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Lord of the Trailers 179

Posted by michael from the hype-machine-in-overdrive dept.
Kurobara writes: "just thought everyone would like to know that the NEW LOTR trailer is avabile online (stream only for now). I'd give a description but I'll let the trailer speek for itself, suffice to say it rocks ^_^ (spotted on theonering.net)" It's not at all easy to find the new trailer - if you see the flame and ring, you're looking at the old one. First words of the new one are "Legend tells of a ring...". Ah, here we go: Old Wolf writes: "The latest trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring can be streamed here, or downloaded in full. Only Real format at this stage unfortunately. A collection of .jpg stills and commentary can be found here at TORN."
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Lord of the Trailers More

Lord of the Trailers

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  • Re:LOTR will make 2001 a great year! (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:03AM (#198511)
    The sad thing is, you are 34 years old, aren't you?

  • Spoiler... (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25, 2001 @06:51AM (#198512)
    Geesh, I could have lived without knowing that Paul Rubens was playing gollum. That's gonna ruin it for me.

  • Canadian Mirror (Score:3)

    by Alan ( 347 ) <arcterex@@@ufies...org> on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:04AM (#198513) Homepage
    Get your good good LOTR-lovin' at http://ufies.org/files/lotr_trailer3.rm [ufies.org]

    HTH, HAND
  • The Silmarillion represents the real life's work of Tolkien. He started his writings in 1916 (during WW1, while in the trenches), where he wrote the stories of Fall of Gondolin and Turin Turambar. I'm a bit rusty on the sequence of his life, but after the war he was a professor of Old English at the University of Leeds and also served on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. Through the 1920s he continued to develop several mythical languages (based upon Welsh and Finnish) that provided the basis for the cultures of his mythologies. During this time he was appointed to a professorship at Oxford.

    When JRRT wrote The Hobbit (published in 1937) he initially did not place it in Middle Earth. Actually the original story was quite different in one crucial respect - Gollum shows Bilbo out after he lost the Riddles game and they part on friendly terms. If you ever find a first edition of The Hobbit you can read the original version of the story - (good luck! B&N had a copy for sale for $12,500!). The Hobbit was so successful that the publishers immediately demanded a sequel. It was at this point that he rewrote chapter 5 (Riddles in the Dark) to set up the story that became The Lord of the Rings.

    The LOTR started in much the same style as The Hobbit, and he struggled for many years with it. He really wanted to publish his epic mythologies, and not to work on a sequel. Towards the later part of the 1940's he got into the swing of it and cranked out LOTR, published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955 (it is NOT a trilogy - it's three volumes of the same tale). It was during the composition of the LOTR that he tied The Hobbit to the mythologies. It also provided a framework for the eventuality of his epic works, later laid down in The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is actually several books in one:

    • Ainulindalë, the tale of the Music of the Ainur and the creation of Arda (Earth).
    • Valaquenta, the tale of the Valar, in which the nature of each of the Powers is described.
    • Quenta Silmarillion, the longest tale, which gives an account of the history of Arda from its beginnings until the end of the First Age.
    • Akallabêth, the tale of the Second Age, which concentrates on the history of Númenor until its Downfall, and
    • Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, which spans the late Second Age and the Third, telling of the forging of the Rings of Power and their history up to the War of the Ring.

    Tolkien died before he felt thatThe Silmarillion was completed. His son, Christopher, took it upon himself to select from his father's writings all of the material that would constitute a complete story and published it posthumously to his father.

    Reading The Silmarillion for the first time is a fairly brutal endeavor. It's so packed full of information that it took me several readings to really start to grok it. Karen Wynn Fonstat's Atlas of Middle Earth is essential, as is J.E.A. Tyler's reference (the name escapes me, but the second editions includes The Silmarillion content).

    Unfinished Tales contains more detailed information from the stories in The Silmarillion, but they were never deemed to be complete enough to be included in The Silmarillion. Christopher Tolkien's 12 volume series The History of Middle Earth breaks down all of JRRT's writings into chronological order and discusses in great detail the evolution of the stories (well worth the read if you like scholarly studies of fascinating characters).

    Also read The Letters of JRR Tolkien and his biography, both by Humphrey Carpenter, if you want real insight into Tolkien's life and beliefs. He was a truly remarkable man.

    ---

  • Bobafet vs. the Balrog

    I'd have gone with the Rankor for this analogy. I've always pictured the Balrog as something similar.

  • Hey, don't knock Brain Dead (or Bad Taste - I haven't seen Meet the Feebles). Those were absolutely excellent. Even more so considering that they were done in spare time (four years for Bad Taste???) with a small group of friends and home-made props.

