September 25, 2004

Where is the (black) Horse and the (black) Rider?
Bob Praz

Just to tell you all, if you don’t know already, the official movie site has finally posted the specs for the ROTK EE. The official release date: December 14 (GASP, SIGH). Ah well, there’s no holiday like Christmas vacation.
By the way, DID anyone see the Extended Edition preview from Comicon? The sneak peak of Gandalf’s confrontation with the Witch-King is awesome. I never thought they could make a flaming sword without having it look cheesy, but they sure made it terrifying.

I would also like to voice my agreement with Annatar (not that it will, alas, change anything). There was indeed a dark cloud that came out of Mordor in the movie, but it looked merely like an abnormally large storm cloud, and it was made somewhat useless by the fact that it didn’t actually blot out the sun. Anyhow, I also wish Jackson had followed the book when it came to the Siege of Gondor. Sure, the trolls charging the men of Gondor was cool, and the breaching of the city made things more desperate, but NOTHING can beat the awesome dramatic moments of the Great Gate exploding in a flash of thunder under the power of Grond, the Witch-King riding in under the archway no enemy had yet crossed, and the horns of Rohan blowing in the distance, announcing the arrival of dawn and the turn of the tide. Yes, it would have been even more worthy of an Oscar. The arrival of Rohan could have thus been much more exciting. Anyhow, hopefully the EE will compensate a bit.