***** The Lord of the Rings: Official Thread *****

238,560 Views | 1956 Replies | Last: 9 days ago by Brian Earl Spilner
Brian Earl Spilner
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chase128
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If Amazon can do something of that quality, sure then it's fine.
Lathspell
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And it was frodo who stopped and faced the Nazgul. One of the ways Jackson neutered Frodo as a hero.
BAP Enthusiast
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Brian Earl Spilner said:




The movies were made in the early 2000s, woke politics were not an issue then like they are now.

I remember people complaining about some of the more changes back then but upon 2nd and 3rd viewings, they were accepted because the trilogy was on the whole very faithful and respectful of the source material and to Tolkien himself.

I'm not expecting that here, at all based upon all of the rumors.
The Porkchop Express
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I think you get rid of Glorfindel for the same reason you get rid of Tom Bombadill. You don't have time to explain to a movie audience about this massively powerful character who basically does nothing for the movie when you're trying to destroy this terrible thing and fight massive powerful bad guys. Glorfindel is hailed as this legendary warrior, but he's just going to hang out in Rivendell and not help?

It feels like including Superman and Wonder Woman in a Justice League movie, but having them agree to not help defeat Darkseid because, well, no reason.

Please don't respond explaining Tom Bombadill to me. I get it. Just making an example.
Ulrich
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Kampfers said:


chase128
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And you also give Aragon's love interest some screen time, which in the books you have to look to the Appendix to learn a lot about.

Putting Arwen into the movie had some good reasoning behind it, it wasn't just done on a whim.
Ulrich
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My instinct would be to absorb Glorfindel into Elrond there, but I don't have any major issues with using Arwen instead. Overall Arwen doesn't do much, she mostly lays around having dreams and visions (in the extended version; don't remember the theatrical edition). She feels a little wedged in, but she's also the primary vector for the sense of loss and fading in Middle Earth which is important to the story. Compromises have to be made when you're filming something that big.
chase128
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Arwen was brought up as some kind of silly counterpoint to people complaining the show looks like it's going to be "woke".

If the show focuses on being woke and crap for no reason that's probably going to suck. But adding Arwen to the movies wasn't an example of random wokeness, either.
Fightin TX Aggie
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For the record, watched the trailer for Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness and felt excited.

What we've glimpsed of RoP has just felt the opposite.

I will say that a view of Moria in its prime might be worth all of it.
cbr
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I actually thought 99% of the movies' changes clarified or improved on the books for once. It was brilliant. This series has a problem to start as the source material is not as good, and from the trailer it looks like the people working on trying to improve it may not be nearly as talented. Their focus also seems possibly distracted by a mandate to push socialism through racial and class divides per the 'woke' agenda.

Hopefully we are all wrong and the series is brilliant.
Solo Tetherball Champ
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Fightin TX Aggie said:

For the record, watched the trailer for Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness and felt excited.

What we've glimpsed of RoP has just felt the opposite.

I will say that a view of Moria in its prime might be worth all of it.

I think the biggest issue with the trailer is that not only did it not raise any questions, it never bothered to address why we are revisiting middle-earth by hinting at the story.

Nothing was foreshadowed. Nothing was teased. The only thing pushed was "Middle-earth".

The show is called "The Rings of Power", yet there is not a Ring in sight, let alone anything hinting at their forging. Anyone who has seen the films or read the books would know the forging of the rings is a rather significant moment in the setting.

As someone who has been privy to the leaks and followed closely the morsels Amazon has thrown our way, we know this film is the story of the Rings. Then why not hint at that here?

The trailer doesn't set up these questions:

  • What is the story?
  • Who is in it?
  • What are they doing?

Now, I'm not arguing the teaser trailer needs to give away the answers to those questions. It doesn't even need to tease the answers. But shouldn't Amazon have at least set up those questions?

I feel a simple fix to the marketing would be to change the text intercutting the various scenes from

Before the Fellowship
Before the King
Before the Rings
A New Legend Begins (what? this doesn't really follow)

Instead, change it to

Before the Fellowship
Before the Towers
Before the King

There Were Rings

Ideally, maybe they should have a shot of the One Ring, unless they want to keep the design of the Rings close to the chest. Either way, it would have at least hinted this show is centered around all of the Rings.

TL;DR

Marketing guy is not terribly impressed with the teaser trailer.
chase128
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That's really well put, thank you.
cbr
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Another thing that is a bit annoying - lotr is an epic story. I expect big time players (other than the counterpoint. - hobbits) to be pretty epic looking people. The movies tried that in a 'we're not american and we dont look as expected' kind of way. It was generally really good though i would have cast galadriel, faramir, borimir, etc. a bit differently. From what i can tell, this cast looks a lot more like a pack of dorks that would be playing a lotr video game than a cast of epic heroes and villains.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Personally I would have focused more on simply showing off Middle Earth, than a bunch of quick cuts and action scenes.

