|
|
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Redifer
You need a beating today
Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99
|
posted 12-31-2002 01:28 AM
Well I was dragged by my large family to this movie tonight, so it is time for my comments.
The movie had its good and its bad points. Of course I must first concentrate on the bad. I agree with Greg that there was way too much comic relief going on in what whas supposed to be dramatic scenes. I just can't get into movies that have "funny" going on with the "drama". I did not like some of the CGI effects. With the exception of Gollum, everything seemed to be rendered at a much lower resolution than the film was shot at, especially the water scene at the end. Looked awful. Plus much of the CGI animation just looked fake. Those 2 little bastards riding on that walking tree looked like a cardboard cutout bobbing up an down! The movie failed to hold my interest, and I found myself more interested in how fast the hairs on my arm were growing than what was going on onscreen. Also, if elves can be killed, why do they refer to men as "mortals"? That is retarded. You cannot call someone else "mortal" if there is any way that you yourself can die. And that elf died pretty easily. I bet they can commit suicide, too. So why does Liv Tyler have to worry if her boyfriend (who always seems to have a perfectly trimmed 5 o'clock shadow) dies? She can just kill herself. She doesn't have to live forever in emotional pain. Retarded retarded retarded!
The good points: Gollum's animation was done very well for the most part. High res! The movie opened fairly well until it got boring 15 minutes or so later. I really liked the first movie.
The presentation:
United Artists Continental 6, Denver CO.
Overall Rating: Mixed bag
Slideshow: Christie DLP motion slides presented in PowerPoint (or maybe Flash). Looked like crap! You could count the scanlines.
Picture: Very bright on the large Continental screen. Very sharp. I am not sure how big this screen is, but I'd reckon at least 80 feet or more in scope. (Christie package, by the way). Picture started out of frame.
Sound: Yuck! Waaaaaaay too much treble. I imagine that the CP500's EQ settings start out at the very bottom at 40Hz and gradually slant upwards the higher it goes. In other words, the higher the frequency, the more it was cranked. This auditorium didn't used to sound this bad. My house sounds better than this. Trailers and ads (all 15 billion of them) were played at an excruciatingly loud level. You would think that they would have learned how to play trailers at a lower level after all this time. Hell, when I worked there briefly I manually adjusted the volume for feature vs trailers.
Filmguard: Obviously not used
Dirt: lots of it at the many many splices throughout
Scratches: A few here and there, probably caused by the lab. However the Continental has obviously elected NOT to replace these reels.
Audience: Crap. I had forgotten how much I hate seeing movies with a big audience. They smell, they make noise, they need to be shot. The only movies that work well with an audience are comedies, which this movie tried to be apparently.
| IP: Logged
|
|
David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
|
posted 12-31-2002 10:06 PM
12/31/2002, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, 3:45PM, #3, SDDS (I asked). Attendance about 200. See presentation comments below. This was my 2nd viewing. I used the freebie ticket that came with the LOTR DVD, and they still gave me 10 Regal Crown Club credits. Hot damn!
The movie has its good and its bad points. I will first concentrate on the bad... ... ... ... [processing] ... ... ... Well, I noticed one time, when Samwise was talking to Gollum, he seemed to be looking off to Gollum's side instead of right at him. And oh, yeah, when Merry and Pippin were riding in the trees (Ents?), it just looked kind of "wrong". These flaws maared at least 15 seconds of the film's 3-hour running time.
The good points: I enjoyed this WAY more on 2nd viewing because I could focus more on storyline and characters. Having worked in the videogame business for the past 9 years, I have oberved first-hand the creativity and dedication that goes into bringing this stuff to life. The makers sweat over so many small details (whether it's for a movie theater screen, or a computer screen). So I'll just say this (sorry for the cliches): "Two Towers" is one of the great modern film spectacles, an amazing achievement, and I really feel like I have to resort to petty nit-picking to say anything at all bad about it. I bet many people in the film biz look at Two Towers and say to themselves "I should someday be so lucky as to have my name associated with a film as good as that."
Presentation:
Overall Rating: Excellent. The hard-working and underappreciated staff of Cinema World deserves the 40-cent minimum-wage increase they're getting tomorrow. (I mean that sincerely. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) )
Slideshow: Conventional slides, which always look like crap (generally a combination of dim, dirty, fuzzy, and/or tilted). Not that I care though.
Non-sync: Val Kilmer's MovieTunes (is it MovieToons?). Val has a very promising fallback career going for himself in case his acting gig flops. Val has a good DJ voice, but it doesn't sound at all like him.
Picture: Imagery generated by some variation of a Simplex 35. Fixed-height screen is only about 30 feet in scope ("Just sit closer than you normally would!"). Uniformly sharp & bright, very steady. Reel-change splices were almost unnoticeable. If the image were centered just a little better in the masking, I would give it a "perfect".
Sound: Clean, crisp without being harsh, plenty of punch and directionality, and very deep bass. I didn't notice a single SDDS dropout. Most if not all the trailers also played in digital. "The Best Cinema Sound In This Hick Oregon Town!" would make a good slogan for Cinema World's newspaper ad. (Alternate suggestion:"Stadium seating is dangerous! You could fall on the stairs and poke your eye out!"
Dirt & Scratches: Almost zero dirt, and no scratches. Their print is near-flawless, even after 2 weeks on one of those platter contraptions (I think it's an ORC).
