Post by ShonenSenshiDave on Dec 20, 2003 7:57:07 GMT -5
Did anyone else actually see this yet? And what did you think?
Saw it last night, Arryk, my partner, has been waiting forever to see it. What a letdown. Not on the magnitude of, say, Matrix: Revolutions, but a letdown nonetheless.
My main beef was that it seemed very choppy. I still haven't decided whether it is bad film editing, a poorly done script, or the fact that certain things were cut from the movie. There was just this awful sense of "did I fall asleep and miss something?" by the time the film was over.
Some of the stuntwork was just silly. And some of the lines as well. Ok, the whole "I can kill more orcs than you" competition between Gimli and Legolas was cute in the second installment. It fell flat in this one, mainly because the films made Gimli out to be comedy relief, which he is not. And what the phk with the elephant and Legolas?!? That was just over the top.
And worst of all, it dragged. The last hour was pure torture. I'm sure it worled well on paper, but not in the movie. Maybe I was just frustrated at that point, maybe I was sick of the cast and the film itself, I don't know. But I kept thinking "Please destroy that damn ring. And do it now. So the movie can end. And now that the ring is destroyed, can Aragorn become king so everyone can live happily ever after?!?"
And what the hell was Peter thinking when he chopped out Christopher Lee's scenes? First off, another great actor in a cast of great actors. Secondly, the second film ended with the Battle at Eisengard, and then we get 5 minutes of "Sauruman is trapped within his tower to be forever guarded by Treebeard and the Ents". Uhhh... aside from the fact that Sauruman actually got his butt kicked at the end of the third book, after attacking the Shire, please explain to me how you can take was was one of the most important parts of part 2, important enough to end the freakin film, I might add, and toss it out the window in part 3? Please? I haven't heard a reasonable answer yet!
Were there good things about it? Of course, 99% of the acting was well above most major picture releases; Viggo, Orlando, Ian, Elijah, and the rest did a great job. It's obvious that (a) this film took a long time to do, and (b) that there was an obvious comraderie and chemistry among the players that certainly made it to the screen. Nothing ever felt forced; these actors were the Fellowship, IMO.
Most of the cinematography was brilliant. Peter Jackson put together a film which was visually stunning, the CGI never looked cheesy or out-of-place, and everything looked "right", if you know what I mean.
Guess my beef is the editing and story/script. Maybe the first two films should have been longer. Maybe this one should have been longer. But there was something very much off about RoTK; it was not in the same class as the first two, IMO. Which is disappointing.
Saw it last night, Arryk, my partner, has been waiting forever to see it. What a letdown. Not on the magnitude of, say, Matrix: Revolutions, but a letdown nonetheless.
My main beef was that it seemed very choppy. I still haven't decided whether it is bad film editing, a poorly done script, or the fact that certain things were cut from the movie. There was just this awful sense of "did I fall asleep and miss something?" by the time the film was over.
Some of the stuntwork was just silly. And some of the lines as well. Ok, the whole "I can kill more orcs than you" competition between Gimli and Legolas was cute in the second installment. It fell flat in this one, mainly because the films made Gimli out to be comedy relief, which he is not. And what the phk with the elephant and Legolas?!? That was just over the top.
And worst of all, it dragged. The last hour was pure torture. I'm sure it worled well on paper, but not in the movie. Maybe I was just frustrated at that point, maybe I was sick of the cast and the film itself, I don't know. But I kept thinking "Please destroy that damn ring. And do it now. So the movie can end. And now that the ring is destroyed, can Aragorn become king so everyone can live happily ever after?!?"
And what the hell was Peter thinking when he chopped out Christopher Lee's scenes? First off, another great actor in a cast of great actors. Secondly, the second film ended with the Battle at Eisengard, and then we get 5 minutes of "Sauruman is trapped within his tower to be forever guarded by Treebeard and the Ents". Uhhh... aside from the fact that Sauruman actually got his butt kicked at the end of the third book, after attacking the Shire, please explain to me how you can take was was one of the most important parts of part 2, important enough to end the freakin film, I might add, and toss it out the window in part 3? Please? I haven't heard a reasonable answer yet!
Were there good things about it? Of course, 99% of the acting was well above most major picture releases; Viggo, Orlando, Ian, Elijah, and the rest did a great job. It's obvious that (a) this film took a long time to do, and (b) that there was an obvious comraderie and chemistry among the players that certainly made it to the screen. Nothing ever felt forced; these actors were the Fellowship, IMO.
Most of the cinematography was brilliant. Peter Jackson put together a film which was visually stunning, the CGI never looked cheesy or out-of-place, and everything looked "right", if you know what I mean.
Guess my beef is the editing and story/script. Maybe the first two films should have been longer. Maybe this one should have been longer. But there was something very much off about RoTK; it was not in the same class as the first two, IMO. Which is disappointing.
) For some reason I liked the lighting of the beacons immensely. It really gave me the impression that Gondor was more than just Minas Tirath, and that the war against Mordor needed everyone to be together. The destruction of the ring was just as I had imagined it, except for the whole thing about it not falling into the lava until Frodo gave up on getting it back, but I guess I can forgive them that. The spider was just awesome. I was shrinking back into my seat as she was walking on the rocks above the unsuspecting hobbit. I think, on the whole, that it was an excelent trillogy.
