[thechat] LoTR questions

[Quackamoe]

Hm. I spend a weekend away from the computer repairing
cars and suffering from allergies and what happens? A
thread about LotR and lotsa religion talk. Oh, and
war.

--- Madhu Menon <webguru at vsnl.net> wrote:
> It's getting too stuffy on thechat, 

Amen!

>so I am going to introduce a surefire tension
diffuser. :)
> 
Thanks. Danke. Grazi. Spacibo. Domo arigato. 

> So LoTR: The Two Towers finally rolled into town on
> Friday (4 bloody months late) 

I'm speechless.

> and I went to see it yesterday. Now, I have
> the book, but I haven't 
> read it yet because the size of it intimidates me.
> 
Well, do like I do; just read it one page at a time.

> So here are some questions I have after 179 minutes
> of viewing:
> 
> 1) Am I the only one who finds Gollum as irritating
> as Jar Jar Binks? 

Burn the heretic!!

>I 
> know he's important to the plot and all that, but
> that hissing really got 
> to me after a while. It also looked like the CGI
> dudes intentionally gave 
> him every expression they could think of just to
> say, "Look what I can do with SFX. Ain't it cool?"
> 
I don't think think so; Gollum is so incredibly
central 
to the plot of LotR. His emotions and motivations 
were brought to life in amazing fashion. IOW, there is
a lot of depth written into Gollum's character in the
book and I think the WETA wizards did a great job of
bringing that depth to the screen. 

> 2) How did Gandalf come back from the dead? I turned
> to the chapter in the 
> book that talks about it, and it only says something
> about his work not being complete.

As has been said, Gandalf wasn't just a regular Joe
who
could do magic tricks. He's a Maiar, which means he's
an immortal. Not like elves are immortal, as a Maiar
he came into existence at pretty much the same time as
the world. He and Saruman were of the same origin as
Sauron, and look how hard it's been to actually kill 
him. It only recently occurred to me that this lends a
considerable amount of credence to Saruman's plan to
partner up with and/or ultimately dethrone Sauron.
> 
> 3) Is Gandalf the White more powerful than Gandalf
> the Grey?
> 
Nothing to add to what's already been said.

> 4) How did Theoden's nephew get so many troops at
> the end? When we saw him 
> earlier, he only had some 40-50 men riding with him.
> 
Yeah, well, in the book it's Erkenbrand who shows up
with a bunch of fresh troops, not Eomer. But there's
mention of Eomer having 2000 horse with him. I think
this is in Gandalf's heated discussion with Theoden
before the latter decides to head for Helm's Deep.

> 5) Ain't Legolas cool? For some reason, I really dig
> him.

He does well for someone who's over 3000 years old.
The girls who swoon for Legolas have been dubbed 
"Nazgirls." I'm proud of my 12yod, she was quite 
impressed with him, but when the Nazgirls squealed
everytime Orlando's name showed up in the credits
she'd give me a look like "What a bunch of idiots!"
BTW, Orlando's most recent outing just opened in 
Australia. He's in "Ned Kelly" with Heath Ledger. And
currently he's working on "Pirates of the Caribbean"
and will play Paris in "Troy." BTW, after TTT my 12yod
transferred her crush to Pippin. (Who is currently
filmiing "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe.)
> 
> 6) How are new Uruk Hai created? What's that
> sac-like thing they come out from?
> 
Yah, that's one of the movie things that bugs me.
You get the impression in FotR that Saruman invented
Uruk-hai right then and there. Actually, Sauron first
bred the Uruk-hai about 500 years earlier, and there's
no hint of a sac-mud birth thing.

> 7) Treebeard is supposed to be only about 14 ft.
> tall. Them trees all 
> looked a lot taller, relatively speaking.
> 
Much taller than I've always pictured him, but dang,
I really approve what they came up with. Oh, and the
LotR name I wanted is Quickbeam, a "young" Ent omitted
from the movie. 

> 8) Liv Tyler v/s Miranda Otto? No contest.
> 
Mmmm, Miranda. Eowyn has always been one of my 
favorite characters and Miranda has done a great
job of bringing her to life. The subtle play of 
powerful emotions on her face when Aragorn returns
from his over-the-cliff-float-in-the-river-get-rescued
-by-a-horse-sequence-that-was-a-total-PJ-fabrication 
was amazing. 

Terry


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