IMO characters in the books lacked depth near the beginning of the story. Characters near the end were fully developed and far more complex. Compare Bombadil and Denethor – similar number of pages one each.
What I most appreciate about the movies is the way the fullness of each character is developed from the beginning using in some cases information that is found much later.
[/breaking all the rules]
I loved the battle of the wargs in TTT. Yes I know it is a transposition from before Moria, but it was cool. Agree with Delly on the elves at Helm’s Deep. Aragorn’s fall and his dream about Arwen was a bit soppy. There were other better ways of showing the relationship without the horse licking through a frosted lens.
Just a “me too” – I think some of the added bits (second breakfast, “it comes in pints?”, “I’m his gardner”, the fight with the cave troll, elves at Helm’s Deep, trolls on the Black Gate) have been the high points of the two movies to date. PJ has shown a really deft touch.
On the other hand: I wasn’t crazy about the warg battle. I thought the wargs should’ve been more wolf-like, less hyena-like, and I wasn’t crazy about the CGI.
PJ’s touch has been less deft with two scenes that were in the books: Galadriel’s temptation, and the “exorcism” of Theoden. I guess we have to be resigned that he’s going to go over the top once per movie.
Its on the extended version of the DVD, as the fellowship leave Rivendell through what looks like the door out, Frodo whispers to Gandlaf “Which way?” or something like that, and Gandalf whispers “Left” or maybe he says right.
Anyway I like this bit because Frodo is portrayed as a leader of sorts becausehe has the ring, yet he has no idea which direction hes going in.
I have not read the books (ducks and hides) but what some of my buds who have read the books tell me that the extended editions has details that are in the book. And that the extended edition is closer to the books.
I agree on the exorcism scene (I thought it was a bit overdone myself, though Theoden’s transformation afterwards was pretty cool), but it bears noting that Galadriel’s temptation in FOTR was one of the few special-effects sequences not handled by WETA, but handed off to contractors. It was really one of the low points in the film, but I lay that fact at those who did the effects, not at PJ’s door.
Delly: You beat me to my choice. Gandalf says “left” and it makes me laugh every time as well.
Many of the good ones have been mentioned already. A couple that haven’t: For some reason I love the fact that trolls are being used to pull the Black Gate open…the whole mechanism is sort of fascinating. Also, Gollum’s schizophrenic speech to himself is priceless, and so well done. The difference between “Slinker” and “Stinker” couldn’t have been made more clear.
Odd choice of handle, then, for someone who hasn’t read the books?
But yes, your buds are right: mentally running through the list of EE scenes, each maps to a scene in the books (although some dialog is not necessarily there, like the “Which way?” line previously mentioned.) With one exception: the EE scene between Aragorn and Arwen isn’t in the book, but then no Aragorn/Arwen scenes are in the book.
You didn’t read far enough. They are in Appendix A “Annals of the Kings and Rulers”, Part I " The Numenorean Kings", in the back end of * The Return of the King.*
If you want to get hyper-technical, there’s no scene in the Appendices between Aragorn and Arwen in Rivendell at the time of the Council of Elrond (IIRC). So I stand by my statement.
Unless there is, and I forgot it, in which case I take it back.
I like the way that PJ redid the bit about Gandalf and the Ring. In the Shadow of the Past he physically handled the ring in the movies the ring “shocks” him when he goes to pick it up. This helps beef up the malevolence and makes the thing more evil.
