The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>M'k'n'zy and I went and saw this last night, it was his second time seeing it. The movie exceeded my previous expectations, though the expectations I had for it were not as high as some movies. If you know me, then you know I really don't read books, and in order to get a feel for some movies you have to read the book. I got 5 chapters into 'The Hobbit' when I was in 7th grade, that's as far as I got. As for the movie of a book I have not read, it was ok. M'k'n'zy kept telling me that the movie stayed true to the book, I have to agree with him because I felt some key battles (Aragorn vs Orc lord) could have been better if they had been a bit longer. The coolest part of the movie for me was when the Balaroge (SP) appeared in the mine. Damn that thing was a bad ass. Though I guess with these two sequences and the other battles being cut relativley short in my opinion, the movie played out just as M'k'n'zy said, true to the book. Also, I've seen many movies, and when you watch a lot of movies, you begin to predict the obvious events that will occur in them. Needless to say I was not suprised at some twists in the movie from never reading the book, yes I expected the movie to end how it did also.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>That battle was just as short in the book too, if not shorter. The one neat battle was Saruman vs Gandalf; that wasn't in the book at all. You only hear about what happened to Gandalf when he tells Frodo and he does not mention a battle in which 2 old men are throwing each other into walls :)

And that Cave Orc? God damn that was great :) Arrow through the head and still he went on</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Balrogs are known (from the Tolkien sholars) to hunt down and kill Elves. They also know how to use magic. It wasn't shown in the movie, but Gandalf tried to use a binding magic which was countered by the Balrog's own.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Gandalf will talk about the battle in the second movie, and likely we'll see a lot more too it, I wonder if they modeled the Balrog after Ganon from Ocarina of Time...</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Morgoth was the most powerful of the Gods that forged the earth, there were 8 of them I think, and 8 Goddesses, I kind of forget. Then there were the Maiar, lesser Gods, Morgoth had a bunch of them on his side and they waged war against the Gods (Valar) and the Good Maiar. All of the Lesser Gods on Morgoths side were transformed into Balrogs, Vampires, Gigantic spiders (like 100 feet tall, Ungoliant, who is Shelobs Mother or great great grandmother I think, MUCH larger). In fact, Sauron in the beginning too was a Balrog, but he had the ability to transform into other forms, like Vampires and Giant Wolves (He did that later on during the first age, after the War of Power I think it was called), he was always into the terror thing, might explain the Wraiths and Undeads he controls.

Anyways, what happened was, Morgoth (then called Melkor) was defeated and his huge fortress of Utumno (I think) was destroyed. The caves of Utumno went deep and many ancient creatures were trapped beneath the surface, including that Balrog who was freed by the dwarves hundreds of years prior. Some of the Surviving Balrogs (Which included Gothmog who was Morgoths secons in command) came back to him thousands of years later in the Fortress of Angband at the beginning of the first age of Men. All of those Balrogs were killed, during that time, Sauron had taken the form of a Necromancer I believe (as he did in the book the Hobbit, they thought he was one of the Nazgul at first, but discoevered he was actually Sauron, it didn't mention that in the movie either).

Anyways, I may be a bit off, but I think I remember the Silmarillion quite well enough. The thing I like best about Tolkiens works, is that they're not really Fantasy, he has been writing a History that seams much more like Mythology. Actually, it is Myth.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>The first book was more or less about the journey South, the second is about The War against Isengard and the Tower of Orthanc as well as getting past the Tower of Minas Morgul (thus the name Two Towers)

The third is about War of the Ring, Gondor vs. Mordor.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>No way. More like Diablo 2. Anyway, that image of Balrog has been drawn countless times by other artists since before this century.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>A large amount of stuff in the film was taken from Tolkien artists' work, like The Shire and Rivendale (and Balrog). The way they looked in the film is exactly how they looked in the pictures that were in the copy of the books I read (all three books together in one big one)</div>