I’ve been unconvinced by the third movie. Well…it’s quite good, but it really looked like a loosely sewed patchwork, with the story switching from one plot to another without taking the time to explain with some depth what was going on. For instance : the scene with Pipin and the Palantir was included in the movie. But what was the point, since we haven’t been told much about the palantirs and their importance during the three movies? The importance of the Palantir in Saruman’s demise wasn’t mentionned (it apears only as a communication tool in the first movie). Denethor’s palantir isn’t mentionned, either, so this character’s behavior doesn’t seem to make any sense. So, IMO, they should have either explained what this Palantir thing was all about, either just forgotten about them and cut the scene with Pippin which doesn’t bring anything important in the storyline.
That was a mere example of a general trend I noticed in this last movie : too much unclearly explained events, and also too much jumping from one plotline to another.
However, there are things which weren’t included and that I missed. For instance :
-Saruman facing Gandalf after Helm’s Deep. More generally, in the three movies, Saruman has been downplayed, and his importance minored. It never appears as the powerful and wise wizard he was, head of the white council, he appears as a servant of Sauron rather than acting on his own behalf, the reasons of his downfall are never mentionned, and something I really missed and expected to see in this last movie : the power of his voice shaking the will of the Rohirrims and of Gandalf’s companions at Isengard. I was really expecting this scene and was dissapointed.
-Arwen’s fate. The end of Arwen and Aragorn’s lives is one of the most moving part of the book. I know it’s only an appendice, but I had read that it would be included in some way in the movie, so, once again, I was dissapointed. More generally, the importance of Arwen’s choice, her father’s reaction, etc… were downplayed, IMO. Probably because it would have been too sad, and wouldn’t have played well for an “happy end”. On a related note, downplayed also the departure of the elves from middle earth, which is merely mentionned but doesn’t appear nearly as poignant than in the novels.
-Once again : downplayed the slow corruption of Frodo’s mind by the ring, and even the pain of bearing it to Mount Doom. Frodo appears only very briefly to be tainted by the ring, and mostly as a result of Golum’s deceptions. In particular, I’ve been very dissapointed by the scene where he claims the ring for himself. It was the scene I was expecting the most during the whole movie, and assuming that it would be a stunning scene. It wasn’t. He just said briefly “No, it’s mine”, puts it on and that’s the end of it. I would have prefered much less of this “struggle above the volcano and cliffhanger” thing, and much more stress on Frodo eventually overcome by the power of the ring and claiming it for himself. I must say that for me, it’s the most important scene of the whole three books.
-there’s essentialy nothing said about what happened in Minas Tirith, except for the battle scenes. In particular, as I already mentionned, Denethor’s behavior appears totally weird.
There were a little too much ends in this movie. Yes, I was definitely happy they included the Grey havens (though on the overall, I didn’t like the scene), but nevertheless…
I noticed they included some hints for the book’s afficionados about events/things which weren’t mentionned in the movie : for instance, Merry and Pippin are significantly taller during the third movie, a flag with the white swan on it appears in the crowd during the crowning and wedding scene, Gandalf is wearing the ring of fire at the Grey Havens scene (And I believe we can assume the fourth elf appearing in this scene is the forgotten Cirdan the shipwright), and I certainly missed plenty other similar hints.
I mosty said they downplayed this or that, but there’s one thing I think was overdone : the battle scenes. Too much huge monsters and people and horses flying over al over the place, walls and towers collapsing, etc…But I suppose there must be such long, impressive action scenes in the movie to please part of the public.
On the overall I’ve very mixed feeling about the movie. It seems to me the director wasn’t that successful, this time, in choosing what to include and what not to include in the movie. Once again, a kind of patchwork, where I often couldn’t understand why he stressed this part rather than this one, why he even mentionned something, why he didn’t explain another, or why he changed the plot in such or such way (for instance, Elrond coming himself to Rohan to bring Narsil, and telling to Aragorn that he should follow the path of the deads. The whole thing just didn’t make sense to me. Why such a change? What did this add to the storyline, the plot? What was the point?).
To sum up, I wasn’t bored, I even was quite pleased, but I found the movie rather confusing. I would said that it has been the less well thought out of the three parts, IMO.
Oh…and I deeply disliked the adaptation of Faramir’s character in both TTT and TROTK.
