"Get off the road!"

I read somewhere that it took 20 takes of the Balrog bursting into flame (on the Bridge) before PeeJ was satisfied with the "look" of it.
He said something about the way the flames would shoot out didn't look organically realistic.
On the 19th failed take he said the next one (the 20th one) would be the last one because the cost of the pyro stuff was making any more takes cost -prohibitive. So, good, bad, or mediocre, the next take was the last.
Fortunately (he said), it turned out to be the best one and darn near perfect.
But that is an example of PeeJ "getting it right".
Note that if none of takes was very good, but they still had to use one of them, the least bad looking one, and it didn't look very good, I might say that PeeJ got that scene very wrong because of a cheesy flaming Balrog.
So, not his build, not his pyro abilities, but finally his call (and his alone) on what 'take' to use.

I yelled "Get off the screen!" very (very) often, but it didn't help.

I had to
no you didn't
yes I did
no you didn't
too late

Deimos said:

I'd lean toward specifying the areas/categories where he's bright and not so bright.
You can't make a movie like LOTR and still be wholesale stupid.
Yet he made The Hobbit abomination so his "stupid faculty" definitely came to the fore in that situation.

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I don't want to suggest that I think Peej is a thundering idiot, but there are many instances where I think, "Why?" and I have to wonder if Peej understood the basic fundamental themes of the book, the most central being Frodo Baggins.



I'll cite another example. Overall, and particularly in the first film, for whatever reason, Peej and his screenwriters decide make Frodo a weakling and erase every valiant deed he does in the book. Perhaps the most significant of these deeds is on Weathertop where Frodo is stabbed by the Witch-king, but before he does he strikes at the Witch-king. Significantly, even though Frodo misses it's because of this attack that he is stabbed in the shoulder rather than in the chest, specifically Frodo's heart. But Frodo's attack (and exclamation of "Elbereth Gilthoniel!") causes the WK to miss his target. Gandalf explains this to Frodo fairly clearly:

This appears to have been lost on Peej & Co., or they deliberately get it wrong so they can showcase their own milksop version of Frodo, who instead of attacking, drops his sword and scampers backwards, yet the WK still stabs him in the shoulder. He could have stabbed movie Frodo anywhere since he wasn't offering any resistance whatsoever, in direct contradiction to the book version. Also note, Gandalf says to Frodo that he avoided the stab to the heart because he, "resisted to the last" which the movie version emphatically does not.

Where I think he fails, and indeed where a lot of filmmakers fail** is that they don't read their target audience very well.
This is glaringly obvious in two instances at least:

1) having Arwen "stand by her man" at Helm's Deep, and
2) Having Sauron appear in corporeal form at the Battle of the Morannon.

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I'm confused. When does this happen? I remember there Arwen showing up at Helm's Deep was a consideration that was ultimately dropped but otherwise I'm not sure what it refers to.

You have to wonder... did he really think the [Tolkien versed] fan base --once they got wind of them--would accept these changes lying down?

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I'm honestly surprised when people say they are fans of both the book and the films. It's something I simply can't wrap my feeble brain around.

** A box office failure is not always indicative of a bad movie.

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Oh, that is unquestionably true. And the reverse is true as well.

Deimos said:

I read somewhere that it took 20 takes of the Balrog bursting into flame (on the Bridge) before PeeJ was satisfied with the "look" of it.
He said something about the way the flames would shoot out didn't look organically realistic.
On the 19th failed take he said the next one (the 20th one) would be the last one because the cost of the pyro stuff was making any more takes cost -prohibitive. So, good, bad, or mediocre, the next take was the last.
Fortunately (he said), it turned out to be the best one and darn near perfect.
But that is an example of PeeJ "getting it right".
Note that if none of takes was very good, but they still had to use one of them, the least bad looking one, and it didn't look very good, I might say that PeeJ got that scene very wrong because of a cheesy flaming Balrog.
So, not his build, not his pyro abilities, but finally his call (and his alone) on what 'take' to use.

Click to expand...

For what he wanted to achieve, sure, but to depict what the text describes, I would say it's a spectacular miss.

I don't understand why these things haven't been brought up here before. 🤔

Oh, wait . . .

PS: Parts II and III also available. 😉

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

I don't understand why these things haven't been brought up here before. 🤔

Oh, wait . . .

My God, It Was Horrible!

