The Hall of Fire

Even Darth Maul is better than Kylo. He may have had no character, but that's better than a failed attempt to give someone character.

For those of you who liked it, doesn't it bother you that Luke is so far a failure at reviving the Jedi? He's failed the mission he got in the original trilogy and he's let the new Empire and dark-siders run rampant. It smacks of sidelining him so the brand new heroes have a reason to exist. You cou...

The only currently running show I follow is The Flash, based on the DC Comics speed superhero.

The Last Kingdom, based on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon books, was pretty good, and was renewed for another series/season.

Teaser trailer is out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj1devH5JP4 The new films will be set before Harry's time. I'd rather see sequels not prequels. But a stage play has that covered. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-announces-cast-for-london-productio...

Yeah but TFA is weaker. Stronger than the prequels in many points but also weaker because its story is derivative (again).

Excellent in terms of effects.

Mediocre to execrable as a film and a Star Wars story, especially as a continuation of ROTJ.

And that's terrible.

Andurwhelmed. The story is by and large a retread of the first film but that works both for and against it. One is lulled into a sense of "good enough" because of the familiarity of it, but then the facade keeps cracking. There are bits and pieces that work if they had their own stories, l...

I made this Arthurian books thread on TORC years ago :) Lots of observations there but restating some here! I'd rank Sutcliff, Parke Godwin ( Firelord ) and Bernard Cornwell ( Warlord Chronicles ) among the best of the modern historical-Arthurian writers. Cornwell has the best trilogy while Sutcliff...

Andurwhelmed.

The story is by and large a retread of the first film, and there are bits and pieces that work if they were their own stories, but overall it feels hollow. The villains are piss-poor, even execrable, and the original trilogy becomes meaningless. No real desire to watch the rest now.

Tolkien's been dead for 40 years and he's not worrying over fidelity of adaptations now. We could do the same: those who like it, just continue liking it, and those who don't like it, just let it go. Stuff happens but life's too short. There's nothing major. :) It was just fans making a fuss. The 'm...

The first verses (or the whole poem rather) reminded me of this Arthurian poem, which prefaces the Arthurian novel Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff: HIC JACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS by Francis Brett Young, written 1944 Arthur is gone... Tristram in Careol Sleeps, with a broken sword...

Posted the following on TORC in October: The following are what excerpts of the poem we have (from John D. Rateliff's blog ) The first lines Arthur eastward in arms purposed his war to wage on the wild marches, over seas sailing to Saxon lands, from the Roman realm ruin defending. Thus the tides of ...

This is a nice article by Al Harron, one of my favorite fantasy bloggers. Aside from his own blog , he's also written for the fantasy blog The Cimmerian , which is chiefly about Robert E. Howard and his stuff like Conan the Barbarian (of Cimmeria). But the site also talks a lot about Tolkien and oth...

It's easy if you're not planning to watch the movies.

Primula Baggins wrote:People who have only seen Gimli are going to be shocked by these Dwarves.

Yeh, most don't look like Dwarves, one has an axehead embedded in his head and one is mini Obelix.

I do see a passing resemblance to

My theory is that there is going to be a certain amount of made up Jacksonian stuff, no matter how long the films are, so the longer they are, the more chance that there will be more genuine Tolkien-based content. Ha, that would be nice. http://s19.postimage.org/3yr5k4rip/1337616788455.gif But inst...

"What was never The Lord of the Rings: Origins?"

Why do some dwarves look human?

Why does the great goblin toy not look like a goblin?

The author also did one theory for Star Wars: R2-D2 and Chewbacca were Rebel agents all along.

http://km-515.livejournal.com/746.html

Also this Tom theory is much older, dating from 1996: He's the Witch-king.

http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/theories/bombadil.htm