Sad to say I didn't think much of ROTK (spoilers ahead)

Well I went to see the movie last night, and I was somewhat disapointed. Its not as good as the last ones, and I can't see how any charactors are Acadamy Award material.

Positivly, in the beginning when the Elves are moving through the forest, not only was the forest one that we recognised, but the bird song were from the birds in that forest, a nice touch I thought.

I was getting into the movie like normal, when suddenly the first Orc leader turned up, and with a palatable shock I realised what he reminded me of, an chrarctor from Bad Taste, one of Jacksons early movies...

here --> www.eleganceprod.com... (not shown as the pic is big)

Am I the only person to notice the similarity? After that the magic was lost for me, and it just became a movie like any other.

Then we got to the battle scenes, with stock generic screaming peassants, why do they have to always look the same? Never mind, the Giant orcs etc were awesome as well as shadowfax riding around with gandalf clinging on the back.

I think the movie would have been immensly increased if the annoying and pathetic Mary and Pippin were killed off early, the extended scenes of them were getting tedious.

As I said before the battle scenes were fantastic the massive impact of the forces were amazing to see, however then they bought on the elephants. OK I know they are in the book, but come on it was so derivative I expected to see an X wing fighter as well, and "Luke use the force" being uttered from Gandalf.


Despite that the Dwarf came out with the best line of the night. When the Elf had slaughtered an entire elephant full of fighters, he said to him "That only counts as one".

Then there was the battle with the faceless warrior that "no man could kill" which seemed little little overhyped in the beginning as a women killed him (sort of screws with the meaning of "man" in this case).

The spider was another derivitive scene, that I am sure I have seen before, never mind, how many times can you make a spider scene truely frightening? It was well done.

The Hobbits journey was well done, and as expected Gollum was excellent, but the reason he shone so much was becuse the other actors were quite wooden, that may have been an aspect of the book, apart from male warrior bonding and fighting, the charactors didn't really do that much in this movie.

The females wandered around looking "wet" as one person described the elf woman, or lost, except near the end where feminism exerted itself and the daughter went into battle (maybe a big thing in the 30's when Tolkein wrote the book).

All in all it still was an amazing movie, but that was owing to the battle scenes and knowing the book from having read it years ago.

If you didn't have the book background some of the things that happened wouldn't have really made sence, and others, like the dead soldier army (which I liked) would have seemed like a poor plot device to send in the cavalry and save the good guys.

I anticipate watching the extended version, it will certianly fill in the holes in the plot,

ive got one for you why didn't aragorn just go to those ghost people at the start and kill all the orcs so they dind't have to lose all those people then get gandlaf to call an eagle and fly the ring to mount doom drop it in the larva job done home intime for tea

The dead, ghost fighters could not be use untill the king gave them an order. They would not answer to any one unless they had the kings sword. Since the king's sword was not welded back together untill the the third movie and book, the ghosts would have not gone to battle. Gandlaf would most likely have not droped the ring into the lava. Frodo could not do it, and he could resist the ring more than Gandlaf could.

all the elf guy had to do was go ohhh ill weld it back give it to aragorn boom my order is to kill all the bad guys and ill blah blah drop the ring thats it

[Edited on 20-12-2003 by SE7EN]

I thought the movie was really good but I dont understand why they left out the part about in the end about The Hobbits being slaves in The Shire and Wormtongue killing Sarumon by slitting his throat.

Time maybe...

The extended version will have an extra 1 1/2 hours (I think) of movie, so all that will be in there....

I think a reason it didn't have such an impact on me was that the screnery is familiar so lost a bit of its impact, I am off to see the site of the castle - starts with E, over the valley. Its only about 2 hours drive away.

Also the problem with critisizing the movie is that Tolkein is a legend above reproach, and Jackson is a technical wizard.

well i wanted to see the thing at teh end about the shire being rulled but i would have had to slit my wrist to get some of the pressure out from the multible endings. That was bout to drive me crazy and newarly ruined the movies for me.

Originally posted by ilovepizza
The dead, ghost fighters could not be use untill the king gave them an order. They would not answer to any one unless they had the kings sword. Since the king's sword was not welded back together untill the the third movie and book, the ghosts would have not gone to battle. Gandlaf would most likely have not droped the ring into the lava. Frodo could not do it, and he could resist the ring more than Gandlaf could.

Anduril was actually reforged during the week before The Fellowship left Rivendell, not in the third book.

An easy answer to SE7EN's suggestion would be: "Then the story would suck", but there is more to it than that... more than I have time to explain right now, but I will give you a few reasons why it was not that simple.

