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I remember when Fellowship of the Ring (the movie, not the book) came out and my daughter was around 8. She had some minimal experience with D&D and loved to roll dice, loved the concept of elves, and so on. But I was nervous about the orcs in the movie scaring her too much. I ended up doing a web search for some pics from the movie, printed them out, and showed them to her before the movie. I also explained that the orcs would probably jump out and startle her, but that they were just actors wearing makeup and I wanted to be sure she wouldn't be scared in the dark of the theater. She loved the movie and ended up going as Arwen for the next Halloween.

I think it's good to expose kids to fantasy early. :smile:

Sadly, it was a few years until they were willing to sit and listen to me read the Hobbit to them.
Thanks for sharing a cool and heartwarming story. :thumbsup:
 
I remember when Fellowship of the Ring (the movie, not the book) came out and my daughter was around 8. She had some minimal experience with D&D and loved to roll dice, loved the concept of elves, and so on. But I was nervous about the orcs in the movie scaring her too much. I ended up doing a web search for some pics from the movie, printed them out, and showed them to her before the movie. I also explained that the orcs would probably jump out and startle her, but that they were just actors wearing makeup and I wanted to be sure she wouldn't be scared in the dark of the theater. She loved the movie and ended up going as Arwen for the next Halloween.

I think it's good to expose kids to fantasy early. :smile:

This brings back memories of when we went to see it opening night. We were about 6 rows back, great view - right in the dead centre. When we got to the iconic moment of Gandalf facing the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad‐dûm, we heard a scream from the front row and a little kid bolted right out of the cinema, quickly followed by his dad. Must have scared him shitless, poor hobbit!
 
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First time I saw Fellowship in the theater (first of nine times, natch), I couldn't hear what anyone else was doing because I basically wept for the running time of the movie. Pretty much from the moment that Gandalf rides over the crest into Hobbiton to the final shot.

What struck me on the subsequent eight screenings was the silence in which the audiences watched Boromir's final battle and death scene. Sean Bean crushed that role so hard.
 
I basically wept for the running time of the movie...

The bit that got me out of the trilogy was when Gandalf and Eomer and the riders charge down that ridiculously impossibly steep slope to save Theoden at Helm's Deep... It's the imagery and the music. Does me every time. Even thinking about it now, as I type, I'm getting emotional.

Farewell to Lorien in the FotR gets me too, especially in the extended version where Galadriel tells Aragorn that they will not meet again. In the Return of the King it's Aragorn singing. Just love that bit.

EDIT: Here it is...

 
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The bit that got me out of the trilogy was when Eomer and the riders charge down that ridiculously impossibly steep slope to save Theoden at Helm's Deep. It's the imagery and the music. Does me every time. Even thinking about it now, as I type, I'm getting emotional.
Yes, all the nerds who go into a tactical rage over the stupidity of that move completely miss the point of the sequence. (There are lots of other problems with Two Towers, but that is not one.) It's an Alan Lee painting that moves.
 
Yes, all the nerds who go into a tactical rage over the stupidity of that move completely miss the point of the sequence. (There are lots of other problems with Two Towers, but that is not one.) It's an Alan Lee painting that moves.

Yeah, I agree. The films had some real faults for me, I actually don't own them, but they did carry a lot of emotion and were generally great pieces of entertainment and, in many places, art. I just can't abide the key changes they made; fundamental ones to various characters and key scenes, I'm afraid. I'm really happy they bring so much joy to people though - even now, years after. It was incredible that they got made.
 
The bit that got me out of the trilogy was when Gandalf and Eomer and the riders charge down that ridiculously impossibly steep slope to save Theoden at Helm's Deep... It's the imagery and the music. Does me every time. Even thinking about it now, as I type, I'm getting emotional.

Farewell to Lorien in the FotR gets me too, especially in the extended version where Galadriel tells Aragorn that they will not meet again. In the Return of the King it's Aragorn singing. Just love that bit.

EDIT: Here it is...



Oh, that entire bit from "What can men do against such hate?" to "The king stands alone ... Not alone" is amazeballs. (Aside from the flub where they replaced Arwen with a second Legolas and have never bothered to clean it up years later.)
 
I remember when Fellowship of the Ring (the movie, not the book) came out and my daughter was around 8. She had some minimal experience with D&D and loved to roll dice, loved the concept of elves, and so on. But I was nervous about the orcs in the movie scaring her too much. I ended up doing a web search for some pics from the movie, printed them out, and showed them to her before the movie. I also explained that the orcs would probably jump out and startle her, but that they were just actors wearing makeup and I wanted to be sure she wouldn't be scared in the dark of the theater. She loved the movie and ended up going as Arwen for the next Halloween.

I think it's good to expose kids to fantasy early. :smile:

Sadly, it was a few years until they were willing to sit and listen to me read the Hobbit to them.

I agree. I exposed my kid to horror movies since a toddler through MST3K cheese, and I got a wildly different result!
 
The scene that gets to me is when Frodo and Gandalf leave the Havens and Frodo turns and smiles to his brothers. It’s such a delightful expression for a person who had been through hell and back. Bonds are stronger than anything, even separated by time and distance.
 
Just rewatched the movie trilogy with the family (the kids are old enough to actually follow the story… well mostly).

