Lord of the Rings:Return of the King

[The Guardian]

I just got back from seeing the latest installment in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.

Words fail me. Utterly.

There is NO question that Jackson saved the best for last. I am not going to spoil it for folks, but just take this bit of advice...SEE IT IN THE THEATRES!

There is no match for the utter spectacle on the screen today.

The Battle of Helm's Deep? Heck, its an Orc Tea Party compared to what goes down at Pellnore Fields. For those wanting an emotional feeling movie...well...there were several places in this movie where not a one of us did not get a little moisty eye'ed. And all of us but my wife knew EXACTLY how the story goes.

The movie is simply that good.

Things that stand out, but no spoilers:

1. Gollum. You thought he was great in TT? No comparison to this movie; he's a perfectly rotten little bastard you will love to hate by the time his "end" rolls around.

2. The battles...like I said, Helm's Deep was an Orc Tea Party by comparison.

3. Acting; every single one of the cast members gets a chance to have a few moments and there is no weak moments.

4. The Ride of the Rorrihm...coupled with Howard Shore's totally excellent score...FANTASTIC!

5. Girl Power. (You will know it when you see it!)

6. Minas Tirinth. Unbelivably real.

7. Shelob. If you do NOT like spiders...be warned. This spider is one big nasty one. (Remember Jackson started in horror flicks? It shows.)

8. Samwise Gamgee. If there is any justice in the world, Sean Astin gets an Oscar. This is Sam's movie.

9. Did I mention the music? Awesome!

10. Paths of the Dead...extremely well done. (Again, remember Jackson's horror roots?)

11. Closure. Some critics have harped on the multiple endings. Not a problem, an 11 hour epic needs a few minutes to tie it all up.

12. Aragorn. Truly the king.

13. Bernard Hill. I liked his Theoden in the last movie; here he is truly the noble King of Rohan.

This movie has obviously struck a chord with the JRRT fans out there...the guy beside me in line was seeing it for the 4th time...since Tuesday! (And yes, he was at triology Tuesday as well!) Numerous other folks were on their second or third viewings.

Overall, the quality of this film is every bit as good as the two that proceeded it. In fact, many things seem better. The editing is crisper, Gollum is rendered far far more realistic and the flow of the movie just sucks you in and NEVER lets go.

I will undoubtably be seeing this movie again; there is just so much going on that it is next to impossible to take it all in...a total overload on all the senses.

Highly Highly recommended.

The entire series is just set up for the moment when Eowyn kicks Witch King ass! I must warn Dean, I have my pseudo-feminist roar prepared for the moment.

[wendy]

Spoilers? Hey, come on...it's not like most of us don't know what happens in the end. ;D

[The Guardian]

Zelda: See #5 on my list. Definitely an audience favorite reaction point. ("I AM NO MAN---<whack>") Got some applause.

Wendy: True. Only someone living under a rock does NOT know how the story ends. Which I also must say, ROTK is pretty close to the book; most of the "changes" are those of omission (just too much material) rather than alteration.

I am not a hard-core JRRT geek. I can not quote the books chapter and verse, but based on the movie, I would definitely say that Jackson got the intent and moral of the story carried out just fine. Actually, I prefer the movies to the books and this may be heresay, but the books get so wound up in description sometimes that you are sitting there reading and wondering when the story is going to pick back up.

The books are case-studies in creating a totally artificial world---JRRT did that almost without peer. But in terms of entertainment...they do not rate so high on my list. (I have read them all...once.)

Ironically, my wife was saying this morning that we gotta go see the movie again. (This is my wife, who does NOT read fantasy, has never read JRRT, and HATES spiders.) I agree with her as the movie has just sooooo much going on, it is impossible to take in at one time.

[Persephone]

I want to see this movie so badly I'm thinking about just going by myself instead of waiting for friends to get back from their various Christmas travels. :)

[kathleen]

Which I also must say, ROTK is pretty close to the book; most of the "changes" are those of omission (just too much material) rather than alteration.

I've only seen the first one so far and yes, it is pretty good entertainment. But the book is better. It almost always is. That's why I recommended right from the beginning that one read the book before seeing the movie(s).

Thinking about it now, I don't think I've ever seen a movie that was better than the book it was based on. There may have been one or two, but I can't think of any specific examples.

[Observer]

Spoilers? Hey, come on...it's not like most of us don't know what happens in the end.

Although I watched the first two on DVD and found them enjoyable, I DO NOT know how the saga ends, so I suppose I will eventually watch this one as well.

