QuiGonJosh

I stood out in 20 degree weather for over an hour for this movie! And all I have to say is: I'd stand out there for 12 more to be able to see this movie! It was completely staggering and draining...in a good way!

jarofclay73

For me, looking at these movies as very glossy B-movies actually helps me to enjoy it more. All those one-liners and pretentious Shakespearean dialogue are more forgivable when I'm not looking at this film through a critic's eye. I still think Jackson could cut down on those overdone CGI fly-by shots. But, I guess that's his trademark.

ROTK is the best film of the three and one of the year's best. Definitely the best fantasy film I ever saw since I'm not really a fan of the fantasy genre.

I think the end should have been cut. It would have been nice to end it at Galadriel's voice-over and with a sweeping shot of the map of Middle Earth. Would have been a nice bookend to Galadriel's intro in FOTR.

I liked the beginning. I feel that Smeagol/Deagol scene was used to set up that Smeagol is CAPABLE of killing someone.

MoviePage

Didn't notice the blue screen work...was too moved by the scene itself.

*choke* He's definitely there, in the book.

PJ had a cameo as one of the Corsairs (pirates). The first time they're mentioned in the movie and you see their ships, he's the one standing in the middle of the boat waving his arm (in a "heave-ho" sort of gesture for the guys rowing the boat, I suppose).

jim_cook87

I'll echo the comments, "Simply AWESOME!" The best movie of the best trilogy!

Only real comment I have to add is about the endings, I liked them, think they are absolutely necessary to tie up loose ends and without them this movie was little more than a 3 part special effects action movie. One of the themes is "You can't go back home." and the endings make that point.

I think the only problem with the endings was the use of fade to black. He spent three movies jump cutting and transitioning without fade to black, he then pulls it out at the end almost as if intending to fake everyone out. Get rid of the fade to blacks and just let the end flow...

Rypro 525

anyone notice when gollumn falls to his doom in the lava, it was almost like how the T-1000 did in terminator 2? a possible reference to it.

Strafe

God, I hope not. I think it was more to emphasize the ring. I was suprised that Gollum didn't seem the least bit annoyed that he was burning in lava. Just stared at the ring. More emphasis on the power of the ring.

slop101

^ it actually reminded me of Ripley at the end of Alien3 - with the ring as the baby alien (right before Gollum hits the lava, anyways).

I guess it's because I just watched A3 recently.

Jepthah

I am actually having second thoughts about just how mean and vicious they made Gollum toward the end.

I know he did almost everything right out of the book, including the fight and the 'bite' but there was not a last moment on Mt. Doom, like in the book, where Sam comes close to ACTUALLY killing him but stops short because Gollum is so snivelling and pathetic, begging for mercy.

It seems like they transplanted the tone of that scene to earlier, right after the Shelob fight in the scene between Gollum and Frodo where he says "I have to destroy it for both our sakes." I'll need another viewing (or three) to decide if this was a good change.

Static Cling

Another something I noticed... it feels like they toned down Gimli's comic relief, which I was thankful for. It seemed like every five minutes he was doing something goofy in TTT. Yeah, what he did was funny, but it was just a little much.

Stoolie

I gave it my highest rating. Tears came in several places. I was extremely touched during the scene in which Gandalf rides out to help the soldiers of Gondor returning from Osgiliath. It's great to see him get his power going.

Which brings me to an overall point in the whole trilogy. It was never "over-magicked" in my opinion. Never once did I think to myself, "Well why doesn't Gandalf just shoot a fireball at them?" The films perfectly portrayed magic, the power of elvish words, and the importance of light/dark, symbols, and objects. IMO, it was handled with a perfect balance of spirituality and overt power.

Tolkien was a great writer in many ways, but best of all for me was his ability to compose scenes of emotional and physical change based on objects or the environment. Sam is strengthened when Frodo falters. Anduril inspires hope in friends and instills fear in the enemy. A banner, or perhaps a statue, and certainly a tree, can hearten even the most nearly defeated warrior. Middle-Earth is a world in which emotion and spirit pervade everything.

And now, like Tolkien in his medium, Peter Jackson has mastered that ability without being overbearing or vague. Hoards of Orcs flee from Helm's Deep not because they believe they can be defeated, but rather due to the unexpectedly perfect blend of courage and the presence of LIGHT!!! They are frightened by GOODNESS, just as the men of Gondor are rendered useless by the cries of the Nazgul.

It is in this way that Jackson's films succeeded to me. They kept alive the idea that Middle-Earth is deeper than any of it's "moving pieces", and for good and for evil, there is always something older, stronger, and just simply more mythical than what they've just faced. It's the FEELING that counts.

RoTK: A

Out of all the front runners for Best Picture, and I've seen most of them, this is definitely my choice.

And I will now see anything Peter Jackson directs, just as I will happily read, and in most cases re-read, anything that Tolkien wrote.

Stoolie

Patman

Okay, saw the film once more, and the editing in the first half still bugs me a lot, maybe moreso this time. What bothers me is how the intercutting introduces this stop-n-go rhythm to the pacing that gets tiresome. The second time around, this was more apparent to me.

