Am I the lone loonie who found ROTK disappointing?

[Marlena]

Yes. I must admit it. Dh and I saw ROTK today. It's the second movie we've seen out on our own since dd (age 2.5) was born, and I'd heard nothing but drooling over it from all corners, critical and otherwise, so man, I was hyped to go.

And it was a letdown.

Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I've been in far too jaded a mood lately for the film's chivalrous epic ethos (I loved LOTR and TT, when I saw them many months ago, but Gangs of New York, which dh and I just saw on video the other night, is more up my alley right now).

I mean, the film was certainly good, and the special effects and cinematography were outstanding. But it wasn't emotionally engaging, either, which was disappointing.

Anyone else find it not quite up to their expectations?

[AmandasMom]

I loved it all but the very long, drawn out ending (s). I just cant wait for the dvd so i can see the REAL movie

[Victorian]

sorry you didn't like the movie!

Victorian

[sadean]

Shhhhh...don't tell my DH, but I was a little disappointed too. Not that I was completely enthralled by the first two. But our roommate came home and said it was the "best movie he has every seen...so much better than the other two". I was less than impressed overall. It could be that I was tired and cranky though (saw a 9:30 p.m. showing...I'm getting too old for ging to bed at 1:30 a.m.).

[Marlena]

We went to a 10 am showing. I know better than to try to stay up much past 11:30 pm, myself (quite unlike back in the day), and frankly dd would flip if she woke up in the middle of the night and didn't find me there.

[weetzie]

I havent seen it, but I know that my brother found it too long and not true enough to the book for his taste.

[mojomom]

I saw it and loved it as posted on another thread. But I have not read the books and from reading other great LOTR sites of ones truly devoted to Tolkeins amazing novel, I have wondered if I read the books first and then saw the movies would I have been as impressed. My big pet peeve is when movies based on books stray form the original story and leave what "I" feel are key points out. So knowing me I am glad I am going to read the books after seeing the movie so it wont be ruined for me

[Dragonfly]

I was disappointed, too. I haven't read the books, so don't have that frame of reference, but I *loved* the first 2 (so much so that I've seen the extended DVDs multiple times).

I felt it was way too drawn out at the end, that the editing was fairly poor, the effects were not as refined as in the first two movies (for instance, the part where Frodo is running into the mountain looked like a video game). I also found myself annoyed and a bit bored in the middle because the story seemed to get lost for awhile in favor of one battle scene after another. And the biggest disappointment, IMO, was that I'd spent a year waiting for the resolution of the Arwyn/Aragorn love story and there was so little about it - it seemed to just have been tossed in at the end. That, coupled with my irritation at the Eowyn/Aragorn Hollywood-style will-they-or-won't-they thread (that irritated me to no end in the second movie, as well), made that particulr facet of the film extremely disappointing.

For all of that, though, I can't wait to see the extra footage when it comes out. I'm not ready to give up on the dream.

[organicbanana]

dh and i are die-hard tolkien fans and have read the books many times and we were disappointed as well. i never really expected the films to quite live up to the books, because film never does, but i still didn't like some of the omissions, and the attention to the arwen/aragorn aspect - it was so not the focus of the story in any of the books... damn hollywoodizing...
my brother just got me the two towers on dvd (the special edition) - and that of the three films is still my favorite - i like that some of the unincluded portions of the story were restored.
so for some reason even with a grain of salt, i wasn't as in love with this one. dh loved the battle scenes though.
so to get my fix i guess i'm just going to have to read the books again... and there's that new copy of the silmarillion that 'santa' brought dh...

[CerridwenLorelei]

I haven't seen the movies -I have the

original Bakshi animated one..
BUT dh has and even he says the TT is the BEST of the three...


Org.banana I have a copy of the similarillon on my shelf too. So much fell into place after reading it..

[cottonwood]

I haven't seen ROTK yet, but I was disappointed with aspects of the first two. I didn't think Aragorn, Arwen, and Gandalf were cast particularly well (I know a lot of people, especially those in love with Viggo :LOL, would disagree with me) and the Aragorn/Arwen/Eowyn thread is totally weak in my opinion. First of all, there was no hint in the books that Aragorn had any romantic feelins for Eowyn, and that was really implied in the TTT (movie). Second, am I the only one that thinks that there is absolutely no chemistry between Viggo and Liv?

I also was sad that the fighting was favored over the fantasy, for instance Tom Bombadil was cut but the battle scenes go on and on and on... And also that liberties were taken with certain parts of the story. But again, that's Hollywood for you!

But the hobbits were well cast and such an amazing job was done with Gollum. And I have to admit I like Orlando Bloom as Legolas. Anyway, I guess I'm not annoyed enough *not* to see ROTK.

[journeymom]

My beef with the movie:

1) Gandalf's confrontation with Saruman was completely cut. Pippin simply found the Palantir in a pool of water in the movie, where, in the book, Wormtongue dropped it from above trying to hit either Saruman or Gandalf. In the book Gandalf confronts Saruman, Saruman slinks off to the Shire and towards the end Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin have to kick him out, in "the Scouring of the Shire". I was disappointed P. Jackson never filmed that portion, so there will be no Scouring of the Shire in the extended version.

2) The loooong, significant looks between Frodo and tearful Sam, Merry, and Pippin at the end went on way too long. I think it's one of those things that is going to be laughable in years to come.

