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Message: <blockquote data-quote="theburningman" data-source="post: 543719" data-attributes="member: 1006">Hmm.  A Fell Beast (tm) driven off by a single arrow.  It's just so. . . unbelievable.  Yet, I feel like I've seen something like it before. . .Oh, yeah. . .SMAUG!SMAUG!  SMAUG!  SMAUG!A frickin' dragon got killed by a single (albeit well-placed) arrow!Could we please lay off of Faramir's miraculous archery skills and enjoy the first two parts of a [single] film (not the first two films of a trilogy) that I don't think any of us ever thought we would be fortunate enough to experience in our lifetimes?![Whew.  Sorry about that.]I was just sitting here reading these various threads about TTT, and I suddenly realized why my eighth grade students get frustrated with me when I nitpick one of their favorite movies to death.  It's because they don't see the things I see when I watch the same movie.  They watch Pearl Harbor, and they see a movie with a wonderful, tragic love story against a backdrop of war driven by fantastic sfx.  I watch Pearl Harbor, and I see a horridly embarrassing attempt at a tragic love story that I can ignore because I think the fx are pretty impressive.In other words, I'm glad that my usual nit-pickiness just seems to disappear when I watch LotR.  I don't suspend it out of love for the material; it just doesn't rear its ugly head.I didn't see Faramir acting like a bastard in the movie.  I saw Faramir act in a way that is different from the second part of the book, and now I think, "Hmm, that's interesting.  I wonder why Peter Jackson chose to do that with his character?  What's that going to mean for the last part?"I didn't see Theoden as a weak ruler plagued by doubt and indecision.  I saw Aragorn saying they should attack Saruman and Theoden trying to keep his people safe and give them hope by going to Helm's Deep.  I saw him needing a bit of support from Aragorn when things look darkest after the siege at Helm's Deep succeeds.  Then I saw him make one of the coolest, most heroic rides into battle ever, something straight out of MYTH for pity's sake, and I remember there is still another part of this giant film to go for him to show his truly noble spirit.I didn't see Eowyn as weaker than her character appears in the book, because she stood up against Grima and she made it clear that she was not afraid to fight.  She just hasn't been given the chance yet, and oh yeah, there's still a whole three hours left in this humongous movie for her to show her strength as well.I didn't see a sometimes laughable CGI creation when I saw Gollum.  I did laugh during the dialogue between Gollum/Smeagol, but it wasn't because I thought it was funny.  I can't explain why I laughed, and I think that is a tribute to the power of the character on screen.I didn't see an underwhelming attack of the Ents on Isengard.  I saw a siege that made me say "Holy S**t!" several times while I was watching it.I did see weak sfx at times, particularly when Merry and Pippin are riding Treebeard, but then I remembered that when I saw the first part of this enormous film on DVD, all of the sfx weaknesses disappeared because digital fx look best when viewed on a digital medium.I didn't hear a whiny, screechy, recycled soundtrack.  I did hear an extension and continuation of a score that I have grown to love, a score with which I can visualize the scenes of the film when I am hearing it.  Heck, I even like Gollum's Song (it's creepy and pitiful and infuriating all at once), and I love the Rohan strings theme.Basically, when I watch The Lord of the Rings, I am just glad that the nitpicks that others call weaknesses and flaws simply wash right over me as I bask in the world of the first two parts of the greatest movie ever made.<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" /> Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.</blockquote>

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