Return of the King *Spoilers*
My comments/rants on the Return of the King movie.
WARNING: for Spoliers on movie and book.
By the way, I saw this movie twice.
First of all, I must make sure that everyone reading this knows that I am a rather geeky and canon-sticker Lord of the Rings (and any other Middle-earth related) fan. The films are wonderful. I do realize that it is very hard to transfer this monstrous book (I refuse to call it a trilogy. Granted, the movies are a trilogy, but the book isn't), and I think Peter Jackson did a wonderful job. But I still mourn for the lost of many wonderful aspects of the book, and the change they made in the movie.
I could go on and talk about all three of them, but I'm only here to talk about Rotk. I'll leave the other two for another time.
My favourite part of the movie would be the beacon scenes. The sceneries are wonderful, and we vow again to visit New Zealand at least once. The coronation was also very nice. The bowing to the hobbits were exceptionally moving. Aragorn singing was priceless (*is a shameless Aragorn fan*). The kissing, and the part before the kissing, will be the only time that I like movie!Arwen (book!Arwen however, is one of my fav. minor characters). Speaking of Arwen, the vision where we see Eldarion rushing to his dad was quite touching. It was also in that scene that the famous "Figwit" had returned. ^_^
Shelob was as scary as She could be. The orcish helms Frodo wore must be the dorkiest helm we've ever seen. A lot of slashers must be plotting when they saw the shirtless!Frodo and rescuing!Sam. (Hakaisha and I kept murmuring "Platonic love...") Elrond finally became tolerable (book!Elrond is another character I like). Anduril must be the biggest, the longest, hunking sword on set.
Denethor was.... *sigh*.... not well planned. I don't think they grasped his personalities very well. Plus they didn't show that he had a Palantir, which could've explained a lot more about his madness, which was not driven merely by grief over Boromir's death. So they changed Denethor, and when they did, they changed Gandalf, who would never hit an old man (except Saruman, who is technically not a man), like that. But I must admit, I cheered when he did.
Faramir was better. He showed his more humane side (in other words, more book!Faramir side), which also happened in the Two Towers Extented Edition. But there wasn't a single Faramir/Eowyn except one scene! And that couple was the most descibed romance in the book (if you don't count the Appendix, where Aragorn/Arwen's story is). They could've cut some Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn triangle (which was rather one-sided, just Eowyn, in the book), and that would've save them from a sappy ending to it. "Arwen is dying."?! Must be a oddest plot invention I've ever heard.
They didn't have enough Eomer either. He is the heir to the throne of Rohan for Eru's sake. Well, they didn't tell us that either. But still, I think they could've cut a part of the Eowyn-Theoden interaction for Eomer. Besides, in the book, Eomer was a prominent leader on the Battle of the Pelennor Field after Theoden died. (Then again, Imrahil was too, and he wasn't even in the film. *sigh*)
There was another thing I noticed. There are a lot of clips in the trailer that never made it into the actual movie (like Eomer crying and Merry swearing fealty to Theoden). They had pictures of the Houses of Healing, too. Hope those would make their way into the EE, along with some Faramir/Eowyn (a wonderful couple).
Oh, there was some unjust Dwarf bashing too. I totally agreed with Gimli when he said "That only counts as one." I have nothing against Legolas or Orlando Bloom, but really, give the Dwarf the respect he deserves, the Elf had enough show-offs.
Eh, and I forgot to mention that Pippin singing was very nice. I found where the original lyrics came from (Fotr Book 1 Ch. 3 "Three is Company"). It was suppose to be a cheerful walking song, they changed it into a very angsty and mournful song. Very nice melody though.
The twisted climax was great, except that it seemed a little be like a deja-vu (Elrond and Isildur scene in Movie 1 anyone?). And the protagonist's-near-death-experience-dangling-from-a-cliff was a giant Hollywood cliche. (For Akira fans out there, didn't Frodo reminded you of Tetsuo when he put on the Ring? with all those hair spiking up. It was scary.)
The crappy ending with Saruman urked me, they could've added some conversations from the "Voice of Saruman" chapter. I would've like to see Gandalf breaking his staff. But I know it would be difficult if they had the Scouring of the Shire. The Hobbits needed rest, not another round of ruffians, fallen trees, and tall houses to deal with.
The Havens was.... odd. It didn't quite touch me there. Bilbo looked like that enchanted Theoden back in TTT, and Celeborn wasn't even suppose to be there. What happened to Shadowfax anyway? And I wished we could've catched a glimpse of Cirdan's face, unblurry for once.
Not many cool Elvish lines in general. The linguistic side of me was kinda disappointed. The ones that were in the movie were already known: Gilraen's linnod, the Coronation speech/promise, the famous call to Earendil and "Thank you".
Looking back, I did a lot of bashing. But really, Rotk was my favourite of the three movies. On my second viewing, it made me cry. And I can't wait for the Extended Edition to come out.
So Three cheers for P. Jackson for making the movies. And a deep bow to Professor Tolkien for creating the realm of Middle-earth.
