LOTR trilogy is terribly overrated

[gravenewworld]

Roommate made me watch all 3 this past weekend. :zzz: :zzz: :zzz:


The first movie was extremely boring. The next two were just awful as well. I wanted to throw the remote at the TV after the 103948302948023984234 overhead flying shot.

LOTR trilogy has got to be some of the most overrated set of films ever. CGI sucks.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Oh, geez. You're not already into LOTR and someone made you watch all three of them in one weekend? I'm a fan, actually, but I feel for you.

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[Moridin]

I, Elf Lord Moridin, banish you to the deep dungeons of to-tried-to-make-up-a-name.

 

[turbo]

You've gone through this in the wrong sequence. First you READ the Hobbit, then you READ the Trilogy. Last you watch the movies and wonder how the writers, cinematographers, special-effects crews, set designers, etc managed to capture at least a portion of Tolkien's work.

 

[Evo]

Hey, my dear friend made those movies and he visits here.

A pox upon you!

 

[Moonbear]

I second CQ's comment. I enjoyed the films, but can't imagine being forced to sit and watch the entire trilogy in a weekend!

 

[Hurkyl]

You've gone through this in the wrong sequence. First you READ the Hobbit, then you READ the Trilogy. Last you watch the movies and wonder how the writers, cinematographers, special-effects crews, set designers, etc managed to capture at least a portion of Tolkien's work.

The books had a better story. But they weren't as fun to read as the movies were to watch.

 

[gravenewworld]

50% of the movies could have been edited out from all of the running through fields in the hobbits' home to all of the useless overhead flying shots. Half the time there was simply a homosexual overtone running rampant (not saying it is bad).

 

[turbo]

I second CQ's comment. I enjoyed the films, but can't imagine being forced to sit and watch the entire trilogy in a weekend!

Unless I have accumulated a massive personal debt with a person, I cannot imagine submitting to many hours of movie-watching to placate them. Methinks GNW dost protest too much.

 

[gravenewworld]

Unless I have accumulated a massive personal debt with a person, I cannot imagine submitting to many hours of movie-watching to placate them. Methinks GNW dost protest too much.

I watched all the Star Wars from 1-6 back to back straight. I kind of am a movie buff.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

For a double whammy of geekiness… has anyone read http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612"? I found it pithy and droll.

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[turbo]

The books had a better story. But they weren't as fun to read as the movies were to watch.

Hey, Hurk. In college, I borrowed the Hobbit from a dorm-mate. I read it in a day and immediately went out and bought a boxed set of the paperback version of the trilogy and burned the whole next weekend reading that. I've always regarded reading as a collaboration between the author and the reader, and have found it tremendously enjoyable. From age 10, when my parents bought a house with a large library of really cheaply-produced "classic" books, I started reading Verne, Dickens, Twain, Hawthorn, etc, etc.

For a parallel, read Dune, then watch the movie. Read the Exorcist, then watch the movie. the books were by far superior.

 

[Kurdt]

Argh someone watched Star Wars 1-3.

 

[gravenewworld]

Argh someone watched Star Wars 1-3.

Yah. 1&2 were atrocious. 3 was OK. Then you have 4-6.

 

[Evo]

I have to admit the Elven songs and poetry in the books were too painful for me to read (bored my socks off) and I had to skip over them.

 

[Hurkyl]

For a double whammy of geekiness… has anyone read http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612"? I found it pithy and droll.

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It's good. Now, there is also http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/darthsanddroids/, for those interested.

 

[Poop-Loops]

For a parallel, read Dune,

Ugh, no, don't. Dune was SO BORING I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

The end had the battle scene, but I was SO disappointed when it was over in like a page and a half.

 

[gravenewworld]

I heard that the exorcist book is too scary to read.

 

[turbo]

I heard that the exorcist book is too scary to read.

If you're alone in an unfamiliar house (I was) and try to read it overnight, you might not get much sleep. That is a really horrifying novel.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I heard that the exorcist book is too scary to read.

I saw The Exorcist for the first time just after I'd seen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repossessed" with Leslie Nielsen, a parody of it, so I couldn't stop laughing.

I thought http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/" was great and super-creepy, though.

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[binzing]

Yes, read the books. But I can summarize much of them into this: ride for many days, eat mutton, ride for many more days, get attacked, lick your wounds, eat mutton, ride for many days. I swear to god that all they eat is mutton in those books! I tried reading the Silmarilllion when I was about a 5th grader...Jesus I made it about an 1/8th in and gave up. Still haven't gone back and finished it. Tolkien was a great author, and really made this a real world. Thats basically what the Silmarillion is, the bible of LOTR. Theres actually a lot of other books explaining different time periods and such.

 

[lisab]

Seriously, has anyone here even eaten mutton? OH...MY...DOG...horrible, horrible aftertaste that has lasted 30 YEARS!

...URP...ugh. 'Scuse me.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Seriously, has anyone here even eaten mutton? OH...MY...DOG...horrible, horrible aftertaste that has lasted 30 YEARS!

...URP...ugh. 'Scuse me.

Really? How did you have it, lisab? I usually find that Greek restaurants and Persian restaurants do it up pretty nice.

But maybe you got unlucky and had a black sheep of a chef cooking. (Sorry, that didn't really work. Maybe you just had some baa baaad mutton? I give up.)