I tried reading Tolkein back in the late seventies and threw away the book. I found no nothing of interest in his writing. I did however, enjoy Bored of the Rings, published by the Harvard Lampoon. I thought it was much better reading.

The fact that Peter Jackson could take Tolkein's writing and make some pretty good movies out of it speaks highly of his cinematic skill.

[kathleen]

I tried reading Tolkein back in the late seventies and threw away the book. I found no nothing of interest in his writing. I did however, enjoy Bored of the Rings, published by the Harvard Lampoon. I thought it was much better reading.

Perhaps you should give it another try. Maybe you weren't in the right frame of mind when you tried to read it originally. Then again, maybe it is writing you will never enjoy. Who knows?

I started reading the Hobbit when I was 12. I couldn't get pass the first 10 pages. It would be fair to say I thought it was a crappy book. I picked up the complete story about 15 years later. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it. To this day I still think it is one of the finest pieces of literature that I have ever read. Weird, eh? :)

[Observer]

I still think it is one of the finest pieces of literature that I have ever read. Weird, eh?

Yes.

[Persephone]

Perhaps you should give it another try. Maybe you weren't in the right frame of mind when you tried to read it originally. Then again, maybe it is writing you will never enjoy. Who knows?

I started reading the Hobbit when I was 12. I couldn't get pass the first 10 pages. It would be fair to say I thought it was a crappy book. I picked up the complete story about 15 years later. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it. To this day I still think it is one of the finest pieces of literature that I have ever read. Weird, eh? :)


That's just normal. Your taste changes as you grow and change. And your ability to relate to the writing grows with the amount of life experience you have. There've been lots of books I thought were awful when I read them in my teens and twenties but absolutely love now.

I too think the books are better in this series, as much as I've loved the movies. There is just so much more in the books.

[kathleen]

Yes.


There's lots of weird things in this world. Like, you might actually enjoy the story if you ever tried reading it again. What would it hurt to try except for some wasted time and the chance to tell me I was wrong, again? ;D

[kathleen]

I too think the books are better in this series, as much as I've loved the movies. There is just so much more in the books.


It comes down to interpretation, I think. By reading the stories, you are actually putting your own images to the words, according to your preferences and experiences.

By watching the movie, you get to see the director's vision of the story. Not a bad thing if he/she happens to be a good director, but still limited to that person's mind.

I think the amazing thing about Jackson's movie is that he did manage to bring those characters out of that book much the way we all must have imagined them. Aside from Elrond, who I had pictured much kinder looking and less like a Matrix program. In my mind the elves were a less severe race. The rest of the characters are almost exactly as I imagined them. I especially love Samwise. He could not have been better cast nor acted IMHO. Bilbo, Gimli and Gangalf were amazingly close to my image of them too. Balrog was perfect. I'm dying to go see the movie but I vowed to wait until I got to Atlanta. Think Lizzie snuck off to see it without telling me? ;)

[wendy]

I tried reading Tolkein back in the late seventies and threw away the book.

Oh. So you've got a short attention span? :)

[Observer]

Oh. So you've got a short attention span?

No. I just didn't feel it necessary to engage in self abuse. Why bother slogging through something that I thought was terrible. If I wanted to do that, I would read one of LAL's books.

[wendy]

No. I just didn't feel it necessary to engage in self abuse.

Yet you respond to LaL on this forum.....

;D

[Observer]

That's because it is kind of like smacking yourself in the head with a hammer. It is kind of painful while it's happening,but it feels REALLY good when you stop.

[truelies]

Yet you respond to LaL on this forum.....

;D


another case of NOPC true love perhaps?

[sinceabout]

Lance-

Okay I was a good girl and waited to comment.

I took a bunch of older middle school/high school kids to see the Return of the King first showing opening morning. Yes, they ditched classes. ;)

# 5 Girl power...yes. We chicks were high-fiving at that scene. :)

Battle scenes. Wonderful. Some castles were built so that their limestone exteriors would provide a first line of defense against invaders...and something to launch back at them. Very cool to see that in the movie.

My fave was Sam. Call me strange, but I was cheering for him the whole way.

[sinceabout]

No. I just didn't feel it necessary to engage in self abuse. Why bother slogging through something that I thought was terrible. If I wanted to do that, I would read one of LAL's books.


Yes, so did I. I couldn't abide Tolkein's overly descriptive literary masturbation in The Hobbit and promptly decided to wipe the whole bizarre phenomena off my radar.

Luckily I drew the short straw to see the last movie. Whatever is really wonderful in the books must have been lit from behind for this flick. It is worth the time.

I may even reed the books now.

I'm dying to go see the movie but I vowed to wait until I got to Atlanta. Think Lizzie snuck off to see it without telling me? ;)


Of course I've waited.

