ROTK review...
Dec. 29th, 2003 04:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsarisWell here's my ROTK review... Or perhaps more like "random commentary about aspects of the movie that seriously irked me". Ended up a bit more bitter and rambling than I had first intended.
Heavy SPOILERS for both movie and books to follow:
So that I can start with something positive let me first mention the bit I best liked.
Best scene in the movie:
Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) the one scene that affected me most was one that wasn't in the book at all: Arwen's vision of Eldarion.
The way it starts so casually that you'd not even know it was a vision until it slowly builds to something that is undeniably so before it disappears. Or the way that Eldarion looks at his mother across time and space -- it's as if he's saying "You won't deny me *existence*, will you?" I'd like to think that in the future of the movieverse, kid-Eldarion does have the equivalent glimpse into the past.
This one was absolutely beautiful.
But alas it was about the only scene that made me feel anything in the movie...
General opinion:
This movie is... nothing. It took up what was probably for me the most meaningful book with the most fascinating scenes in the entire story and snipped all the important bits and added foolish inventions of its own, and managed to weaken *every* dramatic scene, and it ends up being nothing but an action movie, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
Cool scenery though. And yeah, I liked the scene with Pippin's song. And the bit with Arwen I mentioned above. And that's pretty much the whole of it.
Eowyn:
All the most important characters (Eowyn, Denethor, Saruman if we see this as a partial adaptation of TT as well) are cut. There's no Eowyn -- there's nothing about the pathological desire for death that signified Eowyn of the books, the one that says she'd *prefer* to have had glory-in-death like Theoden had, instead of the glory-in-life she had already earned.
Weirdly enough this movie-Eowyn also seems to feel the need to hide her desire to go to war altogether, she only argues for Merry's right to go. Sure, we all understand it refers to her as well, but what's the deal here? In the book she isn't afraid of defending her *own* right as a woman to go to war.
And it's also significant that in the book Aragorn doesn't reject her plea because of her gender but because she had already accepted another responsibility from which Aragorn didn't have the right to release her.
****
If PJ's alteration was supposed to indicate subtlety or something, it indicated weakness instead to me -- a woman who because her advocacy for Merry (an untrained half-size warrior) is rejected, doesn't dare advocate for her own self, even though she is ten times more competent in this than Merry could ever be.
Other than that - some people would call it a loss that we don't see her then get together with Faramir, as she did in the books -- they would also say that this will be partly remedied in the DVD extended edition. But truthfully I see nothing in movie-Eowyn's character that would make such a getting together with Faramir meaningful. Book-Eowyn was diseased in the spirit -- she was fading away in despair even after Aragorn had healed her body. Her own "love" for Aragorn was a false thing born out of that despair -- the desire that a foreign king takes her and elevates her above what she considered the meagre station in life she considered hers, above "the mean things that crawl".
In that situation, Faramir takes the role of healer. Because he's a noble man who however *doesn't* love war and definitely doesn't love death, and doesn't even love *glory* as a good thing by itself- he loves only the things that are worth defending. He loves life instead. And so does Eowyn after she falls in love with *him*.
Movie-Eowyn doesn't hold that same sickness in her soul. Her "love" for Aragorn is unrelated to any desire for glory and seems a quite healthy love on its own. Her death-wish isn't there at all. So any relationship with Faramir would probably be mostly meaningless, because the healing aspect wouldn't be involved.
Speaking of healing.
Aragorn:
Elessar, the Elfstone. Envinyatar, the Renewer.
In the movies he's a man who becomes a king by accepting the symbol of his sword -- and who reveals himself a king by bringing up an army of undead monsters to save Minas Tirith. In the theatrical version atleast, we can assume that his people accept him a king for those same reasons.
In the books however, "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer" and the moment Aragorn is revealed as a king, rather than as just another commander in war, is when he starts *healing* people. And his people *then* recognize him as a king.
