Mooters' RotK reviews

[The Ben]

Wow. I saw the trilogy last night with IP. Simply amazing

[Cirdan]

I reviewed in the adaptation thread.

Did I miss something? Maybe I looked away for a second. How did Sam end up with the phial? One minute Frodo is warding off Shelob with it and the next minute Sam is running toward him with it.

JRRT described oliphaunts as being "as big as a house" so I guess it depends where you live.

[Nurvingiel]

Nurvingiel's Return of the King Review of Doom

I greatly enjoyed watching The Return of the King. It was a very good movie - the best of the three, slightly better than Fellowship and much better than Two Towers. My favourite part of the entire movie was Eowyn and Merry's battle with the Witch-King. It was suspensful, terrifying, and beautiful. Mirando Otto is brilliant in all her scenes. Her parting with Aragorn before he went on the Paths of the dead was moving.
To get this over with, I felt it was pointlessly dramatic for Frodo to send Sam away, and I cringed in revulsion at all of Denethor's dreadful scenes, especially Gandalf's assault on him (twice!) However, these are rants appropriate to the adaptation thread.
Though I felt Orlando, I mean... Legolas' stunt with the Mumak was unnecessary, all the battle scenes were fantastic and wonderfully choreographed. Gimli's one-liner (after the stunt) was surprisingly not awful, and was amazingly... worth a laugh!
The siege on Minas Tirith was amazing. Minas Tirith was a beautiful, exciting city, and the siege was, for the most part, portrayed very well. Grond was extremely cool, and I noticed the appropriate three strokes were delivered to shatter the beautiful gates. I missed the scene between the Witch-King and Gandalf there, but they smoothed over the absence.
The scene with Pippin and the Palantir was much better than I had anticipated. For the rest of the movie, Pippin was excellent. He shone in the fairly small amounts of camera time he had - a veritable Prince of the Halflings. I loved the scene where he pledged fealty to Denethor, but Gandalf should not have rudely interrupted.
Gandalf was unfortunately almost as big a jerk as Denethor, which was disappointing since Sir Ian McKellen is an excellent actor, and very well cast as Gandalf.
This was Arwen's best movie - she got to marry Aragorn! Or did she? She emerges from behind the banner, Aragorn sees her, their eyes meet, they kiss... I enjoyed their reunion actually, I found it touching. What I want to know is, after all the made up scenes with Arwen, after all the time her scenes detracted from the real plot, why didn't she get to marry Aragorn properly? Their marriage was only implied by the acceptance of the (usually angry-faced) Elrond. I was looking forward to that part. Disappointed.
Saving the best for last, Frodo and Sam were awesome. The bravery of the Hobbits really shone through. Sam carrying Frodo up Orodruin was moving and powerful.
The scene of the destruction of the Ring was awesome! The pointless addition of Frodo also falling off the cliff did not ruin the impact in the least. It was obviously done to add extra drama, but none needed to be added! This part was extremely well done, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum were all great.

Overall this was a great action movie. The good far outweighs the bad, and I throroughlly enjoyed it.

I went in with low expectations, which Return of the King exceeded brilliantly.

[Nurvingiel]

Originally posted by Cirdan
I reviewed in the adaptation thread.

Did I miss something? Maybe I looked away for a second. How did Sam end up with the phial? One minute Frodo is warding off Shelob with it and the next minute Sam is running toward him with it.

JRRT described oliphaunts as being "as big as a house" so I guess it depends where you live.

Frodo dropped it running away from Shelob.

[Khamûl]

I have but one word: Wow. And there are not enough letters in that word to aptly depict my level of amazement.

Things I liked:
The charge of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields. So stirring that I actually teared up.
Grond. How incredibly cool was that?
Eowyn slaying the Witch-king with some help from Merry.
The absolutely breathtaking scenery. Minas Tirith was gorgeous.
Sam's speech on the slopes of Mt. Doom.
The orcs catapulting the severed heads of the Gondorians who fell in battle into the city. I knew PJ couldn't pass that up.
Using the same shot of Deagol's hand grabbing the Ring from the bottom of the Anduin that they used in the prologue to FotR.

Aww crap... let's just say 99.5% of the movie.

Things I didn't like:
Gandalf bopping Denethor with his staff.
Arwen's life force being "bound" to the Ring.
Sauron, the evil lighthouse. I didn't imagine his eye physically scanning the plain of Gorgoroth.
Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting at the moment.

