Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

[gregslagel]

Hey! Sweet!
I, too, was underwhelmed. You're the first person I've heard say that, though. I've heard stories from friends whose whole group Cried through the end scenes. I've had everyone tell me it was the best of the series and that all they want is more more more special edition. Even my hardcore-knows-elvish-grew-up-reading-Simarilian friend had no complaints. And he did a lot of moaning the last 2 years...
It was good. I enjoyed it very much. It ran its logical course. But I think I enjoyed the first 2 more.
Some scenes seemed very rushed. And, after the battle for Minas Tirith... it felt sort of Over. The epic quality of that battle sort of dwarfed everything that came after for me. And it seemed like they arrived at the Black Gates way too quickly, though I don't know how you would have stretched that out...
Maybe, by the end, it all felt kind of rhythmic; I don't know. Aragorn started making his final Troop Rallying speech and it sort of felt like I'd heard it all before, 2 or 3 times, in the last couple hours.
But for the most part, things were done Right. It was as good as the predecessors.

[ThePickleMan]

I wouldn't say I was underwhelemed, as much as I think for RotK, it will improve the most of the three when the EE comes out. RotK suffers from "don't want it too long" syndrome. Sure, it runs about 3:10, and then credits, but the Siege of Gondor, and The Battle of Pelennor Fields should have gone on longer. About 20 minutes longer. Siege of Gondor was good, but The Battle of Pelennor fields ended about 20 minutes too early, although the best parts are still there.

This also takes some peopels favorite parts of RotK out, and will leave them to the EE.

Overall though, i'd place it above TTT, but below FotR. RotK is a great end to a great masterpiece though.

[PoolMan]

Yeah, you're both feeling similar to me, it seems.

I really did love it. I did. No bones about it. But there was a rushed quality to it, and for a movie that clocks in that long, that's really, really weird.

And I think the "underwhelming" part is emotional... there's nothing wrong with the scope and spectacle of the movie, they're pretty much unequaled. But by the end, I found Aragorn to be a far less interesting and passionate character than at the start. That's really sticking with me for some reason.

But like I say, still loved it, and I'm going back in two days. You guys get out there and see it so we can start a spoiler thread. ;D

[druidGirl]

Could it possibly be that *I* am the one to be underwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but I think my favourite will probably remain Fellowship.

In the same boat with you. I liked it, but it didn't blow me away the way Fellowship did when I walked out of that theater. It just didn't give me that "movie high" I get from films I love to death. Though, I will wait until the EE before I make any final judgment.

I don't think it's the Best Picture of the Year, but I do think it should win since it's carrying the other two films with it into the Academy Awards. And Jackson deserves Best Director. I think there will be rioting in the streets if he doesn't get a naked gold man come March.

Well, I'll be rioting in the streets anyway.

[Head Mutant]

It's always interesting how people can see the same film and walk away with two almost polar opposite opinions. I loved it -- our whole group that went to see it just walked out the theater grinning and absolutely satisfied -- and while I'm not claiming any of the three to be my favorite, it's definitely the best film of the year, bar none. I really liked how Aragorn's character arc finally came to a head, and he struck me as my most favorite character in this particular section (I'd probably pick Gandalf from the first and Gimli from the second).

There were also moments of eye-candy that really had me gaping, of the likes since the first film (the second one was great, but no "wow" visual scopes that were achieved before and after).

I think once the dust settles and we get past this Christmas frenzy (and particularly when we get the DVD expanded edition next year), we'll finally be in a position to just enjoy the whole Lord of the Rings as one complete movie instead of sectioning it up as we do. To see a character's story from beginning to middle to end is always so much better than just the end of it, or just the middle. This is probably why Fellowship is the easiest to enjoy, narrative-wise, because you don't have to follow anything that happened before it started.

And to be fair to Jackson and co., they set the bar incredibly high from the start, which exceeded our expectations at that time, but then our expectations just kept growing from there to the insane point where there was nothing they could do to even match the immense wonder of our virgin LOTR experience.

So we'll see. I'm trying hard not to let other critics or the billions of fan voices sway my feelings on this one, because time will go on and I'll be left with a terrific movie to enjoy.

[druidGirl]

One small detain I really liked:

Highlight text to read
SPOILER I liked how once they got back to the Shire, Frodo was always paler than the other hobbits. He looks sick and tired. Sad as well. It makes the journey to the ships and Frodo's leaving make more sense, without having to have someone stand around and exposition "Hey, the Ring really messed up Frodo bad, and so did that stab wound. He should really go off with the Elves and Gandalf. END SPOILER Good job on being subtle. Subtle is nice.

But don't get me wrong about my above post. I think it was a great movie. And I know it's going to win. But it didn't hit me as emotionally as Fellowship did. I had tears for Gandalf (even though I knew he was coming back). I choked up again with the death of Boromir. And I almost lost it during the scene with Sam and Frodo in the boat.

There really wasn't that going on for me during King. I got a small lump in my throat a few times. But never the emotional impact Fellowship had. Which is why I think it's my favorite one so far (but again, I'm waiting for the EE before I decide for sure).

[Lissa]

I haven't seen it yet, but I doubt it's going to win. It's too good Of course, Chicago won last year and I loved it, but I'm kind of jaded. (Not that this will stop me from watching it!)

BTW- anyone seen the Golden Globe Nominations yet?

[Genetic Mishap]

I liked it. I have one complaint that comes to mind.

SPOILER
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The ending. Or rather, endingS.
I've never read the books or claim any allegience to Tolkien, so all the conclusions were anticlimatic for me. And the rest of the audience. Everyone in my audience seemed to love the movie up until all the conclusions. They were groaning and screaming "END!"But hey, it was 10:40 at night, we've got families to go home to.
I may not have minded so much, if they were all a little shorter. Slo mo 10 minute reaction shots of departing hobbits were kind of unecessary.

I liked the rest of it though. I could pretend to be a bona fide, honorable movie connoisseur and talk about the excellent acting and story, but quite frankly my favorite parts were all the monsters. I like monsters. Especially giant elephants that squish armies.

END SPOILER.

[PoolMan]

Heh... there WAS a lot of slow-mo hobbit action at the end, wasn't there? I swear, they even slow-mo'ed a couple of spoken lines and put the pitch back up, especially on Frodo.

[jenfrazer]

If there isn't one already, I'm going to start a spoiler thread so I can rant about the one thing that REALLY bugged me. (Hint: It regards Eowyn.) Otherwise, I agree with some people here that it was all very excellent, but not the whammy that Fellowship was, and that it was poorly paced.

[DocD83]

My room mate was telling me about how on one forum he goes to (about S-10 trucks...apparently that's enough to keep a forum running) had a poll asking what was the best movie trilogy. It had as options Star Wars, LotR, The Mighty Ducks, and so on. LotR got about 20 votes. The Mighty Ducks got three million.

Yet another reason I weep for humanity.