Of course I've waited.


You're a good girl. :) :-*

You're a good girl. :) :-*


Not really. :-*

[Persephone]

Saw ROTK today. Enjoyed it.

This one seemed closer to the book that the other two movies. They left out some things, but it didn't seem like quite as much.

Overall, worth going to see at the theater. Just make sure you don't sit next to a couple of teenagers who talk through the whole thing.

Saw ROTK today. Enjoyed it.

This one seemed closer to the book that the other two movies. They left out some things, but it didn't seem like quite as much.

Overall, worth going to see at the theater. Just make sure you don't sit next to a couple of teenagers who talk through the whole thing.


You mean you don't have them kicked out?

[Persephone]

You mean you don't have them kicked out?


I'm a very nice person.

I'm a very nice person.


I'm not.

[wendy]

That is why I'm waiting to see a late morning showing after school is back in.

That is why I'm waiting to see a late morning showing after school is back in.


Not me. I'm going sometime in the next few days, and if any snot nosed brats or yuppies start taking phone calls, we'll be seeing if cell phones can ring when they're shoved that far up an ass.

[guido]

Overall, the movie was very good.

Frankly, though, they could have ended it anytime during the last 30 min..........especially since I had to go to the bathroom so bad. :-\

This truly was the culmination of this series of films. I can't even find words adequate to describe how much I enjoyed this film. Of course it did help that Dean was sitting next to me holding my hand, and he was sweet enough to let me hide my face in his chest during the Shelob scenes. I really do hate spiders, and that one just looked all kinds of real. I also loved, loved the way Sean Astin performed as Sam. Same is one of my favourite characters, and ROTK truly is the story of how great he really was.

Yes, I loved the Eowyn girl power scene. She kicked all kinds of ass.

Aragorn being reunited with Arwen made me all weepy, for obvious reasons.

[The Guardian]

Liz: No kidding about that spider looking all kinds of real. My wife hates 'em too...and she had me nearly in a death grip through that scene... :o I think I lost feeling in my hand for a few minutes...

We had a particularly stressful end of the week last week (too much "family") and went to see it again Friday night. Again sold out. Again standing in line for an hour.

Again, just totally totally blown away.

Perhaps these few scenes are some of my favorites:

1. The lighting of the beacons of Gondor. Just the whole image, with beacon after beacon flaring to life on grand mountain ranges; as Gondor calls on its ancient ally for assistance. Couple that with one of my favorite tracks on the soundtrack...and awesome.

2. The scene where Pippin is singing a haunting song for Denethor (steward of Gondor) intercut with Fairmir's men riding to their doom trying to retake Osilgath. Chilling and emotionally wrenching.

3. The rallying of the Rohan riders/charge into Pellnoor Fields. If that sequence does NOT get blood going fast, you're dead. Just that simple. I LOVE Bernard Hill's King Theoden in this movie.

I am with Liz. Words fail utterly to describe the feelings and emotions that Jackson is playing with. The guy next to my wife (seeing it for the first time) was all red-eyed. The chick next to me was crying by the time it was all over. And we both got a bit red-eyed ourselves, even though we knew EXACTLY what was coming.

I'm going to have to watch the movie without the distraction of a hot chick with a talented tongue holding my...hand. :) We really did watch most of it but any remote lull in the action was...you get the picture. :-[

I cannot wait until all three director's cuts are available. That is going to be a long day of sitting in front of my TV, with my beloved I hope, watching the entire uncut series beginning to end. I'm sure I'll we'll get up the next day and do it again.

[The Guardian]

Dean: I can relate. I remember when my wife and I were dating and we went to drive-in movies. I am not sure how much "movie" we ever saw, but we had a damned great time!

I had an old '64 Buick Wildcat at the time...HUGE boatcar. (...and backseat)

'nuf said. :)

BTW, word over on comingsoon.net (http://comingsoon.net) (movie board) is that the director's cut of ROTK will probably clock in between 4:15 to 5:00 hours. LOTS of stuff that probably should be added; IMHO that will make an already mind-blowing movie just that much more so.

Dean: I can relate. I remember when my wife and I were dating and we went to drive-in movies. I am not sure how much "movie" we ever saw, but we had a damned great time!

I had an old '64 Buick Wildcat at the time...HUGE boatcar. (...and backseat)

'nuf said. :)

Hmmm, I hope my coversion van lasts long enough for me to take Lizzie to a drive-in in it. :D

BTW, word over on comingsoon.net (http://comingsoon.net) (movie board) is that the director's cut of ROTK will probably clock in between 4:15 to 5:00 hours. LOTS of stuff that probably should be added; IMHO that will make an already mind-blowing movie just that much more so.

