LoTR: The Return of the King

[Sara]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mimmi [/i]
[B][COLOR=firebrick][color=darkblue]
[i]How well do the actors depict the characters they are playing ?[/i][/color][/COLOR] [/B][/QUOTE] [SIZE=1]The only character that particularly bugs me is Legolas. He's different in the books--a giddy elf-child, prone to bursting into song, heh. And Frodo's not as annoying in the books. /

And I guess I don't have a [i]problem[/i] with people enjoying the movies, heh. It's just odd for me, and I'm not sure what to do with it. If they read the books, cookies for them. ^_^[/SIZE]

[Drix D'Zanth]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mimmi [/i]
[B][COLOR=firebrick]One thing that I've wanted to ask those who are [b]Tolkien Experts[/b] [size=1][i]*bows in their glory-ness*[/size][/i] for a long time is:[color=darkblue]
[i]How well do the actors depict the characters they are playing ?[/i][/color]

And something not related, but still in a way:
[color=darkblue][i]The people who discover and educate themselves about Lord of The Rings [b]after[/b] the movies and are genuinely making an effort to learn about its universe.... are they still considered to be riding the hype-wave ?[/i][/color]

- Mimmi[/COLOR] [/B][/QUOTE]

More power to those who get into LotR after the movies. Everyone was influenced to read Tolkein's masterpeices some way. It's just like looking at a painting inspired by Tolkein. As long as they don't diss the books, more power to them.

I would agree with Sara on her post abut the actors. The only one the bugs me along with those is Gimli. He's not nearly as badass as he should be.. almost reverted into some sort of comical standin... it's sad. Gimli could pwn Legolas ;)

[Ozzy J.]

It's coming out on my birthday! or there about, I even asked my mum if we could hire out the whole theatre and have my party there (the answer was a resounding no)

I agree with Drix on the character of Gimli, while I myself haven't read the books, i felt that gimli was almost too comical (toss the dwarf scene in the Two Towers)

This movie is going to own everything for a while, even perhaps dwarfing the second Spiderman Movie (which looks really weird, Dctor Octopus? not Venom?)
and I will be very pi'ed off if the movie is snubbed again at da Academy's.

[Artemis]

Out of curiosity, how many of us here are crazy enough to go see it at midnight? I'm going to, even though I have school in the morning. I'll probably be posting again in the wee hours of the morning after having seen it. *excitement* I've been dying for it to come out. It really should be the best one yet.
Last week I got to see the extended version of TTT. Did anyone else think that they sort of screwed up Faramir's character? He's supposed to be noble and meek (in a manly sort of way), but they made it look like he's doing everything to please his father which isn't quite true. [spoiler]When he volunteers to go to Rivendell, it looks like he's just trying to gain some renown and make up for his past blunders. In actuality, he was well schooled in Elvish and would have been a much better choice for the job than Boromir. They made it look like he just couldn't do anything right.[/spoiler] I guess you can't really have everything right. It seems like all the characters have been morphed slightly to accentuate the power of the ring. It seems to have an even more powerful hold than it did in the book. For example, Faramir, in the book, never took Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath, but he did in the movie for some reason.
Regardless of my purist objections, I've been very impressed with Peter Jackson's storytelling. RotK should be awesome!
~art~

[Dagger]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Artemis [/i]
[B]Out of curiosity, how many of us here are crazy enough to go see it at midnight? I'm going to, even though I have school in the morning. I'll probably be posting again in the wee hours of the morning after having seen it. *excitement* I've been dying for it to come out. It really should be the best one yet.[/B][/QUOTE]

I haven't yet read a single bad (or even neutral) review--and yes, I'm also going to see RotK on Wednesday morning. By all accounts, it's supposed to be the crown jewel of the trilogy. I can scarcely contain my excitement.

Last year I took several friends to the midnight opening of The Two Towers. It was tiring, but the overall experience was simply so memorable that I had no hesitations about deciding to do it again. In my mind, LotR can take priority over school any day. ^_~

EDIT: Well, early this morning, I finally saw RotK. It not only met all my expectations, but actually suceeded in exceeding them.... I'm eager to know what all you other OBers thought, so hurry on up and reply! ^_~

~Dagger~

[duorocks17]

OMG!!! That movie was sooo good!!
[spoiler]I got to see the midnight showing of it last night, staying up till past 4 in the morning in progress. But who cares! I loved everything about this movie!! Ok, it was a little scary at times, but even that couldn't stop me from liking it. I think my favorite part would have to be when Pippin sings. Who know Billy Boyd had such a great voice!! And then when they went to battle. *sigh* it was just so awesome! And then when Eowyn (i can never spell her name right) fights the orc dude! that was priceless!!![/spoiler]
*i put this in spoiler tags in case this would be considered a spoiler and anyone who hadn't read the books and doesn't want to know what will happen will know not to read.

