy) scene--there should have been more earlier. But I'm so glad they included stewed rabbits and their discussion of stories--those were wonderful scenes that do make up for the earlier lack. I'm not going to be disappointed about the lack of the scene with Frodo's head in Sam's lap because they really stopped right at that point. However, if it's not in the last movie I will feel gipped, I tell ya.
The oliphaunts were really visually spectacular--I wish they had provided a little of the dialogue that shows the hobbits' horror of how the men kill each other--that would have made it more than a visually cool scene as it should be. Visually, I also loved the flaming eye on top of Barad-dur, and yay for more scenes in Rivendell, which I can never see too much of. Helms Deep was visually stunning, but I still wanted less of it--or it needed to focus more on the character's reactions than it did for me to get into it. Ian was great, of course, but he didn't get to do very much.
I thought some of the editing cuts between scenes, along with the soundtrack were a bit abruptly done. But I will have to see how I feel about that on a second viewing. I also need to see a better print. Even some of the still camera shots were fuzzier than they should have been. The Uptown Theater has a wonderful gigantic screen, but FOTR wasn't as sharp there as in some other theaters I saw it in, so I don't know if it's their projectors or the luck of the print they get.
So, I will definitely go see TTT again sometime soon, though I'm sure no where near the amount of times I went to see FOTR. I am, however, very much looking forward to the extended cut of TTT to see what got left out.
And Eeeeee! I got a beautiful Plastic Town card from Abandonada plus a wonderful Bingo ornament she made by hand! It's a little quilt square with some of Bingo's icons copied onto the fabric. It is now a prized possession of mine.(-: Precioussss. And I got a card from Spork with a fantastic drawing of reindeer Fatty wearing THE hat inside! I also got a lovely card from Meli.
And for those who know what my current subject of angst is, yes, I am getting work done on that Tolkien paper now! I think I can have it all done by Monday. And I found out today that the deadline that I feared I acceded and, hence, would end my academic career just short of being an ABD-- because I'm a dork who just had to push my limits--is not so hard and fast. If I can just keep this fire burning under my butt for the next couple of weeks, I will have a lovely new year.
So I went to the midnight showing in DC last night and joined up with the nice folk from TORN's Line Party who I met last week. Many of them were people of my age group, so that was cool for me. The woman next to me had the greatest pair of hobbit slippers that I sooo covet, even though I probably wouldn't wear them anywhere, but I must get me one! (-: I used to run all over the place in medieval clothes and sometimes armour without batting an eye. Now I felt sheepish putting on my green wool cloak in the cold last night. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! (-: However, I did take my Bingo and Frodo action figures in my purse who cuddled up together under the little quilt from Abandonada to watch the movie.(-:
I went in with low expectations because I don't like TTT as much as the other books to begin with, so it met those for me--it was good but not great, like the book. But I was also stressed out about my work, and Bingo's in a worried mood (yes, I'm a MESPT wacko), so I wasn't in the good hyper fan space. Everything was well done, but like in the book, too much time is spent on battle so that gets me bored. I do think there's a lot I will appreciate more on a second viewing though.
Most of the character presentation was very good, except for Faramir who was totally ruined! I mean, Boromir came off as the much more sensitive brother--what's with that? I realize that some of the issues that make Faramir the great character he is are given to Aragorn in the first movie, and I liked that addition to his character (in the movie, Aragorn's afraid of being a macho jerk like Isildur and abusing power, rather than just being fit enough for power as in the book--I love that change of PJ's) but I miss seeing that wisdom in Faramir. And none of Farry's discussion with Frodo, which is one of my favorite parts of TTT, was included. )-: There are some wonderful things said in their talks that I would have loved to cut time from Helm's Deep to include.
But the ents were terrific and some of Treebeard's best
lines were included--yay! And the battle at Isenguard was just wonderfully satisfying as in the book and visually stunning. I do think they should have done more with Merry and Pippin than just have them sit on Treebeard's shoulders most of the time--like they could have visited Treebeard's home and drunk the ent draft during their dialogue at the very least.
I love looking at Liv, and that is the saving grace of the Arwen/Aragorn scenes for me, but I still find Arwen's tale as boring and disappointing as it is in the apppendix. And they should have Liv moving and prancing more--she doesn't come near catching the Elvishness that Orli does. The Legolas/Gimli dynamic was just perfect--they caught all that is wonderful about it in the books in this film. And they definitely played up Aragorn/Legolas purely for the slash fans which made me smile. Eowyn felt faithful, so we won't get to see her shine until next movie. Theoden felt a bit drippy to me; once cured, he has more spunk in the book that I would have liked to have seen in the movie.
Gollum was great--and that they gave him Lij's eyes was just hilarious. Yeah, I know it's symbolic of the connection between them, but it still makes me LOL. His schizoid scene when he banishes Stinker was wonderful. Frodo and Sam were good--the kind of tension they presented is just right, so I didn't have trouble with the added fight in Osgiliath. And I'm so glad they did not play up the addition of Frodo wanting to save Gollum so he knows he can be saved, as Lij indicated in interviews, so that it overshadowed Frodo's sense of pity for Gollum. But they really seemed to cut back from the touching between Frodo and Sam, and only really started picking up the affection between them in their last (still untouchy) scene--there should have been more earlier. But I'm so glad they included stewed rabbits and their discussion of stories--those were wonderful scenes that do make up for the earlier lack. I'm not going to be disappointed about the lack of the scene with Frodo's head in Sam's lap because they really stopped right at that point. However, if it's not in the last movie I will feel gipped, I tell ya.
The oliphaunts were really visually spectacular--I wish they had provided a little of the dialogue that shows the hobbits' horror of how the men kill each other--that would have made it more than a visually cool scene as it should be. Visually, I also loved the flaming eye on top of Barad-dur, and yay for more scenes in Rivendell, which I can never see too much of. Helms Deep was visually stunning, but I still wanted less of it--or it needed to focus more on the character's reactions than it did for me to get into it. Ian was great, of course, but he didn't get to do very much.
I thought some of the editing cuts between scenes, along with the soundtrack were a bit abruptly done. But I will have to see how I feel about that on a second viewing. I also need to see a better print. Even some of the still camera shots were fuzzier than they should have been. The Uptown Theater has a wonderful gigantic screen, but FOTR wasn't as sharp there as in some other theaters I saw it in, so I don't know if it's their projectors or the luck of the print they get.
So, I will definitely go see TTT again sometime soon, though I'm sure no where near the amount of times I went to see FOTR. I am, however, very much looking forward to the extended cut of TTT to see what got left out.
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