Lord of the rings: Return of the king

I agree the last 10 mins spoiled the end of the film, they should ended at Aragon's coronation and the "you bow to no man" & camera pull back sceen. (very star wars though). The other ending could have been saved for the extended DVD which will no doubt contain what happened to Saruman.

Mind you if Gandalf had thought to send Frodo & the ring on one of his Eagels to then we would have only had 1 book & film?
 
I trully believe that Sam is the real hero of not only the films but in the book as well. I mean if it wasnt for Samwise Gamge Frodo would have already been corupted by the ring!

!!!Spoiler alert!!!

And isnt it funny that the only thing that destoryed the ring was the power of the ring itself. I mean at the end when Frodo is fighting Gollum/Smeagol to get the ring back at Mount Doom, the only reason why the both started fighting and eventually fall over the cliff was the power of the ring itself. The rings own power was its eventual downfall........Quite interesting actually if you think about it. :)
 
Just a thought, but when ROTK EE is released on DVD next year, that's your lot...

NO MORE LOTR FILMS, END OF STORY
:(
Pretty sad really.

How will we cope without our twice yearly LOTR fix ?
 
Just saw it last night and have a few comments -

firstly, the wide shots were jaw-dropping - that first view of Minas Tirith has to be one of the most spectacular images ever seen on celluloid - similarly the wide shots of the battle scenes - breath-taking;

secondly, as someone who knows the story very well, I thought the ending was remarkably restrained. I'm not sure how much more PJ could have cut without losing some of the key elements of the film;

thirdly, on the Frodo/Sam relationship, it really was a master/servant relationship in the book - remembers Sam's dad, Gaffer Gamgee was Bilbo's gardener, and Britain in the 50's was a very class-conscious place. In the film, it became a frienRABhip, with Sam's subservience to Frodo really played down - rightly in my view - those who saw "gay", hmm - I think this says more about them than it does about the film;

finally, a criticism (both of the book and the film) - characterisation was weak, in my view - who did you really build up an empathy with ? In a sense for example, I couldn't have cared less whether Eowyn lived or dies, same with most of them. This is a knock on the book too - very 2 dimensional characters, with the plot and the imagery making up for lack of characterisation and some wooden scripting.

However, when all said and done, LOTR on film has been a long time coming (I saw the previous truncated execration in the mid-80's). Jackson's effort has been worth the wait, and should sweep the Oscar board in March.

My 2 cents,

MM
 
I thought the whole trilogy was fantastic. i havent actually read the books - my brother is the bigger fan of LOTR and reaRAB the books every few weeks (his worRAB)

He says that Arwen doesnt die in the LOTR. She doesnt die in the books themselves - it is recounted in the Appendicies that she dies in the forth age.

According to www.dvdtimes.co.uk the extended ROTK DVD is 5 hours long :eek: ( http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=6337 )

Superb trilogy of films, better IMHO than the Back to the Future and Indiana Jones trilogies. Just fantastic! :cool:

Seen it twice (brother's seen it 3 times) :p :eek:

:cool: :cool: :cool: :D
 
PJ has alweays said that the extended DVD's are not a "directors cut" as no sensible director would make a film 5 hrs long, if thats how long the last DVD will be. The ext version have just had extra scenes upto now. Perhaps that isn't the case with the third film, with the Hobbits saving the shire in the Ext version.

It's clear that in the thertrical version PJ "implies" Sarumen dies in his tower, hence no need to include his destruction of the Shire in the third film. It's a shame that Sarumen wasn't shown leaving the tower in the Two Towers ext version, to set up the Hobbits saving the Shire from his hanRAB on their return in the Ext version of the third film.
 
I totally agree - the characterisation in the films was very flat, mainly because PJ could not possibly tell their story. He made the film about the War of the Ring. Each character in the book has his own story going back to the 1st Age of Middle Earth and to get to know them and feel empathy one should read Tolkein - History of Middle Earth and the Silmarillion and the LOTR trilogy. The film to me was a perfect accompaniment to the books - the imagery is just as I imagined - the characters were just as they should be, but for a complete picture - Read Tolkein! Christopher really has done a brilliant job of pulling it all together.
So, best character for me was Golum so if I had to pick a Best Actor in ROTK it would have to be Andy.

