"Return of the King" was AMAZING!!!!!! Just AMAZING.

[Zomby Woof]

I sure am glad I had extra napkins handy... you'd have to have a heart like Sauron's to not be affected by the resolution.

If you are a LOTR fan, and haven't seen it yet... GO!!!!

If you aren't, you should let your guard down, and see all of them. Rent the shorter theatrical versions if you must, whatever helps... but you may be very pleasantly surprised.

This isn't about fantasy, or swords and sorcery. This is a far deeper story, with characters you care about and root for, and high tension and suspense. If you love action, romance, adventure, comedy, and pure drama, it has it ALL.

Not a dry eye in the house at the end of the film.

GO SEE IT.

[DS1]

1. Guess I should dye my beard white then

:evilgrin:

[PackedForPerth]

2. YES!

I couldn't agree more. I frankly didn't think that they would manage to screen the Rings trilogy in my lifetime. I am so proud of both Jackson and the whole cast. It was a magnificent effort!

[mourningdove92]

I am looking forward to seeing it.

I just re-watched Fellowship and Two Towers yesterday. Hope to see the new one next weekend. Thanks for the upday.

[Zomby Woof]

6. Welcome to DU!

Unbelievable effort! 4 years, 300 million dollars, and worth much much more...

[XanaDUer]

3. It was fantastic...

My SO and I have been waiting two years for this.

[Jackhammer Jesus]

4. As far as I know, this is too ambiguous to count as a spoiler, but...

I couldn't help but giggle at the bed-jumping scene at the end. There was a moment of suspense when each character entered the room and the audience wasn't quite sure if they were going to join in the festivities.

I was disappointed when Gimli didn't.

Seriously, though - RotK has to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. The whole trilogy was incredible. :D

[LiberalVoice]

5. lol, I know exactly what you mean.

Dont know if anyone noticed but as each one entered they made a funny little giggling noise...

Without a doubt the best movie of the year. Best trilogy ever!

Puts Star Wars to shame!

[roguevalley]

7. When Legolas walked in, could he be MORE BEAUTIFUL!?

Interestingly enough, I felt his age at that moment,
the years he had ahead of everyone else. Momumental
achievement, this trilogy.

[XanaDUer]

10. He is gorgeous...

I usually don't prefer blond men, but the actor looks better blond than with his natural haircolor.

Hot.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

37. i think he looks better brunette

Orlando Bloom :9

[Dover]

11. Who's Legolas?

.

[FDRrocks]

21. The elf with the bow and arror.

[chicaloca]

22. When Aragorn did _anything_, could he be more hot?

But I do agree, Legolas is gorgeous. He's the type of guy I'd just like to stare at, but Aragorn is the type of guy I'd just like to...ummmm.....yeah. (I'll stop right there in case any kids are reading this.) :)

To be fair, the movie has many, many more great qualities than just the many hot men in it. I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

[grannylib]

30. *LOL* Me too! My daughter and I were thinking, "C'mon Gimli, c'mon

Legolas, c'mon Aragorn! Hop in and be silly!"

Aragorn could hop in my bed anytime hee hee

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

36. Aragorn AND Legolas could hop into my bed....

um um er....

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

35. Yeah... I was biting my cheeks.

C'mon it was pretty funny and corny... :D

[Terwilliger]

8. a "must-see" kick

and the graphics were incredible!

[Skittles]

9. ugh

I "let my guard down" when I had to watch one of these films at my boyfriends' parents house . . . it was so boring and stupid I tried to think of ways I could kill myself using just things in the room. Forget that shit. I HATE FANTASY STUFF. I just happen to find real life FAR MORE INTERESTING than anything a freaking computer can generate.

[TlalocW]

12. It's too commercial...

Not even within a year after the first one, I couldn't go into a bookstore without seeing the novelization of the movie that they pushed out as fast as they could to capitalize on the box office success.

Yes, I am kidding.

TlalocW

[Zomby Woof]

16. lol

John Stewart made a similar joke on the Daily Show the other night. :-)

[hatrack]

28. And I HATED the product placements

Especially after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, when the fellowship was sitting around relaxing and drinking Bud Light - REALLY irritating!

[Enraged_Ape]

38. And Gimli has his Bud Light logo turned towards the camera...

while gripping the can on the sides. So obvious, and it just cheapened the whole movie.

[hatrack]

41. To say nothing of Gandalf's white Cadillac Escalade!

Maddening! ;-)

[Zomby Woof]

46. The 2004 Cadillac Shadowfax SUV!

:puke:

[Ilsa]

13. It was fabulous, but,

I noticed the absence of strong musical themes, such as were used in the first two films. Slightly disappointed not to hear some of the more familiar ones repeated.

Great movie. Can't wait to see it again, and to see the director's cut.

[Nevernose]

14. I can't watch this movie on DVD

It was just too "big." There's no way my 32" or even my friend's 52" can possibly capture the grandeur of Minas Tirith, or the orcs blowing Minas Tirith all to hell.