  • Re:Why should I go watch this? (Score:3)

    by Malc ( 1751 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:47AM (#198517)
    Personally, I'm glad that REAL is in existence. Without them, there surely would be even more Windows Media Player only downloads, and perhaps more of that annoying QuickTime bollocks. At least Real has ports of their player to platforms like Linux.
  • I'm guessing that they only consider it a spoiler for those who haven't read the trilogy.
  • Hey, I applaud them for using real format. Sure it's crappy quality, but it least I can watch it under linux. And as much as I disapprove of real, the rvplayer for linux is actually really damn nice. And it's painless install for debian, apt-get install realplayer, it then holds your hand the rest of the way.

    Sorenson codec encoded .mov's are worthless to me. Although it is a really nice high quality codec with great compression, it's just not available for linux. Well I can listen to the audio on Sorenson codec mov's I spose. :)

    Why don't these companies use DiVX ;-)? There's at least nice divx players for linux. The one I use is available here: http://divx.euro.ru/ [divx.euro.ru] just fyi. What's the deal with divx anyway? Was it stolen from microsoft like people claim or what? And if not, then why aren't big companies supporting it? Because apple and real pays them too much to use their format? :)

    ---

  • ..All the while, Tolkien heatedly denied any allegory in LOTR. In fact, he claimed that he thought allegory in storytelling was perfectly awful.

    The king of allegory, C.S. Lewis, was a friend of Tolkien. Lewis has said that while at Cambrige he was told to "beware of Papists [Lewis was a Protestant] and philologists. Tolkien was both."

    The stories were born out of bedtime tales he told his children and his philological interest in inventing a language (Elvish). Pretty cool.
    "Beware by whom you are called sane."

  • A little odd that you should say this, since the actor doing the voice over in this new trailer is Sir Ian McKellan, who is most definitely English. Funny, that.

    Wombat.
  • I hear you :) If it sucks we can meet up and go on a rampage....I refuse to D/L REAL crap to my machine so I will just wait for the MOVIE.
  • And Braindead. Don't forget Braindead :)
  • It's called Heavenly Creatures were I live
  • Agreed, too. Jackson's perfect. The main reason I think so is Heavenly Creatures: He hs used a lot of special effect in it, but never in a way that makes them stand out in the "look what we can do" hollywood way. Instead, they were perfectly blended into the "real" scenes, giving them a special kind of magic. Also, on the LotR official movie page they have Jackson answering a lot of fan's questions which seem to have come from various Tolkien fan sites. The answers are in Real video format. He obviously has put a lot of thinking into the translation of the book to movie format, and not only that, he has come to goog conclusions, too.
  • *ponders* I seem to recall Saruman's disembodied spirit looking to the West, perhaps in a vain hope of return to Valinor, before being dispersed by a west wind - his hope denied by Manwë for his treachery.

    I think the key differences between LOTR and Star Wars is that LOTR has a third "chapter" that's quite good - whereas Star Wars' third film mostly sucks. That, and the "prequel" to LOTR is marvelous literature in its own right - whereas the Star Wars prequel is pretty crappy so far.

  • Something along the lines of "and Sauron followed Morgoth down the same ruinous path into the Void" might be construed as a banishment - whereas Gandalf says he will become "a shadow of malice in the wilderness".

    The discrepency is probably best explained that Sauron as a sentient entity became no more after the destruction of the One Ring, but the evil "leftovers" of him still haunted some desolate areas of the world after his passing.

    At least, that's how I see it.

  • Even now, "^_^" is being documented as a new Perl operator...
  • Heh, well boss, one out of three isn't too bad...

  • I've been doing an experiment with myself: don't watch any trailers and see if makes the movie better.

    So far, I've seen about 5 movies without seeing any trailers, and the movies are much better! The damn trailers give away too much and by the time I get to the theater, I already know how the movie progresses and ends!

    So anyway, I hope some of you will try this. The movies tend to be much better when you don't see any trailers ahead of time. Cheers!
  • I liked the prequel operas by Wagner,
    especially the third when the nine fat
    ladies (Valkeries) come out and sing,
    think stick it to all those nasty Germans
    showing off their shiny swords ...
  • LOTR plans to use several- Gollum, various monsters, and others.
    I am encouraged by the quality of virtual actors
    in Shrek. JarJar in Phantom and the humans in
    Toy Story were disappointing, but my hopes are
    high for LOTR.
  • Is this the same Peter Jackson who brought us Meet the Feebles and Brain Dead? Good God. We're doomed.
  • Seriously, why? It's not like I need convincing to go see the movie... ...And this fucking thing better be of higher quality than TPM.

