[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by HerenIstarion

What is that wonderful in making little imprint when not wearing heavy boots and being nimble and agile and light-footed and not that heavy at all, eh? On a crisp snow crust?

I'd call it quite wonderful when the two Men present are unable to move across the snow without becoming becoming all but buried in it.

Slowly they moved off, and were soon toiling heavily. In places the snow was breast-high, and often Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking.

The difference between this description and the description of Legolas' passage across the snow cannot be explained in terms of agility and light-footedness alone. Either Legolas is a lot lighter than the other two or he is not subject to the same forces that they are. But this is probably best left to the thread which Roa_Aoife linked to above.

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Take that into contrast with a Legolas who can't even fight his way through a crowd to save Aragorn in RotK and you've got a pretty up-and-down character.

Ah, now you may have a point there on inconsistency, but it's not the point with which you started this thread. And, to the extent that there is inconsistency in the portrayal of Legolas' skills, it is not one which would occur to someone at this point in the first film of the three.

Originally Posted by Gurthang

It's like PJ wants to use Legolas to shoot elves up on an unassailable pedestal. The stunts are something that an elf, even in a fantasy world, should not be able to do.

Sorry, but I fail to see much difference, in substance at least if not in style, between these moments and Legolas' snow walking in the book. As for Jackson's reasons for including them, I think that he saw an opportunity to adapt/expand on the way in which Legolas is presented in the book to appeal to a certain type of viewer. While, as I said, I am not a great fan of the shield-surfing scene, I can understand why he did it. And I bet that there are a fair few out there who would cite it as one of their favourite moments of the film or, at the very least, a very moment.

Mind you, he's not that "superhuman". He got the direction of the Orcs route to Isengard completely wrong. Now there's an issue that does annoy me, and I really don't understand why they did not re-dub it on the EE.

Originally Posted by Kath

How so? As I recall he was standing with his back slightly to the horse. He then grabbed the reins (or the neck, I don't remember which) with his left hand and bent his elbow as he swung up, thereby turning his body around and landing facing forward.

I don't doubt that the maneuvre is possible in theory (although undoubtedly dangerous). It just seemed to me that the way in which it was presented on-screen looked impossible.

Originally Posted by Kath

... when he jumps off the troll you can see the switch between CGI and real person, and that was quite jarring.

Hehe. When I was but a mere strip of a Saucepan Man, the best special effects were those produced by Ray Harryhausen et al. Whenever the monster grabbed one of the actors, he or she suddenly turned to plasticene. So, as far as I am concerned, CGI is a vast improvement (although I remain a great admirer of Ray Harryhausen's work).