[Mitch]

[size=1] I'm seeing it tonight at 9:05 with my friend. I'll post what I think here when I get to it.

Maybe some long, rambly post. Long rambly posts rule.[/size]

[Dagger]

duorocks17, [spoiler]Eowyn fought the Witch King of Angmar[/spoiler]. Yeah, that scene was pretty darn awesome.

[spoiler]I agree with you about Pippin. It made me incredibly happy that they were able to incorporate some singing into the film, since songs are featured so prominently in Tolkien's books. I was quite relieved to see that they didn't botch it. Billy Boyd's voice is simply gorgeous. I also enjoyed the part where Aragorn sings--I'm not sure whether the vocalist was actually Viggo Mortensen or not, but either way, that scene was really effective.[/spoiler]

Return of the King wasn't that much longer than FotR or TTT, and yet it felt so much grander in scope. Did anyone else get the sense that it seemed to encompass far more material than either of the previous movies?

~Dagger~

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=violet]Okay, now I can't wait to see it since you all seemed to like it so much. And I can sit for 3 hrs. I may wait until after Christmas tho because the first few days will probably have all the people who dress up for this sort of thing. *shrugs*
I can't wait to see the costumes again. That's always my favorite part of movies. What they dress the characters in.[/color]

[NorykoAngelcry]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=darkred]Hehe. . sit for three hours some of you say? . . *cries*. . I say for 15+ hours. . Yes, I saw one of the special screenings where they showed all three movies back-to-back-to-back. . They had, about, an hour intermission between each movie, allowed us to come and go as we pleased, and also allowed outside food in the theaters (talking about McDonalds or Subway or other non-movie resteraunts). It helped a lot! The first movie started around 2:00pm, we got in line around 11am, and got let in around 11:30ish . . There were people from all over the United States, and one lady who flew in from Sweden! O.o Now, I don't know if that was her only reason for coming in, but she was in full costume for the event, as were all of the friends (almost every one of them were from around the U.S. themselves).

The first intermission, the theater had a costume party. There were some really good costumes, one guy even had a battle horn, which to some was really annoying, lol! It was pretty cool to see all ages dressed up for the event. One girl had a handmade helmet (with what looked like tin foil, construction paper, and more, done pretty well to make a full fitting helmet ^_^)

The second intermission, they brought in Pizza and Chick-fil-a. Pretty sweet deal even though we were pumping a ton of money for the tickets ($36 a pop) The theater had seats for around 350+ I think? they had enough pizza for double that, and ran out fast . . it was ammusing I think. .there really isn't ever enough =P

At the end of the movie, New Line Cinema (the people who were really behind the sponsoring of the Trilogy showings) gave a gift to everyone. They gave out a special frame that held a cell from each of the movies. --If you want to know, I got the shot where Frodo was standing in front of the fallen face of a statue, where Boromir soon tries to take the ring, a shot from behind the Urak-hia army where they are storming Helms Deep, and a shot with Gandalf riding up the streets in Gondor (I can't recall the name of the city. . )

As for security, everyone was given a lanyard with a little Lord of the Rings card. It basically showed the time schedule of each movie starting time, as well as plug the theater on the other side. Trilogy Tuesday is what they called it. They taped your ticket stub to the other side (after seeing one of our friends poke a hole in his and put it on the keyring, lol) So they made sure that everyone had to show the card with the ticket stub to get in the theater. . it was pretty wierd. When the crowds for the midnight showing started arriving, everyone wanted to try and sneak in with us. . it caused more of a hassle coming and going to the snack bar or bathroom -_-

Anyways, that's my story =) The movies were just awesome. I got to watch every one in theater (many times over, including opening night for each), and this easily ranks up there in movies for me (and I would easily say second best trilogy out there. . depending on how the last Star Wars does *evil grin*) I have never read the books, and definitely plan to after seeing the movies. I am in no way an expert, and don't plan on. . it's hard enough just keeping up with the Star Wars universe (if you can even call it 'keeping up with'. . more like playing catch-up!). For those that think that people like me are just riding the hype, I would have never decided to read the books had it not been for the movies. . so hate me if you will, but thank Peter Jackson for opening up such great novels to the uninformed masses. . . and of course Mr. Tolkien for writing them ^_^[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[SasukeUchiha]

Theatres in my area have already sold pre-order tickets for a full week, so i have to wait.

