RotK...Official "I've seen it" thread...

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Saw it Saturday as part of a media screening / film commision presentation. It may be the best movie I have ever seen in my life. I can't wait to see it again to confirm what my first impressions were.

I envy all of you who are about to walk into that theatre and see it for the first time. It is a beautiful, powerful, perhaps "perfect" film. It will win Best Picture, as well as many other awards in April. There is nothing to disappoint, nothing that feels left out...I have found myself thinking about it since I left the theatre on Sat. night.

Please post your thoughts as you see the movie, but be careful to not reveal any spoilers as you do so.

 

Doesn't come out til tomorrow in Canada. Have you read the books Hacken Slash much? If so, can you remember any glaring plot conflicts with the original (don't tell me, just say yes, or no )

 

Spoiler!
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Arwen kills Sauron by poking his eye out with her elfie scimitar!!!

 

I shall see it on Friday. It shall be lovely.

 

Well, it was OK for Arwen to "do-in" Sauron as far as I was concerned, the story always needed a little more "girrrrl power", but to have her run off with Legolas was a bit too much.

I did feel it was a nice touch to create a young apprentice to Gandalf, so that the kids would have a character to relate to, just don't know how they'll keep from getting sued by calling him "Parry Hotter".

The movie doesn't come out here until officially midnite tonight (I think Shralp must have tickets to the cartoon version ), but Harkins and the Film Commision had a sneak preview on Saturday. I think they actually have had a couple of sneak previews here already, most major cities have. That's how all the critics can have reviews out before the movie even opens.

Anyway, to answer your question, Mystra...this film is probably a bit more faithful to the book than the previous two, with the exception of two fairly major story lines. Rather than risk telling too much, if you want to know more, you can pm me.

I promise you, I can't picture anyone being disappointed in this film. Before I saw it, I had concerns that it might not win Best Picture, now I have no doubts. Am planning to see it again ASAP, probably this weekend.

Enjoy!

 

Spoiler
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It is revealed near the end that Sauron is really Barbara Streisand.

The whole "War for Middle Earth" thing was all a bad trip Gandalf was having. It turns out that the pipe weed that Bilbo and Gandalf were smoking at the biginning of "Fellowship" was laced with Angel Dust, and Bilbo didn't tell Gandalf for fear it would kill the buzz. Gandalf wakes up with the munchies and embarks on a quest for Cheetos.

Elrond reveals himself as the original lead singer of Aerosmith, reforges his "Mikestand of Kings" and rocks the house. Arwen is just confused.
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End spoiler.

I admire Jackson staying so faithful to the book.

 

Ok, I've seen it! (and now I come to post this at 4:30 am ) The best word to describe RotK is great.

Of course, everything was much more dramatic in the movie, like Pippin and Palantir, Frodo's and Sam's disputes, that Gollum caused, Denethor's death etc.

The ending after the ring was destroyed was quick and missed many parts. E.g. returning to Shire was entirely different than in the book

Battles, scenery, mountains, cities etc. looked excellent. And again, music fits well in the movie.

Return of the king gets 5 points from 5, but Peter Jackson left much material to Extended edition. We'll have to wait for it.

 

Gonna catch a midnight showing tonight. I have extreemly high expectations for the climax, Wood hasn't convinced me yet that he's a good enough actor to pull it off successfully. This moment's really going to make or brake the movie for me, but since everyone's first impressions are so amazingly positive I think I can be expecting some of the most entertaining hours of my life.

 

Seen it last night. I'm very VERY pleased. The only downpoints I have about it are that we don't get a closure on Saruman. They stick treebeard near him as his jailor, and that's it. The other thing is how Sam gets hold of the vial, sting and the ring. I never saw him take it. AFAIK, frodo got ... 'wrapped up' and then Sam came and saved the day. But how did he get the sword etc before frodo got all sticky?

I'd like to have seen the scouring of the shire, but the movie is just fine without it. I would've like to see more of Eomer in the battle for Gondor, his role was ... minor.

But I am very satisfied with the movie, it turned out great!

