Lord of the Rings Premiere

[Power Scuba]

Movie of the Decade? That's what some pople are saying already. Anyhow, I started the line party for the MIDNIGHT show the evening of the 18th. Here's the URL:

LOTR LineParty at Edwards Mira Mesa Stadium 18

I have a product champion attending from Decipher.com (makers of the Trading Card Game) who'll be offering up official give-aways and stuff. See you there!

 

[Natasha]

We are major J.R.R. Tolkien fans here. (1892-1973)
We're waiting for Christmas Eve to see it. Makes it even more special. We're going to a special theater in downtown Chicago to see it.
I know it's going to make me want to go to New Zealand even more then I already want to!
:sunny:

 

[Tavi]

I'm really looking forward to it, Having read all the books several times.
I'm not sure I want to fight the crowds on opening night though.
One of the guys at work said one critic gave it a 14 on a scale of 1-10.

Enjoy!

 

[JustAddWater]

Loved the books as a kid. I saw the cartoon movies also. It's been a while since I've seen a movie at the theater, but this one I'll see on the big screen.

 

[Aragorn]

Hmmm....I guess it'll be OK. I'll wait for it to come out on DVD.

 

[The Chairman]

that they took out all those dance routines like in Riverdance and Lord of the dance...

Actually, I am really looking forward to it... heard some great reviews as well. For those of you who like JRR Tolkien, you should check out his best friend's books as well... CS Lewis. Both were awesome philologists, though Tolkien did not indulge in creating new languages nearly as much as Lewis. For a GREAT read... see his Out of the Silent Planet trilogy.

 

[Power Scuba]

"Both were awesome philologists, though Tolkien did not indulge in creating new languages nearly as much as Lewis. " NetDoc, I've only read one C.S. Lewis book, but he must have invented a PRODIGEOUS amount of fully-fleshed-out languages if he beat the number and quality of Tolkien's creations!

btw- The movie last night was absolutely EVERYTHING I thought it would be... and much more. Powerful, evocative, and compelling... for three full hours! Three hours that felt like three minutes. I stole a glance around once, was immediately sorry because I missed a second's worth of the movie, but saw and realized that EVERYONE in the theatre was riveted to their seat.

I hope you all get to see it soon.

 

[The Chairman]

Both were into inventing languages, both believed that how we saw our world shaped our language, and both were awesome. Lewis' knowledge of the structure and shape of language (he authored various tomes on philology such as "Phusis and Natura") did surpass Tolkien. It is my understanding that Lewis even taught classes in which students invented their own language. He truly believed that our perception of reality and morality could be seen in our speech and what words we invented.

In my non-learned and humble opinion, Tolkien was driven by the romance of fantasy, while Lewis by philosophy and his religion. You can not escape Lewis' religion in ANY of his books, on the other hand you could not possibly deduce Tolkien's beliefs from his. IMHO, Tolkien possessed a keener imagination, while Lewis had a keener insight into humanity. Tolkien's stories needed no moral and were epic in nature. Lewis' stories always had morals to them (usually several) and tended to be shorter.

Now don't take this out of context, BOTH men were outrageously brilliant and their writings need not be compared to enjoy either. They were friends who enjoyed similar interests, and I think you can easily see how each influenced the other's writing. Again I would always reccomend Lewis' Space trilogy ("Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra", and "That Hideous Strength") to get a good idea of how he invents languages to explain morality.

As a caveat, let me point out that I am NOT an Liturature professor nor do I pretend to be one. If you dabble in Liturature you should get the proper training so that you don't become a statistic. Heaven knows there are enough "Stroke Liturature Majors" out there who do everything wrong, and it is a wonder that they are still alive. Rmember... you should always read within your limits... don't go too deep into a book unless you get trained in philosophy first. Most "Liturature" accidents occur after a student completes a book or two under supervision and then reads one ON THEIR OWN (cardinal sin here) and then tries to make their own opinions. This is not good. Some of you think you know everything, and you really annoy those of us who really do. It is also reccomended that you do a three minute safety stop with a newspaper before you re-enter reality. If you were in the story for too long (check your tables), you might need to do some deep deco stops by reading the national enquirer before dealing with news that might be actually true.

 

[Power Scuba]

"In my non-learned and humble opinion, Tolkien was driven by the romance of fantasy, while Lewis by philosophy and his religion. "

Actually, NetDoc (and this is what drew my attention to your first post), Tolkien was quoted as saying that he invented the world of Middle Earth, in all its vast and epic granduer, as a vehicle for fully realizing his invented languages ! First and foremost this was his intention behind the long years it took to realize his creation (not to mention the Silmarilion, which was left incomplete and later finished by his son, Christopher). Imagine building as complex, intricate, fleshed-out, and historied a place as ME simply as a container for the languages existant within.

You're right that Tolkien wasn't interested in imbueing his stories with any particular religious, philisophical, or moral meaning, he said as much... although many critics have said that the time he spent in the trenches of the Great War shaped his outlook on society, technology, and indeed shaped the black and white, unambiguous nature of his stories.

Thanks for your input! I'll look forward to hearing how you liked the movie.

Bill

 

[martinjc]

I went to the 2:00 matinee yesterday - and the moivie was fantastic! I was amazed at some of the scenery - and also quite impressed by how some of the 'places' (Moria, the Shire) really matched how I had pictured them while reading the books. (I just finished re-reading The Fellowship of the RIng this past weekend in preparation for seeing the movie - so the pictures were fresh in my mind.)

For you purists - yes there are some minor changes and omissions to the storyline - but let's face it - to do it all would have made a 3 hour movie into a 5 hour movie. I was hoping to see Tom Bombadil - but beyond that I don't think anything omitted or 'added' was very detrimental to the story. (Sure - Liv Tyler had more to do as Arwen than in the book - but what's wrong with seeing more of Liv Tyler?? <S>) The actors were all great - very fine casting (although all of the Hobbits are thinner then I had imagined them.)

Anyway - two big thumbs up - go check it out if you're a Tolkien fan - and if you're not - check it out anyway, then read the books!

-Jim