****
But all the themes of healing are gone from the movie world -- alongside the healing of Eowyn by Faramir, so is the healing of the Shire as the last gift Galadriel had to bestow, and ofcourse the Houses of Healing sequence. So is the renewal of the White Tree.
For that matter so is the confrontation in wills between Aragorn and Sauron, through the Palantir. With the removal of that last bit, Aragorn's kingship becomes pretty much entirely meaningless in the movie. He became king, but why? Because he could kill people more efficiently than others could? Harumph, and harumph again.
"To heal, not to hack." if I can quote from the movie 'Excalibur'. Another theme of the book lost in its entirety...
Also, movie-Aragorn started to talk like a politician once he got the crown. Very ugly. For a moment I was worried PJ would go dystopian on us. The bowing to the hobbits helped ameliorate (sp?) the feeling, though, I admit.
Frodo:
Someone should tell PJ that the ring *doesn't* make you BLOODY STUPID. A paranoid-about-the-Ring Frodo would be just as concerned about Gollum's own *known* desire to get the ring rather than Sam's uncertain one. The same way that Feanor recognized Morgoth's lust for the Silmarils when he went paranoid. This is just *ugh*.
In the book it's Sam's and Gollum's *misconception* of Frodo that makes them think that Frodo's kindness involves naivete -- an idea which is flat-out wrong, as Frodo reveals himself even harsher than Sam when rebuking Gollum.
In PJ's moral universe however it seems that kindness *is* naivete. IIRC, we don't even get the "let's forgive Gollum, because the ring wouldn't have been destroyed were it not for him" speech. Whatever.
And it seems that his lingering injuries are so small that four years after the story the only thing they produce is a slight twinge of pain. So slight that Sam after four years didn't even know that Frodo had any such problem. *That's* a reason to leave Middle-earth??
And ofcourse the prophet-like qualities of Frodo also aren't anywhere to be found...
This is altogether yet more weakening of characters.
Denethor:
His first scene was quite good enough. Gandalf assuming he knows nothing about either Boromir or Aragorn -- Denethor grimly showing how much Gandalf has underestimated him, that his sight reaches further than Gandalf believed. That was indeed quite cool.
I can't say anything about the rest of him that hasn't been said more than enough times already. The Book-Denethor who could match wills with Gandalf and the Dark Lord himself through the palantir, diminished to nothing but a cruel and stupid leader who manages to run half a mile before he falls to his burning death.
They should add a sport in the Olympics where athletes compete while covered in flames. It'd be quite popular, I think. *I'd* pay a ticket to see it, definitely.
Harumph.
The Dead:
PJ... in horror, less is more. Please do remember that. We've already seen Pirates of the Caribbeans, couldn't you have tried to have shown us some Tolkien instead? The grim, silent shadowy figures which never speak but once?
No, I guess you couldn't. Subtlety isn't the best of your points.
Scouring and Finale in general:
People say that it couldn't be added. That it'd be anticlimactic.
Dude. More anticlimactic than PJ spending several seconds blacking out the screen then lighting it back up? *Jeez* I'm *almost* starting to think that he was doing that awful thing in purpose, so that people would bitterly complain about the anti-climactic-ness of the ending, and so that his supporters can say "See? See? If *this* was anticlimactic, how much worse if we had to add the Scouring as well."
Well, I disagree. I think that the Scouring could be included without making the ending more anticlimactic than PJ already succeeded in doing with the various black-outs.
I'm halfway through writing a small script treatment of how I think the Scouring could have been done half-way decently. Will be sure to post it also when I've done it...
Scenery:
Minas Tirith was exactly as I imagined her. Kudos, kudos, kudos a thousand times to the artists. Their work has been the one unfailingly good item in the whole film trilogy. Can't say enough good things about this, so I'll just stop.
-----------------------
Anyway my ratings -- concerning the theatrical releases alone:
FOTR
As a movie: 8
As an adaptation: 8.5
TT
As a movie: 7.5
As an adaptation: 6.5
ROTK
As a movie: 6
As an adaptation: 4.5.
