FotR: A Knife in the Dark—The Caverns of Isengard

[lucidity]

FotR: A Knife in the Dark—The Caverns of Isengard—Flight to the Ford (extended scene)
(From Strider and Hobbits walking to the watchtower till White screen with Elrond speaking elvish)

My random thoughts regarding the scenes:

The Nazgûl have cool, pointy metal boots—their costumes were quite excellent, as are their horses.

Frodo puts on the ring and sees the Nazgûl as they are, ghosty-white apparitions, one of whom wants to take the ring. Frodo gets stabbed and screams, then removes the ring.

Strider returns to fight off the Nazgûl. Where the heck was he anyway, that the Hobbits could be in so much danger?

The one scene that makes me laugh every time, and I’m certain it’s not meant to, is the one where Strider pierces the one Nazgûl in the face with the flaming torch and he twirls in a graceful circle, with his arms flailing. To me that looked perfectly fake.

The next scene starts in Isengard. Is that a tiny bat that flies to Gandalf? It looks kind of like one.

The strange birthing procedure of the Uruk-hai is shown, with them coming up out of muddy filmy sacs. It was a cool, creepy effect.

Cutting back to Frodo, who now has milky colored eyes and raspy breathing, the gang is trying to get him to the elves.

Arwen arrives—don’t get me started on how much I hated that Glorfindel’s part was cut out—She will take him to her father.

Arwen is way too Mary Sue-ish in the movies, in my opinion. She charges in there, travelling alone, not likely in this society, she takes Frodo and leaves and then SHE calls up the water to stop the enemy (not Elrond and Gandalf). Bah, she needs no one at all!

Then she says this thing, “What Grace is given me, let it pass to him.”

I admit I saw the first two movies before I read the books and I can understand PJ not trotting out each and every character from the books, but still. He could have left the Elrond and Gandalf for controlling the water at least. It makes you wonder why Arwen wasn’t at the council or joined the Fellowship, since she seems to be able to do most things single-handedly.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate the Arwen from the books, but I don't care for the movie version.

[laerien]

It is not fair that you have the last word everywhere! ;D

It's time to continue this, as I do enjoy reading your thoughts, but it would be so much better if more people wrote down their opinion. I thought I'd set a good example! ;D

I simply love the Weathertop scene. It has such a great athmosphere! I can still feel the hair on my back standing on its end! I think the music helps a great deal. The male chorus is quite effective.
I am not sure why the nazgúls seem so cool. It must be the combination of many things. But what makes them very creepy is that they are faceless.

The one scene that makes me laugh every time, and I’m certain it’s not meant to, is the one where Strider pierces the one Nazgûl in the face with the flaming torch and he twirls in a graceful circle, with his arms flailing. To me that looked perfectly fake.

OK, I am blushing now, but I admit that I like that scene.

And I can still remember that I watched the movie with my aunt for the first time, and she didn't read the books, and the first time she saw Aragorn she said how great this guy was, but he had to be a bad guy... And after Weathertop, she kept telling me "I told you he is great!" or something like that... ;D

Is that a tiny bat that flies to Gandalf? It looks kind of like one.

No, that is a butterfly. (if I am not mistaken)

Yes,I longed to see Glorfindel as well. You can imagine how surprised I was when a female elf turned up. (And I had no idea that she was Arwen)

But no matter who had the reins in hand, the chasing scene was gorgeous. The horses, the riders, the cuts, the music... Everything was in place.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate the Arwen from the books, but I don't care for the movie version.

:'(It is quite hard to hate her in the books, as she doesn't have a single line, just a song, and she is mentioned only a very few times. ;D

[Lily]

The Weathertop scene was good, but Aragorn dancing around with the torch in his hand was a bit over the top imo.

The whole stabbing scene was very creepy - and how brave were the hobbits to defend Frodo, although they had obviously no chance?

Re the bat/butterfly: On TORC it´s referred to as a moth.

Arwen was too much in the movies. I completely agree with you, lucidity, about her being Mary Sue-ish. Imagine, if they really had taken the scenes in which she was also fighting in Helm´s Deep! Luckily PJ changed his mind. I would have loved to see Glorfindel.

The chasing scene was exciting, but such a cliché. The hero(ine) gets chased by too many enemies to have a realistic chance. It´s close, but somehome she manages to get out of this, nearly unharmed. Why are enemies always a tad too slow? Especially the Nazgûl, terrible and powerful as they are, always miss their aim by a hair.