-About The army of the dead.
It's a lot like ilovepizza said, about Aragorn... but the thing about the sword was not accurate, as it was reforged long before the third book.

From Encyclopedia of Arda: Notes
1 Isildur laid a curse on the King of the Dead and his people that they would not rest until their broken oath to him was fulfilled, and that curse was the reason that these people haunted the Paths of the Dead. Isildur laid his curse before he went to war with Sauron, but he couched it in these terms: 'And if the West prove mightier than thy Black Master, this curse I lay upon thee and thy folk...' (The Return of the King V 2). The West did indeed prove mightier than Sauron, but not until II 3441, about eleven years after Isildur originally said these words.
It can't be stated with certainty that the Paths were occupied immediately after the curse took effect: their settlement may have taken years or even decades. Nonetheless, the curse that founded the Paths of the Dead took effect with the first Fall of Barad-d�r, hence the dating shown above.

2 8 March III 3019 is the date that Aragorn led the Dead out of their Paths towards the final fulfilment of their oath, after which the Paths of the Dead would be deserted. The Dead themselves continued to exist for several days, until they were released by Aragorn at Pelargir on 13 March.


Aragorn, Isildur�s heir had to lead them. He was the Returning King.

As for Gandalf flying on eagles into Mordor... that would most defiantly # things up. An eagle flying into Mordor with the ring would be way to risky. Sauron would notice it right away... the eagles would be killed by flying Nazgul and Sauron would get hold of the ring. Having Gandalf bringing the Ring would be the worst idea ever... he is one of the most mighty creatures in Middle Earth, and if the ring got power over him... yeah, things would get ugly. Also, Gandalf would risk a confrontation with Sauron himself. A battle between the two mightiest of the Maiar would defiantly have devastating consequences. Gandalf was meant to assist the free people of Middle Earth against Sauron, not destroy Middle Earth. He is an Ainur.. he had a part in the creation of Arda... he was not meant to directly fix everything by himself, he is to powerful. There where other battles between two of the Ainu earlier in the war of the ring, Durin's Bane vs Gandalf for example, but neither ot them used any significant powers.

In the first age, a war called The War Of Wrath took place in Beleriand (what once was north west in Middle Earth). In that war, the entire force of Valinor, of Ainu and Elves, marched against the hords of Morgoth. Morgoth was once the most powerful of the Ainur, and a Valar and brother of Manwe in the mind of Iluvatar, but he is not counted among the Valar today, for he defied Iluvatar and tried to take Arda as his own domain. Under his command where lesser Ainur (Among them, the Maia Sauron, who once served the Valar Aule), who had been seduced by him in the early days of the world, and there where other foul and powerful beasts as well. There where Balrogs (seduced Maiar), Dragons and Werewolves, and hordes of Orcs. When the war was over and Morgoth was cast into the void, the forces unleashed when the powers of Valinor fought the powers of Morgoth had resulted in the destruction of the entire northwestern part of Middle Earth, and Beleriand sunk in the ocean.

the last 25 minutes were really dragged out

Originally posted by f16falcon
the last 25 minutes were really dragged out

Yeh, I though as a whole the film was truely great, but the last half an hour or so where not very good. I was disapointed that sarumon hadn't taken over the shire. There was way too much crying all the time too, got to be over the top. Merry + Pippins scenes did also become irritating. Overall though, great flick. Just didn'tlike the ending that much.

i thought the first two were better. More time had been taken on them i dont know if anyone else felt this but i thought rotk felt a bit rushed somehow. And that all the key scenes had been given the chop.

I still liked it. (just saw it tonight).Well I would have probably liked it anyway, no mather how it would have been made. I'm really a fan of Tolkien's work and have read all the books so...

But I admit some parts were a bit deceiving... Like not seeing when Gandalf break the bow/staff of Saruman.
(even tho I think that wasn't necessarly in the third episode...don't remember..)

And when they go back to the shire... WTF?! No fight,blood or fire? Gotta admit tho that after 3 hours... I'm not that mad they didn't added that last fight...

PS. I laughed like mad when I saw this little girl dressed like en elven...LOL!!! She even had the ears...(what's funny is the fact that it wasn't even a premiere, the movie's been runnin for a few weeks I think now...)

[Edited on 2-1-2004 by m0rbid]

I really didn't want to be there and I was probably not in the right move so I actually didn't like it. I thought it was extremely boring. It dragged on to long.

I haven't seen it yet. I planned to go with a friend but she pulled out at the last minute.

Anyone want to take a cute goth lass to the movies ?

me were you live

[Edited on 4-1-2004 by SE7EN]