Return of the King : Spoilers Allowed

M

Motor Mouth

New member
Well here is my impression of it...

The film was fantastic until the point where one of the hobbits shouts "The eagles have come!"

Eagles? What eagles are they that haven't been mentioned in either of the two films previous and up until that point... The third? Don't say "watch the extended edition" either ... If they are in there that isn't a valid argument. I don't wish to buy or rent the extended edition to line New Line's pockets further, when if they really wanted to treat this film credibly, we wouldn't have director's cuts 4 months after the cinematic DVD release.

So the Ents trap Saruman in the tower and that is that... OK, this is an powerful wizard... Lets lock him in a brood cupboard, that'll keep him in there!

The ending where Frodo was in bed felt almost pantomime like... Each of the surviving members of the fellowship came in one by one... and smiled... I expected them to all hold hanRAB at the end, bow and walk away backwarRAB, with Legolas slapping his legs a few times for good measure.

The crowning ceremony was ok, until Aragorn started singing.... I thought this was Lord of the Rings, not The Sound of Music... Maybe he sings in the book, but in the context of the film, it came from nowhere and made very little sense...

Why did Sam marry Liza Tarbuck when he was obviously infatuated by Frodo... and to that effect why was there a blatant homoerotic subcontext through this final movie??

Why did he fade the film during the ending about three or four times, each time lulling us into a false finish, which wound people up in the cinema I was at. I know Tolkien writes the passage from scene to scene in a very abrupt way at the end of the third (i've been told) but to literally translate that onto screen really made the film sloppy.

Why were most of the action scenes on horseback directed in such a quick style that I couldn't see half of what was going on? Yes, it was an epic battle, but I want to see the battle, not a blur of colours

Why did the lead Orc look like the Elephant Man?

The ending could have been so much shorter.

Potentially a great film and trilogy, ruined by a really really lousy ending...
 
OK, im gonna try and not mention the book...

Eagles: Can you remember the fellowship!?! Can you remember how Gandalf escaped from Saruman? If not, then dont say anything! If so, u shoudln't have said anything!

Ents: Yeah a powerful wizzard, but his power was in Isanguard, which has now been flooded, Gandalf does say "he has no power now". Anyway, what else are they going to do? hold him in their hanRAB? I don't think so!

Fading the film: There wer so many different sub stories this was a way to end each one.

Orc Leader: How many times have we seen a Urakhai or an Orc? So how do we seperate the leader from the others? Hmm....maybe we could make him look distinctively different!!! How would the Witch King look if he was dressed like a normal Nazgul? Duh!

Singing: Pippin also sang, Arwen sings (on soundtrack if not film). Do u not think that it makes a good custom for a song to be sung at such an important ceremony?? I do!

Horseback fighting: First fight in Gondor with Farimir, no horses then......aragorn, legolas gimli, not really alot (if any) there either!

Quick editing: Biggest battle of middle earth, lets take it nice and slow like a sunday stroll in the park.....DONT THINK SO! It makes the audience feel intimidated and gets them into the hecticness of the battle. Plus, theres so much going on, you want to see all your fave characters kickin ass!
 
My mistake!



I understand that, but it still makes very little sense.
If Saruman's power is in Isengard, where does Gandalf's power lie, and why didn't the army of Saruman attack that?

I think the way they wrapped Saruman's story up didn't make sense within the context of the movie. Movie 2, taking out Saruman's army and Movie 3 taking out the army of Mordor. It makes sense. I understand the time constraints the crew were under, but it just didn't seem to fit.


I don't believe it was the correct way, there were plenty of other ways this could have been achieved... Could we not have some way of following the Hobbit's who were at each ending to each location. At the end we saw the map of Middle Earth, maybe they could have programmed some CGI terrain and made seasons pass while zooming in and out of the terrain watching the Hobbit's travelling back to The Shire... The ending we had just seemed to frustrate people.

I also think that they could have left out the chunk of the movie where Frodo completed the book. In the context of the film, I don't think it was completely needed.


I agree that would look stupid. But the Orc leader looked like the Elephant Man! Everytime he came on screen, I found myself thinking was it a homage or a design that they didn't think about? He looked distinctly different from the other Orcs, but distinctly like another famous character!