Things I'm undecided about:
Frodo sending Sam away. I'm leaning more towards liking this than not, but I'm not 100% sure.
I also have unanswered questions, many of which Falagar posted earlier in this thread.

In closing, I am blown away by this movie. I lowered my expectations after TTT, but this was beyond all of them. I honestly did not expect this movie to be this good. This requires many more viewings.

[Elenessiel]

One real gem that no one has mentioned yet:
Theoden's double-take upon seeing Eowyn at the Pelennor Fields. It was priceless, and followed by some suitably touching stuff.

[Elvengirl]

WOW! That was awesome!

My feelings on the movie would probably be
with a couple of thrown in
I am so totally impressed at the end result.
I'll give more on my thoughts later, right now I'm just well going to enjoy what I just saw.

[Cirdan]

Originally posted by Nurvingiel
Frodo dropped it running away from Shelob.

Thanks. Guess I might need to see it again in a few weeks.

[Finrod Felagund]

Saw it again last night. There was actually applause when Eowyn cut the Fell-Beast's head off...awesome!

[Arien the Maia]

ok I saw it last night at 7:30 and then I saw it again at around 1:00 am b/c my friend works at a movie theater and we had a private viewing!!!

Overall it was an AWESOME movie! like, many other mooters here, I liked it SOOOO much better than TTT and I would have to say that it was as good as FOTR.

I agree that Legolas' stunt was kinda ridiculous (no elf could do that really!) and I missed the Mouth of Sauron and the Wedding and all.

I'm going to see it again this weekend!!!
I teared up at the meeting of ARagorn and Arwen (the supposed wedding....one of the most unlikely places I would have expected to tear up!) and also the charge of the Rohirrim.

I was however, annoyed by Gandlaf's "bop" on Denethor! I mean COME ON!!! Frodo sending Sam away was unnecessary drama and well as Frodo's "fall off the cliff". Not to mention Gollum's frequent return to assult Frodo and Sam....it would have been way more dramatic to just show him sneaking along behind them from time to time and then when he hits Sam on the head that would have been more dramatic IMO.

but COOL MOVIE!

[hectorberlioz]

i feel that the destruction of the ring could have been more powerful.
it was too slow in the movie.
i mean here's frodo who takes about ten yrs before he says anything, and then he whispers it!
in the book, frodo's voice is loud and clear and bold.
showing the actual (and slow) destruction of the ring in the fire was a very bad choice to make. and showing gollum falling all the way down and watching him melt was also very bad.
gollums 2 minutes before he starts dancing on the crack of doom was extremely frustrating to watch for me. and watching frodo put the ring on slowly took away from the drama of it all.
also i felt that the look of the place where the ring gets destroyed is too big. i dont know about you guys, but i always imagined a smaller door and a smaller crack of doom.
and frodo's falling in was ridiculous.

this is what the destruction of the ring could have been

exactly like the book with
frodo's boldness
gollums insanity when he laughs and dances on the edge of doom
a dramatic struggle between gollum and an invisible frodo: on the ground! not with gollum's rodeo stunts.


btw Dunadain, i dont remember Tolkien describing the Oliphaunts as unrealistically huge...

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Originally posted by hectorberlioz
"showing the actual (and slow) destruction of the ring in the fire was a very bad choice to make. and showing gollum falling all the way down and watching him melt was also very bad.
gollums 2 minutes before he starts dancing on the crack of doom was extremely frustrating to watch for me"
__________________________________________

Yess, hectorberlioz is always nice to poor Smeagol, not like nassty PJ and friends.
_______________________________________________

"This is what the destruction of the ring could have been,
exactly like the book with frodo's boldness
gollums insanity when he laughs and dances on the edge of doom
a dramatic struggle between gollum and an invisible frodo: on the ground! not with gollum's rodeo stunts."
____________________________________________
Correct! But then it wouldn't have been an "adaptation" by PJ

"btw Dunadain, i dont remember Tolkien describing the Oliphaunts as unrealistically huge..."
_______________________________________
You are again correct. But by now it should be obvious that PJ has a weakness for "cinema gigantiantness" [hmm, I'd better check the OED to see if that's a real word, okay, it's probably not], recall the wargs on steroids.

[Almie]

It was better than TTT, at least!

