<font color=pink>Greetings all. I went to see the 12 afternoon showing today at 10:45(we nabbed great seats, the theatre was 3/4 full at 11!). Unfortunatley Em and I were the only ones wearing cloaks, lol. Guess I should have gone to the midnight to see others like us [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Anyway, there was tons of anticipation as well as expectations that the movie would be as good, or better, than the Fllowship. Especially after reading, then re-reading and doing a 20 page analysis on it.

I would say personally that it was not as good as the Fellowship at all. I left slightly dissapointed. Sure, I cheered and sighed with every other teenage girl when Orlando Bloom(Legolas) 1st popped onto the screen, and numerous times after. I cried twice too. But I cried 4 times in the Fellowship, lol.

Now I know they always leave things out of movies when its based on a book. But Arwen actually left to the west, and shes not supposed to do that. And at the end of book 2 Frodo and Sam are supposed to flight Shelbob...I know for length they couldn't extend the movie that far, but still...it means that Return of the King is going to be that much longer [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The battle scenes-best i've witnessed. I loved them :D

Now, for those of you ho have scene it, supply your opinions :D </font>

I really enjoyed it despite the use of some "creative license". [img]tongue.gif[/img] :D

I won't give it away for the sake of those who haven't seen it yet(especially those for whom it's not even availible), but I was surprised that it ended sooner than I expected(based on the book).

I thought it was at least the equal of LotR and maybe better. :D

I'm going to see it tonight (Thursday) at 8:30pm. It's 2:24pm now. Needless to say I'm counting down the hours. It's gonna be fun.
I'll fill you in on what i thought of it sometime tonight.

<font color="cyan">I see it on Sunday, and I'm glad you wrote this.......</font>

Whatever you do.... don't order the large drink!

It's murder to avoid a "much needed" bathroom trip for 3 hours because you don't want to miss anything.

Trust me on this, ok? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Hahaha.
Sounds like sage advice. I'll take it to heart :D

Ok, I just got in from seeing it.

DAMN GOOD MOVIE!

It didn't have quite the same impact as the first as I/we were already 'used' to 'The Fellowship's' good quality as it were. Yet as an experience, this installment was grand.
It's a visual effects masterpiece! Some amazing images and spectacles in this one. The ents look great, the battle of the hornburg is suitably monumentous, the worg riders look pretty gnarly too.
But the highlight of it all is Gollum! He stole the show in every possible way. You'll just have to see how it is done to believe it! Kudos to Andy Sarkis and the CGI team!
However, the battle of Helms Deep ended much too abruptly IMHO, as did the movie itself. Bit of an anti-climax really, which is a shame. And, as has already been stated, NO SHELOB!!! Bugger! They finished up ending the Two Towers storyline quite suddenly, and they have ALOT of storyline to cram into The Return of the King. Hope this doesn't mean that they will do too much story-chopping.

All in all, an excellent movie. A real continuation of the spirit of the first one.I'll be seeng it more than once!

Hmm, NZ gets to see it this ealy, but we over here in OZ get to wait another week [img]tongue.gif[/img] . On the topic of cutting the book short, that may not be such a terrible thing, because don;t forget that Return of the king is probably the shortest of the books having that thimping great set of appendices in it.

360 pages compared to TTT 440 - evening them up at 400 pages a piece leaves Frodo having not long left Faramir, and in the process of witnessing the horde setting forth from the gates of Minas Morgul (ie before the ascent of the stair at Cirith Ungol).

Damn - another whole week ........ tick, tock, tick, tock.......

It is simply AWESOME!!!

SPOILERS

I don't think they filmed the Scouring of the Shire, so that removes another chunk of the 3rd book, which explains why they ended this film where they did.

I thought it was great, better flow and character development than the first film.

To the first poster, I doubt very much that Arwen went to the West, they just showed her leaving Rivendell.

Gollum stole the show.

I don't know why they had Faramir take Frodo and gang to Osgiliath, but I expect it to be explained in the 3rd film.

<font color = aqua>
Possible spoiler

I went to the midnight showing Tuesday night/Wednesday morning LB and I think I was one of the few who didn't dress up. I loved Smeagal in this one. I just have one puzzling question. Why did Faramir take Frodo to Gondor? What's the point in that? </font>

<font color="plum">My excitement began with the very first sequence. A battle that the reader knew took place, but that Tolkien never wrote about (other than the general reference Gandalf gives Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas in Fangorn).