In all respects, I therefore think ROTK to be the worst of the 3
movies.
Cheers.
Heavy SPOILERS for both movie and books to follow:
So that I can start with something positive let me first mention the bit I best liked.
Best scene in the movie:
Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) the one scene that affected me most was one that wasn't in the book at all: Arwen's vision of Eldarion.
The way it starts so casually that you'd not even know it was a vision until it slowly builds to something that is undeniably so before it disappears. Or the way that Eldarion looks at his mother across time and space -- it's as if he's saying "You won't deny me *existence*, will you?" I'd like to think that in the future of the movieverse, kid-Eldarion does have the equivalent glimpse into the past.
This one was absolutely beautiful.
But alas it was about the only scene that made me feel anything in the movie...
General opinion:
This movie is... nothing. It took up what was probably for me the most meaningful book with the most fascinating scenes in the entire story and snipped all the important bits and added foolish inventions of its own, and managed to weaken *every* dramatic scene, and it ends up being nothing but an action movie, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
Cool scenery though. And yeah, I liked the scene with Pippin's song. And the bit with Arwen I mentioned above. And that's pretty much the whole of it.
Eowyn:
All the most important characters (Eowyn, Denethor, Saruman if we see this as a partial adaptation of TT as well) are cut. There's no Eowyn -- there's nothing about the pathological desire for death that signified Eowyn of the books, the one that says she'd *prefer* to have had glory-in-death like Theoden had, instead of the glory-in-life she had already earned.
Weirdly enough this movie-Eowyn also seems to feel the need to hide her desire to go to war altogether, she only argues for Merry's right to go. Sure, we all understand it refers to her as well, but what's the deal here? In the book she isn't afraid of defending her *own* right as a woman to go to war.
And it's also significant that in the book Aragorn doesn't reject her plea because of her gender but because she had already accepted another responsibility from which Aragorn didn't have the right to release her.
****
'Lord.' she said, 'if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills, and wish to face peril and battle.'****
'Your duty is with your people,' [Aragorn] answered.
'Too often have I heard of duty,' she cried. 'But am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?'
'Few may do that with honour,' he answered. 'But as for you, lady: did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return? If you had not been chosen, then some marshal or captain would have been set in the same place, and he could not ride away from his charge, were he weary of it or no.'
'Shall I always be chosen?' she said bitterly. 'Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?'
'A time may come soon,' said he, 'when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.'
And she answered: 'All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.'
If PJ's alteration was supposed to indicate subtlety or something, it indicated weakness instead to me -- a woman who because her advocacy for Merry (an untrained half-size warrior) is rejected, doesn't dare advocate for her own self, even though she is ten times more competent in this than Merry could ever be.
Other than that - some people would call it a loss that we don't see her then get together with Faramir, as she did in the books -- they would also say that this will be partly remedied in the DVD extended edition. But truthfully I see nothing in movie-Eowyn's character that would make such a getting together with Faramir meaningful. Book-Eowyn was diseased in the spirit -- she was fading away in despair even after Aragorn had healed her body. Her own "love" for Aragorn was a false thing born out of that despair -- the desire that a foreign king takes her and elevates her above what she considered the meagre station in life she considered hers, above "the mean things that crawl".
In that situation, Faramir takes the role of healer. Because he's a noble man who however *doesn't* love war and definitely doesn't love death, and doesn't even love *glory* as a good thing by itself- he loves only the things that are worth defending. He loves life instead. And so does Eowyn after she falls in love with *him*.
Movie-Eowyn doesn't hold that same sickness in her soul. Her "love" for Aragorn is unrelated to any desire for glory and seems a quite healthy love on its own. Her death-wish isn't there at all. So any relationship with Faramir would probably be mostly meaningless, because the healing aspect wouldn't be involved.
Speaking of healing.
Aragorn:
Elessar, the Elfstone. Envinyatar, the Renewer.