My impression from the books is that there never was much to the romance between Aragorn and Arwen, much to my own 13 y.o. hormone laden disappointment. This really is years ago, but I vaguely remember being disappointed that there wasn't more detail to their romance.

As far as the end taking too long, that's true to the book, I think. You'd think the story ends with Gollum hurtling himself and the ring into the fire (it's really lava, as my 10 y.o. niece pointed out. : ), or maybe when Aragorn is crowned. But the story goes on quite a bit longer in the book.

I have decided to add the guy who plays Faramir, Boramir's brother, to my list of hotties from this movie.

I'm not ready to give up on the dream.

[organicbanana]

Originally posted by journeymom
Jackson never filmed that portion, so there will be no Scouring of the Shire in the extended version.

oh no! i had heard that it would be included...
that was probably my biggest complaint: that after the fall of isengard saruman and wormtongue simply disappeared from the story; and after the ring was destroyed, the hobbits just abruptly returned to find the shire unchanged - it seemed very 'hacked off'.

at some point i decided to try to take the movies at face, and not get too upset about the changes the writers made to create more "engaging" translations to film, but i don't think it's working...

[daylily]

Second, am I the only one that thinks that there is absolutely no chemistry between Viggo and Liv?

I agree. I haven't seen ROTK yet, but the love scenes between those two in the other movies are excruciating to watch. There's much better chemistry between Aragorn and Eowyn. Oh well.

The first time I read the books, when I was about 15, I was convinced Aragorn would fall in love with Eowyn. Arwen is barely mentioned in FOTR, and not mentioned at all in TTT. I remember I was shocked and disappointed when my mom broke it to me that Aragorn ends up with Arwen. I can see why Tolkein relegated the full story of their romance to the appendix, but in some ways, the story might have worked better if he'd included it in the main body of the work.

[brookely ash]

I agree with the lack of chemistry between Aragorn and Arwen (along with most other anoyances mentioned here), although I do think that Aragorn and Gandalf were cast well.

Regarding the Scouring of the Shire - Does anyone recall the scene in Lothlorien where Galadriel and Frodo are at the reflecting pond and Frodo sees in his vision the shire set ablaze with hobbits in chains? That image leads me to beleive that possibly they filmed something. I can only hope because without that scene the movie is just not quite complete.

-brookely ash

[Dragonfly]

Originally posted by journeymom
The loooong, significant looks between Frodo and tearful Sam, Merry, and Pippin at the end went on way too long. I think it's one of those things that is going to be laughable in years to come.

:LOL My brother mentioned that he kept waiting for Sam to plant a big wet one on Frodo....

[Clarity]

I wasn't disappointed, since I the whole trilogy greatly surpassed what I expected hollywood to do with such a complex story. but yes, there were huge places that could have been improved...denethor, scouring of the shire, houses of the healing, less pelennor, trebuchets that were more authentic, less frodo/sam conflict - maybe.

But overall I'm blown away with how much I enjoyed what could have been a total disaster...even people who've never read the books seem to like it, and those of use that read the books are pretty satisfied. That seems miraculous! And the extended editions really make me very happy with the increased character development.

As far as aragorn arwen chemistry...in the last scene, I though she looked not her best, when she came out from behind the banner (and I wanted a better banner.) Legolas leading the way looked great in that silk tunic...my family figured aragorn was about to kiss legolas...they seemed to have better chemistry (or at least we thought the idea more tantalizing...) so Arwen peeking out from behind that boring banner was a letdown.

[journeymom]

Ya know, regarding the whole Scouring of the Shire bit, I read somewhere that Peter Jackson never really liked that part of the book to begin with (what's not to like?! It's fun!) so that's why he didn't film it at all. But I only read that one time one place. So maybe we should just continue to hope it will be in the extended edition.

[daylily]

Aragorn and Legolas! LOL!

[JessicaS]

If I think about it as a movie based on The Return of the King then yes, I am totally distraught about all the omissions and CHANGES. If I think of it as a movie that was the last of the other movies then yeah, I like it.

I liked it for the battle of Pellenor fields really which has a good deal of my favorite parts, even though Theoden has all of Eomir's fantastic lines I was pretty excited to see the charge of the Rohhirim (poor Eomir, he got screwed when it came to his movie lines, they took all his best ones away!! I would be pissed if I was that actor "They screwed my character!! wah!!")

The Houses of Healing is the most obvious and most missed to me. Some of Tolkien's most romantic writing takes place during that, aside from Beren and Luthien which you will find when you read the Simarillion. Faramir's wooing of Eowyn is just amazing and VERY swoony and I will be crushed complately if it is missing from the extended version. (wwwaaahhhh!!!)

Tolkien doesn't write romantic bits very often but when he does, he does it very well.

My main other beefs journeymom mentioned though there are MANY!!! other things I could complain about.

What about Denethor's palantir???? Without it he seemed to go bonkers randomly which was weird. They also made Denethor kind of an asshole. The only people he was mean to was Gandalf and Faramir, everyone else he was nice too and Pippin liked him very much. It was a shock in the books when he went nuts but in the movie it seemed more like it was going to happen eventually.

Though a steward, Denethor is still from the line of Kings and should have been depicted as such, not some crazy asshole guy. They took away all his nobility in their depiction.