Stupid Elf Tricks...

[Roa_Aoife]

Perhaps not anatomically impossible, but certainly in violation of the laws of Physics. Saucy makes good points, but I think another reason these stunt stand out so much is their incredible similarity to extreme sports. Legolas looks less like an Elf doing typical Elf stuff, and more like a skateboarder or surfer. It certainly breaks some of the believability when we are confronted with something so modern and familiar when we are supposed to be drawn into a strange and ancient world.

[Glirdan]

But see, the thing with that is that tight-rope walking, no matter how uncommon it is, is still, technically, a modern day thing. I think this one is over looked because of the fact that after the snow walking thing (which I really don't like), everyone thinks that Legolas can do anything. That was the impression I got. I think the other thing is that PJ wanted to develop the Elves a little more than they were described in the books. In the books, Elves are described as being light footed and agile. All of the stunts in the movies show this characteristic of the Elves. The ones in the Fellowship more so than the ones later on.

Saucy, I agree with you about Legolas's little twirl onto the horse. I thought it was cool at first, but now it just bugs me to the point of death. I hate it when he goes and defies the laws of gravity!!

[Carorëiel]

I agree that some of Legolas' stunts are a bit over-the-top, but I think the walking-on-snow thing is held up by the text. In "The Ring Goes South," we get the following:

"Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. 'The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running light over grass and leaf, or over snow--an Elf.'

With that he sprang forth nimbley, and then Frodo noticed as if for the first time, though he had long known it, that the Elf had no boots, but wore only light shoes, as he always did, and his feet made little imprint in the snow."

Granted, the text doesn't actually say that Legolas walks on top of the snow, but I don't think it's too big a leap. I always saw his walking on the snow in the film as a nod to this scene in the book.

[mormegil]

I agree with Carorëiel and was actually looking up this quote and noticed that it was just posted. Glirdan, I believe what the point Saucey was making is that Legolas was walking on the snow with little imprint and that's not technically possibly yet in a fantasy world it is.

Though more on topic I don't see any major problem with this particular stunt. There needs to be some amazing things happening here. It wouldn't be, cinematically speaking, as interesting if Leggy merely shot him from a distance and the battle was over. While this is a bit over the top that is all it is. The other stunts are more exorbitant in their realism and more of a gratuitous insert to make the women swoon (coughbethberrycough) , especially the shield surfing.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Not just the women, Morm. I too find the stunts swoonworthy.

People get bothered by different things. Stupid, funny, cool things like Oliphaunt stunts are fine by me. It's character defamation that makes me shake my head.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Glirdan

Saucy, I agree with you about Legolas's little twirl onto the horse. I thought it was cool at first, but now it just bugs me to the point of death. I hate it when he goes and defies the laws of gravity!!
Saucy, I agree with you about Legolas's little twirl onto the horse. I thought it was cool at first, but now it just bugs me to the point of death. I hate it when he goes and defies the laws of gravity!!

Hmm. And how would "The leap of Beren" (when he was
ticked off with the elf Bad Boys) compare?

[Roa_Aoife]

There's a thread that discusses the "walking-on-snow" thing to some length in the New Comer forum. Here.

[Morsul the Dark]

Originally Posted by Roa_Aoife

Perhaps not anatomically impossible, but certainly in violation of the laws of Physics. Saucy makes good points, but I think another reason these stunt stand out so much is their incredible similarity to extreme sports. Legolas looks less like an Elf doing typical Elf stuff, and more like a skateboarder or surfer. It certainly breaks some of the believability when we are confronted with something so modern and familiar when we are supposed to be drawn into a strange and ancient world.

maybe PJ madfe legolas Captain obvious to match this skateboarder image

[Essex]

I just don't understand why every male here is so jealous of the Hugely succesful, Multi millionaire and good looking movie star Orlando Bloom who has a string of beauties attached to his arm..................it really is beyond me.

I'd also like to congratulate everyone on not using the words 'Captain' and 'Obvious' together for 27 posts. Well done!

PS - yes the surfing did look 'out of place' - but whose to say that someone hasn't thought of something like this to get down some stairs quickly before? Why do we always think that just because we only invented surfing a while back that no one's thought of using a piece of wood or metal to make it down some stairs fast (and somewhat pecariously!) years before this?

[mormegil]

Essex, I think you misunderstand what we are saying here. This is not Orlando Bloom bashing, in fact I think he is a decent actor in his own right and I think he fit the general image of Legolas, to me anyway. I am not jealous in the least of him and I see why PJ would put in a pretty-boy in as the elf lead role. That's fine with me that he wanted to have an attractive 'hottie' for the girls to like. What does bother me is how he is shown at times. In particular the shield surfing. It just doesn't seem true to the story or environment. It's too similar to what I would expect Vin Diesel to be doing or even a Steven Segal. It simply took me out of the battle that was occuring and didn't seem to fit into what should have been happening at this time.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Essex

PS - yes the surfing did look 'out of place' - but whose to say that someone hasn't thought of something like this to get down some stairs quickly before? Why do we always think that just because we only invented surfing a while back that no one's thought of using a piece of wood or metal to make it down some stairs fast (and somewhat pecariously!) years before this?