In the movies he's a man who becomes a king by accepting the symbol of his sword -- and who reveals himself a king by bringing up an army of undead monsters to save Minas Tirith. In the theatrical version atleast, we can assume that his people accept him a king for those same reasons.
In the books however, "the hands of the king are the hands of a healer" and the moment Aragorn is revealed as a king, rather than as just another commander in war, is when he starts *healing* people. And his people *then* recognize him as a king.
****
and when at last he had supped, men came and prayed that he would heal their kinsmen or their friends whose lives were in peril through hurt or wound, or who lay under the Black Shadow. And Aragorn arose and went out, and he sent for the sons of Elrond, and together they laboured far into the night. And word went through the City: 'The King is come again indeed.' And they named him Elfstone, because of the green stone that he wore, and so the name which it was foretold at his birth that he should bear was chosen for him by his own people.****
But all the themes of healing are gone from the movie world -- alongside the healing of Eowyn by Faramir, so is the healing of the Shire as the last gift Galadriel had to bestow, and ofcourse the Houses of Healing sequence. So is the renewal of the White Tree.
For that matter so is the confrontation in wills between Aragorn and Sauron, through the Palantir. With the removal of that last bit, Aragorn's kingship becomes pretty much entirely meaningless in the movie. He became king, but why? Because he could kill people more efficiently than others could? Harumph, and harumph again.
"To heal, not to hack." if I can quote from the movie 'Excalibur'. Another theme of the book lost in its entirety...
Also, movie-Aragorn started to talk like a politician once he got the crown. Very ugly. For a moment I was worried PJ would go dystopian on us. The bowing to the hobbits helped ameliorate (sp?) the feeling, though, I admit.
Frodo:
Someone should tell PJ that the ring *doesn't* make you BLOODY STUPID. A paranoid-about-the-Ring Frodo would be just as concerned about Gollum's own *known* desire to get the ring rather than Sam's uncertain one. The same way that Feanor recognized Morgoth's lust for the Silmarils when he went paranoid. This is just *ugh*.
In the book it's Sam's and Gollum's *misconception* of Frodo that makes them think that Frodo's kindness involves naivete -- an idea which is flat-out wrong, as Frodo reveals himself even harsher than Sam when rebuking Gollum.
In PJ's moral universe however it seems that kindness *is* naivete. IIRC, we don't even get the "let's forgive Gollum, because the ring wouldn't have been destroyed were it not for him" speech. Whatever.
And it seems that his lingering injuries are so small that four years after the story the only thing they produce is a slight twinge of pain. So slight that Sam after four years didn't even know that Frodo had any such problem. *That's* a reason to leave Middle-earth??
And ofcourse the prophet-like qualities of Frodo also aren't anywhere to be found...
This is altogether yet more weakening of characters.
Denethor:
His first scene was quite good enough. Gandalf assuming he knows nothing about either Boromir or Aragorn -- Denethor grimly showing how much Gandalf has underestimated him, that his sight reaches further than Gandalf believed. That was indeed quite cool.
I can't say anything about the rest of him that hasn't been said more than enough times already. The Book-Denethor who could match wills with Gandalf and the Dark Lord himself through the palantir, diminished to nothing but a cruel and stupid leader who manages to run half a mile before he falls to his burning death.
They should add a sport in the Olympics where athletes compete while covered in flames. It'd be quite popular, I think. *I'd* pay a ticket to see it, definitely.
Harumph.
The Dead:
PJ... in horror, less is more. Please do remember that. We've already seen Pirates of the Caribbeans, couldn't you have tried to have shown us some Tolkien instead? The grim, silent shadowy figures which never speak but once?
No, I guess you couldn't. Subtlety isn't the best of your points.
Scouring and Finale in general:
People say that it couldn't be added. That it'd be anticlimactic.
