I think the OP meant continuity at its most basic level - amount of dirt on the actors, the level of stubble on Aragorn, the way Eowyn’s hair fell in the previous shot when she was outdoors, and now she’s indoors talking to Theoden. Thos little tiny matchups are fine with one unit and one continuity person taking notes, but with up to five units working simultaneously, you start getting pretty darn complicated.
But they had satellite video-assist units, high speed internet, and cellphones, so it wasn’t insurmountable.
Its just a movie folks, something to entertain our eyes, our minds and give us visual and audio pleasure.
It is one thing to nic-pic a movie with obvious flaws or inaccuracies, which happen in most movies based on historical events. Or as mentioned earlier, a car is ridden with bullet holes and then two seconds later is completely fixed.
But I cant stand it when people nic-pic on the tinest things, like Legolas’s quiver of arrows, or the way Eowyn’s hair flows in the wind or Aragorns beard color.
I dont know who are the more zealots the Tolkien fans or Trekkies.
Its just a movie, and tiny mistakes are bound to happen.
The only beef I have is the whole dwelling of the Aragorn/Arwen romance and of course the Battle of Helms deep. But then again, Jackson did state that he is using alot of theinformation from the Appendixes.
I guess I should re-read them
From what little we see, Tolkien seemed to be rather shaky on his astronomy. For instance: In The Hobbit, we learn that the Dwarvish New Year falls on a certain day each year, and when the Sun and Moon happen to both be in the sky on that day, it’s called Durin’s Day. Due to a general decline of civilization, nobody anymore (or at least precious few) can predict when that’s going to happen, but it’s implied that it’s pretty rare.
Except it’s not. At any phase other than exactly full, the Sun and Moon will both be in the sky simultaneously at some point, at least, during the day. And even if you mean something like “The sun is within 45 degrees of the Moon”, that’s about one time in four. There should have been Durin’s Days all over the place.
But Tolkien was also smart enough to know that he didn’t know much astronomy, and was pretty good at avoiding topics that would have showed his ignorance. In botany, I don’t think it’s even possible to find inconsistencies: At what time of year, for instance, does elanor really bloom? And is athelas really found in that sort of terrain? Unanswerable, without knowing what exactly elanor and athelas are.
Hey…I like pointing out the glaring continuity mistakes in movies as much as the next guy. Two of my favorites are 1) Ben Affleck starting an oil company in the space of 24 hours in Armageddon and 2) Trying to figure out why Sean Connery had to remember the timing of those crushy flaming things to break OUT of The Rock when the door opens from the INSIDE.
But noticing if a ammo mag switched from the left to the right side of his uniform mid scene and having it ruin the movie for me is silly.
Sure is silly. Interestingly enough, no one here has said anything of the sort. Noticing these little inconsistencies is the sort of thing that can usually only be done after repeatedly viewings. Which generally means that the more anal the nitpick, the more the nitpicker loves the movie. It’s not a criticism of the film, it’s bragging about how into it you are.