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[Jimmy Snyder]

I read "The Hobbit" and found it tolerable, but not more. I abandoned LOTR after about 100 pages into the first volume. My opinion of Tolkien is that he is better at philology than he is at characterization and plot line. My wife loves the movies. They are among the few tapes we own and there was a time when she watched them over and over again. In my opinion the fans of Tolkien should be in up in arms over the lousy acting in that film, especially the roles of Frodo and Sam Gamgee. Anyone who saw the interview of Elija Wood (Frodo) on late night TV (Jay Leno I think it was), the "p*ss and sh*t" episode, will realize that there is something missing in the man.

 

[Chi Meson]

Half the time there was simply a homosexual overtone running rampant (not saying it is bad).

The ratio is much higher in the books. Not that there's anything wrong with it! Actually, it is a particularly unique English male bond-in-wartime theme. That's how it was described to me, anyway.

I enjoyed the movies for the most part. I was nearly screaming at the end of the third film "GET ON THE F****** SHIP!" They scratched the best part of the books (Scouring of the Shire) in favor of the dull denouement of the Grey Havens.

Also the battle scenes were too long, and the physics of the Humans with trebuchets and a height advantage losing agains orcs in a valley with catapults... that just annoyed me.

But hellyeah, watching 9+ hours of a movie in one weekend, that's too much unless you are in a body cast.

 

[qspeechc]

The movies are better than the books imo, as the book has all these extra things- long lineages, longer histories, songs , funny languages etc.

 

[lisab]

Really? How did you have it, lisab? I usually find that Greek restaurants and Persian restaurants do it up pretty nice.

But maybe you got unlucky and had a black sheep of a chef cooking. (Sorry, that didn't really work. Maybe you just had some baa baaad mutton? I give up.)

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CQ, I don't think I've ever had it cooked up right.

My mom would make it into a stew. She was very old-school about nutrition when we were kids; a meal without meat was unthinkable. After my folks divorced we didn't have much money, so she would cook cheap meats -- organ meats, chipped beef from a can, venison, and...mutton. Maybe it was just bad meat...I remember clearly how rancid it tasted.

Shiver!

 

[tribdog]

My grandpa was a sheep herder when he was younger, so had mutton about once a week when I knew him. I don't remember it being anything special, however, I have had some amazing leg of lamb dinners since then.

 

[Moonbear]

CQ, I don't think I've ever had it cooked up right.

My mom would make it into a stew. She was very old-school about nutrition when we were kids; a meal without meat was unthinkable. After my folks divorced we didn't have much money, so she would cook cheap meats -- organ meats, chipped beef from a can, venison, and...mutton. Maybe it was just bad meat...I remember clearly how rancid it tasted.

Shiver!

Was it from an old ewe or an old ram? The rams have a stronger taste (even with lamb, if it's a ewe lamb, it'll be milder and better tasting than if it was a ram lamb...unfortunately, most of what gets sold as lamb here is ram lamb because they keep the ewes as replacement breeders). Even some lamb has a distinctively sour aftertaste that I cannot stand, though have recently had some that doesn't have that taste (then again, when it doesn't have that aftertaste, it has almost no taste at all...might as well use cheap chicken).

Mutton also just means it comes from an adult sheep, so you'd very likely get a different taste/toughness from a young adult than an old one.

Funny, though, I don't remember them eating mutton in the books or movies. I remember lots of Elven bread or something like that.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I really enjoyed the books and the movies. I think the technology at the time of the movies were breakthroughs. Heck I rarely see CGI as good even today.

 

[lisab]

Was it from an old ewe or an old ram? The rams have a stronger taste (even with lamb, if it's a ewe lamb, it'll be milder and better tasting than if it was a ram lamb...unfortunately, most of what gets sold as lamb here is ram lamb because they keep the ewes as replacement breeders). Even some lamb has a distinctively sour aftertaste that I cannot stand, though have recently had some that doesn't have that taste (then again, when it doesn't have that aftertaste, it has almost no taste at all...might as well use cheap chicken).

Mutton also just means it comes from an adult sheep, so you'd very likely get a different taste/toughness from a young adult than an old one.

Funny, though, I don't remember them eating mutton in the books or movies. I remember lots of Elven bread or something like that.

For some reason, when I read the books when I was young I thought that "Elven bread" was chocolate. I don't remember a mutton reference, either...and since I always get a strong "AAAGGHH" reaction when I come across it I think I would have remembered.

You're probably right, it probably was the worst-tasting variety of sheep available - it had to be. Eating it made me regret that I was born with a mouth.

 

[lisab]

I couldn't watch all of the LOTR at one sitting, but I loved the movies. And I loved the books, too.

But when I read the books and "saw" the story in my head, there was a lot less focus on their furry little feet.

 

[Moonbear]

But when I read the books and "saw" the story in my head, there was a lot less focus on their furry little feet.

The biggest problem I had reading the books was that the names all sounded so similar to me, I kept confusing who was who and lost track of the story. At least in a movie, I can see who is who without worrying what their names are.

 

[arildno]

Roommate made me watch all 3 this past weekend. :zzz: :zzz: :zzz:

He made a mistake. You should have seen the Extended Editions instead, with 2 hours more material.

 

[Kurdt]

I'm not a big fan of reading fiction. I prefer my textbooks. I did try The Hobbit and got to chapter 2 then gave up as it bored me. I don't know what it is but I've never been a fan of story books. I must have no imagination.