RotK

[darcydodo]

Damn, just missed the New York New Year ball dropping. Oh well.

Anyway, RotK. I'll put spoilers behind cut tags, so just click here if you don't mind spoilers.

So. We went to see it at the Alamo Drafthouse, which is a theater that serves meals along with the movie. The rows are separated by long tables to put the food onto. Before the movie, they have all sorts of really amusing stuff showing instead of the usual pre-film slides; they had several rounds of a LotR quiz, and there are buttons on the seat arm with which to buzz in; the person who wins any given round gets a prize. I got tenth in the one round I was there for, which, given that I was having trouble figuring out how to buzz in at first, made me happy. Especially since that was in the "high scores." And they had the Dead Alewives AD&D sketch, with animation... but very different animation than the 8-bit version. The guy in the kitchen was... this weird giant scorpion thing, and it was all fairly slickly done on computers. Not very funny, actually, unless you already knew the sketch. But people still seemed to be enjoying it.

I definitely liked the film a lot. Its enjoyability was diminished a bit by my mother making snide comments; she hates the LotR movies, and she only went because she thought the theater sounded like a cool concept. Also, it peeved me that Merry and Pippin were no taller than Frodo and Sam, when everyone was bowing to them in Gondor. I mean, it would be one thing if the Ent draughts weren't in the extended version of TTT, but they were. I was, of course, awed by the nazgûl. I also think that my parents have a point in their dislike of Frodo. Elijah Wood, IMO, looks approximately like a gaping codfish a majority of the time. My mom keeps going on about how much of a push-over and an idiot he is, and oh look, this is just natural selection. And since they haven't read the books, I can't explain that his idiocy actually makes sense, and he's not just a wash-out. Because Elijah Wood really can't act. (Sorry, nenar!!!) I was also glad that I'd seen TTT:EE at taurendur's birthday party, because the whole relationship between Denethor and Faramir actually had some sense to it, which it wouldn't have otherwise. I adored the panoramic shots of the mountains when the signal fires were being lit. I'm still cross about the lack of the Scouring, though.

I should probably go to bed now, despite them showing "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" on Comedy Central... without bleeps, and apparently without commercials!

Comments

[glamwhorebunni.livejournal.com]

I know! The mountains were just *gorgeous*.

But there wasn't enough explanation of *why* Denethor was mad. He was just a nutjob...

Sigh. How long until RotK:EE comes out?

[whiskeypants.livejournal.com]

i loved the movie and i still had plenty of snide comments to make. it just begs for the skills of a good peanut gallery.
hey! it's sauron's great big maglite of doom!

anyway...
elijah wood is really quite dull as frodo, but i'm not sure how much of that is peter jackson failing to direct him properly and how much of that is writing.

and the lack of scouring, even in the ee is really quite irritating, i agree.

heh. dead alewives.
if there are girls there, i wanna do them!

[darcydodo]

'Cept my mother's comments are less tolerable than yours.

[tzeentch.livejournal.com]

Personal favorite scene was the one between Eowyn and the Witch King. "I am not a man!" Also, when Minas Morgul was crumbling and the eye was falling, I was thinking to myself: "implode, implode, implode!" Finally, when the Rohirrim charged the war oiliphants, I thought, "Ack! Light cavalry against heavy war machines! Not a good thing." Especially after their charge just broke the enemy flank.

As one of my other lj friends pointed out, Sam and Frodo should have started making out when lying on the cliff face surrounded by lava. Also Merry and Pippen, when they find each other on the battlefield. I mean, come on: "I'll never leave you again, Merry."

I thought Elijah Wood was perfectly decent as Frodo. An interesting thing, though: in the book, Gollum falls into the lava by losing his footing through exuberance that he has the ring back. In the movie, he and Frodo fight, and Frodo almost dies when they both fall. I wonder if there was a particular reason for this.

[dictalicence.livejournal.com]

in the book, Gollum falls into the lava by losing his footing through exuberance that he has the ring back. In the movie, he and Frodo fight, and Frodo almost dies when they both fall. I wonder if there was a particular reason for this.

Possibly because TPTB felt that the unfortunate Gollum's end was much too anticlimactic and thus felt the need to jazz it up for the big screen. Not quite sure if it was worth it, though. I'm a canon purist most of the time, if anything.

[lordkrishna.livejournal.com]

I'm a canon purist
Hear, hear.

I too saw no reason to change this. The scene is faster paced in the book! Things fail to climax visually in a film if you stretch them out too long. The buildup should be drawn out and thoughtful, but the climax should just *be*.

The main thing I disliked about TTT was the scene in which Faramir drags them back to Osgilliath for... yes, that's right, another battle.

In defense of Jackson, he was trying to turn it into a film, and some of what he has done is astonishing. Personally, I think moving the Boromir death scene to the end of the first movie was a good decision, as the audience would no longer be as emotionally invested in the character by the beginning of the second movie. Also, the scene is arguably handled better in the movie than in the book itself.

Er... < /RANT >, I suppose...

Yours,
-K

[lordkrishna.livejournal.com]

Personal favorite scene was the one between Eowyn and the Witch King. "I am not a man!"
Correction: "I am *no* man." -- a much better line.

As one of my other lj friends pointed out, Sam and Frodo should have started making out when lying on the cliff face surrounded by lava. Also Merry and Pippen, when they find each other on the battlefield. I mean, come on: "I'll never leave you again, Merry."
Come on, what they feel for each other is love, pure and simple. The hobbits are like children in many ways, and one of them is that they love each other without regard for gender constraints. Platonic love is a beautiful thing, and not often protrayed in film as openly. I applaud Jackson's decision not to change this poignant aspect of the story, despite today's trend to oversexualize everything and mock such frank display of love (though certainly he felt the need to appease the hypersexual atmosphere by including lots of Aragorn and Arwen making out).

-K

[tzeentch.livejournal.com]

Correction: "I am *no* man." -- a much better line.
Very true - I could not remember exactly when I typed it.

Come on, what they feel for each other is love, pure and simple. The hobbits are like children in many ways, and one of them is that they love each other without regard for gender constraints. Platonic love is a beautiful thing, and not often protrayed in film as openly. I applaud Jackson's decision not to change this poignant aspect of the story, despite today's trend to oversexualize everything and mock such frank display of love (though certainly he felt the need to appease the hypersexual atmosphere by including lots of Aragorn and Arwen making out).
Probably also very true. I was merely being facetious. I did realize that platonic love was what Tolkien was getting at, but still.