I know people will hate me for saying this, but what's the big deal with the Lord of the Rings series? Sure, they're good movies, but 17 Oscars in total for the series? Give me a break. What outrages me most was the 11 Oscar sweep for Return of the King. Average movies (and that's what this was, an average movie) do not deserve this much of the Academy's attention. The film has some bad acting (Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Gimli, to name a few), and while these performances don't ruin the film, they certainly do not make it worthy of BEST PICTURE!!!

And what's with the ending of #3? Or should I say endings? Whenever I can't sleep at night, I just go and watch the last half hour of Return of the King. Goodbye NyQuil, hello LOTR.

Why does everybody love these movies so much? It's beyond me?

Damn, I just realized that there are a bunch of spoilers in my post: Since you are a new comer Metal Head, spoilers are things that could give away vital parts of a movie that could ruin something for those who havent seen the movie. Spoilers are done in black so that they blend in with the background. To view a spoiler, simply highlight it by dragging your mouse over it and it will appear.

I'm sorry Mr. Head, but I need to disagree with you completely! The Lord of the Rings series are some of the greatest, most revolutionary movies ever made! I cant believe that numbers 1 and 2 didnt win best picture as well. Face the facts, every single aspect of the trilogy was great!

1) Story: One of the best things about LOTR was that it had a great basis to work from: Some of the best novels ever written! Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens did a worthy job of turning three excellent novels into three excellent screenplays. They cut out the perfect amount of parts to make each of the movies a perfect length (although some may say they were too long)

2) Costume design, makeup and art/set direction and music: From the elves, to the orcs, the costumes and makeup were amazing. One could really get a true feel of each of different races and characters. With art/set direction and music, lets start with The Shire. The first scene in The Fellowship of the Ring was brilliant. The way it showed the beautiful Hobbiton during the day with the green grass and the houses built into the hills as the delightful happy music played. Then, Bilbo's 111th birthday party with the dancing and fireworks gave viewers an excellent feel of what was happening. Next, the way Jackson depicted Mordor and the fiery depths of Mount Doom along with the tower of Barad-Dur and the great eye of Sauron and how the evil music boomed as orcs were molding weapons in the fiery chasms beneath Isengard. Oh yeah, and Rivendell was amazing and so beautiful with the waterfalls and everything. And who could forget Minas Tirith! And with music, The happy music made you really feel happy and the sad music really made you feel sad. Brilliant!

3) Special Effects and Fight Scenes. God, where do I begin. Lets go in chronological order. I believe the first real fight scene took place in the Mines of Moria. It began with the fight against the orc and ended with Gandalfs fight against the Balrog as they both tumbled into the fiery depths of doom! Amazing! And how about the battle at Helm's deep! Jesus Christ this was amazing. I can't even begin! The best part about Helm's deep for me was when the kamikaze orc was running towards the wall to blow it up, and Aragorn yelled to Legolas in elvish, "Legolas, bring him down! Kill Him! and Legolas shot him but the orc moved on and dove into the wall, blasting it to pieces! And finnaly, the battle at Pelanor Fields was perfect too! I wont even elaborate. And on the lines of special effects and CG, I think that only one word is necessary: Gollum! Gollum is in my opinion, the greatest CG character ever created in the history of motion pictures!

4) Acting: This was the one part of the movie that was lacking a little and I can understand why it didnt get nominated or win any best lead/supporting actor/actress award. However, this aspect did nothing at all to lower my enjoyment of the movie and the acting certainly wasn't "bad" or even "fair" it was quite good, but just didnt compare with the rest of the movie. However, I did become extremely "close" to each of the characters as each of the movies progressed. It was like "the ring" was taking more and more control of me as well as Frodo and Sam moved closer to Mordor!

And finally the ending(s). Although people have told me that they were asking for it too "finish already" as the many endings came, I wanted them to keep coming because I was so sad for such a great epic to come to an end. Ill tell you that I didnt cry, but I came damn near close to it!
So MH, I hope that helps you to understand a little better why everyone loves this movie so much. Jackson has created a masterpiece! I suggest you think about these things that I have said and then watch the movies again with an open mind.

Reading your reply, kraftdeluxe, I remembered something else that annoyed me. The ENDLESS staring sessions between Frodo and Sam. On one of those endings in the third movie, when Frodo was leaving (thank God) he and his "friend" Sam were seemingly mesmerized with each other for what seemed like an eternity. Other times in the movies (especially in #3) they would look deep into each other's eyes and creep out the audience.

But you do have a point with the special effects. That was the only thing, besides the bad acting, that blew me away. Gollum was the best CGI ever made, and probably will ever be made. His facial features, expressions, movements, and speaking were incredible. At times one almost forgets they are watching a computer graphic. Hell, Gollum was a better "actor" than any of the others.

The Lord of the Rings was one of the best acted series of films ever made. Even the Screen Actors Guild (not the "Team America's "FAG") had to admit it last year when they they gave it the ENSEMBLE award. I notice lots of people, mostly younger guys, who diss the acting, usually always saying the same guys sucked, the ones with big eyes, etc. I agree that Andy Serkis' contributions are semi-responsible for the award, and next year, when he plays "King Kong", maybe another "bubblegum" film which really has more to say about reality than all the "realistic" ones do, will be awarded appropriately.

Wait? Are you saying Andy Serkis is going to play the character of King Kong?