I liked
The beginning with Sméagol and Déagol fishing.
Frodo's journey overall, especially Minas Morgul (the Nazgul fortress) and Shelop (scary!).
The scenery.
The Nazguls are creepy.
I liked Pippin's character development a lot. His interaction with Denethor was cool.
Minas Tirith was a magnificent city. It was better than I could have been imagined.
Gandalf is always great, and this movie was not an exception.
Gollum -It's sometimes difficult to remember that he's computer generated... although during the Mount Doom scene that was clear.
The Grey Havens scene was beautiful, as it should be.

I didn't like
The way how Gollum turned Frodo against Sam -it was a more complicated situation between those three in the book. Throwing lembas away was a bit cheap.
I would have liked to see the scene where Sam takes the ring from Frodo -I hope it will be in the extended edition. It should be there.
No scouring of the Shire -but I knew this beforehand.
The PalantÃ*r scene wasn't what I wanted. It was too action-heavy, when I'd have liked to see it as some kind of a psychological thriller scene.
The forced laugh of the characters after Frodo wakes up in Minas Tirith, and everybody acts so happy -I found that scene poorly acted (maybe except Ian McKellen).

And I agree what hectorberlioz said about the destruction of the ring scene.

Originally posted by hectorberlioz
i dont remember Tolkien describing the Oliphaunts as unrealistically huge...

A Star Wars association: Did anyone else think of The Empire Strikes Back, and the Imperial walkers in Hoth battle, when you saw the Oliphaunts?!

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Tuor of Gondolin
Correct! But then it wouldn't have been an "adaptation" by PJ

Not EVERYTHING has to be changed for it to be an adaptation. It's an adaptation - by just bringing it from book to screen - even if the dialog and action and events were EXACTLY as Tolkien has them in the books.

I agree with Hector - Frodo declaring the ring his was really weak. He should have been stronger when he did it.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Almie
A Star Wars association: Did anyone else think of The Empire Strikes Back, and the Imperial walkers in Hoth battle, when you saw the Oliphaunts?!

This is the thing that gets me - a good director doesn't bring out things that remind you of other movies. I find myself too many times during Jackson's movies thinking of other movies.

Concerning the Lembas scene - there was NO WAY gollum would even touch the bread. He hated all things elven and would never touch it, let alone break it apart and sprinkle it on Sam.

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I thought it was fantastic.

Things i liked:
- Some scenes were just so clever like the opening scene with Smeagol, thats was great.
- Minis Tirith!!! Oh my gosh i want to live there!
- The bit when Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn were going into the paths of the dead and Gimli was moaning about an Elf going underground but a dwarf being to scared lol that was funny.
- Pelenor fields and the charge of the Rohirrium army
- Shelob! She was so scary!
- The Ringwraiths that screech just went straight through me!
- The way Faramir was so nice compared to the way he was put across in TTT
- The Grey Havens (absolutly fantastic!)
- The scene with all the Fellowship together for the final time (except Boromir obviously) and it just reminded me of the Fellowhip together for the first time in the first film. It was a cheesy scene but i really liked it.


Things i didn't like:
(very few)
- I wasn't too happy with the way Denethor was put across and i felt physically sick when he was eating, it was horrible lol.
- I wish they had shown more of the Houses of Healing
- More of Faramir and Eowyn together because they only showed one shot of them stood together.
- That one orc that didn't look like an orc to me, i don't know why!


Overall it's deffinatly the best film of the trilogy and i couldn't stop crying and if it doesn't wipe the boards at the Oscars etc then i can imagine a lot of people aren't going to be to happy including me!!

[Arien the Maia]

Originally posted by Varda Oiolosseo

- That one orc that didn't look like an orc to me, i don't know why!

are you talking about the "Elephant Man" Orc? That's what me and my friend called him!!! he had peach skin

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Arien the Maia
are you talking about the "Elephant Man" Orc? That's what me and my friend called him!!! he had peach skin

I call him elephant man orc too.

I was trying to find a picture of him by the way -if anyone has one.

[hectorberlioz]

lol! thats what i called him too!
he bugged me the whole time. i was wishing he'd die a quick death, then when that boulder didnt kill him, i was really mad!

[Arien the Maia]

Originally posted by hectorberlioz
lol! thats what i called him too!
he bugged me the whole time. i was wishing he'd die a quick death, then when that boulder didnt kill him, i was really mad!

I know! he was sooo gross!