My beef with ROTK

So ROTK. What was with the multiple fade to blacks/whites at the end? Unsure how to end the film? Not one second of Saruman, even when they stand at the bottom of his tower? Very odd. Instead they waste valuable time on introducing the Denethor/Faramir father/son dynamic.


What was with the ridiculous soap opera acting – everybody looked and sounded like amateurs. Which they absolutely didn’t in the first two films. What was with the lack of dialogue and suddenly relying on so called dramatic scenes, very fucking Hollywood mini-series. Less elephants more story, please. The palantir looked like a bowling ball, for chrissakes – and the scene with Pippin (which is harrowing in the book) was cartoon borderline slapstick. Had they spent all their special effect money already? (Gollem attacking the invisible Frodo looked hi-larious and not in a good way.) I can’t think of one memorable scene. My main impression was that the makers seemed stuck between being faithful to the book and trying to tell a coherent story.

As for the music… someone please flog Howard Shore for his completely over the top, multiple orgasm score. Subtle it wasn’t and the connection to my emotions was worn out before the end of the first hour. All in all, very disappointing. Maybe the DVD version will be better. (Disclaimer: I prefer the Fellowship of the Ring over the other two books.)

27. December 2003 von Caroline
Categories: Various | 4 comments

Comments (4)

  1. Christopher says December 27, 2003 at 6:09 pm

    I felt the same way…from what I was seeing I thought there were was more confusion in how to approach this movie than the others. (I actually liked Two Towers more than RotK.)

    However I’m willing to admit my expectations about the movie may be way too high. So, I’m going to get a second opinion from the extended version when the DVD comes out.

  2. Caroline says December 27, 2003 at 10:17 pm

    More things that annoyed me: Legolas slaying the Oliphaunt. It was as bad as the skateboard scene in TTT. It was worse. And poor Gimli, comic relief again.

    On a positive note, I thought Bernard Hill absolutely stole the show with his portrayal of Theoden. He was convincinly regal, and quite Shakesperian.

  3. Graham says December 29, 2003 at 6:38 am

    I doth think you’re being very harsh.

    Given how I (like a lot of people) got completely confused by the treatment of Faramir in The Two Towers, (though the extended version cleared things up a bit there) I’m glad they didn’t do any weird twists like that (or the result of Entmoot) here, just nailed all the key scenes, perhaps with a little bit of embellishment…

    Half of the book of RotK is denounment (sp?), so it was a bit hard to do that in the movie without making it feel rushed or superficial. I hate the word ‘closure’, but I think they did quite well here.

  4. e says December 29, 2003 at 12:26 pm

    Can’t say it bothered me either… I rather enjoyed the movie, but they could have just maybe just finished it after the ring is destroyed, rather than let it drag on a bit in a way that reminded me of A.I.

    But all in all, enjoyable. People actually stayed in their seats throughout the 4 hours, and applauded afterwards, something I’ve rarely ever heard in a Dutch cinema…