    Don't see the trailer. Continue to expect LOTR to be roughly on a par with Phantom Menace. Get blown out of your chair in December.

  • Are you kidding? This makes the movie for me. If it sucks, at least we'll be able to entertain ourselves by singing "Tequila" whenever he's in a scene.

    Side note - when "The Matrix" came out, we'd break into a bad southern drawl every time Morpheus [imdb.com] came onscreen. "Y'all can't be told what the Matrix is, Pee Wee! [x-entertainment.com]"

  • Yes, the very same dude that has shown us muppets having sex, a room full of zombies cleared with a lawnmower, and exploding sheep.

    You could conclude that Peter Jackson is a hero of tastelessness, making him inappropriate for LotR. But there's another way of looking at it: he is uncompromising and unbound. Think about it.

    Maybe he's not such a bad choice after all.

    BTW, after all these years, the custard/ear scene in Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead) still makes me gag. What craftsmanship!


    ---
  • DivX ;-) is an illegal hack of one of Microsoft's codecs. I believe that all it does is remove the restrictions on dimention limits and introduces the ability to use MP3 as the audio codec.

    You should be asking: why aren't they using Project Mayo (a/k/a/ DivX part Deux)?

    I dunno. ;-)
    ---
    Computer Science: solving today's problems tomorrow.
  • >> Why do they not use project Mayo?
    >Are you kidding?

    > Maybe cause, um, they don't give a flying crap
    > about the geek/linux community and want to use
    > a commercially acceptable format that people
    > usually have?

    Arugh. Please quote people entirely when you respond...

    I _actually_ said:

    >> You should be asking: why aren't they using
    >> Project Mayo (a/k/a/ DivX part Deux)?
    >>
    >> I dunno. ;-)

    (trying, of course, to keep my tounge firmly in cheek).

    Now.. what were we talking about?


    ---
    Computer Science: solving today's problems tomorrow.
  • > Is anyone else annoyed by the "^_^" emoticon? I mean, it's not even a smiley face

    (!)

    --
  • Not only do I think that the USA should adopt English as it's national language and force its use in all affairs, foreign and domestic, but I think that the rest of the world should give up the silly notion that they're equal to or more powerful than us and just start speaking English as well. Conformity is the secret to world peace. Conformity under American morals and laws, that is.

    -Chris
    ...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
  • Nothing personal, dude, it's part of a massive research project I'm working on involving the Slashdot community. It's amazing the trends you can discover just by posting various things around here.

    -Chris
    ...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...

  • re: submitter comments (Score:4)

    by the_tsi ( 19767 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:33AM (#198542)
    > suffice to say it rocks ^_^

    Is anyone else annoyed by the "^_^" emoticon? I mean, it's not even a smiley face: it looks like someone who's died. The mouth is taut and the eyes are looking upward.

    No one actually turns their head to look at the "classic" smileys, we all recognize them as they are printed. Orienting an emoticon so that it is readable along with the text is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't show the range of emotions previously available.

    For some reason, I find that the people who do the ^_^ face tend to be anime zealots. Is there a story behind this that I missed while watching live action movies?

    -Chris
    ...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
  • I wish I were so lucky as to have already seen the movie like you obviously have... how else would you know that he's "wide-eyed" in "every single scene".

    You are going to hate this movie, b/c you've already decided that you do.
  • Where did you get the information that The Valar banished Sauron to oblivion? All I've ever read points at him being reduced to a malevolent shadow unable to assume form again... a seemingly unfounded feeling of fear and foreboding for those that encounter him, but nothing more.
  • Comic movies aren't all bad.

    Superman was good.
    Batman was decent.

    The Crow stands alone atop the heap, however.

    I can't believe you liked X-Men but not Superman and Batman.

    Kneel before Zod.
  • Yeah, and in 2003, we can watch him fall into the fires of Mount Doom with the Ring and Frodo's finger screaming "I meant to do that!"

  • Frame-by-frame-analysis (Score:3)

    by de la mettrie ( 27199 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:36AM (#198548)
    There is a good frame-by-frame-analysis [geocities.com] of the new trailer at TheOneRing.net.

  • That domain name (Score:5)

    by Sebbo ( 28048 ) <sebbo&sebbo,org> on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:14AM (#198549) Homepage Journal
    Does anyone else keep reading it as "theonionring.net"?

    Mmmm. Onion rings...

