Yesterday at 2 p.m. I sat down to watch and finished at midnight — nine hours of the trilogy in one go. I took in a bunch of epic battles, witnessed friendship, family, love, and saw both the ugly and the beautiful sides of human nature.
Having watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it felt like playing one epic game of Heroes of Might and Magic V. Here are a few things I found fun in The Lord of the Rings: At around the 11:47 mark of The Two Towers, the orc leader makes a clenched-fist “stop” gesture… ugh, so orcs use the same hand signals as modern armies… What exactly does Frodo base his deduction about Gollum’s past on? I couldn’t figure it out. He seems to be as sensitive as Lyra in The Golden Compass — Lyra can see the truth through the alethiometer, and Frodo can see the truth through magic possession and near-drowning? In the final siege in The Two Towers, Legolas (the elf archer) uses his shield as a skateboard, shooting while on the move… The army of the dead really is huge — I’d say they alone could wipe out the whole orc host. Watching them come ashore from the ships with scythes and axes raised reminded me of that WOW comic about downing Onyxia, where a horde of humans shouts “damn you” and steamrolls the raid… This army of the dead is like a giant swarm of termites, chewing through everything in its path. They charge up the elephants’ bodies shouting “Damn you——“ and the giant elephants go down immediately…
Hmm, “Legendary characters all get a chance to turn back, but they don’t. They press on without hesitation, because their beliefs are unwavering.” That line is a classic.
Both are NewLine films, so why did The Golden Compass get so much bad press? I think plot-wise, The Golden Compass leans too heavily on individual heroism — it’s mostly Lyra and her group doing role-play and adventuring — whereas The Lord of the Rings is a massive, multi-thread, multiplayer PvP. As for what the films are getting at, The Golden Compass stresses free will, while The Lord of the Rings packs in a great deal more, using characters from many kingdoms to show the many sides of human nature — the true, the good, the beautiful, and the false, the evil, the ugly. On those two points alone, I think The Lord of the Rings is better than The Golden Compass. That said, it doesn’t mean The Golden Compass isn’t worth watching — I’m really looking forward to the last two films of the His Dark Materials trilogy!
Here’s the cast list for The Lord of the Rings:
Director: Peter Jackson; Original novel: J.R.R. Tolkien; Screenplay: Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair; Producer: Barrie M. Osborne, Frances Walsh; Composer: Howard Shore; Music: Enya; Cinematography: Andrew Lesnie; Editing: D. Michael Horton; Production Design: Grant Major; Art Direction: Dan Hennah, Philip Ivey; Costume Design: Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor; Hair/Makeup Design: Peter Owen; Special Effects Design: Mike Asquith; Visual Effects Supervisor: Joe Letteri
Actor — Role: Elijah Wood — Frodo Baggins; Ian McKellen — Gandalf; Viggo Mortensen — Aragorn; Sean Astin — Samwise Gamgee; Orlando Bloom — Legolas the Elf; Liv Tyler — Arwen, the Elf Princess; Miranda Otto — Eowyn, Princess of Rohan; Christopher Lee — Suruman the White; John Rhys-Davies — Gimli the Dwarf / Treebeard (voice); Billy Boyd — Pippin; Dominic Monaghan — Merry; Cate Blanchett — Lady Galadriel; Karl Urban — Eomer, Marshal of Rohan; Bernard Hill — Theoden, King of Rohan; David Wenham — Faramir, son of the Steward of Gondor; Andy Serkis — Gullum; Sean Bean — Boromir; Hugo Weaving — Elrond; John Noble — Denethor; Craig Parker — Haldir; Brad Dourif — Grima Wormtongue
There’s also a real-person comparison table http://www.theargonath.cc/pictures/splitscreens/splitscreens.html