Return of the King

Be careful. Its a slippery slope to this:



In character as elves, Cam Schroyer, left, 16, of New Market, Md., and his sister Corry Schroyer, 22, of Pikesville, Md., wait with about 800 fans outside Baltimore's Senator Theatre Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 to see all three 'Lord of the Rings' movies in succession. The theater will conclude the Lord of the Rings marathon with the newly released 'The Return of the Rings.' (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)

Which one are you Matthew ?

Brian OReilly

I though the film was excellent, too. And no - I didn't feel the urge to dress up as an Elf to watch it. I believe that one child in the theatre was wearing a Gollum mask (or he could just have been really ugly..). Dressing up as an Elf in the Glasgow area is only likely to have one consequence - a sore face!

what a fantastic film!

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Originally posted by BLT:
Dressing up as an Elf in the Glasgow area is only likely to have one consequence - a sore face!

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And dressing up as an Orc would have people mistaking you for a Celtic fan...

Regards
Steve

I saw it yesterday, and it is good.

I felt it could do with being a bit longer.

The queue for the toilets afterwards was testament to the gripping nature of the story.

DS

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Originally posted by David Slater:
I saw it yesterday, and it is good.

I felt it could do with being a bit longer.

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Overall I thought the films did a pretty good job although the extended versions of the first two are much better than the original cinema release. Perhaps they'd have been better doing them in 4 films rather than sticking to the 3 episodes as per the books?

Regards
Steve

i think they should have done it all in elvish with no on screen translation !

I know I'm getting on a bit, and losing it all round
but what the hell is ROTK ????
oldie.

It's allright Oldie
Take it from one who is only 5 months younger than you.
It's just that these young sprats don't know what copperplate and joined up writing is!
Mind you if your profile is correct your only approxm. 15 years old and so have no excuse.

geoff

Hi Geoff,
you have noticed a bit of a secret that over the years has confused a considerable number of people, I'm very impressed that you noticed. Yes the big 15comes up soon.And now of course the rest of the forum will be saying ,what are those old fools on about.
all the best
oldie.

A very good film indeed. I did feel it was a bit rushed from the battle outside the white city to the end, hopefully the extended edition will rectify this. Just have to wait another year for that then...

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Both of you would have been about 9-10 when the book first came out

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Yep
The other interesting thing is to have witnessed the evolution of the LOTR phenomenon which did'nt really take off until son Christopher started to edit and release the unpublished corollary works of his father.
I actually read LOTR first as a "science fiction book club" book of the month, XCPT it was a special price because of it's size.
Boy did those appendicies drive me nuts.
Now that they have got the whole thing going AND we have the digital effects technology at a level where you can't see the join (almost) instead of talking about the Hobbit they ought to take on THE SILMARILLION.

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Both of you would have been about 9-10 when the book first came out

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Yep
The other interesting thing is to have witnessed the evolution of the LOTR phenomenon which did'nt really take off until son Christopher started to edit and release the unpublished corollary works of his father.
I actually read LOTR first as a "science fiction book club" book of the month, XCPT it was a special price because of it's size.
Boy did those appendicies drive me nuts.
Now that they have got the whole thing going AND we have the digital effects technology at a level where you can't see the join (almost) instead of talking about the Hobbit they ought to take on THE SILMARILLION. That could be quite a film

GEOFF

oops finger trouble

yes that would be amazing ! a bigger more evil spider, a youthfull Gandalf,and even bigger battles i want to see it now!!

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they ought to take on THE SILMARILLION. That could be quite a film

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I'm afraid that to the contrary, it would be an excruciating nightmare akin to filming the "begats" of the Bible,* or a telephone book. Watching it probably would be like a bucket of cold water on the current Tolkein fever, however.

* aka the crushingly tedious geneologies in the gospels of Luke, etc.

i would go and see it ,and i would make my better half go, so thats at least two tickets sold !

I think that "The Hobbit" is likely to be made by Peter Jackson, but the Silmarillion would be commercial suicide.

Make sure you see it in the biggest and best quality cinema you can get to. It's a movie of quite unbelievable scale in spite of a relatively slow (but still enjoyable) first hour or so, and a twee final 20 minutes. Once the action starts though it's staggering though quite dark and gory in places. I expect it pushed the limits of the new 12A category a bit.

David,

sorry you didn't like the film or the director - although I can't think why any one is now interested in your view since you seem the need to approve of New Zealanders before you give an opinion on them!

Geoff

mr vuk vuksanovic you strike me as a bit of a clever twat

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Originally posted by I remember Vuk Vuksanovic:
I am not Vuk Vuksanovic, but nonetheless I am indeed quite clever.

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That was really cruel - and it's Xmas time too!

I was very impressed by The Two Towers, which added to my disappointment in ROTK. IRVV sums it up pretty well.

To make things worse, it was too violent for my taste - how the hell did it get a 12A certificate? I don't think I've seen anything that shocking in a 15-rated film - with the exception of the shooting in Speed. Judging by the number of small, shadowy beings who raced out of the cinema during the film, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. [But maybe it was just one being with a stomach upset and a ring of invisibility].

To be fair, however, I must confess that I fell asleep during the film. Although it seemed like only thirty seconds or so it must have been much longer because I completely missed one of the most important stages of the story, The Scouring of the Shire...

I'm afraid I don't agree with this critique at all. As a second generation Tolkien Nerd, I simply didn't notice any of these shortcomings - I thought that the film was as good as anybody could expect, given that it was very expensive and therefore has to appeal to a broad section of the public.

I saw this last night and thought it was brilliant. In many ways the Two Towers was a dissapointment for me after the first film, it just wasn't fantastical enough. However this ROTK is superb and probably the best of the three.

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I'll watch the movie again because I'm a nerdy Tolkien fan, and I'm glad it was made, but in many ways it's a pretty duff film.

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I'd struggle to seee how these three films could have been done much better. Ok, I might change a few small things here and there, but overall superbly done (IMO).

I agree that the Denethor character was somewhat underdeveloped, but some things have to give i guess. I would also like to have seen the scouring of the shire, and without this the film might as well have finished with the rescue of Frodo and Sam.