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Jan. 19th, 2003 09:13 pmAs you may know from reading Angua's livejournal we had a mini-summit yesterday. It was just the two of us from the Quill... the other three people that attended being her son, her son's friend, and my husband (all three of which were very well behaved). We met at a wonderful theater downtown, near where she lives this time (it was near me for the CoS mini-summit), and oddly, as I discovered this morning, less than a block away from where my father works. Heh. :)
Anyway, I liked the movie better this time. Since I knew what to expect, I could get over my anger at the changed and not-so-good bits so I could enjoy the well done bits.
-Nobody laughed at poor Smeagol/Gollum. This helped to restore a little of my faith in the human race.
-Evil!Big-Schnoz!Faramir is still rage inducing. I always liked Faramir. A lot. He's great. And they changed him. A lot. I smite you, Peter Jackson... a plague, a plague upon you and your house, a plague.
-Gimli goodness. Circe, upon further viewing, you might discover this little tidbit of information for yourself and rejoice. In the many many brief running scenes, there is one where Gimli is in FRONT. That's right, I found one very quick shot of Gimli running ahead of Legolas and Aragorn. :) Go Gimli!
-Did anybody else get a weird feeling when the Uruk-Hai warrior was running toward the gunpowder balls placed in the drain? A swell of pride that has been conditioned into my body rose unbidden when he ran with that fire in his hand. A swell of pride that happens only once every few years... when the Olympic torchbearer runs into the stadium. I've been told I should feel pride at that, so my body adjusted itself accordingly when I was a child, and now it's second nature. Yeah. Eerie vibes of the Uruk-Hai torch bearer being the Olympic torch-bearer. Stupid conditioning making me feel pride every time I see a torch bearer. Am I the only one who noticed how similar the Uruk-Hai run is to the ending of the Olympic torch bearer's run?
-Still could NOT stand the scene with Aragorn being pulled over the cliff and showing up late. Yeah. Didn't like it. Am not ever going to like it. Will probably skip to the next scene without even watching that one when I buy the extended edition DVD next November.
-Still wondering how 300 men and boys inside Helm's Deep could manage to kill some 9,000 orcs and Uruk-Hai. Because it's stated that there are 10,000 of Sarumon's minions heading to them. 10,000 attack Helm's Deep. There are 300 men and boys guarding the gates, plus the 100 or so elves that come along (not in the book, nice touch, still don't like Haldir dying... he's supposed to go to the Undying Lands, but cannot find said reference in the book yet... will find it eventually). At the end, when Eomer and his men, some 1,000 strong, come and attack the rest of the Uruk-Hai and Orcs, there are only 1,000 or so of them left. So what happened to the other 9,000? They could not ALL have been killed by the 300 someodd men and boys, plus 100 someodd elves. I just don't buy it. Shoddy of you, Peter, to miss such a glaring detail.
-The ONLY good thing about the Osgiliath scene is Sam running after Frodo and literally pulling him down the stairs. The speech that comes after it is wonderful. The tears Sean Astin sheds over his Frodo holding Sting to his throat... it's just gut-wrenching. It's literally the only good thing about going to Osgiliath, and I would gladly give it up if it meant Peter would stick to book!Faramir.
That's about it. All my observations so far.
Had a lovely time last night, despite scary blowing of tire in the middle of 59. Nobody injured, will be spending a few hundred to get a new tire and new rim. Yeah. Great. At least we're okay and didn't do any other damage to the car. And we weren't in the middle of downtown yet, so that helped.
Yesterday's drive made me wonder. See, I don't often drive into downtown Houston. I don't like it much. It's too fast and too crowded for my tastes. But as I sat there and watched Jeff drive us downtown, I had to marvel at the highway system. Just how high are they going to build before they get too high? We, like most large cities, have multi-level highways. There are some sections where our highways are four or five levels high. One being just below ground level, one at ground level, one above, and one above that. Those levels are overcrowded and congested as it is. So before long they'll add another level. And when that is overcrowded and congested they'll build another level. Just how high IS too high? I don't particularly want to be driving on the top level and look over into the windows of an airplane as the passengers look out at me. If I can see into an airplane and make out facial features... well, that's too high for me. Perhaps that's just me. :)
Anyway, I liked the movie better this time. Since I knew what to expect, I could get over my anger at the changed and not-so-good bits so I could enjoy the well done bits.