Visual effects were positively stunning (as with the first one).

It's been a loooooong time since I actually read the books, but (IIRC), Faramir DID capture Frodo and Sam and take them to Osgiliath, where he discovered they had the Ring of Power...and he was going to take that to Gondor to use against Sauron. I distinctly remember the scene from the book with Gollum diving in the pool after fish and Faramir waiting to give the signal to kill him.

NO SHELOB - Wellllll, no Shelob YET is more accurate. That will be one of the earlier scenes in Return of the King (who did you think Gollum was referring to when he said "SHE could do it". THAT is a scene I do NOT want to miss).

Also, the Return of the King is quite a bit shorter than the others. Frodo and Sam encounter Shelob and have a few other tangent adventures before setting resolutely towards Mt. Doom. Meanwhile, the big storyline for the rest of the cast is the Battle of Gondor and the great climactice Battle of Five Armies...so there really isn't that much more to add in.

The Ents and the attack on Isengard were fantastic (although I expected Treebeard to be somewhat BROADER...oh well, it was still awesome).

Battle of Helm's Deep - simply incredible. I don't remember the elves joining the battle, but it has been a long time since I read the books. I was a little disappointed in the "creative license" of having Legolas go "boarding" down the stairs while firing arrows at the Uruk-hai...but it was a cool visual.

I won't be seeing it again, because it is only here for two days ( [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img] ) and there is no way I could make it to either of the last two shows even if I wanted to. That's ok, though....the DVD will be here soon enough. :D </font>

Well I missed the Huorns at Helm's Deep - that would have been truly awesome [img]graemlins/firedevil.gif[/img]

The reat of the point of 'creative licenses' have been covered.

Still - I is a great film [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/spinstar.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/spinstar.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/spinstar.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/spinstar.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/spinstar.gif[/img]

<font color=orange>I thought he took them to Cair Andros, an Island on the River Anduin and northeast of Minas Tirith. I am sure he didn't take them to Osgiliath. Later in the Return of the King he fought a rear guard action at Osigilith at the Causeway and across the Pellenor Fields, where he was struck down by a poisoned Southron arrow.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I will this weekend!</font>

I enjoyed it even though the movie cut off three times. They gave everyone at the end a free coupon to see it again. Yipee!!

OK, I enjoyed it but it was not as good as felloship of the rings. Way to many plots lines going on and there is no real ending. What did you expect it is the middle of a very long film? we get to see the end next year 2003. If you have not seen the first one do not go because you will be lost, confused, and your little brain will be doing way to much thinking.

The good points:
1. Gollum - funny, sad, depending on how you wish to look at him.
2. Gimli - very funny in battle scenes, my favorite part of the whole film
3. Battle scenes well done
4. Ents, worgs, creatures were also well done.
5, music and backgrounds were as awsome as the first.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

if you haven't seen the first one you will probaly hate it.

My favorite line.
Gimli "Toss me, but don't tell the elf!"

[ 12-19-2002, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

i loved the movie.. as it was cut short of a few things was cool, that means we have more to look forward to when return of the king comes out next year... i got to see it right after my 3rd shift on wednesday morning, waited for two hours to get tickets and still get a good seat... im going again today with my bro in law soon as he gets off of work [img]smile.gif[/img] I CANT WAIT TO SEE IT AGAIN :D

Wayy too many plot lines going, and still no successful resolution of any of them cept maybe the Frodo and Sam one..
Those segments of the film were some of the most true-to-book ones, and they were pretty damn stunning in their own right (Faramir's ambush of the Mordor Column for example.. a hugely cool scene that I expect will go unnoticed compared to Helm's Deep). I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Pools of the Dead yet.. those were some of the creepiest/scariest scenes I've ever seen.. I really love that bit. Positively awesome effects.
Too many details left out, much much more than in Fellowship of the Ring because of the separate storylines, such as Gandalf's relationship with Shadowfax, and his dealings with Theoden etc etc.
I'm actually pretty happy they threw in the bit about Gimli and Legolas keeping score at Helm's Deep, and the last march of the Ents/charge of the Rohirrim had me floored. I loved this one a huge load more than Fellowship, pretty much only because I get the movie, and I fill in the plot gaps in my head, leaving me to just enjoy the really good bits of the film. For anyone else who doesnt have a clue.. well lets just say it aint going to win any Oscars..
If they've done this well for the second film, I cant wait to see what happens in the third. And the only bit I didnt expect was Arwen's departure to Valinor.. she doesnt DO that! I think like the scouring of the shire, that little bit you get where Elrond fortells the future is all you get of Arwen and Aragorn's future after Sauron is defeated..
And something I REALLY didnt expect was Haldir dying at Helm's Deep. I didnt even know he WAS at Helm's Deep..