Dude. More anticlimactic than PJ spending several seconds blacking out the screen then lighting it back up? *Jeez* I'm *almost* starting to think that he was doing that awful thing in purpose, so that people would bitterly complain about the anti-climactic-ness of the ending, and so that his supporters can say "See? See? If *this* was anticlimactic, how much worse if we had to add the Scouring as well."
Well, I disagree. I think that the Scouring could be included without making the ending more anticlimactic than PJ already succeeded in doing with the various black-outs.
I'm halfway through writing a small script treatment of how I think the Scouring could have been done half-way decently. Will be sure to post it also when I've done it...
Scenery:
Minas Tirith was exactly as I imagined her. Kudos, kudos, kudos a thousand times to the artists. Their work has been the one unfailingly good item in the whole film trilogy. Can't say enough good things about this, so I'll just stop.
-----------------------
Anyway my ratings -- concerning the theatrical releases alone:
FOTR
As a movie: 8
As an adaptation: 8.5
TT
As a movie: 7.5
As an adaptation: 6.5
ROTK
As a movie: 6
As an adaptation: 4.5.
In all respects, I therefore think ROTK to be the worst of the 3
movies.
Cheers.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-29 07:11 am (UTC)Just destroy the whole themes of the book, why don't you, Jackson...
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-29 02:20 pm (UTC)It was the work of a true artist....
..ok this is meant to be funny
Date: 2003-12-29 10:55 pm (UTC)1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, "Wait... where the hell is Harry Potter?"
2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
3. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says: "The Ring."
4. Point and laugh whenever someone dies.
5. Ask everyone around you if they think Gandalf went to Hogwarts.
6. Finish off every one of Elrond's lines with "Mr. Anderson."
7. When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing, "And I did it.... MY way...!"
8. Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone's finger and fall down the stairs.
9. Dress up as old ladies and reenact "The Battle of Helms Deep" Monty Python style.
10. When Denethor lights the fire, shout "Barbecue!"
11. Every time Elrond appears, shout out (in your best 'Dobby' voice) "Clothes! Master gave Elrond Clothes!"
12. In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout "RUN FOREST, RUN!"
13. Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: "That's what I'm Tolkien about!" See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre.
14. During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, "Where's Waldo?"
15. Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.
16. Start an Orc sing-a-long.
17. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.
18. When they go in the paths of the dead, wait for tense moment and shout, "I see dead people!"
19. Imitate what you think a conversation between Gollum, Dobby and Yoda would be like.
20. Release a jar of daddy-long-leg spiders into the theater during the Shelob scene.
21. Wonder out loud if Aragorn is going to run for governor of California. (hahaha)
22. When Shelob comes on, exclaim, "Man! Charlotte's really let herself go!"
24. After the movie, say "Lucas could have done it better."
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-30 09:14 am (UTC)My reply was something to the point of: "Dude, we were *all* reminded of Pirates of the Caribbean in that scene."
Am glad you liked the ramble.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-30 09:16 am (UTC)The only place that slightly disappointed me was Lothlorien in the first movie -- way too dark and gloomy in the theatrical release: this is however "corrected" in the Extended Edition, where scenes showing the beauty and light of Lothlorien are restored...
Re: ..ok this is meant to be funny
Date: 2003-12-30 09:22 am (UTC)The version I'd seen had a couple more elements:
Re: ..ok this is meant to be funny
Date: 2003-12-30 11:19 am (UTC)I was actually tempted...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-03 11:28 am (UTC)On the other hand, I would point out that given how long ago they were filming all the bits of this (all three at once, right? so, four or five years ago? I know I looked at a bunch of already-filmed images with a former co-worker with whom I quit working June of 2000) it might be just a tiny bit unfair to complain that we've all seen better dead in Pirates. You know?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-03 03:38 pm (UTC)And in addition to your very comprehensive list of failings of the movie, I will add 1 more thing. Saruman. Left behind to be guarded by a bunch of gnarly trees. What the hell? Where was the resolution in that whole situation?
No wonder Christopher Lee was so angry over that whole ordeal.