I still cringe at some scenes but others give me such chills and tears. This scene in particular (the music… holy shit I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it):

 
Just rewatched the movie trilogy with the family (the kids are old enough to actually follow the story… well mostly).

I still cringe at some scenes but others give me such chills and tears. This scene in particular (the music… holy shit I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it):


One of the best scenes in any movie ever.
 
The simple fact that no one appears to remember to grab their shield before the charge bugs the shit out of me every time I see it. Ah well, movies.
 
I checked out of Jackson's LotR during the cringey Legolas surfing scene and only dimly remember the rest of the film. I didn't see the rest of the trilogy. A friend took me to see The Hobbit and that was even worse! It was like a fan fiction treatment of the book.

giphy.gif
 
The thing about the Hobbit movies is that the making-of documentaries are so amazing as a record of how all the most talented people with the best of intentions can still unite to produce a train wreck.
Alien Resurrection was a similar oddity.
 
For the record I hated the Hobbit movies (but loved all the concept art books for them).
 
For the record I hated the Hobbit movies (but loved all the concept art books for them).

I think they would be just fine as standalone fantasy films, and there are sequences that do improve on the original: for example, Thorin coming to trust Bilbo at the end of movie #1 (far, far too early with respect to the book) pays off in spades in movie #3 as Thorin's paranoia over the Arkenstone reaches its extreme. The dramatic irony in those scenes where Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage just get to act with one another is so delicious, and it means that the revelation of Bilbo's "betrayal" at the Gates of Erebor hurts (whereas, in the book, it's just more of Thorin being a dick to Bilbo). But as overall adaptions of the novel, they're failures, yes.
 
I agree. I exposed my kid to horror movies since a toddler through MST3K cheese, and I got a wildly different result!
Alas, I'm afraid I'm following in your footsteps. My kids have learned how to use YouTube and seem to have a liking for Squid Games and Carnage-themed clips...:shade:
 
I actually enjoyed the whole Barrels Out of Bond fight in The Hobbit. It's very Pirates of the Carribean in its invention and cleverness. Where the movies really die for me is their obvious attempt to make all the zones look like World of Warcraft zones. I know, spider forests and dwarf mountains are pretty generic in fantasy these days but Mirk Wood was clearly Dusk Wood and the lonely mountain was clearly Karak Azgal.

Were I given the job of interpreting the books I'd take a pretty gritty and realistic approach. It would look like the dark ages not some videogame franchise.
 
The Hobbit trilogy was a terrible set of movies, mostly from being bloated out from being what was naturally a single story able to be told in a single movie to a trilogy of movie with 2 new interim climatic beats and a bunch of padding.

Though still not perfect, this fan made edit of the Hobbit into a single 4 hour movie does much to improve the experience. It also includes a number of re-edits that bring the movie closer to the source material, such as re-editing the finding of the secret door and Beorn's introduction.

http://www.maple-films.com/jrr-tolkiens-the-hobbit
 
If Kate Winslet would have been in them, it would have made them classics.

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The Hobbit films are Peak Garbage. That it was made by the same director who made the excellent Heavenly Creatures and the gore comedy classic Dead Alive is hard to parse.
Movies made by studios these days aren't made by directors, they are made by multi-national conglomerates who need to market these films to a worldwide (Chinese in particular) audience. The fact that Jackson lost the plot doesn't tell me that he suddenly became a hack, it tells me that suits had a very different mandate about what the film(s) had to be.
 
Movies made by studios these days aren't made by directors, they are made by multi-national conglomerates who need to market these films to a worldwide (Chinese in particular) audience. The fact that Jackson lost the plot doesn't tell me that he suddenly became a hack, it tells me that suits had a very different mandate about what the film(s) had to be.

Even the most successful director of the current blockbuster model, Nolan, has said that once a film costs as much as these films cost they can't be personal the way his earlier films were. Raimi pretty much said the same thing about his Doctor Strange film.
 
Yeah, the best we can hope for is little flashes of creativity or artistry, when a really well-established director is able to exert a tiny bit of push-back. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I see these quarter-billion dollar movies helmed with some no-name director; that's by design.
 

giphy.gif
 
I checked out of Jackson's LotR during the cringey Legolas surfing scene and only dimly remember the rest of the film. I didn't see the rest of the trilogy. A friend took me to see The Hobbit and that was even worse! It was like a fan fiction treatment of the book.

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The thing I don't get is this: isn't the Legolas surfing scene in Return of the King? So how could one then not see "the rest of the trilogy", being as you were already at the third movie in a trilogy? :hmmm:
 
The thing I don't get is this: isn't the Legolas surfing scene in Return of the King? So how could one then not see "the rest of the trilogy", being as you were already at the third movie in a trilogy? :hmmm:
Mandela effect in full swing. I have only seen Fellowship of the Ring and dimly recall Legolas in a fighting scene that made me tune out. Maybe he was scoring headshots like Hatori Hanzo with an aimbot. More likely a friend showed me the surfing clip so I could scoff and I conflated it with Fellowship. /shrug
 
The thing I don't get is this: isn't the Legolas surfing scene in Return of the King? So how could one then not see "the rest of the trilogy", being as you were already at the third movie in a trilogy? :hmmm:
Legolas surfs on a shield at Helms Deep.
 
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