<font color="plum">I stand corrected, <font color="orange">Sir Taliesin</font>. I knew that Faramir had taken them somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. Like I said, it has been very many years since I read the book (many of our members here weren't even born yet - if that gives you a clue) and all those location names started running together anyway.

I've never been really good at "visualizing" landscape scenes from a book....I guess that's one reason I enjoy the movies so much. Some of the events make MUCH more sense when I have a "live" image of the surrounding geography (Never could figure out exactly what the Plains of Rohan looked like for some reason).

Anyway, even with a few "creative licenses", this movie still ROCKS THE TOP OFF!

LOTR will probably go down as the all time BEST movie series in my book.</font>

I haven't seen it yet. :(

But, I will next weekend. ;)

<font color="#ff00cc">I haven't had time to go see it yet so a plague of locusts in all yer drawers for talking about it here :D heheeh Im not reading anything any of you say! </font>

<font color=green>Didn't the ents attack at helms deep also. I thought that they attacked isengard without seeing the destuction that they had weeped. One of the best parts in the movie though was when the ent was on fire and the wave of water was coming and you see the ent run and put his head in the water. That was funny. Also i think gimli was hilarious the whole movie. The part where he asked to get thrown awesome.</font>

I wondered if anyone else notice that! :D

I found myself leaving with mixed emotions, but on the whole, loved it. My thoughts:

1.) it was confusing to go back and forth btw all the plot lines but there are that many in the book as well! They might have not cut back and forth so often, but then you might lose track of who was doing what
2.) EXCELLENT battle scenes and character development
3.) cool focus on Gollum
4.) liked seeing Frodo "change"
5.) wished the scenes with the Ents had been longer
6.) The Dead Marshes scene was CreeEeEeEePy!!!
7.) Again, found myself thinking the movie needed another hour
7.)I made SURE I "trained" myself by avoiding caffeine all day, and barely made it through 3 hours w/out having to use the bathroom. Phew, it paid off...
9.)I'm definitely going again and again and again!!!
10.)I thought _I_ was the only one who saw the Ent put himself out in the river!
11.) Does anybody know if they're gonna make an extended DVD w/ this one as well?

I haven't heard anything about it, but you can count on it! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

dude! i bet that moviw was da bomb! i so wanna see it!

I read in the USA Today (newspaper) last week that there WILL be an extended version!!!!! I ALMOST went to see it today. But a couple guys who work for me want to go to so we'll likely sneak away from work soon and all see it. One guy has never read the books but got really into Fellowship after I lent him the dvd. On that note I read in todays paper TT is passing Fellowship ticket sales already and projected to go over $1 billion ticket sales worldwide. This should certainly truly sink another record setting movie of titanic proportions [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color = aqua> Hurry up and get well so you can go Magic. This is one movie you need to see in the theatre. Although some of the battle scenes might be even more exciting if you're watching it with all those drugs you've been on. ;) </font>

<font color="plum">I'm pretty sure almost everybody in the theater I went to saw the Ent put his "head" out. That WAS funny. One thing that would have been even cooler is if there had been a close-up of the Ents "digging their toes/roots" into the ground just before the water hit. That would have been extremely awesome.

And yes, I also thought the Ents helped with the Battle of Helm's Deep, but I may be getting it confused with the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

The main thing I'm looking forward to from ROTK is SHELOB!!!!!

That should be very good.</font>

It was good. DAMN good.

Helm's Deep - I can't fault it at all. For sheer bloody action and heroism it tops everything I've seen in any movie ever. Cinematics - sound - everything perfect for the tension and... well, it's good.

Faramir and co. - I missed the scene in which Faramir finds his brother's body in the boat, and takes the horn. I would have liked to see it; it would introduce Faramir far far better... as well as explain why he was so god damn surly all the time. Apart from that... neat. I suppose they had to show Osgiliath so they could go back there in the next film...

Ents - excellent. A nice twist in having Pippin 'trick' Treebeard into seeing the devastaion Isengard had wrought - a nice surprise.