You can tell that it was a labor of love for Jackson. He stayed so true to the book that the idiots who believe we won't sit through a 4 hour movie made him take a big hatchet to it. I'm loving my copy of FOTR with the returned scenes. It simply makes the story flow better and make more sense. I refuse to watch anything but the director"s cuts of either of the other two movies from here on out. I haven't seen TT restored yet but I think I want to wait now until I can have all three, the whole works, and watch 'em all until my eyes bleed. Any time I get the urge for some LOTR I'm going to have to set aside an entire day to watch the three restored films beginning to end. ;D

Hmmm, I hope my coversion van lasts long enough for me to take Lizzie to a drive-in in it. :


Naughty! :aktion031:

[The Guardian]

You can tell that it was a labor of love for Jackson. He stayed so true to the book that the idiots who believe we won't sit through a 4 hour movie made him take a big hatchet to it. I'm loving my copy of FOTR with the returned scenes. It simply makes the story flow better and make more sense. I refuse to watch anything but the director"s cuts of either of the other two movies from here on out. I haven't seen TT restored yet but I think I want to wait now until I can have all three, the whole works, and watch 'em all until my eyes bleed. Any time I get the urge for some LOTR I'm going to have to set aside an entire day to watch the three restored films beginning to end.
Dean: Absolutely agreed about the labor of love. I mean, the guy and his staff have given up something like 7-10 years of their life to this project. THAT is dedication. It would have been sooo easy to make the usual crappy Hollywood production that would have done okay...but it took a genuine love of the source material to accomplish what has been done in this series of movies.

I love these movies...but was rather lukewarm about the books. Sure, great story and all...but JRRT IMHO got lost in the details many times; it took pages for the story to move along. To me, this made for an "ok" book, but rather low in entertainment value. But what those pages of description did for Jackson, they gave him a totally accurate blueprint on how to construct Middle Earth...which he did with admirable fidelity. That is why the movies work so well...take the scene in FOTR where the are in the Mines of Moria and the Dwarf King's Hall. What true geeks tell me is that set is literally 99% accurate to the pages of description in the book. (But for us movie goers, we did not sit through a bunch of pages of description...it all came in visually.)

We saw the extended version of TT recently at a friends on a big-screen; they have a wonderful TV room with leather chairs/couches and nice sound. Almost as nice as a theatre...anyhow, the restored scenes make TT even more awesome than the movie already was. Not much was added to Helm's Deep, but there were a bunch of character-developing scenes that to me were almost irritating that those scenes were not in the theatrical cut. This has been my reaction every time after seeing the EEs and I expect it will be the same one when we finally get the ROTK EE next year.

I can understand why the studio did what they did. Think about this fact...it takes TIME for a long movie. If these movies were any longer, theaters would be severely restricted on the amount of showings they could run in a day. Heck, with ROTK clocking in at 3:30, they already are somewhat limited. So that decision was not so much one of "how long will audiences sit still for"; rather it was an economic decision in that the theatre chains probably would not want to sacrifice a couple of showings a day or maybe more. Because if the movie was any longer, you would have to have an intermission.

In theatres I saw both FOTR and TT eight times. I have seen ROTK twice now and I am absolutely sure I will see it a few more times. All of these movies are such wonderful entertainment; the total creation of an articial and believable world that make them the ultimate escapism of our time.

And have I mentioned that Howard Shore MUST be a genius? I have all three soundtracks and they are awesome! The music in these movies adds so much and seems to capture the moments perfectly. (You know its bad when you can listen to the soundtrack and literally picture what is happening in the movie...)

The thing I love most about these stories is the grandiose scale of the battle between good and evil. Aside from someone like Boromir succumbing to the lure of evil, something all men do at some point, there are obvious good guys and evil creatures. Being align themselves one way or the other and the battle ensues. The cost of losing the battle is the enslavement of all creatures of good heart and the chaotic rule of pure evil, an intolerable and horrifying thing to even begin to imagine. The desperation of the characters comes off of the screen and sets your guts on edge. I love these movies.

BTW, unlike you I adored the books and reread them several times. I guess I liked the linguistics and the development and the details JRR put into them.

I've had several people I know from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy crowd complain about either the books or the movies. One complaint I hear is that the characters in the books aren't well developed. I agree to an extent, they aren't well developed, but they're not supposed to be. The Ring trilogy is not a character driven story; it's an epic, the story drives itself without us having to become intimate with each character or any one character. You cannot read these books the same way you read a modern story. Tolkien was not trying to write a modern story; he was trying to write a mythology. He very much succeeded in doing just that.