This is still one the best teasers ever made:



I still remember seeing this in the theater for the first time, and I had no idea what LOTR was. But I was so intrigued by it and the idea of announcing an entire trilogy in a single trailer.
Ulrich
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cbr said:

Another thing that is a bit annoying - lotr is an epic story. I expect big time players (other than the counterpoint. - hobbits) to be pretty epic looking people. The movies tried that in a 'we're not american and we dont look as expected' kind of way. It was generally really good though i would have cast galadriel, faramir, borimir, etc. a bit differently. From what i can tell, this cast looks a lot more like a pack of dorks that would be playing a lotr video game than a cast of epic heroes and villains.

They look more "elfin" than Tolkien's elves. Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn, and Haldir were powerful people.

They may be trying to portray a young Middle Earth by casting young actors, but it does cut away from Tolkien's distaste for pigwiggenry.
The Porkchop Express
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

Personally I would have focused more on simply showing off Middle Earth, than a bunch of quick cuts and action scenes.

This is still one the best teasers ever made:



I still remember seeing this in the theater for the first time, and I had no idea what LOTR was. But I was so intrigued by it and the idea of announcing an entire trilogy in a single trailer.


That end scene of them all coming up through the mountain pass was so breath taking. Gandalf the Grey breathed into life from the artwork
Madmarttigan
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Watching it over again I didn't see anything particularly bad about the production value and look but all the glimpses are so brief it is hard to tell.

I will agree that it basically showed nothing and was very meh as far as a trailer goes.
YouBet
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Solo Tetherball Champ said:

Fightin TX Aggie said:

For the record, watched the trailer for Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness and felt excited.

What we've glimpsed of RoP has just felt the opposite.

I will say that a view of Moria in its prime might be worth all of it.

I think the biggest issue with the trailer is that not only did it not raise any questions, it never bothered to address why we are revisiting middle-earth by hinting at the story.

Nothing was foreshadowed. Nothing was teased. The only thing pushed was "Middle-earth".

The show is called "The Rings of Power", yet there is not a Ring in sight, let alone anything hinting at their forging. Anyone who has seen the films or read the books would know the forging of the rings is a rather significant moment in the setting.

As someone who has been privy to the leaks and followed closely the morsels Amazon has thrown our way, we know this film is the story of the Rings. Then why not hint at that here?

The trailer doesn't set up these questions:

  • What is the story?
  • Who is in it?
  • What are they doing?

Now, I'm not arguing the teaser trailer needs to give away the answers to those questions. It doesn't even need to tease the answers. But shouldn't Amazon have at least set up those questions?

I feel a simple fix to the marketing would be to change the text intercutting the various scenes from

Before the Fellowship
Before the King
Before the Rings
A New Legend Begins (what? this doesn't really follow)


Instead, change it to

Before the Fellowship
Before the Towers
Before the King

There Were Rings

Ideally, maybe they should have a shot of the One Ring, unless they want to keep the design of the Rings close to the chest. Either way, it would have at least hinted this show is centered around all of the Rings.

TL;DR

Marketing guy is not terribly impressed with the teaser trailer.
This was confusing to me as well. This story began hundreds/thousands of years before LOTR.

Just bad marketing.
jeffk
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Brian Earl Spilner
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Good lord.
The Collective
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The internet remembers
bluefire579
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If only the word woke existed back then, this would sound like some of our own on this thread.

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Kampfers
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jeffk said:


More along these lines: https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/strutc/a_look_back_on_how_fans_in_2001_criticized_pjs/

the more times change, the more people stay the same
Brian Earl Spilner
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YouBet
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BAP Enthusiast said:


Well, this is new information. They can't even use material from the books this is based on?

So, this is complete fan fiction then. Lol. Good to know.
Mathguy64
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That's rough. They can't use any name unless it comes from their own source. They can't refer to any genealogy of the Elves as that tree was in the Silmarillion only. No geography as those maps were also there. All you get for extended history was whatever was in the appendix and what you can infer from the poems and songs.
amercer
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This isn't new info. Its why the show is based in the second age.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Impressive to this day the amount of love and care, not to mention work, that went into these movies.
wangus12
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So I was listening to the OT soundtrack and it got me wondering. I remember Amazon being in talks with Howard Shore to compose music for the show, but don't remember if that was ever confirmed as well as whether or not they'd be able to use some of the old music in the show

The original work by Shore is still imo the greatest film score of all time.
Lathspell
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wangus12 said:

The original work by Shore is still imo the greatest film score of all time.
It is. There are other great ones out there, but nothing else I have ever heard better captures my imagination nor brings the story to life in the way Shore's score did.
Claude!
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Brian Earl Spilner said:



Impressive to this day the amount of love and care, not to mention work, that went into these movies.
Eh, same as it ever was.
Quincey P. Morris
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John Williams work on the Harry Potter movies is up there I think.

Howard Shore isn't currently listed as involved on his IMDB page so I don't know. Maybe it works out without him, but that would be a big miss in my opinion.
powerbelly
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Quincey P. Morris said:

John Williams work on the Harry Potter movies is up there I think.

Howard Shore isn't currently listed as involved on his IMDB page so I don't know. Maybe it works out without him, but that would be a big miss in my opinion.
I love the score from the first 3 movies that he worked on.
 
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