Polynesian people have been surfing for three or four millenia and more recently surfing was observed by Captain Cook in Taihiti in 1777.

[Anguirel]

It's not Legolas' portrayal in the films that has distorted him somewhat irreparably for me. Rather, it's the reaction of filmgoers to the onscreen Legolas; and here I would class the contortions of Legolovers and purists as equally damaging, really.

Admittedly, film-Legolas for me was a good deal less than perfect. But as he was my favourite character when I first read the book at the age of six, that was always going to be rather difficult. I was annoyed by the blonde wig (Legolas is obviously dark) and the loss of the incredibly moving Sea-Longing scenes, but not to the point of delirium, foaming at the mouth etc.

No, what was dreadful was when it became clear that everyone had noticed Legolas. That they were either singing his praises or ripping him to pieces in berserk rage. Mud stuck on two sides; the fangirls were idolizing a simpering yellow-haired luvvah who quickly began to overlap with Orlie himself; the sceptics were yelling hackneyed and irritating names like "Captain Obvious!" and telling long, boring jokes about Legolas' shampoo supply.

Between them they ruined his gravitas. I began to realise I would have difficulty taking Legolas seriously again. That the Elf who fought perilously and wept into the sea was being forgotten. The mob had surrounded Legolas like a group of small boys fighting over a toy, and torn him to pieces...

And Mith, with respect, I'm sure Polynesians have been surfing away since 5000 BC, but I know and you know that the filmmakers don't care less about that aspect. They're aiming to suck up to skaters, and that does worry me a little. But it's a minor point, and really I believe, as I say, that the fans-aye, that we-are to blame for the defamation of poor old Leggy.

(Every time you say Leggy, another piece of Legolas' integrity dies...)

[Mithalwen]

Well I had the horror of my elder sister who had sneered at my Tolkien obsession throughout my adolescence suddenly getting interested because she liked Orlando Bloom ... I mean how ghastly is that? At her age it practically counts as a midlife crisis....grrrrrrrrrrrr Orlando Bloom is harmless enough. The role has brought him fame disproprotionate to his ability but such is the way of the world. He is not my vision of Legolas (who was a favourite of mine too when I first read the book) so I have filtered him out.... you will get him back. The book Legolas is still whatever he was. In my opinion virtually all the characters were demeaned in the film in relation to their book - if you think Legolas is hit hard, think about poor Elrond whose nobility and sacrifice is transformed in to a petulant MD and slightly creepy Dad... or Faramir..... PJ's vision doesn't have to destroy yours... I know have a composite in my head comprising of my own imaginings, Tolkien's picture overlapped with favourite aspects of the film and radio..... Personally I resent these scenes not because of Legolas's tricks - I thought the Troll chain walk was an acceptable sub for Legolas's running a rope across the Celebrant- but because they were overlong and left less time for character development.

For the surfing I merely attempted to provide factual information .... however I found the Gimli related incidents more intrusive and disrupting to the "suspension of disbelief" ("nobody tosses a Dwarf " etc....)

[Anguirel]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

if you think Legolas is hit hard, think about poor Elrond whose nobility and sacrifice is transformed in to a petulant MD and slightly creepy Dad... or Faramir.....

Actually, I didn't mind either of those cases nearly so much.

With Elrond I suppose it's because I was never as interested in him as I was in Legolas (until I read the Silmarillion and decided I was Maglor reincarnated, anyway...), as lots of my Elrondite friends felt his altering keenly.

But with Faramir, aside from the slightly ridiculous plot-holes caused by the Nazgul sequence, I had few problems, because I felt Wenham was a good actor who was deling with a character inside the appropriate culture. Indeed, in TTT EE and ROTK I could find no faults with him, and enjoyed every second he was on screen. Oh for more Houses of Healing scenes with the goddess Miranda...

Legolas felt...rather jarringly modern in more ways than skating, and reading interviews with Orlie didn't help. It's a problem he has in Kingdom of Heaven too. He couldn't be less "mediaeval"...

[Essex]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Polynesian people have been surfing for three or four millenia and more recently surfing was observed by Captain Cook in Taihiti in 1777.

Marvellous! It gives even MORE credence to Legolas surfing down the stairs.

The only bits where I'm 'taken out of the movie' are when PJ sticks himself, his mates or his children in a scene - I can't help remembering who they are and it brings me out of the movie. Oh, and them two rohan children on their horse and their mother 'I will find you' .............shudder............

[Mithalwen]

And of course as long as there has been snow and slopes I bet people have slid down em on their cultural equivalent of a tin tray.......

Oh the bugeyed moppets - once ok maybe they were plausible hobbits, but when they reappeared in Rohan and Gondor, I started getting the feeling we had removed to Royston Vasey and everyone was horribly inbred....