The Return of the King EE
Dec. 13th, 2004 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sally_mariaSo after spending about 11 hours watching all 3 extended editions on Saturday I'd better join the others with my take on the RotK EE.
I'm not going to go through the scenes in order - because I got no sleep at all on Saturday night and can't be that organised. So these are just my thoughts as they come to me.
I was glad to see the end of Saruman and it was much better than I was expecting. We got to see him using his Voice, and it gave a couple of good payoffs later in the film - lines we had already seen, but which now meant more. I loved that is was still Grima that killed him - the links with what really happened in the book were much closer than I was expecting. I'm really not sure why Legolas shot Grima, though. Just to give him something to do? I suppose the wheel was to show Saruman's technology finally causing his death, but I'm not sure it worked.
Back at Edoras we see the first of the pay-offs, a much better explanation as to why Theoden said that it wasn't him the men were following at Helm's Deep - he is still affected by the Voice.
And I have to stand up and say that I enjoyed the drinking game. I did find it funny, and also a way of showing the developing friendship between Legolas and Gimli - macho male-bonding maybe, but it worked for me.
I didn't like Eowyn's dream, though, it just seemed completely pointless - why was she stealing Faramir's dream? And without the context of it being the end of Numenor it lost a considerable amount of its power.
I liked Faramir standing up to Denethor about the Ring, though does seem as if many of the Extended Edition scenes redeem Faramir's character at the expense of Denethor's. And I loved Faramir's scene with Pippin, and the image of Faramir as a child who dreamed of dragons.
Since, as you've no doubt already gathered, I'm a big Faramir fan, I was also glad of his extra line before he rode out to Osgiliath - his willingness to die for Gondor, not just because his father doesn't respect him.
Switching back to Aragorn, I am really not sure about the extended Paths of the Dead. I loved Aragorn's reaction to the idea that the dead were not going to follow and the spooky ghostly hands were cool - but what was the point of all those skulls? What happened to the rest of the bodies and what percentage of the total population of Middle-earth were the 60,000 skulls?
Just too much.
I loved Merry's speech to Eowyn about just going to help his friends and also the earlier one to Aragorn about Piippin.
Eomer's grief for Eowyn was very moving and just before that we had Theoden's death speech which again linked to Isengard - the explanation as to why Theoden said that he would not feel ashamed to meet his ancestors.
Very clever script writing - it worked without the Isengard scene but meant so much more with it.
Fararmir and Eowyn - wonderful, just wonderful. There could have been more, but much as I love them, they aren't the main characters and I wouldn't have wanted them to have overshadowed other more significant storylines. And the hand-holding was just right, a better indication of the trust and feelings growing between them than a passionate kiss would have been. The film needed to show the basis of a life-long love, not just a temporary physical attraction, or a snatching at the "rebound guy", and that is what this scene did for me.
I'm really not sure about the Mouth of Sauron. He wasn't acting as a herald, but I really not sure what the point of Aragorn killing him was. It just seemed as if the writers couldn't think of another way of shutting him up. Still like Theoden, it gave more point to the "For Frodo" - something had obviously happened to him - even if Sauron hadn't got the Ring.
So, much better than I was afraid it was going to be - I really shouldn't pay too much attention to advance spoilers. Some strange choices but I really do not think that anyone else could have done it better.
The Lord of the Rings films have certainly not been perfect and there are things in each of them that could have been changed to make them more like my vision of the book. But they were obviously created with love and care and that for me covers a multitude of sins. When I think of how bad they could have been, I am very grateful that it was Peter Jackson and his team who pushed for the chance to make them.
In the end, they have brought a massive new audience to the book and that can only be a good thing.
I'm not going to go through the scenes in order - because I got no sleep at all on Saturday night and can't be that organised. So these are just my thoughts as they come to me.
I was glad to see the end of Saruman and it was much better than I was expecting. We got to see him using his Voice, and it gave a couple of good payoffs later in the film - lines we had already seen, but which now meant more. I loved that is was still Grima that killed him - the links with what really happened in the book were much closer than I was expecting. I'm really not sure why Legolas shot Grima, though. Just to give him something to do? I suppose the wheel was to show Saruman's technology finally causing his death, but I'm not sure it worked.
Back at Edoras we see the first of the pay-offs, a much better explanation as to why Theoden said that it wasn't him the men were following at Helm's Deep - he is still affected by the Voice.
And I have to stand up and say that I enjoyed the drinking game. I did find it funny, and also a way of showing the developing friendship between Legolas and Gimli - macho male-bonding maybe, but it worked for me.
I didn't like Eowyn's dream, though, it just seemed completely pointless - why was she stealing Faramir's dream? And without the context of it being the end of Numenor it lost a considerable amount of its power.
I liked Faramir standing up to Denethor about the Ring, though does seem as if many of the Extended Edition scenes redeem Faramir's character at the expense of Denethor's. And I loved Faramir's scene with Pippin, and the image of Faramir as a child who dreamed of dragons.
Since, as you've no doubt already gathered, I'm a big Faramir fan, I was also glad of his extra line before he rode out to Osgiliath - his willingness to die for Gondor, not just because his father doesn't respect him.
Switching back to Aragorn, I am really not sure about the extended Paths of the Dead. I loved Aragorn's reaction to the idea that the dead were not going to follow and the spooky ghostly hands were cool - but what was the point of all those skulls? What happened to the rest of the bodies and what percentage of the total population of Middle-earth were the 60,000 skulls?
Just too much.
I loved Merry's speech to Eowyn about just going to help his friends and also the earlier one to Aragorn about Piippin.
Eomer's grief for Eowyn was very moving and just before that we had Theoden's death speech which again linked to Isengard - the explanation as to why Theoden said that he would not feel ashamed to meet his ancestors.
Very clever script writing - it worked without the Isengard scene but meant so much more with it.
Fararmir and Eowyn - wonderful, just wonderful. There could have been more, but much as I love them, they aren't the main characters and I wouldn't have wanted them to have overshadowed other more significant storylines. And the hand-holding was just right, a better indication of the trust and feelings growing between them than a passionate kiss would have been. The film needed to show the basis of a life-long love, not just a temporary physical attraction, or a snatching at the "rebound guy", and that is what this scene did for me.
I'm really not sure about the Mouth of Sauron. He wasn't acting as a herald, but I really not sure what the point of Aragorn killing him was. It just seemed as if the writers couldn't think of another way of shutting him up. Still like Theoden, it gave more point to the "For Frodo" - something had obviously happened to him - even if Sauron hadn't got the Ring.
So, much better than I was afraid it was going to be - I really shouldn't pay too much attention to advance spoilers. Some strange choices but I really do not think that anyone else could have done it better.
The Lord of the Rings films have certainly not been perfect and there are things in each of them that could have been changed to make them more like my vision of the book. But they were obviously created with love and care and that for me covers a multitude of sins. When I think of how bad they could have been, I am very grateful that it was Peter Jackson and his team who pushed for the chance to make them.
In the end, they have brought a massive new audience to the book and that can only be a good thing.