    The domain is free, btw, if anyone wants to snap it up and see what WIPO has to say about it.
  • Here's another link [theonering.net] to the trailer analysis.
  • Congratulations. Nice troll.
    --
    Charles E. Hill
  • I've been doing an experiment with myself: don't watch any trailers and see if makes the movie better.

    That just shows a lack of commitment. After all, you still know what the movie's about, right? You've seen ads and such, right? You know the title, right?

    You should avoid all media that discuss movies (including /.). Have a friend blindfold you and drop you off at the theater. Buy a ticket randomly. ("I'll have whatever's in theater #6, please.") Keep the blindfold on until the movie starts -- wouldn't want to see any other trailers, right? =)

    Now that would be cool.

  • Why should I go watch this? (Score:4)

    by revscat ( 35618 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @06:48AM (#198553) Journal
    Seriously, why? It's not like I need convincing to go see the movie. I want to be surpised as much as possible when Xmas 2k1 rolls around and this baby hits the theater. Eru knows I've read The Silmarillion 8 dozen times by now. Commercials & trailers will only spoil the fun for me. My two bits. And this fucking thing better be of higher quality than TPM. Otherwise I'm taking hostages. Grr. - Rev.
  • But did any one else feel that the voice overs for this trailer (and even more so the previous one) simply cry out to be spoken with an English accent?

    The current accent is simply too... flat.

    It needs that feel of a sage found in an ancient library.
  • Jackson's tastelessness has always been exceptionally dark and layered with meaning, and it's always involved a double dose of fantasy as well. This is not like hearing that Allan Smithee of Police Academy 7 is directing LOTR.

    Consider the worst that Hollywood does to films; it infantilizes them and prettifies them. Tack on a happy ending, dumb everything down. Mulan is a great example; in the original Chinese story, she is a fierce and accomplished warrior trying to reconcile conflicting societal obligations to honor her parents and fit traditional roles for women. By the time Disney was done with the story, she was a bumbling idiot whose victories were accidental and mere incidents in the story of her love life.

    Now look again at Jackson's involvement; a director whose films are dark, psychologically complex, and fantastical is the best insurance I could imagine against Hollywood ruining the film. The biggest question mark is the quality of the script.

    Boss of nothin. Big deal.
    Son, go get daddy's hard plastic eyes.

  • They're pure evil. None of that mamby-pamby half-evil/half-poodle shit that Lucas puts out which could easily be thrown 60 yards on a forward pass. Geeze. Think about it. Any evil that can be "saved" after being the leader in the death of billions cannot be that evil in the first place. Sauron on the other hand, we can all be sure has a special place in Hell waiting for him after the One Ring has been destroyed.

  • I know that I had fears about this movie not meeting my standards. The trailer says, "Take a look, we are doing a great job, get in line now."

    I'm salivating. And I'm ready to buy LOTR merchandise.

  • Download mirror (Score:4)

    by ender- ( 42944 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:21AM (#198558) Homepage Journal
    You can download [no stream] from here:

    LOTR Trailer [spack.nu]

    Ender

  • The thing I really like about LOTR is that while the advertising is guaranteed to be overwhelming as the first release aproaches, the plot can't be spoiled since I know it already!

    Where with TPM I was waiting and hoping for a good movie with a good plot, I know there's already a good plot in this as long as they kept half of Tolkein's original works. Even that doesn't guarantee that they suceeded in making a good movie out of it, but at least it's already a step up from TPN.

    Doug
  • ...is here [pawireless.com] for all to enjoy. Enjoy!

  • He's NOT (Score:3)

    by Joe_NoOne ( 48818 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:15AM (#198561) Homepage
    Where'd you get that info - the cast page :

    http://www.theonering.net/movie/cast.html

    has "Andy Serkis" listed as Gollum....
  • OMG, this was moderated down? This needs +5 Funny! Ha ha ha!
  • Amen. Paul got screwed, and I think it's actually pretty brave of him to come back to the screen after this long. He was recently on Conan O'Brian's show, and he was really a riot. To bad his career was ruined for so long.


  • How many downloads of the original LotR trailer from their crappy website were there in the first 24 hours? One point someodd million? I distinctly recall it was well over the number of TPM downloads.

    Yeah, all your fanbase belongs to us. :-)

  • You mean that's NOT what really happens?
  • I agree, we have a fight in our hands. Let's do some scientific analysis and try to figure which one will win.

    > The Jedi are rallying behind the Force, while the Rangers summon the courage of the Numenor.
    Edge: SW.
    Force and Jedi took a blow in the Phantom Menace (Mitocondrias or what?) but at least they didn't get sunk and beaten at every turn.

