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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chain Lightning" data-source="post: 1308097" data-attributes="member: 6791">From a directorial point of view... we're talking about the craft of movie making...the scene with the "lighting of the beacons" starts out awesome but starts to get sloppy as it goes on.  Jackson on several occasions says he wants these films to be realistic [and I assume 'realistic' means that all things that happen are within the realm of possibility upon the setting: Middle-Earth]. Well, its not established that the beacons are magical at all. In fact, as an audience member, you come to believe that the beacons are lit by guards or 'caretakers'. These could be villagers or whomever that lives next to a beacon and sworn an oath to light it when the time comes. Heh heh....here comes the sloppy part [ mind you....this is so nit picky...but we're talking about the craft of movie making. And that sometimes involves taking everything apart...even the small stuff]: The last couple of beacons before the one Aragorn sees are so ridiculously out of reach from any sane human sentinel, guard, militia, villager, volunteer, fisherman, farmer, etc, etc. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />We made jokes about this afterwards. About Joe-Bob the villager, decades ago he promised to light the beacon at the summit of the snowy mountain should he see the other beacon on the other mountain lit. He said yes to that duty because the Steward gave him a tax break if he would. After so many years, he thought the day would never come. But it did.  "Damn them! Now I gotta climb all the way up that friggin mountain with a torch in my hand! Helga, where are my climbing pitons and rope?!? I gotta go climb that peak! Its gonna take me at least a two days to get up there so I gotta start now!"I mean, did you see some of those peaks?!?! I wanna meet that guy who climbed up there to light it! Because he should've been in the Fellowship. Anyone that good at climbing up there that fast should've guided our heroes over Caradhras. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Or did he just simply live up there like a weird hermit all his life? What a crappy job! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Anyways, the first 3 or 4 beacons were totally within reason and believability. But man, those last two before the one Aragorn saw were just plain silly! Music was awesome during this sequence though. And I must say, despite the nit pick I have with it, the scene is still dramatic. Does it ruin the film? Nah, not at all.....but its one of those things I wish Peter would've made sure that it was done better.Hey, I love "Conan The Barbarian" too....but man can't live on bread alone. I got to have variety. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I don't know about you guys, but when I sit down to draw fantasy genre art or sit down to write out my group's next adventure....I get into the mood by watching fantasy movies. I let 'em play on the tv in the background by my desk. Well, not much to choose from there eh? Before LotR The only good fantasy films post 1980 were Conan The Barbarian, Excalibur (does that count?), and Dragonslayer (although it was only half fantasy).Weird things about movies like Dragonslayer and Princess Bride for instance....is that, are they considered totally fantasy? Because some parts of their setting are on Earth. I kinda call them "Historical Fantasy".After those movies, I'd watch the crappier ones. Because I have no choice really. Like Willow, Dragonheart, Kull, and even the stupid Hallmark made-for-tv movies like Merlin .Then you go to just Historical movies or movies that are fictional but take place in a real time period on Earth. Because...even though they aren't fantasy, they do have swords and stuff. So you watch Braveheart, Gladiator, 13th Warrior, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves , etc, etc.Then you're at the end of your list fast. So you settle for animation. May not be live action...but it extends the list. So you watch Berserk , Heroic Legend of Arislan, Record of Lodoss War.....and.....and....well, just those three really.So you can see why I was sooooooo happy when the LotR trilogy came out!</blockquote>

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