Posted on 12/18/2003 9:52:13 AM PST by Fire-Breathing_Freeper
I was soooo dissappointed with the return of the king. It started out ok (except for the first chapter) but after Gollum knoks out Sam in the craks of doom it got really weird, corny and just plain bad.
My list of reasons; 1. Everyone knew and understood Gollum/Smeagol without having or wanting to watch him murder Deagol. It was totally sick and unnecessary.
2. Frodo was somewhat 'normal' at the end of TTT, and in the beggining of ROTK Frodo is like corrupted and half dead. The transition from good to corrupted was divided in to threes instead of being smootly worked out.
3. Theoden being relctuant about comming to Gondor's aid. Then when the beacon is lit, he is like Yea, like you even have to ask me to come.
4. Everything about Denethor. Mostly bad, a little good.
5. The way Denethor treated Faramir. While it was close to the books it didn't have the same emotional feel. Alot of Rotk didn't envok the same feelings as the book did.
6. The Gollum and the lembas scene. Sam didn't have to be sent away for the effectiveness of Frodo being corrupted.
7. The women and children in Minas Tirith. It made the city look totally unpopulated.
8. When Eowyn gave Merry his armor and then she said 'why cant he fight for those he loves' She looked like it was her underlying motive. Instead of only wanting to die because Aragorn didn't love her and she thought that Aragorn might see her worth if she died in battle.
9. Arwen dying is Sauron isn't destroyed. That was so lame and unnecessary.
10. Frodo going into Shelobs lair alone. In the book it was really sweet how Frodo and Sam went in together. All the tenderness was ripped from that scene, again not envoking the same emotions.
11. Frodo ran around way too long in Shelobs lair. Ok we all know it's really a creepy place and Frodo is scared but the scene does not need to be drawn out too long.
12. How Denethor only cared that Faramir was gravely wounded because his line would end was not as good as it could ahve been. I'm not sure what could have been done differently but something should have.
13. How the dead glowed bright florescent green. And how they looked like soldiers of rohan and gondor when they were supposed to be another race.
14. Denethor at the pyre. It was a little to dramatic again not invoking the same feelings, and drawn out too long,
15. After Frodo was stung he didn't go down soon enough and it was just nasty.
16. I also thought Sam and Shelob fought too long. I think it would have been just as affective if a third of it was cut.
17. When gandalf and Pippin were talking about dying. I loved the scene in and of itself, but just moments before Gandalf was the feerless leader and was directing the men to stand there ground. Then he like sitting in despair and saying death is not that bad. I'm not sure it needed to be there, at all or at least not in that part.
18. It slightly bugged me when the dead army went into Minas Tirith. Slightly.
19. The battle between the witchking and Eowyn. It wasn't one sided enough. and again didn't envoke the same feelings or odds of winning.
20. The orcs in the tower died too quick.
21. When Sam finds Frodo in the tower, all the tenderness and love that was shown in the book was trashed and what was left not worthy of Frodo and Sam.
22. How It was strongly suggested that if Frodo and Sam were hiding behind the rocks that they would not be scene. totally contradicting what Saruman said in fotr.
23. How Frodo was so weary he couldnt walk and then suddenyl gets up and starts running. If we just staggered that would have been fine.
24. Gollum fought with the invisible Frodo for way too long, It made me want to laugh, which again didn't envoke the same feelings as the book.
25. Gollum in the lava.
26. Sauron died too slowly.
27. The orc armies being swallowed up.
28. When the eagles were carring Frodo and they were showing him flying over the lava, That was sooo cheesy and lame! I think that was one of the things that bugged me most.
29. How Arwen showed up. It could and should have been done more ceremoniously.
30. Gandalf's wagon
31. Bilbo looked like an orc.
32. The Grey Havens looked animated and fake.
33. Frodo didn't dry when he left his friends.
Aragorn is nothing short of magnificent in this film. His transformation from ranger to king with all the kingly virtues, not the least of which is humility, is just stunning and he is even more gorgeous in the final movie. You won't be disappointed.
1. It is, and i will enjoy the DVD where I won't have to watch it. Oh and one other thing, when I said it was like a horror movie i didn't mean scary but gory and sick. I thoght some scenes could have been handled with out the gore and would have been just as affective.
3. i'd like a six parter. I just thought since there wasn't enough time they should have cut it, and used the time for character devlopment. Like Eomer.
6. it was tense. but I didn't want to laugh there. It was a serious scene, and not supposed to be funny.Although i'm not sure what could have been done.
7. so why were they in the city?
8. I like it in the book better. I think id like to soo this part again before i make another comment about it.
10. All the movies were hardened and not as soft as the books. Which I thought was so great about the hobbits. Merry and Pippin after they were captured in TTT were joking and as T put it 'if you had been listening you would not have known that they had just been in the jaws of death' (not exact words). But I guess it wasn't that way to show how the Ring was killing frodo, kind of turning him into a wraith, without the hobbity sweetness.