When did Sam actually pilfer the ring and chain from Frodo? It had to be done before the whole "Gollem frames Sam" sequence, but when? Does Frodo not know when he is without the ring all the time that Sam has been sent home? Wouldn't the absence of the ring affect Frodo in some manner? Why doesn't the ring have an effect on Sam? Too little time spent with it in his sole possession, perhaps?

The CGI stood out more for me on second viewing as well.

The Denethor scenes made me "check out of the film" mentally because there just isn't much payoff to his presence in the film. I know, the book spells it out better, but the film is truly lacking in this department. The film just comes to a screeching halt for me when Denethor is on screen.

Can you imagine how much it would suck to draw "Beacon" duty for those poor soldiers at each of those beacons, probably freezing their butts off just waiting for one of the kingdom to call out to the others? While it looked cool, it felt too deus ex machina in happenstance (as in how these beacons existed, and why they existed a la an EBS - Emergency Broadcast System on TV).

Interestingly enough the neverending ending didn't bother me as much because I knew what was coming next. The fadeouts didn't even seem longer than they were on my intitial viewing.

The eagles presence is also poorly explained (Did we bump into "Winged Migration" and the eagles decided to show up in the nick of time?)

When Theoden is on the ground, with his horse on top of him, the overhead shot makes Theoden look 7 feet tall. Was Theoden upper and lower body severed at that point?

I would have chuckled if Merry and Eowen became an item.

What did they do to Aragorn's hair/wig at the diverionary attack at the south gates of Mordor? It looked like he had aged 10 years over night, and his hair got really stringy. And then at his coronation, he definitely looked older too. How much time had passed?

Why does Liv Tyler get 3rd billing in these LOTR films? She must have a great agent.

I will say that Elijah Wood did an incredible job of being Frodo, his acting was superb, both in dialogue and in body language. Sean Astin also did very well with his moments, though all that male bonding was getting a tad tedious at the end.

Is it my imaginations, or is Gimli more "Scottish" sounding than he had been in either FOTR or TTT?

I still find the counting of their victims (by Leoglas and Gimli) during the battles to be all too flippant an attitude for combat in such close engagements. Yes, it's fun for the audience, but it undermines the seriousness that precedes it with speeches by Theoden and Aragorn.

mikehunt

he took it after frodo got cocooned by the spider and the orcs were coming

it's been a while since I read the books but I think the counting was even more evident in the books. I've heard complaints that the counting was downplayed in the movies

Static Cling

No, I think it happened when Sam was holding Frodo after he had been poisoned and wrapped up by Sehlob. Sam he heard the orcs coming and he didn't have time to drag Frodo away, but he couldn't let the Ring fall into enemy hands, so he grabbed the Ring. I think.

And I think the Ring did have an effect on Sam. When Frodo asked for the Ring back, Sam hesitated. Whether it was because he wanted to carry his friend's burden a little longer, or because a little part of him wanted the Ring for himself, I guess I don't really know, but I think it was the latter.
I guess people do odd things to cope during a war. Didn't pilots stamp their plane whenever they made a kill a while ago? Or was that just something invented by TV/movies and I've adapted as fact?

DGibFen

"I am not a man!"

All the women cheered in the theater on that line...

Patman

Yeah, but without the Hobbit, that woman would have met certain ghastly death.

necros

actually if I remember right, Legolas and Gimli kept score in the battles, so that was taken right from the book actually.

B.A.

You got that right.

Seeker

First paragraph - coirrect that's when he grabbed the ring. He even told Frodo that ---- "i thought you were dead"

Sam did NOT give the ring back to Frodo - Frodo had to grab it back. Sam really hesitated - but to his credit, didn't do anything once Frodo grabbed it.

Kal-El

Doesn't my Eowyn's line go:

"I am NO man!" instead of "I am NOT a man!"?

Seeker

definitely.

TCG

might i add that Minas Tirith looked ****ing awesome!! it was so beautiful, and so mythic. it was the perfect place for the last stand of men.

and speaking of Eowyn's line, I thought that mortals could not possibly kill a Ringwraith. now i cant find it, but i could've sworn i read that on a reputable site somewhere.

any help?

Giantrobo

I think it was said that their physical forms can be "disrupted" but they eventually reform. But I think the ring was destroyed before the Witch King had time to do so.

In the book FOTR, Elrond and Gandalf sent the river waters towards the Wraiths chasing Arwin. In fact, Gandalf added the Horse shapes to the water.... Anyway, they killed the horses but -NOT- the Wraiths. Obviously the Wraith reformed and chose the flying beasts to look for the ring in TTT.

Rivero

as well as the figures of soldiers riding on the horses. That shouldve been in the movie as well.

Patman

What if Eowyn said: "I am NO man! Psyche!" and then stabs the weeyotch king.

wlmowery

In the books, the legend surrounding the Witch King of Agmar is that he could not be killed by any thrust of a man. Thus, Eowyn's statement that she is no man....