Why, oh why, couldn't we have had the director's cut on film?

[Zomby Woof]

15. lots of theaters re-released them that way recently

To build up momentum. Maybe one day they will release all 3 that way again.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

18. Say what?!

Watch the first movie again. You'll notice a lot of similarities in the score.

[cliss]

17. I agree, ZW.

We went as a family, and we all agreed that the Return of the King was the best one of the three. Other people had said that, but we refused to believe it because the other two were so good.

The best 3 movies I have ever seen. We are SO fortunate to have Peter Jackson. I hear he's currently filming some films by C.S. Lewis, and he's planning to film 'The Hobbit' in 2005.

Can't wait. I'll be counting the days till then.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

19. He's also doing King Kong.

Should be interesting.

[Nevernose]

20. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?obj_id=35585&aff_id=0&this_cat=Development+Heck

Walden Media, headed by Cary Granat, bought the big screen rights to the entire series last December with an eye towards bringing it to the big screen much like the LORD OF THE RINGS series. This we knew. The latest ripples have Granat partnering with both Disney and James Cameron to bring Cameron’s IMAX documentary GHOST OF THE ABYSS to the theaters next year via Disney. While Granat originally was close to RINGS studio New Line, he may now be shifting to Disney as a vehicle for bringing the NARNIA to the big screen.


Disney, hoping to get out of its box office doldrums of late, might want him more than he wants them.

[regnaD kciN]

25. Not by Jackson...

The Narnia series will be shot in NZ, and use the same SFX house, but the first installment is being directed by the same guy who did Shrek (yes, this one will be live action).

[Zomby Woof]

43. thank you!

I love Jackson's work on LOTR, and the Weta company who did the SFX for LOTR did an UNBELIEVABLE JOB.

But let's clear up the popular misconception that Jackson has anything to do with the Narnia project.

[GregW]

23. I saw it today, thought it was amazing, but ...

... probably one hour too long. I know all the died-in-the-wool LOTR fans insist that EVERY nuance of the books appear, but for a neophyte like me ... I found it 'dragging' at times.

The battle sequences were jaw-dropping ... and the giant spider ... :scared:

When Legolas makes his appearance in the end (you know the scene), a woman in the audience let our a loud swooning sigh, and the theater broke up laughing.

[kodi]

24. just returned from seeing it on an IMAX screen. gracious, what cinema

i concur with another poster, vis a vis the scoring of this film. howard shore's film score of FOTR is perhaps the best ever done, and his TT score was exceptional as well, in fact i think the scores in the first two films in unison with the visuals made them more complete artistic works than ROTK because of this.

however, there was so much to pack into this last film that the intimate personal emotions of the first film and parts of the second were replaced with more action. one can not complain, since this is in the actual texts of the trilogy.

those initmate with the literary works know where jackson made changes, and most were for the best, in fact, the fleshing out of gollum in this last film was a delight and the surprising personal story that made it more intimate than one would have expected considering the crashing action in the other storylines.

as a strong fan of the tragic literary character of eowen, her turmoil, her redemption in the house of healing, and her relationship with faramir, i was saddened that it was not shown but in passing.

one should never forget that elijah wood's frodo was the main character and his progression from happy hobbit to wounded ring bearer carried much of the story and his work was terrific.

but, of all the actors who impressed me most, kudos to miranda otto's eowen and bernard hill's theoden, and most of all, sean astin's sam gamgee. not only for this film but the entire development of the character thru the 3 films.

his last two scenes in FOTR, the one where he appears to drown and the last, where he and frodo stand looking at mordor ring out most in my mind as the heart of the entire trilogy, because of the loyalty and sustained hope in the character, which were the basic human traits heralded throughout tolkien's story. sean astin did this as well as any actor in the entire trilogy, and i hope he receives an academy award for his work in the last film.

if i was forced to pick one film of the trilogy, it would be FOTR because it is the most intimate, had the most truly human aspects of the characters shown, and of course, shore's film score.

if there is one scene in the trilogy that meant the most to me, as one who has read the trilogy every year since 1966, it would be sean bean's work (and jackson's directing and shore's score in that scene) in his last scene. it brings tears to my eyes each time i watch it.

[regnaD kciN]

26. I suspect...

...that you'll see a lot more of Eowyn (and Faramir) in the extended edition DVD set.

[Selwynn]

27. It was just "okay."

The Return of the King was okay, but of all three films it was the most drastically altered from the themes of the books. I chose my words carefully there. I'm not complaining about what was left out, much of which will show up in the extended DvD anyway. And I'm not complaining about things that had to be changed for the sake of cinema. What I'm talking about is that in the end, it didn't feel like Jackson really trusted his audience, and the result was a kind of "dumbed down" final storyline which was very disappointing. The complete and total altering of the Charcter Denethor, the Steward of Gondor was unecessary and disppointing. The insertion of conflict between Frodo and Sam more than just a Jacksonian invention - it went against the very heart of Tolkien. The loss of the tender friendship forged between merry and theoden was a sad loss. And unfortunately none of the conflict in the final film had the same kind of thematic and emotional impact of the battle at helms deep. The utter hopelessness expressed so emotionally and so vividly in the second film was reduced to just a large visually stunning brawl often devoid of that more serious intellectual and emotional content.

