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January 08, 2004
Lord of the Rings - Return of the King
*** warning - there will be spoilers, so if you don't want to know what happens, don't read.
where to begin? i had eagerly awaited this movie since the end credits rolled of the two towers. i would have been at the theater tuesday at midnight had i not been on call for work. so wednesday evening, i bought tickets and we went to see it.
wow
i had heard that critics said it was not as good as the other two. i have to disagree. i thought it was wonderful. the cinematography was again amazing. i have to go to new zealand and see if it is truly as beautiful as it appears in the movie. the effects were superbly done again. they were not overdone, which can take away from a movie. they added just what was needed to make everything believable. but neither of those elements is what made this movie.
what made this movie was the people in it and their relationships with each other. for some reason, those came across more to me in this movie than in the other two. (and it wasn't because i wasn't swooning. i absolutely was. i kept trying to 'touch the pretty elf' until darren smacked my hand down) from merry and pippin's parting with each other to sam and frodo on mount doom in mordor; from aragorn and eowyn in rohan to legolas and gimli on the final battlefield; from theoden and eowyn saying goodbye to faramir's exchanges with his father; it was these moments of human interaction that made this movie. not the grand sweeping scenery. not the amazing sfx. not the gorgeous men (although they were nice too). the characters were real. you felt their pain. you felt their joy.
i cried like a baby for the ten minutes leading up to when theoden dies. i cried again during the last battle (not pelennor fields, the one outside the black gate). i cried again when frodo leaves with gandalf, bilbo and the elves to take the straight road west across the sea. darren just sat there and shook his head at me.
there are a few things that i wanted to point out, comparing this yet again to my other favorite trilogy - yes, star wars. first, the name struck me - 'return of the jedi' vs 'return of the king'. i believe lucas admitted to being a fan. which would also explain why alderaan means 'lord of the trees' in elvish (spelled aldaron) and why endor means 'middle-earth'. also, darren insists that in the battle of pelennor fields the huge oliphants were a shout-out to the at-ats in empire strikes back. i'm not so sure about that, but i swear, the scene where theoden dies, and eowyn tells him she must save him and he says she already has, i swear i've seen that before somewhere. where was that? ah yes - return of the jedi. i think whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally, it was a nice shout-back to star wars. what i mean by shout-back is that lucas had many shout-outs to tolkien in his movies. this was just a return of the favor.
i was glad to see that they didn't end the movie once aragorn was crowned. i think i was the only one in the theater who felt this way. if they had given me a potty break, i could have stayed for another 3 hours to see the return voyage, the scouring of the shire, and the rest of the book that had to be cut to make the movie marketable. i also would have liked to see more than just a glance between eowyn and faramir. i think some people felt it dragged after the coronation, and i don't think there was any way to keep it from being anti-climatic. i think they took it just far enough, for a movie anyway, by showing bilbo, frodo, gandalf & company crossing the sea and sam returning home. i am always hopeful for extended and additional scenes in the dvd, but i don't think people would have stayed in the movies much longer than they did.
all in all, i think it was an entertaining movie whether you are a tolkien fan or not. i'm not sure if it would make sense to someone not seeing the first two, but they are a worthwhile investment of time as well.
so i am going to start out this new year dating and rating. (no, not men - my movies). i will date the review and rate the movie on a scale of 0-10 stars. this movie, my first review of the new year even though i saw it last year, i give a 9 out of 10. (i would have given the two towers 9 1/2 out of 10 and fellowship 9/10, just for reference) i have yet to see a movie that is 10/10 - nothing is perfect, but these sure come close.
Posted by Terri at January 8, 2004 10:31 AM