The Real CIC Return of the King Thread

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Since the other Return of the King thread was polluted, here's a thread where we can all happily discuss the movie. Keep your silly stuff in the other thread. We were having this discussion in #Wingnut, so I'll just sumarize my ideas. Spoilers of course.

Osgiliath seemed freakin close to Minas Tirith.. just right across a tiny field. And the Black Gate not too far up the river from that.

How come Rohan is based out of Edoras? Minias Tirith is awesome, and Rohan has Helms Deep.. but the capitol is some little hill with a couple dozen plain houses? When there are normal towns such as Osgiliath in the land of men.. Edoras just doesn't seem as big or advanced enough to be fit for a king. How many people live there? Theoden expects 12,000 knights on horses to join his crusade to save Gondor.. but the capitol city looks like it could support a couple hundred people. And it's such a stark contrast from the Minias Tirith/Osgiliath megacity just over the mountain.

I really liked the beacon from Minas Tirith to Edoras..
 
Was the Urak-hai from the Two Towers all killed beforehand, as the extended DVD of that movie said? I thought I saw just orcs and goblins in Return of the King.

And I think I was playing a game of "Where's Saruman" throughout the movie, but I understand the extended DVD will include him.
 
Yup, in the TTEE the Uruk-Hai retreated into Fangorn Forest after the Battle of Helms Deep.. and Fangorn ate them up. That being said, I think I saw an Uruk-Hai or two mixed into the orcs in Mordor. Saruman will be in the ROTKEE.
 
The current cut of ROTK is 3 hours 20 minutes, and I think Peter Jackson cut over an hour of footage. It's going to be a very long Extended Edition.
 
ChrisReid said:
Osgiliath seemed freakin close to Minas Tirith.. just right across a tiny field. And the Black Gate not too far up the river from that.
Click to expand...

Osgiliath was an outpost town for Minas Tirith and just there to protect the river crossing. But granted there was supposed to be a distance of @15 miles. The black gate was the entrance to mordor right at the opening of the mountains which are very close to the river.

ChrisReid said:
How come Rohan is based out of Edoras? Minias Tirith is awesome, and Rohan has Helms Deep.. but the capitol is some little hill with a couple dozen plain houses? When there are normal towns such as Osgiliath in the land of men.. Edoras just doesn't seem as big or advanced enough to be fit for a king.
Click to expand...

Rohan is a different Kingdom with its capitol at Edoras which is @ 300 miles from Minias Tirith. The people of Rohan are spread all over its kingdom so there are a lot more of them then you would think. The two kingdoms are different coutries so to speack, having differing sense of taste and fasion. I think that Edoras is an excellant location, high up to see a lot of the kingdom and impossible to approach without being spotted. Helms Deep was a refuge, far from trading lanes and food sources. If you have not yet, I suggest reading the books. They explain in far more detail than the movie can.
 
I posted a few comments to my LiveJournal when I saw the movie a few weeks ago at the AFI.

My biggest complaint was the first scene. The first two movies seemed to open in really special ways... and this one opened with an awful flashback. Instead of some beauty shot of middle Earth we had two stoners making weird voices.

The ending dragged a bit, too - I'm not sure why the whole Sam's courship/marriage thing was necessary. Just show him talking about the girl and then coming back to her at the very end. We'd have figured out the rest.

(Whoops, I forgot to point out that it was indeed a very awesome movie - my complaints are minor.)
 
psych said:
The current cut of ROTK is 3 hours 20 minutes, and I think Peter Jackson cut over an hour of footage. It's going to be a very long Extended Edition.
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Rumors persist that by far more footage was shot for Return Of The King than the previous two movies. The original cut was something over 5 hours or something else short of unbelievable.
 
In Brazil it'll officially be released close to Christimas, and it will be almost impossible to get a place. There's always the screener releases, but it would be a shame to watch this great movie this way.
 
What a great movie.

Though it was pretty obvious that it was heavily edited... it was full of small disjointed moments, like when Gimli coughs on his pipe and then it quickly cuts to a wider shot where he's blowing out smoke tranquilly. And how the Captains of the West were suddenly dismounted at the last battle... stuff like that. I'm sure that the Extended Edition will flow quite a bit better.

Some of the stuff that was changed from the book... like the business with the war beacons, was done really wonderfully. But some the stuff that was changed sucked real bad. "Arwen is 'dying'? WTF?"

Ugh, the ending though. It wasn't the worst thing in the movies by far... but it just seemed to lack magic. I'm really unhappy with the lack of the Scouring of the Shire chapter, though. So maybe it's just that.
 
PeteyG said:
But some the stuff that was changed sucked real bad. "Arwen is 'dying'? WTF?"
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I think that Arwen dying is refering to her losing her immorality. After all we are all dying a little bit everyday.

Jim

Hey Cool, PeteyG , you have been here longer than me and have fewer posts. Thought I would never see that. :p
 
PeteyG said:
But some the stuff that was changed sucked real bad. "Arwen is 'dying'? WTF?"
Click to expand...
I assumed that that refered to something that was cut, like maybe her role in putting the king's sword back together bound her to the fate of the sword/mankind, ie the fate of the ring.

I enjoyed the hell out of the movie. I've never read the books so doing that next will be a thrill. My major gripe, other than psychs already mentioned lack of Urak-hai, was that it seemed that the 6,000 men that wasn't supposed to be enough to take on Saurons army seemed to be soing a pretty damn good job, even before Aragorn and his ghost army showed up. Seemed like overkill to me :)

C-ya
 
I was actually waiting to see all the movies, then read the books. To see what the differences are of course.
My favorite part of the flick is when the riders of Rohan crest the hill, and Theadan gives his speech and they charge. Finally a movie that shows what cavarly really does to infantry.
Two thumbs up, this and Last Samurai are the best movies of the year, so far, plus I got to see a preview of Spiderman 2 and the Chronicles of Riddick.
 
Maybe spoilers inside? I dunno...

Yeah so I finally saw the film. It's definitely much better than either or both of the others. I really didn't have much more interest than "Oh hey, popular movie!" until now. Return of the King definitely pulled it all together and really made something spectacular of the trilogy. I mean even the little pep-talks to the troops this time around were moving and dramatic, instead of hollow and contrived. Such a leap as I hadn't dared to hope for.

When the amassed Rohan cavalry crashed into and overran the initial ranks of the orc army, that was certainly one of the finest moments in modern cinema.

Once I've collected my thoughts and stuff, I might have more to say. That is if I have anything to say that hasn't already been said. This was definitely my favorite movie all year.
 
This is off subject a bit, but not too terribly far:

I've seen reports that they're going to make modern films of the Chronicles of Narnia. Given the success of the three LOTR movies, I can see why; the settings are somewhat similar. Has anyone else heard about this?

ROTK was indeed incredible. I was highly pleased. Especially when that pretty blonde owned that dragon, then ruined the wraith's shit, too.
 
Narnia was done in the 80s by the BBC. They weren't half bad either.

And they're nothing like LOTR.
 
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