    > The Skywalker family against the Isildur lineage.
    Edge: even.
    Both families have a lot going for them and we simply do not know enough about them to judge. Curently Skywalker's great strenght is of course Natalie Portman (NAKED AND PETRIFIED! ... sorry, about that, I just had to do it.) but she may
    face stiff (or should that be "stiffing") competition from Liv Tyler.

    > Darth Vader vs. the Nine.
    Edge: LotR
    Vader is cool, and so was Maul and emperor too has things going for him, but the Nazgul are the real thing. They are scary, really scary. They are probably the one really-scary-evil-guys-in-black in popular fantasy that don't suffer inflation during the story. Wizard-king is just as scary bashing down the gates of Minas Tirith as he was chasing hobbits in Shire and Bree.

    > Obewan up against Gandalf the Gray. Dead/Ghost Obewan up against Gandalf the White.
    Edge: even
    Sir Alec should have played Galdalf who is much more complicated character then Obi-Wan. I don't think Ian McKellen can match Sir Alec so Obi-Wan has room for a come-back. This is your chance Evan, use it, um, wisely.

    > Bobafet vs. the Balrog.
    Edge: LotR
    The Balrog kicks Boba's butt even with one hand tied behind his back and blindfolded. You could throw in Rankor too and it wouldn't make a difference.

    > Storm Troopers vs. Orcs.
    Edge: LotR
    The Imperial Elite, gimme a break. Orcs suck as bad but at least they know they do. And there's Uruk-hai to consider.

    Conclusion: it's 3 to 1 for Lord of the Rings with 2 even.
    It looks bad for Star Wars but it's not hopeless. It would be really easy to fumble the Aragon and Arwen romance and even more so with understandable but dangerous story changes. That would make the Skywalker-Isildur match-up a clear victory for SW. That would pretty much leave to whole battle in to the able hands of Evan McGregor as he can be the tie-breaker in the Obi-Wan-Galdalf deadlock.
    So it looks like a close thing with LotR leading at the moment but Star Wars definately able to catch up.

    --Flam, who won't watch the trailers as he is going anyways.
  • You always put words in other people's mouths? Where did I say we should ban it?
  • I don't think he was creating an allegory. He was creating a fantasy world according to his own personal beliefs, and I think that makes perfect sense. So Gandalf was not an allegory for an archangel: he WAS an archangel, because in Tolkien's belief system, all world were created by God and would hold the same hierarchy of beings.

    It's like creating a world with gravity... If it's at the core of your vision of reality, better make it consistent.

  • Re:These movies ought to be banned (Score:4)

    by Enoch Root ( 57473 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:25AM (#198571)
    Actually, there are plenty of very Christian references in LotR. JRRT himself was very Christian. One example that comes to mind is the use of language for magic: every act of magic, whether from Gandalf or the Balrog, comes from the voice, since it was the belief of Tolkien that the Word was the founding principle of Creation. Additionally, Gandalf and the other wizards were more or less gardian angels. All this is detailed in the Silmarillion.
  • And how does Paul Rubens occupy himself while being stuck in that deep dark cave for years on end, mmm?

    Watch movies?

  • It was just a dirty joke, in the same way I joke about my old housemates masturbating habits, with with my Karma Whoring tendancies added.

    I really like Paul Reubens, Pee Wee Herman is one of the most creative Movie/TV characters of all time. The fact that Paul Reubens got caught masturbating in an adult theater makes him more human and approachable. I liked him in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I'm sure he'll make a great Smegal.

    Paul Reubens' is not different then your average pr0n surfing Slashdot reader, nor is he very different from your average pr0n sneaking "Oh, I don't do _that_" man or woman.

    The only think shocking about the Paul Ruebens story is that several policemen wasted their time in tailing and then busting Ruebens when they could be fighting an actual crime, and that Disney canned his ass because the story stained the Disney Corp's imaginary, puritan and regressive view on Sexuality.