Audience: No gum snappers, seat kickers, talkers, cell phone users, wet hacking coughers, or unruly children today.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
|
posted 01-01-2003 08:15 PM
Paul, I wasn`t saying that New Zealanders can not be mystical as such. All people have myths and fairy tales. What I mean is that I doubt (after watching this movie) if there is an understanding for the "atmosphere" especially of Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, German and Russian legends and epics that Tolkien was inspired by. It is of course very difficult to describe that in words. Maybe I could try to describe it as "earthy", "heavy", very dark or sinister and cold. "Excalibur" would be a good example for a film which catches that. "The 13th Warrior" (BTW written and directed by Americans) was also more successful in catching that. Ironically, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", while a comedy may give you an idea of what I mean. Also "Jabberwocky" (directed by American Terry Gilliam, but with extreme sensitivity for the image world of medieval England). Or listen to Sibelius, especially the 2nd movement of the 1st symphony, the whole 1st and 4th symphonies, "Tapiola" or "The Swan of Tuonela".
What makes Tolkien so fascinating for European readers is that the atmosphere of the medieval and Dark Age world as it perceived through legends and more importantly, landscapes, old castles, dark northern forest etc. is so believeable and "realistic". The fantastic events of his books become all the more fascinating because they appear so "realistic". The movie lacks that feeling completely.
I have no idea what Maori legends are like, but the images of their culture, housing, weapons etc. I have seen and the feeling they transport are completely unlike those of the northern European countries. That does not mean that they are less mystical and deep.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
|
posted 01-01-2003 10:36 PM
This is directed at those that love to trash any movie in general because the book was better...
The one problem about avid book lovers who try to diss on cinema from books, is that they miss the entire point that bieng faithful the the images and concept of more than 100 million individual people is statistically impossible.
For you who found it totally offensive and not true to form, while I found it enlightening and wonderful, remember that you are not J.R.R. Tolkien. He is dead. I am sure that if he was not, he would be able to tell us if he likes this movie or not. Considering he is dead, we will just have to trust that the movie is just that... A MOVIE. It is not the book.
Don't get me wrong. It is just that you are trashing the film in general because it doesn't meet your personal expectations, and you have this sincere desire to make the rest of us feel that same pain you feel.
However, not all will agree that this film is not what it should be.
That is not to say that I was not bored to tears or anything, in fact, besides Gollum, the last hour was the only thing that really held my attention.
That is not to say that it didn't meet my expectations of the movie after having read the books. It did just that, knowing full damn well that you cannot cram those books into three hours without some directorial interpretation.
And what do you want for bad guys? You want that they should all be dressed up as circus clowns and carry balloons? Come on! It worked and it was very effective for 95 percent of the crowd, which is who actually pays for us to keep talking about this subject adinfanitem.. or whatever...
I loved the movie, will see it again, and if anything, it will hopefully encourage a whole new generation of youth to start reading again.
Dave
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Lionel Fouillen
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 230
From: Belgium
Registered: Nov 2002
|
posted 01-02-2003 05:37 AM
I saw it a few days ago at the 5:00pm performance.
The film
Basically I'm not a Tolkien fan. My grandmother offered me the books when I was a teenager but I remember giving up reading The Fellowship of the Ring after about 30 pages. Too boring! I didn't see it at the theatre either but accepted to make an effort and watched the VHS at home a few months ago. I really loved it and was impatient to see the second installment.
The Two Towers is not boring but I had the feeling to see the same thing over and over for 3 hours. That's the usual problem with a central part of a work, as Steve mentioned. I liked it but I won't see it another time. What I don't like though is that, in most films like that today, you just seem to attend a special effects show where you can hardly notice somebody or something real! However a few scenes were very spectacular, especially when the Orks blow up the fortress ramparts.
The theatre
I saw it at the Opera 6-plex in Liège, in the larger auditorium (463 seats). I hadn't come to this multiplex for a few years, favoring the newer Kinepolis outside the town for its much better quality.
When I entered the auditorium, I was struck to see how sticky it became. The seats have never been changed since the opening of the multiplex in 1981 (where Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered with no sound during the first 5 minutes). Entire rows were broken-down (actually the best seats ![[Mad]](mad.gif) ) and the seats were piled in a corner of the auditorium. A few bulbs for the auditorium lighting weren't working. Last but not least, there was a slight smell of piss in the air!
The projection in itself was good (good focus and sound volume), the automation system didn't fail and the scope lens and plate came at the right place at the right moment. I didn't notice dirt or scratches on the print. The only problem is that speakers cracked every time the sound source was switched (non-sync/analog ads and trailers/digital LOTR).
The attendance was low (approx. 50). During the ads and trailers, a kid started to play with a Gameboy or something and his mum didn't tell him to stop. Fortunately he stopped before the feature started. During the film, two cell phones rang but their owners immediately switched them off.
In the middle of the film, I needed to go to the toilet. Usually there is always a member of staff to watch after it and make sure it remains clean. This time there was nobody and it wasn't fully clean. Also, a panel still displayed "Toilets: 10 BEF" (although we use the Euro currency since 1st January 2002).
When the show ended, I wanted to complain about the poor conditions of the theatre but couldn't see any staff. I got out of the theatre using the main exit along with most spectators. This also stands for the emergency exit. Previously somebody apparently spilled a bucket of soda on the floor so it felt sticky when I walked on it (and there was no way to walk around it). The guy in front of me pushed the final exit door (this is a typical emergency door - "PUSH BAR TO OPEN") but the door never opened! It was stuck for some reason. So he pushed the other door next to it and, at last, I was back to civilization...
To all movie-goers out there, if you ever come to Liege, don't go to the Opera Cinema!
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[beer]](graemlins/beer.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic