george just aint as hip as he used to be,hey it happens.

When Anakin ran into Padme's bedroom and cut up the centipedes after he and Kenobi both sensed them, followed by Kenobi dashing out of a window like a bazillion stories high and latching onto an assassin droid, I knew I was in for one of the best Star Wars experiences.
















Ever.

 

"They actually halted the story advancement for 10 minutes or more while Jackson tried to wow us with CGI cave trolls and bad blue screen effects."

I disagree. First of all, the screens were green.

Second, that scene, more than any other in the film, drives home the Fellowship's teamwork. Although it looks chaotic (and see my above post for my take on that), it's carefully tailored to give you a sense of who works best with who, who looks after who and why.

As the scene begins, the Fellowship forms up, with the fighters on the front line, Gandalf in the center, and, per Aragorn's command, the Hobbits in the back, where Frodo gets the most protection from everyone. Although they've argued in the past, here the four fighters work together, first to bar the gate, then to prepare for the first wave.

As the fight begins, Frodo willingly throws himself into the fray; he knows it's the Fellowship's job to protect him, which gives him the option to run and hide, but he decides to fight alongside his friends instead.

As the cave troll bursts in, the fighters take turns trying to kill it, but fail in their individual attempts.

The fight escalates, and the troll gets ahold of Frodo. The Hobbit calls for Aragorn--specifically--who immediately drops everything and rushes the troll. In his determination to free Frodo, Aragorn is the first one to deal the troll a significant blow.

Distracted, the troll drops Frodo and slams Aragorn into the wall half-conscious. Forgetting everything else, Frodo runs to check on his friend, then--despite the overwhelming odds, and despite the chance he has to run--turns to face the troll alone.

He fares as expected, and receives what looks to be a mortal wound. This drives Merry and Pippin berserk, and they charge the troll, distracting it long enough for Legolas to land the kill shot.

In summary, this scene gives us a very good sense of each member's skills and loyalties, as well as injecting the film with a good dose of visceral punch.

 

The cave troll scene rocks.

 

to say that jackson leaves off of tolkien's narrative after they leave the shire shows me that you stopped reading there.

i just read the books last year, and with the exception of a missing chapter and the combination of a few different elves into the character of arwen it's almost spot-on.
in fact, jackson's artistic liberties actually serve the film format, where there would otherwise be too many characters dashing in and out randomly without the prose explanation to keep us informed.

as for the troll scene, i don't think i could state it better than what's been said above. this is brilliant filmmaking.

 

I liked the Rivendell, Lothlorien, Great River, Moria, Khazad Dum scenes like TEN TIMES more than the Shire scenes.

The Shire was awesome but Rivendell really gave me that sense of fantasy, ten times more magical than the Shire ever thought of doing.

By the way, when they are in the canoes on the Great River and they pass through the statues, the music combined with the filming is just awesome.

 

From Page 2:

"Would you actually explain, in as much detail as you can, exactly how the "cave troll sequence" was so crucial to the plot of FOTR?"

The entire fellowship fighting together to protect the ringbearer from peril.

Not only that, but it showed just how useless the Hobbits when it comes to fighting. Props to Aragorn and the blonde dude who has that endless supplies of arrows.

 

Was Lucas ever hip?

I don't think so.

 

george just aint as hip as he used to be,hey it happens.

Oh yea, I don't consider the Ewoks a "hip" invention by Lucas either...so I guess you can say he was "losing it" since '83.

 

Okay let's look at what George based this saga off of:

1.) Old Saturday morning serial shows of the 1950's and 60's.

2.) Old sci-fi TV programming of the 1950's and and 60's.

3.) Several works of the late Akira Kurosawa also dating back to the 50's and 60's based on Samurai culture dating back to the 10th century A.D., as well as Authurian and western style additions that date back from the 16th century to around the 1970's.

4.) Aspects of silent film comedy not really seen since the mid 1930's.

5.) Mythological motiffs dating back to over 1000 years or more.


Where in any of this is there "fresh", "new" or "hip"? Star Wars has never been about that and if that's what you need to enjoy something you are in the wrong place and always have been. If you were looking for anything else, you have missed the point. The idea is to take all of these things that are old and put a new spin on them and I feel George has succeded in this every time.

What I greatly dislike is how folks aren't entertained by something but they try to find a reason and it's senseless drivel. This hip thing isn't really so much one of those, but dead-on examples would be "Where's the magic?" or "He's lost the spark." or "It didn't feel Star Wars". What the crap does that mean? How do you define spark? What is magic? What is the Star Wars feel, and is it "soft and smooth"?

All I know is I liked something or I didn't and if I don't know exactly why I liked or disliked something I don't care, but I'm not going to give some vague rationale for it either. For me, I didn't like FOTR and I probably will not see any of the other films but I'm not on the LOTR forums telling those guys about it. For me, I've read newer and I feel better fantasy novels than the Rings saga and his stuff feels old hat and not "hip" to me.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

//smokes it

//blows a smoke ship

 

Nah, Lucas was never hip. He's always been a square. But he used to have good judgement. Those days are gone. And so now he's a square and a hack.

 

//blows a smoke ship

Oh my god was that part corny too! Not just that but the dialogue from Bilbo about how Gandalf has the finest weed (or maybe vice-versa I don;t remember now) left me in friggin' stitches. That really took me out of the picture early on.

 

Oh my god was that part corny too! Not just that but the dialogue from Bilbo about how Gandalf has the finest weed (or maybe vice-versa I don;t remember now) left me in friggin' stitches.