WARNING: for Spoliers on movie and book.
By the way, I saw this movie twice.
First of all, I must make sure that everyone reading this knows that I am a rather geeky and canon-sticker Lord of the Rings (and any other Middle-earth related) fan. The films are wonderful. I do realize that it is very hard to transfer this monstrous book (I refuse to call it a trilogy. Granted, the movies are a trilogy, but the book isn't), and I think Peter Jackson did a wonderful job. But I still mourn for the lost of many wonderful aspects of the book, and the change they made in the movie.
I could go on and talk about all three of them, but I'm only here to talk about Rotk. I'll leave the other two for another time.
My favourite part of the movie would be the beacon scenes. The sceneries are wonderful, and we vow again to visit New Zealand at least once. The coronation was also very nice. The bowing to the hobbits were exceptionally moving. Aragorn singing was priceless (*is a shameless Aragorn fan*). The kissing, and the part before the kissing, will be the only time that I like movie!Arwen (book!Arwen however, is one of my fav. minor characters). Speaking of Arwen, the vision where we see Eldarion rushing to his dad was quite touching. It was also in that scene that the famous "Figwit" had returned. ^_^
Shelob was as scary as She could be. The orcish helms Frodo wore must be the dorkiest helm we've ever seen. A lot of slashers must be plotting when they saw the shirtless!Frodo and rescuing!Sam. (Hakaisha and I kept murmuring "Platonic love...") Elrond finally became tolerable (book!Elrond is another character I like). Anduril must be the biggest, the longest, hunking sword on set.
Denethor was.... *sigh*.... not well planned. I don't think they grasped his personalities very well. Plus they didn't show that he had a Palantir, which could've explained a lot more about his madness, which was not driven merely by grief over Boromir's death. So they changed Denethor, and when they did, they changed Gandalf, who would never hit an old man (except Saruman, who is technically not a man), like that. But I must admit, I cheered when he did.
Faramir was better. He showed his more humane side (in other words, more book!Faramir side), which also happened in the Two Towers Extented Edition. But there wasn't a single Faramir/Eowyn except one scene! And that couple was the most descibed romance in the book (if you don't count the Appendix, where Aragorn/Arwen's story is). They could've cut some Arwen/Aragorn/Eowyn triangle (which was rather one-sided, just Eowyn, in the book), and that would've save them from a sappy ending to it. "Arwen is dying."?! Must be a oddest plot invention I've ever heard.
They didn't have enough Eomer either. He is the heir to the throne of Rohan for Eru's sake. Well, they didn't tell us that either. But still, I think they could've cut a part of the Eowyn-Theoden interaction for Eomer. Besides, in the book, Eomer was a prominent leader on the Battle of the Pelennor Field after Theoden died. (Then again, Imrahil was too, and he wasn't even in the film. *sigh*)
There was another thing I noticed. There are a lot of clips in the trailer that never made it into the actual movie (like Eomer crying and Merry swearing fealty to Theoden). They had pictures of the Houses of Healing, too. Hope those would make their way into the EE, along with some Faramir/Eowyn (a wonderful couple).
Oh, there was some unjust Dwarf bashing too. I totally agreed with Gimli when he said "That only counts as one." I have nothing against Legolas or Orlando Bloom, but really, give the Dwarf the respect he deserves, the Elf had enough show-offs.
Eh, and I forgot to mention that Pippin singing was very nice. I found where the original lyrics came from (Fotr Book 1 Ch. 3 "Three is Company"). It was suppose to be a cheerful walking song, they changed it into a very angsty and mournful song. Very nice melody though.
The twisted climax was great, except that it seemed a little be like a deja-vu (Elrond and Isildur scene in Movie 1 anyone?). And the protagonist's-near-death-experience-dangling-from-a-cliff was a giant Hollywood cliche. (For Akira fans out there, didn't Frodo reminded you of Tetsuo when he put on the Ring? with all those hair spiking up. It was scary.)
The crappy ending with Saruman urked me, they could've added some conversations from the "Voice of Saruman" chapter. I would've like to see Gandalf breaking his staff. But I know it would be difficult if they had the Scouring of the Shire. The Hobbits needed rest, not another round of ruffians, fallen trees, and tall houses to deal with.
The Havens was.... odd. It didn't quite touch me there. Bilbo looked like that enchanted Theoden back in TTT, and Celeborn wasn't even suppose to be there. What happened to Shadowfax anyway? And I wished we could've catched a glimpse of Cirdan's face, unblurry for once.
Not many cool Elvish lines in general. The linguistic side of me was kinda disappointed. The ones that were in the movie were already known: Gilraen's linnod, the Coronation speech/promise, the famous call to Earendil and "Thank you".
Looking back, I did a lot of bashing. But really, Rotk was my favourite of the three movies. On my second viewing, it made me cry. And I can't wait for the Extended Edition to come out.
So Three cheers for P. Jackson for making the movies. And a deep bow to Professor Tolkien for creating the realm of Middle-earth.