-Nobody laughed at poor Smeagol/Gollum. This helped to restore a little of my faith in the human race.
-Evil!Big-Schnoz!Faramir is still rage inducing. I always liked Faramir. A lot. He's great. And they changed him. A lot. I smite you, Peter Jackson... a plague, a plague upon you and your house, a plague.
-Gimli goodness. Circe, upon further viewing, you might discover this little tidbit of information for yourself and rejoice. In the many many brief running scenes, there is one where Gimli is in FRONT. That's right, I found one very quick shot of Gimli running ahead of Legolas and Aragorn. :) Go Gimli!
-Did anybody else get a weird feeling when the Uruk-Hai warrior was running toward the gunpowder balls placed in the drain? A swell of pride that has been conditioned into my body rose unbidden when he ran with that fire in his hand. A swell of pride that happens only once every few years... when the Olympic torchbearer runs into the stadium. I've been told I should feel pride at that, so my body adjusted itself accordingly when I was a child, and now it's second nature. Yeah. Eerie vibes of the Uruk-Hai torch bearer being the Olympic torch-bearer. Stupid conditioning making me feel pride every time I see a torch bearer. Am I the only one who noticed how similar the Uruk-Hai run is to the ending of the Olympic torch bearer's run?
-Still could NOT stand the scene with Aragorn being pulled over the cliff and showing up late. Yeah. Didn't like it. Am not ever going to like it. Will probably skip to the next scene without even watching that one when I buy the extended edition DVD next November.
-Still wondering how 300 men and boys inside Helm's Deep could manage to kill some 9,000 orcs and Uruk-Hai. Because it's stated that there are 10,000 of Sarumon's minions heading to them. 10,000 attack Helm's Deep. There are 300 men and boys guarding the gates, plus the 100 or so elves that come along (not in the book, nice touch, still don't like Haldir dying... he's supposed to go to the Undying Lands, but cannot find said reference in the book yet... will find it eventually). At the end, when Eomer and his men, some 1,000 strong, come and attack the rest of the Uruk-Hai and Orcs, there are only 1,000 or so of them left. So what happened to the other 9,000? They could not ALL have been killed by the 300 someodd men and boys, plus 100 someodd elves. I just don't buy it. Shoddy of you, Peter, to miss such a glaring detail.
-The ONLY good thing about the Osgiliath scene is Sam running after Frodo and literally pulling him down the stairs. The speech that comes after it is wonderful. The tears Sean Astin sheds over his Frodo holding Sting to his throat... it's just gut-wrenching. It's literally the only good thing about going to Osgiliath, and I would gladly give it up if it meant Peter would stick to book!Faramir.
That's about it. All my observations so far.
Had a lovely time last night, despite scary blowing of tire in the middle of 59. Nobody injured, will be spending a few hundred to get a new tire and new rim. Yeah. Great. At least we're okay and didn't do any other damage to the car. And we weren't in the middle of downtown yet, so that helped.
Yesterday's drive made me wonder. See, I don't often drive into downtown Houston. I don't like it much. It's too fast and too crowded for my tastes. But as I sat there and watched Jeff drive us downtown, I had to marvel at the highway system. Just how high are they going to build before they get too high? We, like most large cities, have multi-level highways. There are some sections where our highways are four or five levels high. One being just below ground level, one at ground level, one above, and one above that. Those levels are overcrowded and congested as it is. So before long they'll add another level. And when that is overcrowded and congested they'll build another level. Just how high IS too high? I don't particularly want to be driving on the top level and look over into the windows of an airplane as the passengers look out at me. If I can see into an airplane and make out facial features... well, that's too high for me. Perhaps that's just me. :)
