Remainder of notes on #12
I'm falling so far behind on my LOTR notes I don't know if I will *ever* catch up. I just went to viewing #16 yesterday, and I haven't finished posting #12 yet. I also managed to cover myself in ink yesterday--so much for keeping my pen and notebook at the ready!**sigh**

I know Karen and I are never going to agree on what exactly we see in Frodo's face when Boromir picks up the ring on their way up Caradhras. I see the beginning of ringlust--the look on his face is out of all proportion to what Boromir is saying, and in fact is already showing before Boromir has finished picking up the ring. It's more than concern or unhappiness, and borders on hatred. And beyond that, he has started to look more than a little tired of the whole affair--not just tired or distrustful, but really sick of everyone and everything. It still comes and goes at this point.

I still wonder why we don't see Frodo and Sam smoke more. Not to mention Merry and Pippin, although they at least get to smoke a little in Moria. It would help to remind the viewer that hobbits are not children, no matter how small and cute they might be. Merry does seem to be fixated on apples, doesn't he? We rarely see him without one in his hand. Frodo, on the other hand--the only time we see him with food is when he's packing it to leave Bag End. We assume they're cooking and eating on their way to Bree when we see them smoking, and he's helping them unpack for the "second breakfast" that Strider curtails, and Sam brings him a plate of food just before Caradhras, but he never actually eats.

It's been fun finding the "errors" that I didn't see myself, but of course the ones that annoy me are the ones I saw relatively early on, like the positioning of Gimli in Balin's tomb. JRD himself is right up next to the tomb, so that when he leans forward, his helm rests on the tomb. The double is quite a bit further away. ARGH. The only other one that bugs me as much is the amazing disappearing hand of Boromir on Aragorn's shoulder, during Boromir's death scene. That one takes me RIGHT out of the storyline sometimes, I'm so annoyed. It's a shame to have Viggo and Sean doing such a terrific job and something silly like that getting in the way--doesn't compare at all to stuff like a car in the distance.

Poor Orlando gets stuck naming half the stuff in the movie: Orcs! Goblins! Crebain from Dunland! (I'm sure I got that last one wrong--will fix when I can check it.) Not to mention: He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Too bad they took identification of the Balrog away from him (I think it was his in the book) and gave it to Gandalf. Walking dictionary, that boy.

I like the final flight out of Moria--everything gets just that little bit out of control (as if it wasn't already). After the Balrog is spotted and named (and Leggy looks particular terrified--on what level does he feel it, and what does he feel?), Gandalf shoves Aragorn and insists that he "lead them on"--but it seems to be Boromir leading them. I love the way Legolas vaults down the side of the stairs rather than climbing down, to move from the back to the front (and thus be in a position to catch Gandalf). And, of course, there's my favorite bit: the game of Red Rover they all play when the stairs/bridge starts to collapse. "Send Gandalf on over!" Guess Frodo lost that one... Then again, Boromir gets to catch him again--Boromir is always catching or carrying Frodo in Moria.

Lothlorien is indeed magical. Aragorn's grey-green eyes are blue, Boromir's hair is clean, and Legolas glows silver instead of his usual gold. Gotta love it. I love Frodo's whole distrustful stance around Galadriel's mirror--which works much better since it is just him there in the movie, rather than him and Sam as in the book. I wish Frodo got to see Galadriel's ring, though. That's one of my quibbles with the scene--the other is the missing line we heard in the trailer ("You will find your strength") for which we get instead the "Even the smallest person..." line that I do NOT like. Frodo has said he doesn't know if he can do what he must. Why does she assume it's because he is SMALL? I don't think that's it at ALL. Made a cute picture for the ads, but I don't like it. And he should be able to see her ring, so her line about him being a ringbearer would have more depth. "Bearing a ring of power is to be alone." yeah, and being married to Celeborn doesn't help, either.

What else can I say about #12? We had lots of newbies in the theatre, who were more vocally into the fight scenes than us old timers. That was fun. Applause when Aragorn killed Lurtz! (And his eyes look blue again in Boromir's death scene.)

God, I love this shot. Nothing to do with this post, though! Photo taken by Viggo.