ROTK: Reviewed --- SPOILERS

[Sir Degrader]

Looks like i'm the first person to review this movie, on Ironworks, and what an honor it is. The movie itself is nothing less then legendary, blowing revolutions out of the water. The battle scenes are exellent, second to none, if you think TT is good, wait until you see this! The acting is also good, and Aragorn actor seems to have dropped his "pansy king" complex and matured exellently. The sound, both in SFX and music is exellent, the charge of Faramir's cavalry, although cliched, was arguably one of the best music\fighting fighting scenes to grace cinema. In all, this behemoth of a movie (3.5 hours!) is a superb (sp?) rendition of Tolkien's saga, and a fitting end to an epic trilogy. What are you thoughts on it?

[ 12-23-2003, 05:12 AM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

Went and saw the Midnight Showing Tuesday night.

The movie is awesome when viewed from the standpoint that it is filmed and edited for non-tolkien fans to view and understand.

From a Fan standpoint, it is ....still awesome, but vexing in some of the choices made. However, any real review by a fan should wait for the release of the extended DVD version. Indications are that some of the most missed scenes are included on the extended DVD.

Well worth the price of admission and the 3 hour 21 minute run time. 9-10 of 10 stars for the whole series and for this movie.

[Tybaltus]

Well, Ive been watching the series, but from a different pair of eyes: I have never read the books. I think this actually helps me, as Ive talked to people on other forums, and some of the complaints are that its not 100% accurate to the story. Hehehe, their loss, as I have no idea what is accurate and what is not. So I get to view at a completely different angle.

I went to see the movie yesterday, a noon showing.

In my opinion, this movie was a little worse then The Two Towers. The fight scenes were fantastic, and when the oliphaunt attack happened and then later the ghost riders arrived, chills went down my back in excitement. Very rarely do I feel this during a movie. As Sir Degrader said, the acting was also good. Not overdone, and not underdone. In such a huge movie, it could have easily been over acted. The cast was well chosen in all three movies.

OK, so why was this movie worse then The Two Towers? Well In my opinion, the assault on the city plus the worg riders and the introduction to Smeagul/Golum in The Two Towers was really too hard to top. PLUS I felt the ending of The Return of the King was a bit too drawn out. There were about 4 different parts where they could have ended the movie. So I think it could have been ended about 1 or 2 scenes earlier. But thats just me. Overall, it was really a fantastic film, and well worth the 7.50 bucks I paid to get in. I am sorry to see the trilogy end, as I could have easily seen another 9 hours of this same type of action.

<font face="COMIC Sans MS" size="3" color="#7c9bc4">
Agreed Tybaltus, they could have either wrapped it up quickly or put in some of the end action scenes that were deleted or not done. (scouring of the Shire).

I watched all three theatre events as if I had not read the books and just enjoyed them for what they were...and ended up loving them for how well they were done and for being as faithful to the books as they were.

For the Purists, they should evaluate the extended DVD's these are even closer to the books. I really believe this will be for a long long time, the greatest movie trilogy ever. In my youth, Cecil B. Demills movies were the greatest epic events, I think PJ will end up being remembered as the Cecil B Demills of the new Century.</font>

[Dar'tanian]

True True True the ending was way to dragged out.

As for the accuracy of the film all I can directly point out is this. Beregond, who was a guard in the first chapter of RotK, was done an injustice. Two of his main lines in the book became main lines in the movie except they where said by Gandalf in the movie when he was talking to Pippin in Minas Trith. One line was, "It is but a deep breath before the plunge." And the other major line is the whole speech Pippin gives to Gandalf in the movie; "I am no warrior and I dislike any thought of battle: but waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is worse of all." In the book he says this to Beregond. I gues they did not have enough time!

[Tybaltus]

Yeah, I just recently found out what the end of the books are in comparison to the movie, and for there to be a conflict at the Shire at the end of the movie, would have meant at least another 1/2 hour of movie to watch. That would be 4 hours worth of the last movie. Not that I would have minded that, as I love the action scenes they did. But for the average movie go-er, I think 4 hours is a long time for a movie--thats really 2 movies worth. So I think they realized they had to end it soon.

As far as characters getting gipped (sp?) well, yeah, I can understand the Lord of the Rings' fans getting somewhat disgruntled about that, but in the same aspect, I think they wanted to prevent putting in too many major characters, so those who were considered less important, yet had big lines in the book, they could have felt that they could have transfered those lines to more important characters to avoid complications.

But, Im not the director, and I cant say exactly what he was thinking about these things, Im just taking a guess.

[Dar'tanian]

I belive it was simpily a time saver. Adding in Beregond would have been alot of trouble, also there is another qoute from the movie that Theoden says that is said by the messenger of Gondor in the book.

Kinda a spoiler
-
-
-
-
Also I like they way that Elronds sons came to talk to Aragorn instead of Elrond him self.

[Djinn Raffo]

*********SPOILER*********
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Just saw it earlier tonite... Possibly my favourite scenes were when Gandalf rode out of Minas Tirith and chased off the flying riders with the light from his staff. Also the one crazy steering the one oliphant.. that dude looked right the part.

[ 12-21-2003, 06:39 AM: Message edited by: Djinn Raffo ]

[Link]

Originally posted by Dar'tanian: I belive it was simpily a time saver. Adding in Beregond would have been alot of trouble, also there is another qoute from the movie that Theoden says that is said by the messenger of Gondor in the book. Kinda a spoiler - - - - Also I like they way that Elronds sons came to talk to Aragorn instead of Elrond him self.

Elronds son? I just saw the movie yesterday and it was definitely Elrond himself who came and brought Anduril back to Aragorn.

[Dar'tanian]

Yeah I was refering to the book.