Did anyone think Gandalf's freeing of Theoden from Saruman's hold was a bit 'The Exorcist'? :D

Tancred - off to see it more times than he saw Fellowship

I just saw the movie today. I felt that it was truly an awesome movie. The biggest surprise for me is that "Fellowship" followed the book so closely and "Tower" strayed from the book. I realize that it had to stray some so that it wouldn't be a 2 week long movie. I don't think that changes needed to be made. (examples: Aragorn going over the cliff, Faramir's nobility denied by his taking Frodo to Osgolith, Legolas giving in to dispair in Helm's Deep, Arwen going to the West (or does she?))
Highlights for me was the way the Ent's were rendered and the battle scenes from Helm's Deep. Lowlights were my examples and the dwarf tossing joke.
The scenes which I think which will be unappreciated or overlooked but which I thought were excellent were the representations of Gollum's internal torment. I can't conceive of a better showing between the good and evil within Smeagol's mind.
The one thing which I truly missed from this movie was the lack of the Huron's (sentinent, moving trees) swallowing up the retreating Orc army at Helm's Deep.

The way I remember the book is that the ents took out the tower much like in the movie but after many of them moved on to Helms deep to fight in the helms deep battle. Only a few stayed behind with merry and pipin. At Helms deep thay actually turned the the tide of the battle after the riders evened the odds a little more. Plus I thought the elves arrived for the final battle in the third book, the only elf at Helm's deep in the book was Legolos.

Have to love that contigent of elvish archers and the lucky old man who fired the first arrow because he could no longer withstand the strain on his bow. The movie was still awsome it does not have to be identical to the book.

A funny thing that most NEw Zealanders will be able to pick up on: alot of the cast in The Two Towers used to star in a New Zealand-made soap opera called 'Shortland Street'. The elf-leader guy, the mother of those two kids at the start, even the arms master of Theoden (who tells Aragorn and co. to disarm themselves) were all regular cast members. Hence their strained American accents (it's hard for us Kiwi's to get the yankee sound right ;) ). I gotta admit it kinda dispelled the suspension of disbelief a little when you see the leader of an elven war party and say 'hey, it's Guy Warner (real life name Craig Parker)! The lovable rogue from Shortland Street!'. Ah well :D

<font color = aqua> Hurry up and get well so you can go Magic. This is one movie you need to see in the theatre. Although some of the battle scenes might be even more exciting if you're watching it with all those drugs you've been on. ;) </font></font>[/QUOTE]<font color="#ff00cc">Thanks CV [img]smile.gif[/img] Im hoping to go see it Sunday, Colleen and I are going to go up and take my kids to it. (will also be the first time they meet her)....a little psychological warfare here, taking the kids to a movie they desperately want to see and I know will enjoy ;) </font>

The shepherded the Huorns (old Ents who have become almost trees, they are shepherded by the Ents) to the field outside of Helm's Deep to dispose of the rest of the orcs after they retreated. The ents had their monent at Isengard, so it wasn't too much of a disappointment to not see the Huorns.

OK, here is why I think these scenes were added (pure speculation, but seems to make sense).

Aragorn and the cliff: The reactions of his comrades shows you the depth of their feelings towards him, and how much he has become their leader and friend. It also allows another Arwen remembrance to develop that plot. And finally, it allows Eowyn to show her budding affection for Aragorn when you see her reaction after she hears of his "fall". Don't forget, a movie-viewer doesn't get to hear the thoughts of the characters, not like a reader who can read them.

Faramir, Frodo, and Osgiliath: In the end, Faramir realizes his error and releases Frodo even though the Gondor officer threatens punishment. I think this scene was added so the non-reader will understand why Sauron attacks Minas Tirith right away. The nazgul saw the ring in Osgiliath, so he will report it to Sauron who will assume that it will go to Minas Tirith next. Also, the Stewards's men are witness to Faramir's decision and when they report to the Steward, the despair will develop. Even more, it gives a reason why Faramir is in Osgiliath to get injured during the attack.

Legolas giving in to despair: I don't remember this, but I saw a midnight showing so maybe I missed something.

Arwen going to the West: They show her leaving Rivendell, so it seems far from likely that she will actually go to the West. Plus, the presence of the elves at Helms deep shows that Elrond is beginning to cast of the separation that he is trying to make between elves and men, so maybe he will not try to force Aragorn and Arwen apart.

I'll see the movie again to get a better view. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I can't wait until that gets down to cuba! I want to see some more of Legolas with his dual-weilding action!