  • The trailers of the enemy are gifts! Why don't we use them against him! ...precious... yes.. precious.... they are my birthday presents afterall, precious... aren't they? Thief Baggins! Wants me not to watch the trailers.... thinks it will ruin the surprise precious.... Even though precious has read the books a million times... perhaps precious needs peace of mind... perhaps the danger of blasphemy from these movies is greater than the hope of success, precious...
  • gandalf in describing his battle with the Balrog, "Deep beneath the surface the earth is gnawed by nameless things."
  • And that Frighteners movie was Michael J. Fox which was putrid. Frankly, he is worrisome, but the Director is secondary to the script, and well, as far as the writing goes, we should be covered.
  • I don't know. Pee Wee is sort of how I imagined Gollum.
  • yeah dead alive was sweet. Especially the lawn mower scene. Christofer Lee, who claims to have read LOTR each year since it was written, also felt that Jackson was the best director for the job.
  • The Valar banished Sauron to oblivion (like his mentor Melcor). Saruman's spirit, when his mortal body fell, look briefly to the West, and decided to be no more and faded into oblivion. I couldn't agree more. Star Wars sucks. Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest works in English Literature. Star Wars reads like it was written by a 12 year old. "General Han Solo" I think sums it up. So far on writting, the ball is with LOTR.
  • Yes, the Similarian only briefly mentions that he was reduced to nothing and unable to assume form again. I've always interrpreted this to be inline with what happened to Melcor minus the fanfare. Sauron's banishment isn't really mentioned because he's not as significant as Melcor. However, there is no specific mention of Sauron's fate in the literagy. He probably did like Sarumon and figured why even bother trying to come back.
  • "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" was in the old trailers.
  • Yeah, I don't think its a close call even. LOTR will demolish Star Wars. The only thing Star Wars has in its favor are sweet campy lines. We'll have to wait and see with LOTR in this respect. But it will be tough to outdo, "I find your lack of faith disturbing," "Luke! Luuuke!" and "Jumping into hyperspace aint like dusting crops kid" LOTR is so serious and grim, I doubt it will have anything like this. The camp factor in StarWars is what makes it appealing.

  • Greatest Cinematic Epic (Score:4)

    by selectspec ( 74651 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @09:06AM (#198588)
    I know this is going to get flamed beyond belief, but we all know where this is leading. A war that rivals the Windows vs. Linux fued, dwarves the KDE vs. Gnome rivalry, snuffs out the Emacs vs. Vi debate and makes World War II seem like a petty disagreement:

    The Lord of the Rings vs. Star Wars.

    The battle lines are being drawn, and the forces are mustering. The Jedi are rallying behind the Force, while the Rangers summon the courage of the Numenor. The Skywalker family against the Isildur lineage. Darth Vader vs. the Nine. Obewan up against Gandalf the Gray. Dead/Ghost Obewan up against Gandalf the White. Bobafet vs. the Balrog. Storm Troopers vs. Orcs. I can feel the calm before the storm.

  • http://ex1.callihq.net/lotr2.mov [callihq.net]

    If you have a higher/better resolution version let me know...

    db

  • Do you really want someone older who insists on bringing his own persona and element to the role and over acting it?

    That's not what a more experienced actor would do. Are you saying that's how Ian McKellan is playing Gandalf? Doesn't look like it to me -- the man has incredible range. He's not even recognizable as the same actor from his Richard III a few years ago. Of course, you wouldn't want someone quite that old to play Frodo, just someone experienced enough to be able to play him believably.

    What I want is an actor who understands the part. It's plain that Wood doesn't. Wide-eyed? Sometimes, sure, especially at first. But in every single scene? As is is, "overacting" is just how I'd describe what Wood has done with this part. He looks as if he's done a miserable job. I hope it's just an artifact of how they selected scenes for the trailer.

  • Can't read, can you?

    I said, "I hope it's just an artifact of how they selected scenes for the trailer." And in my earlier post, I said, "Fortunately, he's surrounded by enough truly great talent that he doesn't have to carry the movie." If I don't like the movie -- which is going to be a clear and present danger with any attempt to put Lord of the Rings on film, especially for those of us old enough to remember the acute disappointment of the Bakshi movie [imdb.com] -- it will be most likely because of the script or something Peter Jackson has done, not the acting.

    I'll admit I was predisposed to find Wood inadequate to the task, mostly based on an interview with him I read online last year and cannot now locate. In it he described his view of the Frodo. It was an almost complete misreading. Not only was it very superficial, but those traits he did observe he misunderstood. My hope is that by working with the brilliant actors who were cast alongside him, he'd pick up a bit more depth. Not a hint of that shows in the trailer, but then, as I said (three times now) they trailer may or may not be giving an accurate idea of how he will play him.

  • It is as I feared (Score:3)

    by CaptainCarrot ( 84625 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @09:20AM (#198599)
    If this trailer is an accurate sample of how Elijah Wood is going to play Frodo, then it's as I said about a year go in one of the Tolkien newsgroups [arts.books.tolkien]: The boy has no grasp whatsoever of the character and will suck royally.

    Fortunately, he's surrounded by enough truly great talent that he doesn't have to carry the movie. But I'd rather Frodo were portrayed competently. They should have hired an older actor, one with more life experience who might have had a better understanding of some of Frodo's thoughts and reactions.