[Ozzy J.]

If this movie doesn't win the best picture this time, there will be a travesty of justice the likes of which the Academy has never seen (snubbing arguably one of the best films ever, the two Towers, for Chicago? it might happen again.)

My grudge against the Academy aside, this movie simply rocked. All this time through the enormous hype the movies had been receivign in New Zealand, I thought it was going to be way overhyped and that I'd be expceting too much, I was wrong.

The battle of gondor (sorry, i forget the name of the city too) has to be one of the best battle sequences ever, the sheer numbers (digtially enhanced?) and quality of the fight made it a truly memorable moment, a sight to behold, you've done New zealand proud!

Warning! [i]MAJOR spoilers follow[/i]

[spoiler] The psychological aspect is really entertaining, ot the failing mind and sanity of Denethor, and to the mind tricks of Gollum, who's every move in ROTK is motivated to recapturing his "precious".

I must say, i enjoyed the sequence in ROTK where Smagol and Deagoul find the ring, It happens in the Fellowship of the Ring with the books, and it's being told by gandalf, but I didn't midn it in ROTK, it set the whole split personality in the puddle thign up, [i]you've done it once smeagol! you can do it again [/i]

the sequence in destroying the one Ring has to be one of the masterpieces of the film, the finality of seeing the Ring shrink into the lava, and the collapse of Sauron's eye and tower, it brought a tear to my eye, truly stunning, awesome scene.

Smeagol and his ring, I'll say no more ;)

Shelob was a good scene too, I had looked forward to seeing Shelob, and it didn't dissapoin either. A giant psider without making it look corny, and it really brought forward the reason why Samwise was so crucial to the efforts to destroy the Ring, sam was there, through it all, and after ebing ste up by Gollum, he returned loally to Frodo's aid when Shelob had him bound. Frodo could not have done the task of destroying the Ring without Sam, but together, their bond of friendship was able to stand against the Might of Sauron's enticing ring. [/spoiler]

I'd probably see it again sometime, It was a true masterpiece, can any movie really hope to accomplish what New Line have accomplished here any time soon? I doubt it. I can't wait to see if they wil produce the prequel, The hobbit, after Peter Jackson has done creating King Kong.

[Charles]

I'm not a fan of the books; I've never touched them. But, I have been a devout fan of the films. Because I've not been spoiled by reading the material the movies were based on, one could argue that I can't appreciate it to its fullest. But, I beg to differ. There was nothing to influence my opinion of the trilogy in a film format. I was experiencing the magic for the first time. Y'know? And I had nothing to complain about. I've heard it stays fairly close to the source material and only takes liberty here and there. The fact that I've never read the books, means I'm not married to anything in them. So, I didn't have that to be concerned about.

I'm just in awe of these movies. Critics keep calling them "the best films of our time." I won't try to argue it. The epic scale these stories bring to the table is amazing. I've already bought the extended versions of the first two DVDs in the series, and I can't wait for the third. I never get tired of them despite their length. The character growth is perfect. [i]The Lord of the Rings[/i] is quite simply an artistic masterpiece. I can't extol the beauty of the imagery enough. Almost every sweeping scene is a marvel to behold. They could be paintings.

The battle scenes themselves were even more awe-inspiring than the machine battle in [i]The Matrix Revolutions[/i]. That's quite an achievement seeing as how that battle is head and shoulders above any other depiction of fantasy war out there. The battles in the LotR movies invoked a greater sense of emotion for me than any other fiction-based war sequences.

I was only bothered by how drawn-out the ending was. I assumed, after reading reviews, that critics were only complaining for the sake of finding a fault with the movie. Especially since I'm highly skeptical of critics' opinions. Unfortunately, it is a legitimate gripe. People in the theater were even sighing as false ending after false ending played.

It didn't ruin the movie though. I, myself, really didn't want it to end.

[eleanor]

[size=1] I'm seeing it today at 6:00 PM with two of my friends. ^_^ I'm pretty excited. We're going to get there at 5:00 PM [^_~] so...we're spending about four and a half hours at the movie theatres. Fun.

