Friday, May 28, 2004
The Lord of the Rings franchise has been one of the most successful series of movies in history. I am not a LOTR fanatic like some people that I know but I have a healthy respect for the movies and own all three. I just recently bought and watched for the first time Return of the King, the last installment in the trilogy. First of all, it's very hard for anyone to see this movie not having seen the previous two movies, because the movie starts right in the middle of the story. I believe that the movie can stand to have a 5 minute recap at the beginning to remind people of what is going on. I had to go back and watch the last 20 minutes of The Two Towers to refresh my memory before I started watching Return of the King.
The movie is very well-made, and does a good job of wrapping up all the requisite storylines. It does have some inconsistencies with the book, especially in chronology. The story of Shelob's Lair, for example, is near the end of the second book, but does not appear until halfway through the THIRD movie! Some sections are also removed from the book for the movie, like Saruman's scouring of the Shire at the end, but I agree with this because it is probably removed because of time constraints. The movie is already over three hours long.
I did enjoy the special effects at some parts of the movie. The battle at Minas Tirith was very impressive, including several camera shots of rocks being catapulted and men falling great distances. There was also a sequence where Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was climbing up an elephant, hanging on for dear life, and slaying about 6 people with arrows at the same time, which was very well represented visually. I got a little tired of some of the sequences of Gollum, Sam, and Frodo, especially near the 1 hour mark of the movie, but they improved by the end. Yes, the 50 different endings was a bit much, and I thought the very last scene with Sam returning to the Shire with Frodo's voiceover was not at all necessary, but you have to keep in mind that in the book the extended coda is even longer! It came across to the audience though as almost Peter Jackson saying "Hey we're having a lot of fun with this, so we might as well keep shooting and adding more scenes!"
Overall, I did enjoy this movie and found it a fitting end to the trilogy. I still believe that the first movie is the best in the trilogy, but this movie comes in second. I am relieved, though, that the series is over, because each one of the movies has been long and exhausting.
Scott's Rating:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: 3.5 stars
The movie is very well-made, and does a good job of wrapping up all the requisite storylines. It does have some inconsistencies with the book, especially in chronology. The story of Shelob's Lair, for example, is near the end of the second book, but does not appear until halfway through the THIRD movie! Some sections are also removed from the book for the movie, like Saruman's scouring of the Shire at the end, but I agree with this because it is probably removed because of time constraints. The movie is already over three hours long.
I did enjoy the special effects at some parts of the movie. The battle at Minas Tirith was very impressive, including several camera shots of rocks being catapulted and men falling great distances. There was also a sequence where Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was climbing up an elephant, hanging on for dear life, and slaying about 6 people with arrows at the same time, which was very well represented visually. I got a little tired of some of the sequences of Gollum, Sam, and Frodo, especially near the 1 hour mark of the movie, but they improved by the end. Yes, the 50 different endings was a bit much, and I thought the very last scene with Sam returning to the Shire with Frodo's voiceover was not at all necessary, but you have to keep in mind that in the book the extended coda is even longer! It came across to the audience though as almost Peter Jackson saying "Hey we're having a lot of fun with this, so we might as well keep shooting and adding more scenes!"
Overall, I did enjoy this movie and found it a fitting end to the trilogy. I still believe that the first movie is the best in the trilogy, but this movie comes in second. I am relieved, though, that the series is over, because each one of the movies has been long and exhausting.
Scott's Rating:
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: 3.5 stars
