First movie I saw twice in theaters.
Great movie, it has unforgivable sins like the treatment of Denethor and bad choices like the Army of the Dead, but it is a great movie all the same.
I love when Elijah Wood tells the story of how Peter Jackson did not see the final cut, with all sound editing and every effect complete…until he went to the premiere in Wellington.
Elijah asked him, “What’d did you think?”
“It’s good, yep, it’s good,” was Peter’s response.
They were working on sound mix, final scoring, and everything until delivery date. It premiered right after they were done.
The Hobbit final movie was worse in terms of finishing. They were in the sound mix booth/room working…past the deadline. They decided to tell Warner Brothers “we thought you meant midnight in a different time zone” and keep working to finish it. They basically delivered it a day late, which was against the contract.
My WAG is that he simply didn’t have enough screentime to get such subtleties across to the viewer, and PJ felt he had to simplify the character. Note I agree that this was one of PJ’s bigger fuckups, but DAMN the number of decisions he had to make in terms of streamlining the material is just mind-boggling, and frankly he made the right choice over 90% of the time IMHO.
Note I had no real issues with Faramir, other than him finally deciding to let the hobbits go-after Frodo tried to give the Ring to a Nazgul…
When did Frodo do that? I’m drawing a blank.
Those were excellent depictions of fantastical creatures. CGI depictions of actual humans who look human is much harder, and that’s where the state of the art is now. See, for instance, the appearances of Luke Skywalker in current Star Wars TV shows: Mark Hamil’s only involvement with that was agreeing to it. The visuals and voice were both completely synthesized (though I think they had some other actor doing motion capture for it).
I think my vote would go to the Balrog. That was worth the entire price of admission to the first movie.
In Osgiliath-he climbs a staircase and holds the Ring aloft to a passing Nazgul, but Sam wrestles him down just as the Nazgul’s fell beast reaches for him (and before he can put on the Ring). Tho it was more Sam’s speech that finally convinced Faramir.
Movie!Frodo is not nearly as as great as Real!.. sorry I mean Book!Frodo, in my opinion.
But I’m biased…
I don’t support crying out in the theater, but my theater cheered/roared when the Balrog appeared and it was one of the all-time great moments in the theater. When Legolas rapid-fired arrows, people applauded. The whole experience was one of the few where we all agreed it was an “instant classic”.
I mean, he wasn’t Dad of the Year in the book either.
I think that my only gripe with RotK was the Pellenor fields battle. CG effects of the time weren’t quite up to the scale of the battle, and everything felt textureless and clone-stamped. Combine this with the silly anime-ninja-Legolas fights and my wonderful immersion built through the movie was broken. The movie as a while was great, but on rewatches I found myself zoning out of the final battle, wait for Eowyns great scene and Theodens death, the stop the movie and call it a day.
One of my favorite small touches is when the One Ring hits hits the lava, it floats for bit and the lava cools before finally getting destroyed:
Brian
Having it light the words back up for a moment was awesome. Jackson did a great job thinking of visual things to happen like that. I hear complaints sometimes about the movies, but I think we are lucky to have adaptations this good.
Forward to about the 2 minute mark (get error if I edit post)
(maybe not the best video)
Brian
I took that scene as he no longer had the power (in that moment) to conceal the Ring or resist putting on, not that he was offering it to the Nazgûl. Not that it would have made a difference from a practical perspective; either way, the Nazgûl gets it.
But your interpretation is fair, and (as mentioned) mine may be a distinction without a difference. In any event, thanks!