Yea...the term 'death stick' was a little more subtle

 

What's wrong with that part? It was just two friends getting high.

 

What's wrong with that part? It was just two friends getting high.

...unless you're being serious.


Then again, LOTR isn't suppose to be a "modern fairy tale for children" like how Lucas envisioned Star Wars

 

I think a lot of people misinterpret what "pipe-weed" is supposed to be. I think Tolkien meant it to be like tobacco not marijuana. I think that's what makes Star Wars work. Half of it is incredibly cool(Darth Maul, the Fetts, Han Solo) and half of it is unapologetically, defiantly corny.

 

when compared to the realness of the ot come on that crap belongs in a cartoon,whats more is why lucas allowed rubbish.when i look at alot of his scetches in the art of ep two book i say to myself man this is sh#t.i wish george still employed mcquarrie a big mistake in my book, i know i know george wanted a bit of a different look well ralph could have given him this,when i see chang in interviews he comes off as kind of a dork to me. he says he was somewhat influenced by star trek well i kind of think thats where he belongs.

Man, that is all so true. I really dont like Chiang's artwork at all. McQuarrie is my choice.

Also, we are talking about a story that was written in the 1970's here, and what was hip then is not hip now. Think of all the stuff we've had culturally appear over the past 25 years since Star Wars in video games, films etc. The idea of "droids" like C-3po and R2-D2 has little impact now, but back then it was quite a novel idea. Plus it seems fashionable to bash Star Wars. Perhaps Lucas chose the wrong time to make these movies. I would've much prefered it if he had made them in the 1980's when we were all positively DYING for Star Wars films to be made.

 

Waheennay is right. Pipe-weed is tobacco. In the book, the Hobbits always have the munchies!

"What about second breakfast?"

 

In reply to Pooja's question on the first page:
No, it was directed towards DarthAbdul-jabbar. Sorry about the confusion.

 

I don't see why people bash the Matrix when the story is close to being finished yet, I mean you can at least wait before you judge it. I thought the first film established the characters well easily setting up a sequel.
The scenes where they go to see the Oracle are real good and the introduction of Morpheus is bone chilling.

I thought Lord of the Rings was good, but it wasn't paced as well as the story wars films.
How many times did we really need to see the hobbits being chased by black riders, it got boring pretty quick.
Sometimes instead of the hobbits appearing like small people it seemed like others around them were giants, but that was only in a few spots.

LOTR can't compare to Star Wars in action I don't care what anybody says.
But even in the weaker action seens you actually felt a sense of danger in LOTR while in Star Wars you know none of the heros will die execpt nameless jedi who don't care about.

 

Thank you, YJ.

And of course I wasn't being serious. Well I mean, they were two friends getting high, but... okay.

 

Are we done with LOTR yet?

About the 1st post:
Bad style, but sincere content.

I think AOTC is great, but it could have been better... with less.

 

i could give a rats ass about lotr or matrix,havnt seen lotr and the matrix didnt do much for me, i know george isnt the hippest guy to begin with and i like it that way i love the hairstyles and the costumes and im even one of the few who loves the yippee and that kind of old fashion stuff,so thats not what i mean by hip.
I mean that george has the definitive creative control and for him to allow retarted stuff like transforming ship/droids,lame 3po scenes and cgi stormtroopers, he has somewhat dropped the ball.
ive never had to much of a problem with the ewoks, they werent my favorite either. NOW!i revere them after some of the trash lucas has ok'd
im sorry if i come off as a lucas hater,no one will ever defend lucas as much as me,hes the greatest, i just dont feel like the prequels have lived up.

come on the final battle on geonosis was that really that good,i start to feel kind of empty when i watch that computer game,

i wish things were still raw and real like the ot, just look at sy snootles original -vs-new.........................i rest my case

 

I disagree.

And I disagree with your disagreement. I think the scene was too chaotic and gimicky Sam attacking orcs with pots and pans? Oh, please! Tolkien portrayed Sam as a stout warrior who can take care of himself when the chips are down. Jackson portrayed him as a bumbling oaf.

to say that jackson leaves off of tolkien's narrative after they leave the shire shows me that you stopped reading there.

Attack my arguments and not me, please.

Personally, I loved the Shire scenes because they were the book brought to life, exactly the way I had imagined it (Gandalf and Bilbo in Bag End was brilliant!). However, Jackson's "creative liberties" for the rest of the film amounted to little more than hacking out tons of narrative and story developement in a race to get his showcase action sequences. The labored journey from the Shire to Rivendell, fraught with danger and suspense, was reduced to a quick jaunt through the country side. I mean, the sweeping helicopter shots were nice and all, but it would have been good if Jackson had settled on the characters every now and then to let them interact and whatnot.

Personally, I'm waiting for the director's cut to be released in November as I understand that it contains about 30 more minutes of dialogue, a component that I feel the film was clearly lacking, so I have a feeling that I'll enjoy this extended cut more than the action oriented theatrical release.

But back on topic, Lucas is still hip. Well, 70's hip. But given the choice between 70's hip and 90's hip, I'll take Lucas' 70's hip, thank you very much!

(And, yes, I know that it is 2002, but saying "02's hip" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, ya know?)

 

just look at sy snootles original -vs-new.........................i rest my case

I see what you mean. The new Sy Snootles was far more realistic than the original stiff puppet. Er, wait, what point were you trying to make?