Yeah, I saw Return of the King this morning too.
I went to sleep at 1:30, got up at 6:30, got to Pacific Place at 7:45. Beat my whole group there! ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bayushiboy saw me though and if Guido and Colin hadn't shown up I probly would have hung out with him instead. But, yeah, I sat with the guys in my group. Colin and I laughed at all the same parts of the movie.
And I don't really want to talk about the movie because of cries of "spoilers!", but come on, haven't you guys read the book?
It's scary how much stuff was left out and the movie was *still* 3.5 hours long.
1st biggest complaint: NO SCOURING OF THE SHIRE. WTF. Infact no Saruman at all, WTF!
They don't even *mention* that Sam gets elected mayor unless you happen to notice it says that on the page that Frodo's writing when he finishes his book.
I was so right when I said two years ago something to the effect of "The ring is destroyed on page 929 of the book, and the book is 1200 pages long, but how much do you want to bet the movie lasts about ten minutes past the ring being destroyed?"
Eowyn and Faramir... I hope they get more attention in the extended mix. I was a big fan of their romance in the book.
Am I just forgetting the dead soldiers in the cursed mountain? It's really been a while since I read it and I might just be forgetting.
I don't remember hating Denethor so much in the book. And I definitely don't remember him trying to burn Faramir alive.
I really, really liked the scene with Smeagol and Deagol at the beginning! Much as I kinda hated a lot of the Gollum scenes through the first half of the movie, I thought that opening let you see what he used to be, and why he became what he was. Cool beans on that.
Minas Tirith was breathtaking. It took a lot of willpower for me to not actually speak aloud all of my thoughts of "Whoa." or "Cool." about the random scenery.
Sam was really well-done moreso than any of the other characters in this movie. I know that people always remember Frodo as the "hero", but honestly, the story is really more about "How Samwise Gamgee went from being a dorky cowardly gardener to being Mayor of the Shire, Hero of the Ring". I'm actually somewhat surprised that there wasn't more to Aragorn in this movie, character-wise, since it's also his story moreso than anyone else's. But instead it seemed like Gandalf got a lot more character than Aragorn. I dunno.
Oh yeah. Two best scenes:
1) Legolas jumps on the Oliphaunt and singlehandedly knocks off the corsairs and slays the beast and jumps down and Gimli, indignant, yells "That only counts as ONE!" The whole audience applauded and then cracked up.
2) Eowyn slays the Nazgul leader witch king or whatever. That scene was fucking PERFECT.
Shelob scene was actually done pretty well too, all things considered.
Hey, I liked the movie, but if I didn't nitpick you'd all think something was wrong with me. I'm sure the extended remix will fix all of my nitpicks anyway. I guess my main complaint about all three movies is that they seem to all have the same plot: Dude, there's this ring, see, and we have to destroy it -- but in the meantime let's spend the whole movie building up to ONE SUPER HUGE BATTLE! BECAUSE BATTLES ARE COOOOOL! Not that there's anything wrong with huge battle scenes, but it did seem to take a lot more time than anything else in the movies overall.
Yeah.
Ran intopauldf on the way out of the theater and we walked to Westlake together, where he went to get lunch and I went to buy a ton of random crap at the Made In Washington store so I'd have obligatory Christmas presents for the family-types. Came to PacMed, got lunch downstairs, and was so zonked I drank a diet coke with lunch. So much for no caffeine... well, I'll go back on the no caffeine tomorrow. I really needed it today. I might take a nap anyway, since my whole group is at an offsite retreat thingy and I'm stuck here and we have a couch in the office. Har!
bayushiboy saw me though and if Guido and Colin hadn't shown up I probly would have hung out with him instead. But, yeah, I sat with the guys in my group. Colin and I laughed at all the same parts of the movie.And I don't really want to talk about the movie because of cries of "spoilers!", but come on, haven't you guys read the book?
It's scary how much stuff was left out and the movie was *still* 3.5 hours long.
1st biggest complaint: NO SCOURING OF THE SHIRE. WTF. Infact no Saruman at all, WTF!
They don't even *mention* that Sam gets elected mayor unless you happen to notice it says that on the page that Frodo's writing when he finishes his book.
