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Old 11-03-2005, 09:50 AM   #28
alatar
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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alatar is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.alatar is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
I would agree with Tuor of Gondolin in regards to naming the hobbit "Farmer Maggot.'' Though his dogs were fearful when the Nazgul did something or other, Farmer Maggot stood his ground. Surely it was daylight and he was on his home turf, yet still a deed worth at least a few bars in a song...

And it seems that a theme in this thread is PJ's lack of subtlety. He gets much right, but there's just that propensity to just take something 'good' and turn the volume up to 11. Watching the appendices included with ROTK EE, you get to see one of his crew just lavish honey-dripping praise on Jackson in regards to biggerBiggerBIGGER! The person actually states that, in the end, Jackson's input/decision was always the infallible 'right' thing to do.

Sure, if I had a chance to be immortalized on these DVDs, I'd say whatever it took too, but it almost looks like the person actually believed it.

Anyway, as we will find out later in regards to the Witch King's mace, the crew thought that what they created for PJ's review was ridiculously too big, yet he sees it and says "Bigger!" So here, in this sequence it's not enough for us to see bits and glimpses of the Ringwraiths - think about what you thought when you read the books. You find yourself reading faster so that you can figure out just what these black-robed things are. Did you reread the paragraphs when Frodo speaks with the elves and with Bombadil to see if you could wring more information out of the same words on the page? Even at Weathertop you really don't get much on the Nine.

Another example in this sequence of a good idea taken a bit too far in seen when Frodo returns to Bag End after drinking at the Green Dragon. We're on the same set/same place, yet it's changed because there's no fire or light. An opened window, innocent enough, allows the wind to stir up some papers. You get a bit of an eerie feeling, yet we haven't done anything stupid yet.

Wham! A disheveled Gandalf grabs Frodo from behind and starts ranting at him.

Was this the same kind old man that took a moment to reassure a young hobbit a scene or two ago? We could have just as easily watched a light appear in the corner, then the glow of Gandalf's pipe illuminating his face. But no! We need tension, and so we will use a character that previously we've taken some care to establish and already, in less than 40 minutes in, have him do something that's out-of-character.

But Gandalf appearing in the corner wouldn't have had the same effect of the 'cat jumping out' trick like you see in many slasher movies. And even if you use the cat trick, the idea is that the audience is expecting/hoping to see the monster come out, and you trick them with the cat. Here, PJ uses the cat yet has already shown us the monster.

PJ is about as subtle as a mumakil in a daisy patch.
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