COMPASS & LOTR comparison

[Sauron the White]

from Lalwende

Star Wars is interesting because if you wanted to follow the story of what happened, going to see the films was the only way to find that out! Of course this doesn't happen with films based on blockbuster books.

The last three movies, which were actually the first three movies in the series, told a story that every single SW fan already knew how it ended. Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Any fan worth his light saber knew that as well as he/she knew their own name -- heck, for some of them they knew that development even better. Nobody had to pay a dime to find that out.

The real question about sequels to GC is this: with two more massive budget Middle-earth movies on their plate over the next few years, does the studio want to compete with itself both in time, energy, and resources for another fantasy which did not track very well in the number one film market in the world?

If GC could be made for under $50 million US, the answer might be yes. But with the same budget it had the first time, I would expect the answer to be no. And a lesser budget is not going to solve the problems that Lalaith mentioned, too short running time and not epic enough. Those things cost even more money then they spent the first time.

[Thinlómien]

While wondering why GC has done so much worse than the LotR movies when it comes to ticket sales, people on this thread seem to ignore two facts. First off, according to some researches, The Lord of the Rings is the second most read book in the world (the most read one being, of course, The Bible). Even though His Dark Materials are widely appreciated and liked as well, how could they ever comepte with LotR? LotR has more fans in general and much more devout fans (like somebody already said). Then, secondly, when it comes to the "general public" that are not fans of either of the books, one must remember that FotR was first of these fantasy blockbusters that have become so popular lately. Now, the general enthusiasm for these fantasy blockbusters is fading (there's been so many of them already) so it is very difficult for any fantasy blockbuster film to reach as big audiences and make as much money as the LotR movies did.

I saw the GC movie a few days ago. It was better than I expected it to be, but still not that good. The actors were mostly very good and it was visually excellent (except for the clumsy-looking bears with too long legs). The storytelling was ok, except that everything was far simpler than in the books and well, they did some things just wrong. Besides, I had a lot of fun while listening to the actors trying to pronounce Serafina Pekkala and her daemon's names (and some of the supposed-to-be Scandinavian names sounded all too funny as well).

Originally Posted by STW

Dwarves were suppose to be rather poor equestrians were they not? How is having one fall off a horse evidence of going too far when an event such as that was probably likely to happen if attempted?

While I wouldn't like to restart this argument, I must say that I agree with davem here. I see your (STW's) point about Dwarves being poor equestrians but why make Gimli ride in the first place, if most of the people are walking. Why on earth would Gimli ride willingly if he could walk as well? That's why the whole falling off the horse episode was so stupid.

[Sauron the White]

from Thinlomien

but why make Gimli ride in the first place, if most of the people are walking. Why on earth would Gimli ride willingly if he could walk as well?

Perhaps as a warrior, he was attempting to learn a new skill which could he employ in his repertoire? Remember in the first film we saw Boromir giving lessons in sword play to Merry and Pippin, so learning new techniques found a place on the menu. Again, this all sounds like so much nitpicking to find something wrong with the films when the vast majority of ticket buyers simply sat there, enjoyed the film and did not puzzle about such arcane questions. Out of the 185 million people who purchased tickets to TTT, how many actually sat there and had reservations about the incongruity about putting a Dwarf on a horse in the first place?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Out of the 185 million people who purchased tickets to TTT, how many actually sat there and had reservations about the incongruity about putting a Dwarf on a horse in the first place?

I can't speak for the 185 million but I can say that the five who sat in the row in front of me certainly appeared to have bought their tickets simply so they could laugh at/ridicule the entire concept of heroic fantasy and noble course of action.

Same thing happened when I went to see RotK in matinee--beastly bunch of teenage girls kept up a whispering campaign. Most rude and disconcerting. It's too bad that most cinemas nowadays don't have ushers around to keep the silence.

It has really made me wonder if part of the attraction of PJ's movies has been, for a certain subsection of the movie-going public, the opportunity to wallow in derision, scorn and cynicism.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The last three movies, which were actually the first three movies in the series, told a story that every single SW fan already knew how it ended. Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Any fan worth his light saber knew that as well as he/she knew their own name

Sure, but what every 501st Legion Star Warrior was dying to know was *how* Anakin bacame Vader. How did a Sith Lord become Emperor? How were Luke and Leia fathered, and how did she become a princess? How did the Republic fall? What was Obi-wan and Anakin's relationship, and what went wrong? For all these answers, they wanted the prequels (although, face it, the meat of the matter was really all in Ep 3).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

StW: the problem is not in establishing that Dwarves aren't equestrians (which book-Gimli simply tells us, in his dour Dwarven way), but in making a cheap pratfall of it for the sake of laffs- PJ self-indulgence which somebody ought to have reined in.

[Sauron the White]

WCH - I do agree that far too often Gimli was used as the butt of a joke or for 6th grade level humor. We agree on that and I would hope that THE HOBBIT - which is filled with dwarves and their history - would refrain from that.

Bethberry - I think we talked about this very issue before and you previously related that sad experience. While I am not a big death penalty advocate, I could be convinced to use it on the spot for cretins who display rude and boorish behavior in public theaters. I sympathize with you there. However, my experience with the three LOTR films was almost the direct and complete opposite of yours. I saw the three films over a total of 30 times, and for opening days the atmosphere was almost reverential. Many people seemed to be waiting a lifetime for the films and acted as ifthey were in a church. Some of the best behaved crowds I have ever seen in my nearly six decades on the planet. As the weeks rolled on, the crowd was no better or no worse than any other film I have seen.