Which is another part of the film I disliked, as he couldn't have shoved the idea of contrast between the power and the people any further without putting it in big white text on a black background... But at least Pippin was asked to sing by Denethor. The character of Denethor himself seemed to get lost in the plot... Not really showing depressive illness, more a mad man feeling vengence against Faramir for the loss of Boromir...


Yes, but I'm talking within the context of the movie itself. It didn't seem to fit that out of nowhere he just sang. In the book I assume that we are given reason for the song, whereas in the movie he began singing for no apparent reason


I don't understand your point here. I didn't argue against the horseback fighting. I think you've seperated my one point into two where there was no reason for the seperation.



No, I didn't expect the battle to be slow paced, but a lot of the large scale battle was missed because the camera passed by so quickly. We only really saw our "fave characters" kicking ass, and the larger scale of the battle seemed missing almost. I understand the epic scale of the battle would be difficult to pull off, but at times where we did want to see some of the battle, it seemed blurred away almost in a "yes its big, and there it goes" kind of way. It just seemed quite a large battle was mimimalised. Tho the takedown by Legolas of the Elephant was quite impressive.
 
i agree about all those *endings*...where Frodo was lamenting the difficulty of picking up the threaRAB of an old life....no - don't worry about it, its the ned of the film - Lucas never bothered at any rate.

also - exactly where was Frodo off to anyway, and why, and why was it soooo sad - couldn't he pop back to Hobbiton from time to time? i might have found it a bit more emotional if i'd had the faintest bleedin' idea where he was going?

Iain
 
to the greyhavens, land of the elves.....where Arwen was meant to go, but didnt. Basically all the ring bearers went here, Gandalf was also one(thats just incase you didn't know that!), eerm they cant return coz its like a one way trip? Sam goes when his wife dies and legolas and gimli get on a boat and go together when aragorn/king elessar dies (b4 that they also move their little tribes of elves and dwarfs and move them to a place in near Gondor so they can all be nearer each other, bless). Its a one way ticket to paradise basically...
 
ta - i only really picked up something vague about the elves - i spoke to someone who's read the books and got a bit more detail too - i think in the film it was a bit vague tho' - i think they could have fleshed out the legend of the rings a bit more, or had a bit more about how sarem's (?) armies came to be - i thought the second one worked better here, as we saw them rise up from the firy underworld, and that all created a much better sense of evil and foreboding - even tho' this lot spanned thousanRAB of years, there still could have been some nod - as it was, it all seemed a bit vague there as well.

Iain
 
Which book is this in please ?



LOL - I agree, this was very apparent during the films, not so in the books mind.

I thought the only emotional bit in the film was when Faramir and his soldiers rode towarRAB their inevitable death. This was well filmed. I found that throughout the films I was a lot more interested by the humans than anything the Hobbits got up to.

I feel that this last film should have been split into 2 and extended to show more of Faramir and his relationship with Eowyn and also the Saruman/WormTongue incident in the Shire (from the book).
 
These events are described in the appendices at the back of Return of the King. These appendices detail many of the event from before and after the story of Lord of the Rings and lots of other interesting stuff. Have a read.
 
I saw this scene as a "death scene". Ie they were going there to die.

Gandalf said his time on this earth had come, and the trip to the Elven place (the name of which escapes me, as i can't be bothered to check the thread) was representative of their "final journey" so to speak...
 
:)
Hi ,
I do agree with most of your points Peej, I too was disappionted with the film but I must stress watch the extended versions as they make a more complete and enjoyable story. They will also help explain some of the points you have bought up (more singing though).

Quick question, does anyone know if the raizing:o(think I spelt that wrong) of the shire will be in the extended version.

Cheers
 
No Peter Jackson didnt film that part of the book because he felt that be would be slightly anti-climatic and depressing after such a long film, and i would agree since that part of the book wasnt actually my favourate and for alot of fans it wasnt as well, even though it was very powerfully written. But the things that will be included will be:

Gandalfs confrontation with Saurman and worm tongue etc and Saurman and worm tongue deaths!

Merry being knighted!

the mouth of Saroman (the eye) at the black gate confronting Aragon at the end before they fight at the black gate!

And many many many more scenes.........and according to various sites Peter Jackson is already editing the EE and has stated that it would last a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes.......and he also joked that the timing might still be too short for some lol.
 
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