I was so right when I said two years ago something to the effect of "The ring is destroyed on page 929 of the book, and the book is 1200 pages long, but how much do you want to bet the movie lasts about ten minutes past the ring being destroyed?"
Eowyn and Faramir... I hope they get more attention in the extended mix. I was a big fan of their romance in the book.
Am I just forgetting the dead soldiers in the cursed mountain? It's really been a while since I read it and I might just be forgetting.
I don't remember hating Denethor so much in the book. And I definitely don't remember him trying to burn Faramir alive.
I really, really liked the scene with Smeagol and Deagol at the beginning! Much as I kinda hated a lot of the Gollum scenes through the first half of the movie, I thought that opening let you see what he used to be, and why he became what he was. Cool beans on that.
Minas Tirith was breathtaking. It took a lot of willpower for me to not actually speak aloud all of my thoughts of "Whoa." or "Cool." about the random scenery.
Sam was really well-done moreso than any of the other characters in this movie. I know that people always remember Frodo as the "hero", but honestly, the story is really more about "How Samwise Gamgee went from being a dorky cowardly gardener to being Mayor of the Shire, Hero of the Ring". I'm actually somewhat surprised that there wasn't more to Aragorn in this movie, character-wise, since it's also his story moreso than anyone else's. But instead it seemed like Gandalf got a lot more character than Aragorn. I dunno.
Oh yeah. Two best scenes:
1) Legolas jumps on the Oliphaunt and singlehandedly knocks off the corsairs and slays the beast and jumps down and Gimli, indignant, yells "That only counts as ONE!" The whole audience applauded and then cracked up.
2) Eowyn slays the Nazgul leader witch king or whatever. That scene was fucking PERFECT.
Shelob scene was actually done pretty well too, all things considered.
Hey, I liked the movie, but if I didn't nitpick you'd all think something was wrong with me. I'm sure the extended remix will fix all of my nitpicks anyway. I guess my main complaint about all three movies is that they seem to all have the same plot: Dude, there's this ring, see, and we have to destroy it -- but in the meantime let's spend the whole movie building up to ONE SUPER HUGE BATTLE! BECAUSE BATTLES ARE COOOOOL! Not that there's anything wrong with huge battle scenes, but it did seem to take a lot more time than anything else in the movies overall.
Yeah.
Ran into
pauldf on the way out of the theater and we walked to Westlake together, where he went to get lunch and I went to buy a ton of random crap at the Made In Washington store so I'd have obligatory Christmas presents for the family-types. Came to PacMed, got lunch downstairs, and was so zonked I drank a diet coke with lunch. So much for no caffeine... well, I'll go back on the no caffeine tomorrow. I really needed it today. I might take a nap anyway, since my whole group is at an offsite retreat thingy and I'm stuck here and we have a couch in the office. Har!
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actually...
nope. hated them. not for the content; hated his style of writing.
though I had already heard about the no saruman part, from news pages. heh..
i haven't read the books
i do enjoy reading a book i get into. everything i've read by Chuck Palahniuk has been wonderful. but even though i enjoy reading it. even though it seems so much greater than reading a film, consumes so much mroe, meaqns so much more... i find it EXTREMELY difficult to make myself do it.
i would probably love The Lord of the Rings if i read it... but i don't erad often. it takes me about 2-3 months to read a conventional paperback. it's just hard to get myself to do it. it would take me a VERY long time to read any of LotR.
i wish that wasn't the case with me. i do enjoy what i read.
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Yeah, boo on no messing with the shire, but all in all....wow.
I do wish, however, that Aragorn's return had been given more of a show. Or at least thrown in subtle rumors going around that he was The King before he proclaimed it, and giving hope. But maybe that would've been too much? Even if it is how things were in the book....
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I don't remember hating Denethor so much in the book. And I definitely don't remember him trying to burn Faramir alive.
All that was in the book. And from what I've heard, there is a scene with Eowyn and Faramir in the Houses of Healing that will be in the extended release. (One of my favorite bits from the book, too)
Doesn't surprise me that the scouring of the Shire got nixed - as much as I love Tolkein's writing, that always felt like a bit of an anticlimax to me, and just wouldn't work cinematically. I was hoping they'd do some small farewell at the Grey Havens thing, but I'm guessing they didn't....