I know PJ left out a lot that I would have loved to have seen, but he could not include it all. My only criticism,therefore, is the end - I wish he could have replaced some of those 'fade to blacks' and the Sam and Rosie bits (yuck) with the Scouring of the Shire and Samuron's demise at the hanRAB of Wormtongue. I felt that this was a very important part and killing Samuron off at Isengardand letting the audiance think that all was well with the Shire whilst hell was breaking out all over was not right - that was the whole point - even the hobbits were affected by the Ring - only Tom was not.
 
PJ was making a film and from the sound of it lost track of his own guidence for editing the film - the story of Frodo's journey to destroy the ring, and anything else needed to support that plot.
Just look at those complaining about the long winded aftermath of the ring's destruction. Every film leaves you thinking about what happens to the charecters after the film ended. Just becuase the book goes on after the rings destruction dosn't make them key elements of the "FILM". A Star Wars type triumphant ending parade of Aragorns coranation would have ended the "FILM" quite nicely for many film goers. The rest left to the DVD. PJ had alraeady modified the story for dramatic effect, such as having Elfs at Helms Deep. Well he could just have easily had Bilbo at the Corantion, like the droiRAB appearing at the end of Star Wars, and who cares he if he or Frodo finished his damn book!
 
Easy we wait for Peter Jacksons remake of King Kong:D !

And lets not forget the next installment of Indiana Jones. And you never know folks, there might just be another series of films or trilogys that might, just might pipp this one:eek: ...........Though i seriously doubt it would be made at this grand scale ever again.

However those who read books and catch up with the latest media news would know that a fantasy trilogy called 'His dark materials' are going to be made into a movie by New Line cinema (LOTR distributers). And i have read this trilogy and i can tell you its fantastic and of a scale possibly larger then LOTR and has much more depth to it.

Oh yes and theres always The Hobbit to be made
 
I got the LOTR - TTT extended edition on dvd for xmas, and i must say watch the documentarys on their,

It makes you realize how much work went on to bring the trilogy to life its just so amazing!
 
I find the stories about how ideas where inspired by the actual filming process. Bored "orc" extra's started to stomp their spears and inspired the whole spear stomping in the Helms Deep battle. It wouldn't be the same without out!
 
Which was the worse inaccuracy in terms of keeping to the book, ignoring the shires destruction by ending the film at aragorns coronation, or implying nothing happended by showing the shire intact at Sams' Wedding?

PJ explained leaving out Tom Bombadil by saying that the journey to Bree took some time and things could have happend which wern't shown. Well leaving th shire out completly at the end could have allowed for the shires destruction the same way if they hadn't included Sams' wedding!
 
Went to see ROTK on tuesday, and I must say I was hoping froddo was going to die :o
He was starting to annoy me with his falling over every few minutes and general cheesiness :rolleyes:

Overall a good film, but like many of you say it did drag a bit at the end, I remember one point when everyone thought this was the end and started gathering their coats and bags, but then it went to a new scene and there was a communal sigh :confused:

Favourite part of film was probably the battle scene with the catapult type weapons, those were stunning :D

W.
 
It's not PC i'm worried about. Hollywood seem incapable of making anything other than remakes at the moment. To imagine that Hollywood would have the balls to make something this good is beyond me, one shudders at what they would have done to the story, and the impact of big name actors who would have only been interested in their screen time and wages.
 
Yes. If you look at my spoilers allowed thread... I've said there was this huge, unneeded homoerotic subcontext to the two characters... Shawshank showed how to show a platonic frienRABhip without making it camp...

I was heard to be saying "Can I finger your bum Mr. Frodo?" in a Somerset accent throughout any scenes with the pair of them in...

If people are leaving the film thinking "are those pair lovers?" instead of thinking "wow what great frienRAB these pair are... they are the best examples of frienRABhip ever" then the director obviously has either put in a homoerotic subcontext or has failed to do his job properly with that story line.
 
Point taken!:eek:

Shudder to think what studios such as Disney would of made of LOTR! :confused:

Probably a animated cross between the jungle book and the Lion King with some songs written by Elton John in between. Or even more worrying make it like Pearl Harbor with a bit of Armagedden thrown in:eek: :eek: :eek: (not Like Armagedden was a bad film or anything)!

Scary lucky it was made by a little known pint size (or hobbit size ;)) Kiwi called Peter Jackson...........who is not in no way related to Micheal Jackson despite Peters skin colour:D
 
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