Of all three films, the third installment felt the least like Tolkein of them all. It was still a good movie, but here is a paragraph from a review that I completely agree with:

If only the script were as pitch-perfect! Apparently unwilling to trust their audience, let alone "the Book of the Century," Jackson and his co-adapters have surrendered to the temptations of Hollywood by adhering blindly to its dictates about conflict and jeopardy at the expense of character, subtlety, and the integrity of Tolkien's text. While it's obviously not possible to transfer a literary work to the screen without sacrifices and simplifications, Jackson and company have gone overboard in dumbing down not only the dialogue but Tolkien's ideas about mercy, chance, and fate that undergird the story. Scenes invented wholly for the movie crowd out gripping scenes already in the book. The script even goes to the ridiculous extreme of sowing conflict between Sam and Frodo, an unnecessary choice in a movie already stuffed to the seams with that biggest of all conflicts, war. The war material also has the effect of unbalancing the movie. The battle scenes in "Return," like those in "Towers," are lavished with so much time and attention that Frodo's quest with the Ring, the soul of the story and the trek upon which the fate of Middle-earth depends, gets tragically short-shrifted, creating unevenness in the film's rhythm and sabotaging what should be an emotional final farewell. Another victim of script stinginess is the Cirith Ungol passage, when Sam believes Frodo to be dead; instead of a scene of heart-searing grief, the movie offers but a bloodless precis in its place. It's almost a crime that such glorious visuals should be spent on such a Cliffs Notes version of the book.

[matcom]

29. going xmas day

figured we would join the atheists and jews at the theater and see the matine :D

[curse10]

31. Best. Movie. Ever!!!

I saw it yesterday. It was truly amazing. Those three movies are quite possibly the best cinematic experience ever!

If it doesn't win best picture this year I'll refuse to support the industry next year and not see a single movie!

[Zomby Woof]

44. I am with you!

I was thinking "All other movies are going to suck after this!"

Which isn't true, but at times it sure seemed like it! :-)

[markses]

32. So it wasn't as intolerably maudlin and cringe-worthy as the other two?

I ask again: When did the friggin' D&D geeks take over the popular culture industry? Next thing you know, we'll see bad reproductions of Romantic-era painting flooding the art galleries. Yizzzucky.

I think I'll wait to catch random snippets of that crappy "ROTK" when it's on Starz, during the commercials for another show.

[Bake]

33. Just saw Fellowship and Two Towers on cable

I resisted seeing them--three hours + per movie. But when I watched, the three hours per movie went by in minutes!

Now I'm hooked. Can't wait to see ROTK!!

Bake

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

34. I ACTUALLY CRIED AT THE END, OK?

Ok, don't laugh! :D

[Zomby Woof]

39. I did too!

Why do you think I mentioned those extra napkins, senorita? :D

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

42. Zomby, you can cry?

REALLY?! :D

Si senor, si.

[Zomby Woof]

45. yep!

The secret's out! I am a softie!! :D

[KadeCarrion]

49. Who knew?

;-)

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

50. LOL

:D He just never wants to admit he is...!

[Coventina]

40. I was a little disappointed.

I hate to say it, because I really wanted to love this movie.

I want to see it again, because maybe I'll like it better next time around.

I was VERY disappointed in the neglect of Eowyn and Faramir.

I also was sad that there was no face-off between the witch-king and Gandalf, as in the book.

The scene where Eowyn confronts the witch-king is not nearly as powerful as it is in the book. Also, the consequences to Eowyn and Merry from the encounter are totally ignored. To me, this sort of diminished the significance of what happened and what they achieved.

For me, a lot of the emotional content of the story was drained away.

[Frangible]

47. I loved it but...

Conflict between Frodo/Sam was unnecessary.

Ending was way too long for a theater version, should have chopped it after he was crowned and called it good.

And yeah, I thought that scene where Eowyn killed the witch king was kind of half assed. Just looked a bit odd.

Second time I saw it, some little kids constantly talking behind me who would not shut up ruined it for me. IF YOU BRING YOUR KIDS TO A MOVIE KEEP THEM QUIET. Thanks.

And Skittles... wtf? :wtf:

[MrBenchley]

48. Ehhhhh...

"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing..."

Pretty pictures but that's about it as far as I was concerned. I liked the flying dinosaurs.

[Blaukraut]

51. Seen it twice already!

ROTK has to be the best of the trilogy, and it had better win THE academy award this year :-)

[JeanForever]

52. Best One Yet

I've only seen the previews (I'm seeing it this weekend) but it looks awesome. I just watched 30 seconds and it has to be at least as good as the two towers.