Won't HD basically ruin Lord of the Rings?

I didn't notice this when watching it at the cinemas...

Cheers...
Duy-Khang Hoang

HD hasn't ruined any of the movies I've watched in it so far, so I don't see why LOTR would be different. You certainly can continue to watch it in SD if you want though.

Looked fantastic on film so it should look ok on HD media.

I don't think we have much to worry about when it comes to material made for theatrical presentation. They're made to stand up to scrutiny even on mega-sized screens. What will probably look hokey are pre-HD era TV shows that only had the budget for NTSC-quality special effects and sets. The original Star Trek is a good example, which is probably why they are remastering and redoing much of the special effects for the new millenium.

Emotep.

I will send Billy the nasty Balrog to fetch you.

Actually I think LotR will look great in HD because the production is top notch. They used minatures so much that everything should looks great even when cranking up the resolution.

I personally dislike the movies. However, I'm still interested to see the sheer grandeur of this cinematic experience in full HD.

I'm in the same boat.

Well D* HD-lite version of LOTR on TNT looked great. It was 1.78:1 and only HD the first run. (Last few runs may have been upconverted fools screen).

So I'd imagine the full HD version will look amazing. Thay did a very good job with scaling CGI and models.. Very detailed and will look and work well in HD

The only movie that was ruined for me in HD was Face-off. I saw it on HD cable and could clearly see the stunt strings they used.

I think I remember reading that although the FX in the original Star Trek were filmed in 35 millimeter, there were issues like thick matte lines around ships and less than theatrical quality matte paintings for backgrounds that became really obvious when shown on a big screen.

Here are a couple of examples of level of detail visible in the new versions.

Nice pics!!

That's why I only watch movies on my B&W 13 inch 1952 Zennith that's in it's original wooden cabinet , cuz who could bear the thought of great movies actually being transparent to the masters?

I have a 20 inch Sanyo/Go Video combo I can sell you. That way when you are watching LOTR you won't have a clue what your looking at...is that a hobbit or Wee Man ?

Can't wait to own these gems on Total HD.

I can see the original poster's point. When I saw The Two Towers on hi-def cable (HBO or Showtime), I noticed a lot of things I didn't in the theater. Like an orc chopping at an Ent during the battle at Saruman's tower. The Ent moved away, but the orc kept chopping the empty space. Also in the same scene when they break the dam, it was pretty clear it was a miniature waterfall blown up.

I think HD really shows the imperfections of blue/green-screen special effects.

I just don't get these types of comments
Have you seen The Lord of the Rings in the theater*? I have. Did it ruin the movie? It didn't for me.
So where's the problem?

*I think we can agree that any half-decent theater with any half-decent copy of the film delivers (at least) the amount of detail you get from a 1080p version.

And you think you didn't see that orc in the theater because the resolution wasn't high enough to resolve the orc?
Or was it because you initially watched the movie on a very big screen and couldn't possibly pay attention to everything that happened in this epic scene?

I think it's obvious that the latter is the case.

Wasn't Lord of the Rings ruined when they made the movies?

I actually kind of like seeing these mistakes. In a way, it makes it seem more real to me. I find it interesting to see the way people try and fool our minds with special effects. It's one reason I'm not really a fan of CGI.

One of the first times I noticed something along these lines with HD was my D-Theater tape of X-Men. In one of the scenes, you can see the weaving behind Wolverine's false beard.

The only thought I had, while watching the bonus discs, was that because of the heavy use of minatures, some of the "fakeness" of the minature shots will be more decetable. The damn breaking scene in The Two Towers is one where I definitely could tell it was minature.

I'm not sure if that's a typo or not!

I have the flip book addition. If you flip the pages fast enough it looks great!

Not for me, with the exception of leaving out Tom Bombadil

However, feel free to consider it ruined for yourself, or see here: Nitpicker's guide to LoTR

I'm not really into the whole LotR thing hence the question. imo the review of the movies in Clerks II is spot on

I had watched the movie several times on DVD on the same TV (50" plasma), and didn't see that particular "oops" until I saw it on high-def cable. Could have just been the repeated viewing factor (you look more closely during subsequent views...the 1st time you see it, you're just soaking it all in).

But HD certainly invites closer scrutiny. Even on movies I'm watching for the 1st time, sometimes I'm looking at someone's complexion/hair/clothes because of the incredible detail, instead of focusing on the dialog. I often have to rewind, because my mind was drooling over some eye-candy.

wow definite lack of humor here, my apologies go out to the OP.

I must say that I watched LOTR Fellowship over the weekend on TNT HD and it looked wonderful. The only thing is that you could definitely see the midgets with the masks on. You can especially see thing in Moria. Like when they are all sitting around when Gandalf is lost, the part with the birds eye shot and then they start to zoom in, it looks like there is a dead hobbit leaning against the wall because there is no face, you can clearly see its a mask, it was funny as hell. Also when they are running out of moria after Gandalf falls with the Balrog, you can see how much of a horrible job they did superimposing Frodo's face onto the midgets body when Boramir grabs Frodo and has him in his arms running out of Moria.

Me three....found the books boring as well.

Has anyone noticed the car moving in the background in one of the shots from THE SEARCHERS? ....must be the extra pixels.

ted

LOL!

HD hasn't ruined any movies for me yet but in one of the early scenes in Black Hawk Down when they are showing dead bodies on stretchers, one of the bodies is so clearly visible you can tell it is a (plastic?) dummy. It didn't ruin the movie for me or take away from the experience, I was actually excited that the res was so high I could actually make it out.

Film resolution is higher then your TV's. This is a silly post.