 

@ Hacken Slash

If that is a serious spoiler, that is very depressing, and it departs greatly from the book. At no point does Arwen get anywhere near a battlefield, and at no point does she run off with Legolas. I'm bitter now. I was planning on seeing it tomorrow, and I still will, but I hate when they change things.

@ All

I understand omitting parts (can't have a 6 hour movie) but when they change major parts of the storyline, I have issues with that. You say that they changed a lot of the ending.

SPOILER


I knew the shire scene was editted out - no problem with that. Do they still include Aragorn's coronation?

 

@ Aldeth

Yes, they include the coronation. According to Newsweek, Jackson left out the scouring of the shire because it was a part of the book he just didn't like. And for the movie's sake, I can't blame him. It would be one tiny battle coming right after the gigantic epic battle at Mordor. It would have fizzled. Good call methinks. As for the fate of Saruman and an explanation of why Eowen and Faramir were standing next to each other at the end, both will be on the DVD.

Okay - now to the select few things that pissed me off about and otherwise fantastic movie. Bare in mind I haven't read the book, so this isn't a critical nitpick, just my personal hopes.

• Gandalf doesn't do any cool wizardy magic. He blinds some flying Nazgul with his light to help Faramir's war party escape, but that's it. He was supposedly more powerful than Saruman at this point, and nuthin.
• I was hoping the Dwarves and/or more elves would've shown up to kick some ass. I find it hard to believe that Gimli is the ONLY noble dwarf in Middle Earth.
• I was kind of hoping Gollum would be at least slightly redeemed. Nope.
• No lesbians.

Other than those things, it was a great 3 hours and 22 minutes.

 

That is explained in the books. The elves in Thranduil's kingdom and Lothlorien were engaging the orcs in the Misty Mountains, and The dwarves were beset by more Easterlings in the Northeast. So neither could send troops to fight in the Last Battle.

 

And that's another thing - if this was some terrible, end-of-the-entire-world conflict, why not show - or at least alude to - the struggle going on in other lands with other peoples? It just makes Middle Earth look like Gondor and Rohan are the only two civilizations on the planet.

Grumble grumble grumble.

 

The film was almost perfect. I especially enjoyed:

The charging army of Rohan when they mowed down the orc archers, very impressive.
The Palantir, much more dramatic and adds a little excitment to a gradual start.
Eowyn, Merry and the Nazgul Lord. A perfectly executed scene, just how i imagined it to be in the book.
Most of the film was indeed incredibly good.


The ending however was not great. This has nothing to do with the direction of Jackson. the exclusion of the Shire scourging was a very welcome edit, after all, that part of the book is scrappy and stupid at best. But he was unable to improve the rather morbid ending, that being the sailing from the grey havens.
It was, as in the book, a sombre, upsetting and and unfullfilling affair. it left me feeling empty and, as in the book, i couldn't help getting the impression of ritual suicide.
But overall this fault of Tolkeins work was patched up as much as it could have been i suppose.

However, i must say the rest of the film was an absolute delight. It will take a great deal to ever replace the lord of the rings trilogy as my favourite movies of all time.

 

@Aldeth

I am very sorry if you took me serious on that. I was, as usual, being a laughing idiot. Arwen, of course, stays faithful to Aragorn and is not involved in any battles. Sorry if I joked around and made you bitter.

 

@ Faragon

Frodo drops both Sting and the vial when he wrestles with Gollum outside the spider's cave. Sam finds them along the trail when he follows. I'm pretty sure Sam took the ring when he thought Frodo was dead. The ring was around his neck, and Sam cut open the webs enough to expose his face.

 

@ Hacken Slash - PHEW - that's a relief! I thought they were going to do something totally off-base like have Aragorn marry Eowyn or something. The reason I took it seriously, is because you said the same thing as Bel, so I thought, "They really DID that?!?!"

I'm glad I was wrong.

 

Did they film the Tower of Cirith Ungol scene? Where Frodo gets taken by the orcs, and Sam has to rescue him?

 

Yes.

They also film the scene where Richard Simmons shows up and inspires the troops.

 

Easy DR, you'll have poor Aldeth falling on his blade soon.

Yes, Bel, it is included.