  • You're absolutely correct. I've been a fan of Peter Jackson since I first saw Bad Taste (the movie from which the exploding sheep reference is lifted) and have seen every flick he's directed since.

    Quite simply, Jackson is an artist. Sure, maybe not the kind of artist the Kubrick or Lynch or Gilliam is, but an artist nonetheless. From the gruesome gibbiness of Dead Alive (some of which still makes me squirm) to the twisted puppetry of Meet The Feebles all the way to the beautiful cinematography and gifted storytelling seen in Beautiful Creatures, Jackson has been evolving towards this.

    Think about it, an uncompromising director that has risen up from the ranks of 10 thousand dollar budget movies to play with the big boys, with experience with intricate puppetry (he now operates his own effects company that specializes in animatronics) and a knack for visual storytelling directing the epic LOTR. He's perfect.

    For anyone that doubts based on his past in horror-comedies, please do yourself a favor and see Beautiful Creatures (a movie based on the real-life murder committed by two young girls in NZ in which Jackson not only portrays the actual events but also delves into their dream-world motivations -- it's brilliant). I don't think any of us will be disapointed with LOTR.

  • Re: submitter comments (Score:4)

    by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:50AM (#198604) Homepage Journal
    Is anyone else annoyed by the "^_^" emoticon?

    Nope. =_=

    Orienting an emoticon so that it is readable along with the text is unnecessary, especially if it doesn't show the range of emotions previously available.

    No range of emotions? ;_;

    For some reason, I find that the people who do the ^_^ face tend to be anime zealots.

    Many normal anime fans do it also. *_*

    Is there a story behind this that I missed while watching live action movies?

    Yes, and until you get over your immature prejudices against various types of storytelling, you'll never know. ^_~


    --

  • Re:Why should I go watch this? (Score:4)

    by bonoboy ( 98001 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:26AM (#198607) Homepage Journal

    It's not Hollywood. The screenplay was written by Jackson himself, a New Zealander who's also directing it. It was also filmed entirely in New Zealand, with the majority of the effects work being done there as well. Sure, it's American money, but the direction is foreign.

    I suggest you check out Bad Taste [tripod.com] his first film, which was completed on weekends over a couple of years with friends, if I remember. You won't get it, it's mostly kiwi jokes. What you might get is Meet the Feebles [tripod.com] a Muppets parody with some really sick shit in it. Basically, his roots are effects and schlock stuff. But he also did Heavenly Creatures, an excellent look at the Parker-Hume murder. If he's ever proven anything, it's that he's got incredible range.

    That being said, I'm right with the group here suggesting you assume it's crap until you see it. I think TPM has prepared us all. The last guy who tried to do this, Ralph Bakshi, left it half finished. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure he died of cancer half way through. His Vaughn Bode-esque experimental animation put alot of people off, but in truth was quite an amazing adaptation. But perhaps a little too experimental for many peoples' liking. I'm certain Peter Jackson won't make the same mistake, being a true fan.

    For a pretty interesting interview with John Kricfalusi (of Ren & Stimpy fame) discussing Bakshi, go here [theonion.com].

  • Didn't realise he did MtF - god that was a sick film! LMAO like never before! :-)

    Bakshi told the story reasonably well, but the animation was no better than your typical early-morning kiddy job, which kind of pisses off adult fans of the book.

    As far as the being a true fan goes, though, that's no guarantee. Think Dungeons and Dragons, and be afraid, be very afraid...

    One thing I will say from this trailer, the lad playing Frodo seems pretty crap. He looks and sounds a bit too much like he's a graduate of the Keanu Reeves school of acting. I hope to god I'm wrong or I'll be extremely pissed off - given that a few thousand actors would gladly sell their mothers for soap to be in LotR, they'd damn well better do it right first time.

    Grab.

  • Comment removed (Score:4)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:46AM (#198618)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • *swarm* this (Score:3)

    by aminorex ( 141494 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:55AM (#198622) Homepage Journal
    from this [opencola.com] link.

  • Yeah, I love the dark aspect!

    What is it with fantasy film directors? They all INSIST on having an irritating comic relief character to lighten up (= destroy) the mood. Serious fantasy is tough enough to bring off in film without some obnoxious character flitting about going, "Eeee! Eeee! Meesa passed gas!" in a distracting quest for sight-gag laughs. It's as if the directors are saying, "Well, of course we're not taking this geeky stuff *seriously*. Hehehe." And we're all in the audience saying, "Then don't make the damn film."

