LOTR RTK super massive extended edition

[Oseleon]

I beleive C Lee agrees with you and was quoted saying as much in an article a few months ago

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Its uncanny how good a job Jackson did with the movie though, something that I personally felt couldn't be created by any film studio was. And I think it happened because Jackson was able to say screw you Hollywood, Im going to Wellington. Not that 7 years of movie making, (script to film) hurt. 7 years, wow thats incredible, living sleeping breathing LOTR. Talk about patience, perseverance and love.

Its also uncanny how now that I own all three movies I tend to think of it as  "the movie" not the trilogy. The annual separation didn't hurt that at all, but I think part of the reason I feel that way is that it feels like 1 movie. Albeit one with six bathroom breaks now (one for each disc)
Ten hours for one  movie. So now Im left with the desire to get a huge screen tv, a better couch, an easy chair with a popcorn popper built right into the arm (or a couch/microwave/minifridge combo... it could go either way) a years supply of Nachos, milk duds and mike and ikes, and watch LOTR with my friends untill we cant see straight. I need a caterer for the between movie meals... (breakfast, Hobbit fry up, Mushrooms, Eggs, Tomatoes and bacon, fresh fruit, and Juice. Lunch Rabbit, potatoes, and green salad. And dinner, rare lamb with mint Jelly, French green beans, and pan fried mushrooms on potato straws.)

That would be living...

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

1/2 way through the actor commentary now... and there are some interesting observations... Boyd and Monaghan steal the show here, but other actors like Christopher Lee and Bernard Hill have a great many things to say about their roles and scenes... Miranda Otto is lovely as usual. I never noticed that Gothmog (Mr. Deformed orc) and the Witch King were the same actor (who also played Lurtz in Fellowship) Its amazing how much of the film was done in pickups and not in principle photography....

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Shelob is still creepy....

[Archon]

Imagine if you were arachnophobic...

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

You mean like my wife who was cowering in the theater and cutting off the circulation to my arm....

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

i mean like TOlkien. After spiders in the hobbits and Shelob made into some demon-goddess... That guy had issues with spiders.

[Oseleon]

Shelob was just one of the Lesser Children of Ungoliant... The REAL Arachnid DemiGod who literaly sucked the Light out of the world when Melkor led her to the Trees.

[Entsuropi]

Ungoliant never died as well. I think Tolkien said she 'drifted away' after building a nest of unquenchable darkness. Could be interested for a LoTR chronicle to have her reappear in the 4th age.

[Oseleon]

I am guessing that the Unquenchable darkness was seperated from the World in the Reshaping.  Eru dosen't play dice with Middle Earth  

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

or draughts either...

[Fellfrosch]

I watched the "book to screen" doc, the one about adapting the script, and they made a lot of good points...but they never addressed the Denethor issue. Denethor's death in the book is so cool, and would have worked so well in the movie, but they changed it and they never explain why. It can't have been for time, because they still spend a lot of time on his altered scenes.

My only possible idea is that they thought the average layperson in the audience would be confused or put off by so many Palantirs floating around. Seems like a weak argument, though, and I'd like to know for sure.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I think that was the idea, remember there was a lot of stuff going on at that point in the movie, and really the heart of that conflict was between Gandalf the capable leader and Denothor the mad leader... it seems natural that they should meet, and that through is own actions Denathor should cause his own death.

I know the audience loved it in the theater because there was spontaneous applause, and cheering at his death, (just like when Gandalf beat the crap out of him with his staff)....

[Oseleon]

i mean like TOlkien. After spiders in the hobbits and Shelob made into some demon-goddess... That guy had issues with spiders.

OK, I looked this up (Because I have no life)
In a letter Tolkien had written to some reporter who wanted material for a bio, Tolkien says that as a small child, he WAS bitten by a Trantula.  
BUT
He had no memory of the incident and only knew of it because his mother told him of it years later.  
He went on to say that he had no specific problem with spiders and actualy would rescue them when he found them in the bath.  
letters # 168

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Saw the movie on Saturday at last. I liked it a lot better than I liked the theater version.