I haven't heard anything bad about the movie from anyone yet, and I think it'll be the best of the trilogy so far. [/size]

[Dagger]

mal, I can almost guarantee that you'll love RotK. My only advice is to go ahead and be excited--but try to keep your expectations from soaring [i]too[/i] high. After all, isn't it better to be pleasantly surprised (rather than simply satisfied)?

Charles, as a fan of the books, I felt gratified that Peter Jackson decided to follow each character's individual story to its finish. At the same time, there were several moments at which the movie could have come to a natural finish [spoiler](especially after Frodo and the elves sail off into the sunset)[/spoiler], and yet didn't. But this is really a very small complaint, and like you, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Return of the King.

~Dagger~

[JazzLady22]

I saw RotK last night. And I was speechless. WOW. It certainly was one of the best films I'd ever seen. I've tried to make this as spoiler free as possible, as I still don't know how to use spoiler tags. :wigout:

I was relieved that they fixed Faramir's character a bit. He was one of my favorites in the book, and I was annoyed that he seemed like an arrogant little papa's boy in Two Towers. But in RotK, he was a bit more like Tolkien's honorable man that I know and love. I was, however, disappointed that they left out his relationship with a certain someone (I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't read the books) at the Houses of Healing. In fact, they left out the Houses of Healing completely in favor of more Frodo scenes. Well, that's what the extended DVD is for.

Everyone else was pretty much portrayed accurately. Aragorn in particular. I think Viggo Mortensen was amazing in the role, and following FOtR I became a huge fan of his. Ian McKellen and Billy Boyd were amazing as well, especially in their scenes together. Legolas, however, had a total of about 7 lines, all of them enigmatic words of wisdom worhty of Yoda himself. If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Legolas more of a cheery guy who liked to sing at random and prance through the forests?

All in all, a fabulous, totally incredible experience, and I can't wait to see it again.

But one more thing: was the whole situation with Arwen in the book? I don't remember it. I haven't read ROtK in a long time. But something tells me it wasn't.

[piccolo]

I just saw it today, I love it. Elija Wood was great at the end, his acting skill is excellent in expressing it.

[Circ]

Didn't go at midnight, went later in the day. Loved it, even if some parts were cut ([spoiler]especially Scourging the Shire[/spoiler]).

My personnal annoying part is how [spoiler]evident they put it that Eowyn was going to Gondor too, I mean, I made the whole dramatic part of "I am not a man" so predictable...[/spoiler]

On the while, I couldn't be more satisfied with the movie. (Including the fact it was in French XD) Beautiful pictures, impressive music, great characters *start ranting*

[eleanor]

[size=1] From this moment on, I can say that LoTR:TRotK is the absolute best action movie I've ever seen in my whole entire life. *rambles*

The Battle of Minas Turas [sp?] was probably the biggest battle on-screen til this day. It made the Battle of Helm's Deep look almost trivial in one sense. It was just so...great! The scenes that stick in my mind is [spoiler] when Legolas climbed atop the er...elephant-looking animal and completely killed everyone on it, Eowyn faced off with the Witch King, and when Aragorn almost died. [T____T][/spoiler] But the whole thing looked very cool. Just the look of an gigantic army of Orcs, Rohanians, etc., made you just imagine how much time and effort went into the whole thing. I mean...10,000 Orcs? That must have taken a while.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot my favorite part. [spoiler] When the lights of Minas Turas were lit and it followed along that whole path through the mountains,[/spoiler] I just thought that was really cool for some reason. *shrugs*

Ok, so on with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Many people who watched the movie before me advised that I would practically loathe Gollum as the movie went on, but I really didn't. [spoiler] I actually felt indifferent towards him when he kept on trying to kill Frodo and Sam to get the ring back. Eh.[/spoiler] All I really felt for was Sam, since he was so loyal and a true friend, [spoiler] was eventually told to "Go back." by Frodo. THEN, Frodo left Middle Earth, never to go back. [/spoiler] I really wish the movie ended there [spoiler] just as the ship sailed into the horizon[/spoiler] but I guess Peter Jackson had other things on his mind.

Some pet peeves I had with the movie was when it kept on fading to black for a long time between random parts towards the end. [spoiler] Especially when Frodo and Sam were on the rock after they destroyed the ring and all of a sudden it faded out just to arrive at the exact scene, expect Frodo and Sam were just lying there on the rock. *raises eyebrow*[/spoiler]

*thinks* The music was also great. But I had a itsy-bitsy problem with it because they played the same music whenever the Rohanians went to battle or whatever. That violin-solo music. Thing. The music was still awesome, though.