The biggest complaint I hear about the movies is that it's obviously CGI. Well duh! I didn't really watch ROTK and believe that Jackson found real flying dragons for the real Nazgul he found somewhere. One of the people I heard make that complaint loved Pirates of the Caribbean, and I wanted to ask her why the obvious CGI in one film bothered her while the other didn't. Did she really think Vorbinski found real walking skeletons to play the crew of the Black Pearl?

[The Guardian]

Hmmm...maybe I need to go back and reread the books. I read the Hobbit in high school and was not a whole lot older when I read the LOTR cycle.

I do understand what you are saying about the epic scale of battle between good and evil...and on that we both can totally agree that battle is what makes the stories (movie or book, take your pick) so compelling.

Don't get me wrong Dean. What JRRT did in linguistics and detail is a case-study in how to create a totally artifical reality. The LOTR cycle IS the definitive "how-to" in regard to detail. It is impressive and incredible in its own right.

[Satan]

I'm not even going to tell y'all how many times I've read the whole thing, appendices and all. I'm especially fond of The Hobbit, in all its simplicity. Go kill the dragon and come home. The good guys are valiant and victorious, and a good time is had by most. I can't wait until my children have the attention span to listen to 'chapter books' so I can act out all the voices. ;D

I can understand, though, those who have never read it having not much interest in it. If I had waited until now, I might not have read it either. It's a children's story about a fantasy land. These days, I read mostly non-fiction. And sadly, I don't think the next generation (or the next) will read it much, either. They'll just watch the CD, and never know what they missed.

But the books hold a special place in the hearts of those of us who first read them many years ago. Not because they transport us to Middle Earth now - hell, we're jaded and cynical - but because they transport us back to our own youths, when we played out whole universes of Kings and Men in our imaginations...without the 'help' of TV, Nintendo, or the internet.

BTW - as a father, I am in awe of Tolkein. That's one helluva bedtime story. I have a hard enough time making up shit about 'adventures' to the zoo or the 'magic forest' behind our house.

So anyway, The Wife and I dropped off the munchkins at a friend's house today and went to the matinee (for the first time since we saw The Patriot ::)). It was incredible. The battle at Minas Tirith...damn, trebuchets are cool. 8)

But in the scene at the end where Frodo is recuperating and everyone shows up, I really expected Gimli to bitch about scented candles and strawberry bath foam (http://home.nyu.edu/~amw243/diaries/gimli.html). ;D

Jackson needs to do The Hobbit. There are just no two ways about it. H'es obviously going to be filthy rich from these three. It was obviously a labor of love. Why not make the natural leap to the one book he hasn't done?

[Persephone]

But in the scene at the end where Frodo is recuperating and everyone shows up, I really expected Gimli to bitch about scented candles and strawberry bath foam (http://home.nyu.edu/~amw243/diaries/gimli.html). ;D


;D

[The Guardian]

Jackson needs to do The Hobbit. There are just no two ways about it. H'es obviously going to be filthy rich from these three. It was obviously a labor of love. Why not make the natural leap to the one book he hasn't done?

Dean: Rumors over on commingsoon.net say he wants to do The Hobbit. However...whether or not the movie happens is a case of one studio having the rights to do the movie and another having the distribution rights. In order for this movie to happen, a deal has to be made. Now...seeing how much money LOTR has made and is making, I think it would be a huge incentive to "deal". But it could also be a huge incentive for both studios to want to play hardball too.

PJ would be the logical choice; particularly if you can get some continuity with Gandalf, Bilbo, and so on. Plus he has built The Shire once...second time would not be nearly so difficult.

I think much of the Shire is still there as a tourist attraction. There is no denying what Jackson did. If they don't do the movie and don't have him do it they are fools.

I agree about the characters too McKellan was fabulous as Gandalf. They could find a slightly younger Bilbo I think but they wouldn't have to as the LOTR really does pick up a relatively short time after Bilbo returns.

[lgllady]

I finally saw it. After going to the movies and finding the whole day's showings sold out, I went on New Years Eve along with the 6 other peope in the theater.

It was awesome! Truly awesome! As soon as the DVD comes out, I'll have to get it and watch it 5 times!

I finally saw it. After going to the movies and finding the whole day's showings sold out, I went on New Years Eve along with the 6 other peope in the theater.

It was awesome! Truly awesome! As soon as the DVD comes out, I'll have to get it and watch it 5 times!


Which is great because you won't have to spend the last thirty minutes in pain from your distended bladder.