12.17.2003
it's wednesday morning. have you seen Return of the King yet? cal and i have. that's right, we went to a midnight showing of ROTK. i must say, i was impressed. the more i think about it, this seems to me not three independent movies, but one very epic movie. that's what tolkien had intended for his books as well.
before i go into the movie, let's talk about geeks. officially, cal and i are the 7th and 8th ranked geeks at the hilltop century 25. we got there at 10pm, and would have been the 7th and 8th person in line. however, i needed coffee, so we left and came back. at the theater, there were people dressed up as elves. dress-up geeky is not me... too close to LARP (live action role playing a.k.a. ultimate geekdom). we got seated around 11pm where some geeks proceeded to pull out their laptops and watch The Two Towers EE. cal gets some geek points here because he immediately spotted that it was the extended version of the movie based on the scene... faramir talking to boromir. at the end of the movie, some guy said that the ending was incorrect. he was wrong. the geek i am knew it to be true, so i looked it up. furthermore, i looked at the appendices to confirm that other characters share the same fate. (i'll explain this stuff in the spoiler section below.)
my "review" (highlight the sections below to read them):
gripes
i can't say there's very many here.
--i actually didn't like the flashback to smeagol and deagol. the transformation of smeagol actually kinda grossed me out. i might have liked it better if the flashback ended with smeagol killing deagol and taking the ring. that gives us enough to understand how the ring corrupts a person.
--this gripe has to do with a guy behind me. he says to his friend that frodo never goes to the grey havens. how untrue! frodo does go. and if you look in the appendices, you'll see that eventually sam goes because he, too, bore the ring for a while (in the text, he actually wears it). and if you look further, you'll see that legolas and gimli go, too. it's in the appendices you'll read stuff about how peregrin's son faramir took marries samwise's daughter goldilocks. real geeky stuff.
--i suppose there might be more "gripes" about things untrue to the text, but i'll put those in the neutral section...
neutral
--the major omission is saruman's death. i completely understand why this was left out. it would have been horrible for the movie if this stuff were added. it should have happened back in the shire, but like i said, there's no way we wind down from the destruction of the ring and have to face saruman again.
--another omission was the house of healing. this is where faramir and eowyn are healed and eventually decide to marry. it has no bearing on the destruction of the ring nor the return of the king, but i feel like it gives some conclusion to our characters. this is defnitely extended edition fodder.
--merry's pledge to theoden and rohan. pip had his moment, why not meriadoc? more extended edition fodder.
--the ending's pace was a bit weird to me. all necessary, but i thought it could have been smoother.
--wouldn't it suck to have the job of lighting the fires across the mountains from gondor to rohan? seriously, how often do you get relief?
--the audience wasn't as die-hard as i hoped. remember, cal and i were the 7th and 8th ranked fans here. there are moments that warranted a small hand clap by me, but probably would have mustered a cheer in front of die-harder fans.
praise
--very true to the text. i appreciated that after being a bit disheartend by the liberties taken in The Two Towers. there was actually one point where i thought the shelob storyline was gonna be all messed up. it turns out that it was just played out a bit longer than i had expected. and do people remember the light that was given from frodo in the first movie? i hope they do. in all, there were more times when i remembered stuff that happend in the text rather than wondering if something happened in the text.
--samwise gamgee gets my MVP vote. he has heart, determination, loyalty, and the physical skills to carry frodo up mount doom. what a stud. why wouldn't rosie want to marry him? there were times that he appears on screen that deserve cheer.
--my 6th 'Man' award goes to eowyn. she came off the bench to really shine. of course, she had to sneak off the bench, but she came through. taking on the witch-king is no easy task. by the way, did you check out the witch-king's mace? just the chain on that thing makes ours look silly.
--battle at pelennor fields was immense and intense. it just seemed to grow and grow. first, the orcs and gondor. then rohan. then the mumakils (battle oliphaunts). man, it was great. then aragorn comes through from the paths of the dead. the ultimate cavalry. i don't know how men can fight against trolls. i'd pee my pants if i saw a troll come at me.
--legolas taking down a mumakil by himself. money.
--minas tirith is breathtaking. depsite the neighbors to the east, that is an amazing city.
--eagles rock. they are considered the most majestic of animals in middle earth. they do come to help the men in their fight. very awesome to see them.