Go to the Directors/Writers thread here and click on my thread "Peter Jackson...what do you think?", or to get the lowdown sooner, click here

hmmm...I see.
I doubt that Serkis will be able to bring to King Kong the same amazing "stuff" that he brought to Gollum, because King Kong doesnt talk? does he? But whatever I'm very interested to see how this movie will turn out.

Is the KING KONG movie a comedy? I wouldn't have thought so, because Jackson's directing it, but Jack Black is one of the leads in it. Does anyone know?

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Originally posted by Metal Head:
Is the KING KONG movie a comedy? I wouldn't have thought so, because Jackson's directing it, but Jack Black is one of the leads in it. Does anyone know?

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From what I understand, "King Kong" is one of PJ's favorite films (good choice!), and he says this film is a completely-straight homage to the original. It's a period film set in 1930s NYC and Skull Island with no reference to the Jessica Lange remake. However, Jackson also said that he wanted to pump up Kong's role and try to make his sexual/emotional responses to the love of his life more easily-identifiable, and I'm sure that Andy Serkis and the Effects Crew can handle that.

As far as Jack Black playing Carl Denham, let's remember that you have to be a maniac to consider capturing Kong and bringing him to New York City in the 1930s where he would supposedly be a "trained monkey" and not care about his significant other. Jack Black might be on the cusp of showing off his dramatic chops, a la Jim Carrey. I fully expect Black to proffer a dramatic performance which doesn't miss on any of the comedic possibilities (which should be choice.)

I have to agree with metal head the lord of the rings didnt impress me at all its a good film... but i mean thats it its just like watching any other film thats enjoyable , hardly spectacular i mean iv seen each of them once and i see no reason for me to go back and watch them again coz well i just dont wanna sit through the damn thing again i swear i was just kinda waitin for return of the kings to end seriously i was so bored!

right my dad has the like dvd set of them and i see him watching them but he's alwayz just skippin to the fight scene's and saying wow the graphics for that is sooo kool but thats it soon as they are over he turns it off and he's menna be like "totally into lotr" i agree with him that the fight scenes are good but apart from that they are pretty dull films.

Well everyone has a right to their opinion but I suggest you read my post eight posts above yours if you havent read it yet, to get a feeling why us "Ringies" love the movies so much.

You know, I really enjoyed each of the LOR films. The battle scenes within each picutre are pretty amazing, and I think, will stand the test of time. However, as individual movies, the don't seem to have the depth of films I would consider to be the best ever. Consider:

Fellowship: A great introduction, which introduces a fantastic story line. However, the film itself offers no resolve what so ever.
Towers: The worst of the three, I think, because it can't really stand alone as it's own film. Every aspect of the movie is dependent upon the viewer having seen, and practically memorized the first film.
Return: The opposite of "Fellowship", all resolve and climax, without and character development. Also: the last half-hour is complete throw-away.

Together, they make one amazing motion picture, however, individually it'll be difficult to convince me that any of the films can rate very high on the canon.

Being a girl...I went to see LOTR for the sole purpose of seeing Elijah Wood...but, after seeing the movie I realized that the CGI's, graphics, etc. were so good. My mind was now focused on the actual movie instead of the heart throb! I patted myself on the back, and wait for the others to come out in theater!

I get side-tracked once in a while...but, i always make my way back!!

So, i have to say that I really enjoyed all of the LOTR movies...i thought they were both interesting and intense...

My take on why the last insatallment got all the oscars is that it was a way of honouring all three movies at the same time. It's a way of giving everyone involved an oscar, without giving everyone involved three.
As for my opinion of the series, I fall on the side of Metal. You are a brave man posting this topic, or maybe you get off tilting at windmills. Whatever, I'll agree with you, and stand behind you, while you cop the flack, a-la the escalator scene in "Total recall".

I wasn't a fan of the first LOTR movie, it seemed incredibly long and dull, the second one was much better but still not a masterpiece. Return of the King was brilliant though, incredible, three different stories occuring at once that tie themselves together at the end. It was still very long, but it was one of the most breathtaking three hour movie experiences of my life.

When I first saw LOTR I liked it...however, agreeing with Mike, it was long and it seemed to drag on a bit...I also liked the second, but I think the third was the best...The graphics got better with each movie and everything was more exciting, for sure!

I dunno. There's something about these movies that's just very emotional for me. When it comes to emotional scenes, the director doesn't pull punches (just like the action scenes) and it's this that caused these films to grab me and not let go. I love these films not becuase of the CGI or battles (while I love those too), but because there's so much classic movie goodness. The stakes are high. The conflicts are monumental. The characters are well-developed and intimate.

Yeah, but you would say that, seein' as how your a character in these filums, an' all.

Lol, yeah guess I have a bit of bias.

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Originally posted by Bilbo Baggins:
Lol, yeah guess I have a bit of bias.

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Ya know, seein' you here, it occurs to me what ranckles me about LOTR so much. There's altogether too much Hobbitting going on. The movie goes something like this:

Great opening scene, Hobbit, hobbit , dark Wraiths, Hobbit, Hobbitt, a huge battle,Hobbit,bloody Hobbit, some great CGI, Sherri Bobbit. The end, but first, a game of scrabble. Your letters....S.T.U.F.F.M.E.

If they Could do a "Hobbit free cut" I'd buy it straight away, but then, it probably wouldn't be very long.

"You can't lose the pie. The pie's the heart" Ron Howard.

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