Peter, however, is the most timid, unassuming people I have met in the industry and is a professional. Period.

I wish him all the best and congratulate him on an excellent piece of storytelling in bringing to the screen what must have been one of the most difficult adaptions in recent memory.

 |  IP: Logged

Boring

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly why. I can't remember a scene that wasn't well done and lavish. Great scenery great cgi. I didn't care much for frough dough. I guess he's suppose to be a wuss. Does he ever get any back bone later on? There's too many scenes of his big blue eyes being afraid and him wimpering about wanting to be left alone. It was also way too long and judging from the rest of the audience, they thought so too. Maybe the sequels will explain why you have to sit through the acres of repetitive stuff in this film.
I guess what this film reminds me of the most is a combat type video game. It seems to have no point other than to go from one conflict with one type of underworld bad guy to the next. They should have a point meter in the corner of the screen.

------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut http://www.muellersatomics.com/

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

I'm not sure why I waited so long to see this movie, but I'm glad I did. I got a showing that only had 30 to 40 people in it on a Wednesday night, in a 42 foot THX auditorium. I don't think I heard a single cell-phone or any distracting noises from anyone in there, which is extremely rare.

First, I've never read the books, so I was a bit worried that I would sit through a three hour movie that I wouldn't fully understand or enjoy. This movie, to me, will probably be a bit like the Star Wars movies. I never cared for the Star Wars movies until around 1997, then I loved them. Some movies take more than one viewing to fully understand and appreciate, and the Lord Of the Rings movies will probably be that way for me. There were lots of long-haired guys in the movie, and one or two of them could easily do drag and make great chicks. There was one in one scene that I had to study to figure out if it was male or female.

The sound was phenomenal. The clarity of the sound and the directional sound effects were excellent.

My heart sank a bit when the scope changeover occurred during the previews. After the changeover, the aperture plate was not in the proper position, causing the image to be about a foot and a half to the left, with the soundtrack visible a foot beyond the left screen edge and with the same amount of image blocked out on the right. I went out at the end of one of the previews, telling the audience I was going to get them to fix it, which they quickly did. I did not want to watch a 3 hour movie that way. What bothers me even more is that this happened the last time I saw a scope movie in auditorium 6 on August 24, 2001, and I'd hate to think that every scope movie has been shown that way since then.

As my grandmother used to say, a very expensive way to take a nap.

Saw it again today, with a group who all wanted to see it once more before it leaves theaters (they are all game developers: graphic artists and programmers, and they are in awe of this movie). My 3rd time. Still holds up very well for me. I hope this wins some awards. And that's all I have to say about that.

 |  IP: Logged

I'm surprised New Line managed to fit the entire theatrical cut of the flick onto a single disc. Of course, the 178 minute running time negated any other extras on Disc One, such as a commentary track. Video quality on the anamorphic widescreen version is pretty decent given all the challenging visual material. Still, some details get pretty soft at times. I'll bet the 4-disc Collector's Edition (which will spread the 30-minute longer cut across 2 discs) will have noticeably sharper image detail and better refinement of motion.

Audio on the disc (DD-EX 5.1) is excellent. I don't think I have any other DVDs in my collection featuring DD tracks with as powerful a bass response as this. It kind of makes me wonder just how much more over-the-top the sound will be on the 4-disc edition and its DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete audio track.

New Line has said that many of the extras used on the 2-disc edition will not be carried over to the 4-disc version. I guess they want you to spend a lot of cash for both. The 2-disc edition contains a $5 mail-in rebate off the 4-disc set.

 |  IP: Logged

I agree about the squinting part. This had to be one helluva hard title to encode in MPEG-2 and fit all 178 minutes on a DVD-9. Still, I prefer the widescreen version rather than watching it in "foolscreen".

enough bitching for one day, now for the movie itself....

I liked it, but it gave me the creeps on the way home