There are so many reviews already of Return of the King that I won't waste
time going over the basic plot point. The question at the end of the day is "how
good is it?" The answer is - very good. Now, I have some minor
spoilers in here so just skip the rest if you're really paranoid. I'm not giving
away anything crucial, just tidbits.
On IMDB, I gave Fellowship of the Ring a
10. It's the only movie I've ever given a 10 to. I gave the Two Towers a
9. I would give this a 9 also. The movie is so well crafted that at
times it almost seems like an art film. But all goodness aside, since
we've established that it's a great film that all should go and see let me focus
a bit on some of the negatives that I think a lot of other people have thought
of but I haven't really seen voiced:
- Too much melodrama. I am so sick of "tender moments" between Frodo
and Sam. I was getting pretty tired of seeing scene after scene of tear
jerking due to Frodo and Sam.
- They took out my favorite two parts from the books: The encounter with
Saruman and Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch King.
- At some point I was hoping that Gandalf, the wizard, would actually do
some...you know...wizarding.
- I was really hoping to see Aragorn use the Palantir. It was a powerful
moment in the books and would have fit in perfectly when they were hoping to
convince Sauron that they were going to attack Mordor in force.
- Too many skirmeshes, not enough solid battling.
- Too much melodrama part 2: Just general tear jerking scenes. If you have
too many of them, they just lose impact.
- Editing could have been better. The tower coming down seem to take
forever. The ship sailing into the west scene took so long that my
mind started to wander.
- Where are the elves? They help save Rohan but in the actual battle for
Middle Earth itself they're not around? They were in the book.
- The characterization of Denethor was poor. That is not at all what he
was like. He wasn't some disgusting craven fool. He was a powerful man whose
use of the Palantir crushed his mighty spirit over time.
That's pretty much it. I am already looking forward to it again. I've
gotten a lot of letters from people concerning my two articles about the world
of middle earth (here
and here). Yes, I'm a
Tolkien fan. So how well do the movies fit with the books? Well,
significant changes were made, particularly in Return of the King. But the
movies definitely capture the spirit of the books which is what mattered
to me.
There were some changes and omissions that did bug me. I didn't feel the the
Eowyn portion was handled very well with regards to Faramir. Those character
arcs aren't really concluded satisfactory. Eowyn does find love -- in
Faramir who was a noble, gentle spirit. I was also disappointed with the
portrayal of Denethor who was, next to Aragorn, the most powerful human in the
world in terms of body, mind and spirit. But he is portrayed in the move as
pathetic figure worthy of scorn. Certainly the conclusion of the Gandalf and
Saruman rivalry was non-existent. So for those reasons I can't say it was
a perfect movie but damn it was good.
I knit pick this stuff because it's material I've loved and cherished for so
very long. I know I couldn't have done it anywhere near as well as Peter Jackson
did it though. His attention to detail was amazing.
So go see it. And if you have any Tolkien or Middle Earth questions,
just respond here and I'll try to answer as best I can.