12. Ok i understand now. But as someone commented; why is there a need to change who Denethor is simply because it is a movie and not a book? That question was not directed at you. Because they did not ask me weather or not I liked it.
15. I didn't find Shelob scary at all, so I think it was important to show that she was indeed deadly.
19. I always liked merry and it was very good in ROTK how both Merry and Pippin matured.
21. Perhaos thats true. I think id like to see this part again too, before commenting.
22. I don't remember what this was even about. Oh yea How Saruman lied. Um I wish they had made it more clear. After all everyone dosen't have freepers to explain it all. ;)Thanks.
23. As long as it can actually happen.
24. I was not! i think I should see this part again too.
25. I think the message could have been delivered just as affective with out having to see it. Who dosen't get that the ring is totally evil and Gollum is hopelessly emmersed in it? Although that scene did drive the point home.
26. true. I think it the eye should have gone through some king of change during its destruction. So it coulod be determined that Sauron was actually being killed.
27. well they had to die some how.
28. I didn't mind the eagles picking him up off the rock, it was the next part that i didn't like.
30. yes and there usually assoiated with Laura and Mary and, going west to find a better life... NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO. It wasn't really that bad just slightly shocking.
31. It was shocking to see him so ugly. It was like a different hobbit.
32. I want to see this part again also. But it still had a bad acting (on the part of the elves)and cgi feel to it.
Well, he did turn into a peace-nick in the book. My point is it's one thing for the world of men to honor the hobbits for what they've done (as we saw in the movie--a great scene in my view), but the fact that they were also so recognized by their own people in the Shire was the REAL end to the story. THe Scouring showed how the great EVIL affected everyone and everywhere in ME and and it was our four courageous hero hobbits who, after saving ME itself, go back to the Shire to make things right there, too. The moral of the story is you fight evil to make good things stay good, as much as simply just to defeat evil because its bad. Herein to me is the essence of the LOTR. Keeping the good alive is a conservative message!
I did as well. It was a darkness that you could feel and that was always looming even encroaching the edges of the "safe" havens of Rivendale and Lothlorien. It isn't until the destruction of the ring is accomplished that the darkness abates. One of the things that always stuck with me about the books was the extreme heaviness of the ring which embodied that darkness and attracted everything evil to itself.
Yeah, threatening to stab Sam in the throat at Osgiliath is "somewhat normal" for Frodo.
You are a cretin.
Such is the nature of true art. In my opinion, these 3 films, especially the extended versions (of the first 2 anyway) are artistically unequaled in filmmaking.
I respectfully disagree. While there was no one instant in which he was dramatically "changed" I saw that kingly bearing almost from day 1, peeking through the exterior of the ranger. I saw it grow when he took up the armor to ride into battle with Theidin in TTT and I saw him really come into his own in the mountain of the dead. I saw his nobility shine through in the encounter with Eowyn before riding off to the mountain. There were just so many moments when his character glowed with nobility. Perhaps the discrepancy is in the way we define nobility.
The movie so makes the supernatural seem natural that I didn't find that a reach at all. It seemed quite a "normal" thing to happen given that he was being overcome by the dark forces that were embodied in the ring, yet there was a greater "light" that was empowering him as well and it was this light that made him the best candidate to bear the ring in the first place, so I saw it not so much that he was finding strength he didn't know he had so much as it was being empowered by a strength beyond himself.
"Only cause they were green."
ROTFL!
Actually, that scene with the army of the dead charging the city on ghost horses gave me chills....no, not because they were dead (or green). I guess it must have something to do with the bond bewtween the men and their horses, even in death as well as the thought that the spirit of those who have gone before can lend their strngth to the living. I don't know. Hadn't really tried to analyze that feeling before.
We got free bookmarks the second time.
It was fascinating.
I know there's been discussion of some of Gimli's boldness in comparing the struggles of Middle Earth to those of Western Civilization, but there were other good bits--Boyens, Jackson, and McClennan were on hand, as well as Rhys-Davies.
For instance, there was an emphasis PJ gave on the ROTK being "mostly about friendship." He hinted strongly about Frodo and Sam being, "true friends, without any undercurrent of anything else."
YOU know and *I* know what we've often had to contend with concerning leftwing agenda-driven silliness about Frodo and Sam. I believe PJ set himself out to squash such silliness.
Didn't see any sign of VG--might have been posing for Vanity Fair at the time.
The character development of Sauron was simply different than that of the other characters. The development of Sauron permeated the trilogy in the essence of the story itself and in the way in which his evil encroached upon the land, in the unfolding of events and in how it worked upon each of the characters individually.
There was also a scene in this Nat'l Geo that I didn't see in any of the three movies (I suppose I could have missed it, could have blinked...but I don't think so)--
Gimli and Legolas, at a party where a drinking competition is going on. Legolas all prissy..."What's the point of this game?"
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