Haven't seen the movie yet.... probably won't be able to till next week. No time! Sigh.
Re: actually...
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Will I wait to get the super mega otaku ultra supah bit limited edition trilogy? Bet your sweet tuckus! What bugged me about the movie? Where to start? It has lots of great action, in some parts so much action, I was getting dizzy (it felt like the Neo vs 100 Agent Smiths fight in Matrix Reloaded), but not enought action with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. I mean come on! Shit, I think Gandalf kicked more ass with his staff and sword fu!
Too much of the hobbitses. I was getting so sick of Sam having to carry Frodo along. Yes, I know the ring is a heavy burden, but after a while, I just stopped caring. What else, writing off Saruman at the beginning was fucking WEAK. Why even include him in the first 2 films then??? Not enought Treants. I mean, they're walking, talking, sentient trees that kick ass! Grrr... I wanted to see the !@#!@!#@ hobbits and their @#$@$#$@# shire burn! Damn!!! My biggest gripe? No threesome with Aragorn, Eywin, and Galrond's daughter. I mean, come on! That would have been hot!
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lol. sorry couldn't resist.
:)
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High time we actually get to see Gandalf in some real action. It was mostly the triumvirate for the first 2 movies. I think Gandalf's biggest action scene so far was vs the Balrog, but I'd love to see him against hordes of orcs...
"I was getting so sick of Sam having to carry Frodo along. Yes, I know the ring is a heavy burden, but after a while, I just stopped caring."
Well, at least AFAIR from the books, Frodo was all but comatose by the end of the movie, so that's no surprise. But if it got old, mebbe he put too much of it in the movie. Or mebbe you just have that 2 second long gamer attention span. =PP
"What else, writing off Saruman at the beginning was fucking WEAK. Why even include him in the first 2 films then???"
Because he was important in the first 2 but got fuX0red when he was attacked. Granted, he does still appear in the books after that, but not as anything hugely significant. Grima practically runs the show (as small a show as it is) at that point. How pathetic is that?
I always like to remember that Tolkien is a wordy, wordy man, and sometimes didn't know when to shut up. He put a damn lot in the LotR series that could have been side stories or epilouge or whatever. So I've been having no problems with the cutting out of certain things to translate the story into something that fits the cinema fold. *shrugs* Mebbe I'll also have to wait until I've seen RotK. I'll be there in 2 hours ^_^
Woman Power!!!
I totally agree. Perfection. "I am no man!" *stab* *much glee from me*
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I'm sorry what was the question?
:P
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As someone mentioned, Denethor had a palintir. So, he was seeing what Sauron wanted him to see, and thus it probably made sense based on what he saw and heard, but made him seem really crappy. I expect the extended version to flesh that out.
I agree that Sam was more interesting than Frodo, and this movie was certainly more his story than Frodo's. Sam is neat.
I haven't read the books, so I don't know how much my opinion counts (actually, Tolkien was the first author to earn my hatred... perhaps only author, because I was so young when I tried to read The Hobbit that I felt betrayed by the bad writing, rather than more maturely putting it aside and moving on as I'd do now. Instead I was just really mad at how bad it was.), but I don't see a need for the scouring of the shire. It's an interesting tale, but not one that directly relates. Same with Sam becomign mayor. We see him grow up as he asks the girl out and then marries her. He's clearly changed and matured. Him becoming mayor is just one more thing along the same lines.
I liked Eowyn and Faramir and think they have a lot in common. I liked that they ended up together, I would like to see more of that too.
I really liked the Smeagol/Deagol scene, even though most people I was with had mixed feelings about it. I thought it gave a very good insight into the character. Although I was annoyed that the theater I saw the movie at had a bad transition from ads to the movie, so that it wasn't actually obvious when the movie started, and then seeing someone unfamiliar, I spent part of it just catching up on the fact that I was watching LotR. That'll be better on re-watch.
From comments I've heard, I do think the dead soldiers were in the book, since a friend was wondering how they'd manage them and was pleased with the visuals.
I also really liked when Gandalf hits Denethor because he's being an idiot. :)
Hmm enough ramblings.