*laughs* The first thing my friend said to me after the movie ended was "Whenever Aragorn and Legolas did that shoulder thing, I thought they would kiss or something." Hm...I don't think Gimli and Legolas had much of a part in this movie as the others. Oh well. ^_^ I was very happy with how Merry and Pippin got some attention.[/size]

[Dagger]

Haha, mal--I saw [i]so[/i] much gay subtext in Return of the King. [spoiler]Towards the end, when Frodo was departing for the Gray Havens, I really believed that he was about to kiss Sam. The same goes for Legolas and Aragorn: during Arwen's grand arrival, the first person the camera cut to was Legolas--and because of his attractive silvery clothing, I initially thought he was wearing a wedding dress. Not to mention Pippin and Merry....[/spoiler]^_^;;;

But more seriously, I was so happy that Pippin and Merry had their chance to grow and develop. This time around, they were there for more than just comic relief (something which can't be said of poor Gimli). Within the movies, those two hobbits just may be my favorite characters.

And Legolas's awesome stunt--obligatory though it was--did indeed rock.

~Dagger~

[eleanor]

[size=1] Heh...when the audience saw Legolas in that silver-suit thing, 95% of the girls went, "Ohhh.."

Hm. [spoiler]Too bad Sam married that girl with the curls.[/spoiler] XD[/size]

[Vicky]

[SIZE=1][B]I went to see it ages ago... when it came out, BOY WAS IT GOOD!!!

It was so brill! Legolas was really cool (BTW, Orlando Bloom is now mine, I stole him ^_^)! I think it might be the best movie I'll see.... and the end makes you think:
"Gee... it's over... no more..."

They're also making The Hobbit a movie, I saw the trailer... I think... I don't know what I saw, but they could well be making the Hobbit. Knowing the movies makers of LoTR's, they might just continue the story, with new heroes, you never know!

I think it'll be the best movie I'll ever see, it was totally amazing. I liekd the cutting, and bleeding, and stabbing, and glory gory-ness of it... It was rated 12A, strange... I thought it would be like a 15 or something...[/SIZE][/B]

[eleanor]

[size=1] If they do make a movie of The Hobbit, I don't think it'll have much of a success as LoTR had. The LoTR trilogy has much more action, story, and character development, while The Hobbit is just one book. It might even seem a tad boring compared to LoTR. But you know, a lot of people thought LoTR couldn't be done when it was first announced. ^_^[/size]

[Vicky]

[B][SIZE=1]Yeah, I remeber that... I was watching the second disk of the FotR DVD, the added stuff, and blah blah, and it said something about
"They said it could never be done..." But it was. They made The Hobbit game already, and I think it look boring. The Hobbit could be good, it would show people what happened before LoTR. I wouldn't go and watch it because my... I mean Orlando Bloom wouldn't be in it... I never read The Hobbit, and I'm not going to. [/SIZE][/B]

[Queen Asuka]

[color=hotpink][size=1]First of all, my Legolas rant: I used to love Legolas, especially when the first movie came out. After all the girls fell in love with him and Orlando Bloom became the "thing," I got tired of him quick. When I saw him I almost wanted to roll my eyes, even though he looked very beautiful as an elf. GET OVER HIM ALREADY! YOU'VE RUINED IT FOR EVERYONE, FANGIRLS! *Pulls her hair out*

I went and saw it Thursday night and like most of you have said, it really was the best movie I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to rewatch it as soon as it was over, despite the fact that my hindquaters was killing me and I had to go the bathroom very badly. I really had no peeves with the movie and I was really glad that they showed everyone's ending true to the books. Of course, they left out Gimli and Legolas, but oh well. I'm still happy. For those of you who want to know, Legolas builds a boat and the two of them sail away as well.

My favorite part was [spoiler]the Aragorn/Arwen scene. I'm a sucker for romance (and why I'm peeved that Faramir/Eowyn was left out) and so that scene truly touched my heart. Their love was so amazing and strong and he stuck to her throughout it all. He was so surpised to see her and the kiss was just so heartfelt.[/spoiler]

And I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. I watched the majority of it with my jaw hanging open. It was intense and it was amazing. I went into it not knowing exactly what to expect, and I am very satisfied with how well it turned out. Yes, it was amazing. ^_^

Arwen rocks my socks!!!!!! Oh yes, and Merry is the sexiest Hobbit ever.[/color][/size]