--pretty good speeches by theoden and aragorn before riding into battle. i actually got chills when i heard theoden's speech.
i'll stop there for now. i'm sure there'll be a lot more i could talk about.
before i go into the movie, let's talk about geeks. officially, cal and i are the 7th and 8th ranked geeks at the hilltop century 25. we got there at 10pm, and would have been the 7th and 8th person in line. however, i needed coffee, so we left and came back. at the theater, there were people dressed up as elves. dress-up geeky is not me... too close to LARP (live action role playing a.k.a. ultimate geekdom). we got seated around 11pm where some geeks proceeded to pull out their laptops and watch The Two Towers EE. cal gets some geek points here because he immediately spotted that it was the extended version of the movie based on the scene... faramir talking to boromir. at the end of the movie, some guy said that the ending was incorrect. he was wrong. the geek i am knew it to be true, so i looked it up. furthermore, i looked at the appendices to confirm that other characters share the same fate. (i'll explain this stuff in the spoiler section below.)
my "review" (highlight the sections below to read them):
gripes
i can't say there's very many here.
--i actually didn't like the flashback to smeagol and deagol. the transformation of smeagol actually kinda grossed me out. i might have liked it better if the flashback ended with smeagol killing deagol and taking the ring. that gives us enough to understand how the ring corrupts a person.
--this gripe has to do with a guy behind me. he says to his friend that frodo never goes to the grey havens. how untrue! frodo does go. and if you look in the appendices, you'll see that eventually sam goes because he, too, bore the ring for a while (in the text, he actually wears it). and if you look further, you'll see that legolas and gimli go, too. it's in the appendices you'll read stuff about how peregrin's son faramir took marries samwise's daughter goldilocks. real geeky stuff.
--i suppose there might be more "gripes" about things untrue to the text, but i'll put those in the neutral section...
neutral
--the major omission is saruman's death. i completely understand why this was left out. it would have been horrible for the movie if this stuff were added. it should have happened back in the shire, but like i said, there's no way we wind down from the destruction of the ring and have to face saruman again.
--another omission was the house of healing. this is where faramir and eowyn are healed and eventually decide to marry. it has no bearing on the destruction of the ring nor the return of the king, but i feel like it gives some conclusion to our characters. this is defnitely extended edition fodder.
--merry's pledge to theoden and rohan. pip had his moment, why not meriadoc? more extended edition fodder.
--the ending's pace was a bit weird to me. all necessary, but i thought it could have been smoother.
--wouldn't it suck to have the job of lighting the fires across the mountains from gondor to rohan? seriously, how often do you get relief?
--the audience wasn't as die-hard as i hoped. remember, cal and i were the 7th and 8th ranked fans here. there are moments that warranted a small hand clap by me, but probably would have mustered a cheer in front of die-harder fans.
praise
--very true to the text. i appreciated that after being a bit disheartend by the liberties taken in The Two Towers. there was actually one point where i thought the shelob storyline was gonna be all messed up. it turns out that it was just played out a bit longer than i had expected. and do people remember the light that was given from frodo in the first movie? i hope they do. in all, there were more times when i remembered stuff that happend in the text rather than wondering if something happened in the text.
--samwise gamgee gets my MVP vote. he has heart, determination, loyalty, and the physical skills to carry frodo up mount doom. what a stud. why wouldn't rosie want to marry him? there were times that he appears on screen that deserve cheer.
--my 6th 'Man' award goes to eowyn. she came off the bench to really shine. of course, she had to sneak off the bench, but she came through. taking on the witch-king is no easy task. by the way, did you check out the witch-king's mace? just the chain on that thing makes ours look silly.
--battle at pelennor fields was immense and intense. it just seemed to grow and grow. first, the orcs and gondor. then rohan. then the mumakils (battle oliphaunts). man, it was great. then aragorn comes through from the paths of the dead. the ultimate cavalry. i don't know how men can fight against trolls. i'd pee my pants if i saw a troll come at me.
--legolas taking down a mumakil by himself. money.
--minas tirith is breathtaking. depsite the neighbors to the east, that is an amazing city.
--eagles rock. they are considered the most majestic of animals in middle earth. they do come to help the men in their fight. very awesome to see them.
--pretty good speeches by theoden and aragorn before riding into battle. i actually got chills when i heard theoden's speech.
i'll stop there for now. i'm sure there'll be a lot more i could talk about.