All you doomsayers were right. It was absolutely horrible. I was crying in the theater. I wanted to walk out, but I didn't b/c my friends were there! All the party is screwed up, out of order, shortened. The trip to Bree was in 45 minutes or so...not 1.30 like it should've been. IT...

thetolkien.forum

PS: Parts II and III also available. 😉

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I wasn't here. Also, 22 years ago 😇

True.
Though I see you read it -- one year ago. 😉

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

True.
Though I see you read it -- one year ago. 😉

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Well, skimmed. I will give it a more serious look at some point.

@Squint-eyed Southerner ... yo there, old,friend, old pal, old buddy....
If a I read you aright do you expect us to review all old threads and/or posts before we post a thread, so as not to duplicate the topic(s) of a possibly decades old thread?
You and EA and Manwe and other mods (and younger members) may be tech savvy, but some of us are not... or maybe not really very adept or efficient at it.
And, believe me, when you can count your likely remaining decades on this side of eternity on, at most, 2 fingers, the last thing you want to spend that time on is wading through two decades of old posts.
So can you cut us some slack if we post a thread topic that was already posted a goodly number of years past?

Deimos said:

do you expect us to review all old threads and/or posts before we post a thread

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Nah -- just a little lighthearted comment on a perennial subject around here. 😄

Deimos said:

So can you cut us some slack

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Consider it cut!

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

Nah -- just a little lighthearted comment on a perennial subject around here. 😄

Consider it cut!
View attachment 35217

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Roger dodger and....

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

True.
Though I see you read it -- one year ago. 😉

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Dude, you want me to wade through stuff like this?

YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK? if you were a TRUE fan of the books, you'd appreciate any small shred of lotr you could get. even if he did screw everything up(like sam not looking in tha mirror, gorfindel not existing, galadriel crazyier than shes supposed to be, elrond being a jackass, hobbits not looking chubby enough, mispronoucing things like Gandalf(which is pronouced Gandalve) and celeborn(which is pronouced keleborn), and many other things), its still lotr, and if u ask me, its not that bad of an interpritation. have you seen the cartoon of lotr? all the books squashed into 1hour1/2? now THAT was bad, but since it was still lotr, its wasnt that bad because they did theyre best. and just bcuz the movie sux, a REAL lotr fan would never feel hate, or even dislike, towards a fellow lotr fan. if he liked the books, then he kix ass, even if he didnt read teh appendices b4 making a movie, or screwed up the whole thing. ITS STILL LOTR AND IT SHOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!!!!!!

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What'd I ever do to you? 🫤 😝

Wow, I could go to that thread for the "Second-Guessing and Misunderstanding Tolkien" thread if I wanted to. Sheesh 😕

Example:

1) The Balrog DID have wings, they were hard to see because of the darkness and the fire, but if you were watching, they were there.

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😖

Spirits revealed

All of thee hath revealed a great deal thy true self in thy scathing reviews. Needless to say surely thou would be corrupted if thou were tempted only once by the one ring. Ignorant people cast blame, yet the wise will seek solutions. My celtic agression sees through thy layers of anger and into an empty soul, a void, which harbours not even a lack. Who are you to say great works are garbage ? Was it thee who who dedicated 2 years of labour and an immortality of passion into this project. NAY, 'twas not. Cowardly fool, thou will meet thy own ends soon enough I suppose. How couldst thou expect a mythical, fantastical land created in the abstract mind of a genious to be perfectly portrayed in 3 hours time? Thou art lacking love. Thou art lacking music in thy soul. Cursed be thy forked tongue which so cunningly spouts fire in the dark, yet coats itself in honey during day. 'Tis to late for thou. You cannot pass.

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😶
Okay, that's about enough of that jive for one day. Also, wow, this place was toxic back in the day. There seems to be quite a few posts that would be edited or deleted if posted these days 😆

Yeah, well, things have tightened up since then -- so don't nobody get any ideas, see?

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

I don't understand why these things haven't been brought up here before. 🤔

Oh, wait . . .

My God, It Was Horrible!

All you doomsayers were right. It was absolutely horrible. I was crying in the theater. I wanted to walk out, but I didn't b/c my friends were there! All the party is screwed up, out of order, shortened. The trip to Bree was in 45 minutes or so...not 1.30 like it should've been. IT...

thetolkien.forum

PS: Parts II and III also available. 😉

Click to expand...

What is interesting to me, is how much rage that guy from the first post puts in PJ movies.
Makes me wander, what he would say if he saw Rings of Power series.
I would like to read his "review".