And have you read this wonderful rant on the movie by Anna Milton? She'll do a more comprehensive article on it later as well:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/annamilton/37850.html
BTW mind if I friend you? Though if you do let me, you should realize I'll barge into your LJ all the time, making silly observations and comments... ::grin::
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-03 04:52 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if Lee was angry or just disappointed -- and who wouldn't be disappointed...
"BTW mind if I friend you? Though if you do let me, you should realize I'll barge into your LJ all the time, making silly observations and comments... ::grin::"
*g* I don't mind at all! And I assure you, I'll more than enjoy having you barge in my LJ. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-04 12:35 am (UTC)And after a while, I got tired of all the special effects. With all those computer graphics, they might as well have made it a cartoon. Like that Final Fantasy movie. I would love to see something like that.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-04 06:14 pm (UTC)But I *can* blame him for not making it similar *enough* to *Tolkien's* Army of the Dead. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-04 06:23 pm (UTC)Which is why I no longer accept excuses of time-constraints when fans of the movie talk about the need to remove elements of the books. Nope, nope, Jackson abandoned that excuse when he started adding further actions element...
Anyway, here's to the next LOTR adaptation, hoping it will be greatly better than this one -- though we'll probably both be grandparents by the time it comes around. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-07 05:52 pm (UTC)Your review of ROTK
Date: 2004-01-12 08:12 pm (UTC)While the city of Minas Tirith looked cool, it stuck up like a sore thumb from the surrounding landscape. The Pellenor fields, the land before the city, was "rich with farmsteads", etc., yet as far as I can recall from the movie, there wasn't even a road leading to it.
But the scene of Gandalf riding Shadowfax up from the gate to the Citadel was nifty.
And why, why, why did the walls crumble like cheese when hit with Orc-flung stuff? I thought the walls of Minas Tirith were like the walls of Orthanc.
I hated seeing Aragorn kneel to all four Hobbits, standing there in their old Shire clothes. (At least Merry and Pippin would have been wearing their liveries of Rohan and Gondor, don't you think?) But evidently PJ didn't think that Frodo and Sam had done anything worth being honoured for. What the hell was Aragorn kneeling for? Enquiring minds want to know.
I thought Aragorn's singing was WONDERFUL, the one "high" moment in that whole wretched movie. Unlike you, I hated the scene with Arwen seeing the child, I hated nearly everything to do with Arwen in that movie, although Liv Tyler is lovely, etc. But why go on? It grows tedious, and it grows late, too.
But Pippin's song, although Pippin was great, the business with the red juice running down Denethor's chin.....tell me, was there a cliche these people didn't use? Even one?
The look of the thing was terrific, as I said in my review, and I was taken with the feel of the whole thing, somehow it wasn't as bad as it seemed, if you follow me. The whole, somehow, was greater than the sum of its parts.
I truly enjoyed your comments about my review, and I truly enjoyed reading your review, as well.
As for the Scouring, well, again, you are right. You are mostly right, although I do disagree with the odd thing. Like, maybe a comma, where I would have put a semicolon.
I wonder if I might inflict upon you an essay I wrote about Eowyn and Faramir? No, no, don't worry, I haven't included it here, but if you would like to read it, I'll send it along.
Keep up the good work. It's good to read a review on a fan website that is not by an illiterate 14 year old.
Here is my email address, if you care to respond:
sheilaengh@shaw.ca
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-21 02:06 pm (UTC)I only just discovered your RoTK-review. The whole subject may well have left your mind a long time ago ;-) - but I can't help myself and just have to express my sincere thanks on your wonderful Movie!RotK-rant.
"Someone should tell PJ that the ring *doesn't* make you BLOODY STUPID."
***AMEN to this!!!***
It was the Endless Downsizing of Frodo's Character that hurt me most, but I agree more or less with all your points. I really wonder why so many people were *blind* for all the blatant mistakes in the movies. I tell you, it still *HURTS*.