    Man, I hope these guys can bring it off! The universe needs at least one good fantasy film before its heat death in 10^18 years or whatever. (I give it about even odds at this rate [cnn.com].)

  • Playing Gollum, a character infinitely less creepy and annoying than himself, would be quite a strech for Paul Reubens. Would he be up to it?

    http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
  • Let's hope it's actually a shot-by-shot analysis, not a frame-by-frame analysis. At ~24fps, and ~30sec, that would be uh... a lot of screenshots.

    Or, maybe it really is a frame-by-frame analysis, and TheOneRing.Net has such a fat pipe that they're attempting some sort of reverse-Slashdot attempt!

    http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
  • From what I have read, the movie will deviate from the books a lot. I mean, orc eggs? Arwen hangin' with the Fellowship? A big Elven army at Helm's Deep?

    I can understand cutting things. The books are too long to translate perfectly into a movie. But adding things like orc eggs is just lame.

    I'm going to wait for some reviews before I go see this thing. I'm expecting another TPM.
  • That can not be it. I'm thinking they are talking spoiler as in things that we did not know before the movie. For example this does contain the first shots of The Enemy that I have heard of so far and also we know who does the voice of Gollum in the context of a set of books that has been around this long those are the only things that could really be called "spoilers". In any case I'm all pumped up.
  • Have you seen this trailer? It is so incredibly DARK. My God I'm impressed.
  • "Dead Alive" is the US title for Brain Dead. I've never heard of a film where the cast has been so inthusiastic.
  • Oh, and a hearty fuck you for the karma troll comment. Jealous?
    No, drunk (thus the "troll" rather than the more usual "whore"). Not normally my style, so sorry about that.

  • Re:Why should I go watch this? (Score:3)

    by i0lanthe ( 198512 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @07:20AM (#198644) Homepage Journal
    the plot can't be spoiled since I know it already!

    Or at least we'd better know it already. If the movie trilogy ends with Frodo successfully claiming the ring and, I dunno, going on to found a famous software company or something, I for one will be fairly ticked.

  • Re:Why should I go watch this? (Score:3)

    by GMontag451 ( 230904 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @11:10AM (#198656) Homepage
    Jackson did Dead Alive??!! That, plus watching this new trailer just shot my hopes for this movie down the shit hole. Did anyone else cringe when Gandalf came on acting like a wild-eyed crazy man?
  • The website Coming Attractions [corona.bc.ca] has links on The Fellowship of the Ring [corona.bc.ca], The Two Towers [corona.bc.ca], and Return of the King [corona.bc.ca]. It gives TONS of information on who is in it, where it is being filmed, etc...

    They also have good information on movies like:
    The Matrix Reloaded (Matrix 2) [corona.bc.ca]
    The Matrix 3 [corona.bc.ca]
    Men In Black 2 [corona.bc.ca]

    and many other movies. If you are interested, they are a great site.

  • Ban it for Christian references? Amazing to see this on a site strongly supporting civil liberties...

    Amazing how it's a violation of civil rights when the activity is politically correct (atheism or agnosticism) yet not when it's politically incorrect (Christianity).

    If you don't like Christianity, don't see it. Mention to all your friends that they shouldn't see it. I hope you don't consider yourself a free speech advocate while calling for a banning.

  • Well, I didn't see that, but you can hear J.R.R. Tolkien himself speak in Elvish (and recite some book excerpts) here: http://www.salon.com/directory/topics/j_r_r_tolkie n/index.html [salon.com].

    I'll take The Man Himself speaking Elvish over Liv Tyler speaking Elvish any day :)

  • ...but I'll tell you what I'm not looking forward to: Jon Katz's review of Lord of the Rings. "In the wake of post-Columbine injustice, everybody but the Pinkertons are watching Lord of the Rings, a cyber-geek, cyber-thriller which will revolutionize open source. Blah blah blah sweeping generalization blah blah blah rhetorical grandstanding blah blah blah self-aggrandizing claptrap blah blah blah raging jackass..."

  • mirror on t1 (Score:3)

    by loosifer ( 314643 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @08:40AM (#198673) Homepage
    Here's [madstop.com] another mirror, of the download, not the streamer.

  • Being a gay male, I'll take Liv Tyler as well, thank you. :-)

    Dinivin
  • "childish and reeking of latent homosexual undertones" is a bad thing because ... ?

  • It was fortold... (Score:4)

    by shut_up_man ( 450725 ) on Friday May 25, 2001 @06:45AM (#198686) Homepage
    One Site to tell them all,
    One Site to remind them,
    One Ring to bring them all
    and in the darkness completely Slashdot them.

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