Thoughts on Return of the King
My first impression thoughts; may contain spoilers, but I guess it depends on your definition of spoiler.
1. I took great pleasure in noticing all of the little AI bugs in the CGI battles. For instance, in one scene where the Riders of Rohan are marching out, a rider (carrying a flag, leading a bunch of other men) is going along at full gallop. Unfortunately, he’s going full speed, headed straight into the flank of another company of horses (moving at a much slower pace). It was funny to see a horse going all out and then suddenly stopping on a dime and merging sedately. Also I was reading how they had to “dumb down” the AI characters to keep them from running away during the battle scenes… I noticed this more in this battle than in the battle of Helms Deep, BUT I think the end battle of Return of the King feels more ‘real’.
2. I know all you guys who thought it was a RELLY GRAET MOVIE!1@@++!!1 are probably sick of hearing this from the hardcore nerds, but yes, bah humbug, they didn’t really hold true to the books, etc etc. Yes, I know they had to cut some things; the movie was too damn long as it was, but everyone has their own favorite scenes. No scouring of the shire!? One of the best parts of the books! And I won’t give spoilers but one of THE most important love scenes in the books is left out of the movie. It might make an appearence in the extended DVD version but who knows.
All that to say that I wasn’t able to really get into the movie because I kept noticing the things they changed. In my defense, I read the books six or seven times, and took a class in Tolkien in which I was tested over everything in the LOTR books and in the Hobbit. So the events and scenes in the LOTR series is “sticky” in my head in a way that most books are not. It took great self restraint to keep from yelling out “WHAT??!!?” at various points. (The Palantir, some of the things with Denethor, what about Saruman?, a few major WTFs during the siege scenes. And many more; I won’t bore you with everything because I’m not a super MegaNerd.)
Things I liked: The scene with the dead, the Oliphants, Minas Tirith, the Nazgul (Piercing! Glad I had earplugs!), some of the Shelob stuff was very well done, and something else that I’ll leave alone for now but if someone reminds me in a few months I might post it.
3. Biggest continuity bug: At one point Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are all on horses. A few minutes later they are not on horses, and nobody they are with has any horses, and there’s nowhere for the horses to go.
December 21st, 2003 at 10:33 am
GRAET?
December 23rd, 2003 at 12:16 pm
I gave up worrying about what they left out of the movie a long time ago. I just figure this is the best it will ever get on screen and if I want the real thing I gotta read the book again. I really hated that whole love triangle between Arwen, Aragorn, and Eowyn. They really blew it out of proportion.
December 27th, 2003 at 4:02 pm
A Triumphant End to a Magnificent Trilogy…yes, I have read “LOTR”, “The Hobbit”, “The Simarillion” and Tolkien’s various letters on the Subjects of Middle Earth MANY times and, in all honesty, I was not disappointed with the Trilogy in the Least. Yes, things were changed and/or left out but what Peter Jackson did with such a monumental work was stupendous. What was left out or changed was to better emphasize the storyline from beginning to end…was Tom Bombadil that pertinent to the Destruction of the Ring? No…More insight into the Entwives? absolutely not. Yes, I did miss horribly the Scouring of the Shire and the Knowledge that it wasn’t even filmed…but unfortunately it has nothing to do with the destruction of the ring…it’s just a very cool sidestory. I can go on with what was changed and what was left out but that will take an Age!…what is important is that Peter Jackson brought a story to life when no one else dared to even Tackle it…and the cinematic achievements brought about a whole new love of the stories and the world which Tolkien gave birth to. For me, the story of the Ring and it’s fate as it was so beautifully wrought by Jackson and Company is a testament to Tolkien’s imagination and the impact this epic tale has had on the world. I must be one of the Only Tolkienphiles who truly didn’t care about what was slightly changed or Left out…simply that the story of the Fellowship and the War of the Ring and it’s eventual destruction was crafted with an extraordinary beauty and in a tradition that, I believe, Tolkien himself would have been Proud of.
December 31st, 2003 at 3:25 pm
I liked the whole Trilogy set. I didn’t like the first one that much, bcuz it wasn’t really about getting to Mordor. It was more about the characters’ personalities, where their backgrounds were from (eg. Legolas, an Elf from Rivendell) Sorry if that’s incorrect. I haven’t really read much from the books, just the good parts. The Two Towers was great! The Ents were awesome, the acting of anger, romance, and pain was wonderful in my opinion. Some people seem to think that if you haven’t read the books, then you don’t understand why the missing cuts are so important, and therefore, you can’t defend the “bad” parts of the movie. That’s not true. Even if you are not a MAJOR Tolkien fan, haven’t read the books at least twice, or haven’t read them at all, I still think you are allowed to have your say. But there are some people who will not change their minds. They WANT things to complain about. Nothing pleases them. In their eyes, directors must be PERFECT, so the movie must be PERFECT. And I’m not just talking about Lord Of The Rings. But anyways, I’ll continue with my comments for ROTK.
ROTK was an incredibly AWESOME movie. They cut out a few scenes, which would have been nice to see, but unlike SOME CERTAIN PEOPLE, I will not say the whole film was a waste or that it was ruined bcuz of one scene. The last 10 mins was touching. All in all, it was a GREAT trilogy.
January 8th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
It’s true that Peter Jackson and everyone else involved with the Lord of the Rings movie project have done a brilliant job. A lot of Tolkien fans will say - like some of you have already mentioned - that Jackson shouldn’t have changed anything and if he was a true fan he would’ve stuck strictly to the books blah blah blah . . . obviously some things had to be changed::-
* The elf guy that hurried Frodo to Rivendell (is it Glorfindel?) is replaced with Arwen, and rightly so, due to the lack of female participation in The Fellowship of the Ring and because of Arwen’s very small and static role despite her being one of the main characters’ love interest.
That’s obviously only one example - Peter Jackson tells of why he changed things on the Extended DVDs.
However, I was looking at the things that weren’t really changed for any particular reason. I didn’t find much to complain about in Fellowship or Two Towers, but with the Return of the King I was forever saying ‘why?’. For example:-
*At the very very end, why doesn’t Sam meet Rosie and his kids back at Bag End? After all, that’s where he lived. All Peter Jackson would’ve had to do was place the scene in front of Bag End as opposed to a random Shire house.
*Why did Gollum have to do the ‘throw away the food’ trick to convince Frodo to leave Sam behind? It wouldn’t have hurt to just do that part of the story according to the book.
One thing I was bitterly disappointed about was the character of Faramir. The whole point of this character is that, when it all came down to it, he was the stronger brother. Yeah, everyone loved Boromir, but Boromir couldn’t resist the ultimate temptation, could he? So all in all, the point was that if Denethor was to have a favourite son, it ought to have been Faramir, the one bloke (except Aragorn) who you thought “Yeah, this guy’s great. He could actually resist the Ring! Doesn’t that make you feel good about being a mortal man!” However, in the film he wants the Ring, just like everyone else. Boring. As well as this, in The Return of the King, his love story was missed out.
Alas, I’ll be able to see that in the Extended DVD version - yes, the Houses of Healing section’s going to be in it, so anyone that buys it that hasn’t read the books will actually notice that Faramir and Eowyn fall in love. And yes, the Scouring of the Shire is going to be in there too. I heard it from Christopher Lee’s own lips.
January 17th, 2004 at 12:03 am
I was just disappointed Jackson did not explore Eowyn and faramir’s “love story” as well as Eomer and Aragorn’s friendship! and where was Imrahil????
January 24th, 2004 at 6:38 am
I was realy very disappointed when I saw third movie, because there wasn`t that wonderful part about Faramir and Eowyn.