THAT movie. You know the one. With the hobbits.

[ashinae]

My thoughts, generally not organised.

Legolas and Gimli were actually tolerable in this one. More than tolerable, really, I quite enjoyed them. I hate to admit it, but they were pretty darned adorable. I saw the love there.

Aragorn and Arwen's kiss at the end was just bloody fantastic. That was just. so. great. And a very selfish little part of me was totally smirking that Legolas shows up, looking all pretty, so that he can deliver Aragorn his fiancee. Bwah hah. Hah.

EAGLES. Yes! Am so, so glad they were there. Squee!

Gollum -- hit in the head with a rock. Denethor -- thwacked by a big stick. These are two things I have wanted to do to these two characters myself for well over ten years now *EG* I may be the only person in the world who thinks Gollum is just awful as a character, but I don't care. And I have always, always hated Denethor. They were much more direct here, with him actually coming right out and saying "Yes" that he wanted Faramir dead instead of Boromir, but he said the same thing in the book, twice, just not quite so succinctly -- once to Gandalf, once to Faramir himself. That's pretty fucking vile, if you ask me. Therefore, I bask in my loathing of Denethor. And was quite pleased that Gandalf thwacked him for me.

Theoden's end was just heartbreaking. I bawled -- as I knew I would. Eowyn taking out the Witch-King was almost just like I imagined it, but her delivery of "I am not a man" was so "action movie" that I rolled my eyes. Very minor quibble. Did I mention that I bawled for Theoden? *sniff*

The prologue with Smeagol and Deagol was just awesome. That creature that was somewhere between hobbity!Smeagol and Gollum was utterly creepy. Probably creepier than Gollum (which makes me really glad that Gollum didn't look like that!)

Cirith Ungol -- a joke.

Sam saying that they probably wouldn't be making a journey home -- just argh.

Pippin singing as Denethor eats and Faramir rides off to his death -- devastating. I don't know why I wasn't crying more. Thinking about it, I may have been way too wrapped up in the editing of that sequence to let the emotional content there sink in, because that scene was BRILLIANTLY put together. Wow.

PJ is very taken with his Orc creations and those bloody Oliphaunts, isn't he?

Aragorn and Eowyn -- best rejection scene in a movie ever. Wow.

Eagles. EAGLES!! Squee.

The Rohirrim riding down to meet the army in front of Minas Tirith was breathtaking. And Theoden. Just--THEODEN. He makes me go "Guh". I would follow him anywhere. Oh, do stop looking at me like that.

It's probably quite silly of me, but I rather enjoyed Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas jumping off that ship onto the dock and facing off against the Orcs, before the army of the dead showed up. And Aragorn standing there, amidst the bodies scattered on the ground, and the dead overrunning the Oliphaunt in the background. (This! This, is why they invented widescreen, folks. I'd wager you won't see that in the background in the "full" screen edition of the DVD!)

Boromir flashback! Not a "new" Boromir flashback, but he was in it nonetheless! Whee!

And, ooh, the credits. The credits were stunning. Sean Bean was in the credits *G* Squee.

Bilbo! Oh. Oh, Bilbo. Just. *sniffle*

Frodo. Sam. The kiss on the head. Oh, that was such an homage to what Tolkien actually wrote for those characters. It had to be. Even if it wasn't, I'm going to spend the rest of my life telling myself that it was *G* The ending was just lovely. (Even if Shadowfax didn't get to go with Gandalf)

Shelob. Uh. Yeah, I won't be sleeping tonight. God, I hate spiders. And it is SO Tolkien's fault.

My heart just leapt when Sam showed up with Sting and the phial. Oh, it was so fantastic. And then my heart broke when he held Frodo... and then some stupid fucking teenagers started LAUGHING and I wanted to slap them.

Note: Taking high school kids on a FIELD TRIP To see a movie like this? Especially on opening day when the theatre is otherwise packed with geeks who have stuff invested in these movies and stories and characters? Yeah, really fucking STUPID. I was ready to kick their asses for laughing at inappropriate moments. They laughed when Frodo told Sam to go home and Sam burst into tears. They laughed at the expression on Frodo's face when he woke up and saw Gandalf. Argh.

Yes, I had reservations going into this movie, when I heard about the cuts being made -- cuts so that they could spend more time with Frodo and Sam. Part of me knew, it wasn't so much to spend more time with Frodo and Sam, but Frodo and Sam, and the fighting. It still felt like a dreadfully small amount of Frodo and Sam time. My reservations about this, and the things that bothered me about RotK, are the things that bother me about ANY MOVIE. None of my worries and concerns were unfounded. I never thought I would hate RotK. I just had the feeling that it wasn't going to give me the same feeling leaving it as I had when I left Fellowship, or even Master and Commander.

I felt that the emotional core of Fellowship or even TTT was not as much intact as it was with RotK. It felt very quick, and I just feel kind of robbed of the character interactions and quiet moments. Yes, I know they're in the middle of a war. Yes, I know that there are idiots out there in the audience that don't have any attention spans and are only there to watch the blasted special effects and fighting. But, dammit, we could have done with FIVE MINUTES less of all those Orcs and trolls and Oliphaunts, just to have Eomer reacting to Theoden's death, couldn't we? Anyone? Bueller? I bloody well HATE when movies do this. But no, no, we had to keep in those gratuitous moments with that deformed, pale Orc.

Meh.

Eomer SO got shafted in these movies, didn't he? Karl was just fantastic, very dynamic, and they gave him a tiny little bit more in the TT EE. Nothing here.

Faramir and Eowyn! See, that's another complaint -- build up characters, give them emotional, wonderful things to do then... cut then from from the middle of the movie. I'm the kind of person who watches movies for characters, so this bugs me. This bugs me about ANYTHING. It's not just because it's Faramir and Eowyn.

I ultimately knew that these things would be happening. And I knew this would bother me. And it does. This bothers me about ANY MOVIE. Just because it's LotR doesn't make it that much more special that I'll look the other way about it, you know? It is not above the standards I hold for any movie, and, yeah, maybe my standards are too high *G* I watch movies to get involved and emotionally invested with characters. When stuff takes away from that, I get bored. I thought the fight in Balin's Tomb in Fellowship was too long. I thought Helm's Deep was boring.

Basically what it comes down to, is I feel that the two hundred minutes I spent sitting in the theatre this afternoon were just one big fucking tease to get me to buy the Extended Edition. And I will buy it. Because overall, I love these movies. I really do. I'm just a fairly impatient person, and dammit, I want all my emotional payoff now! *G*

Ultimately, it's not one I'll see six times in the theatre like I did Fellowship. I'm certainly not as cranky about it as I was Two Towers. But there's this feeling of disappointment, in not getting what I feel is the proper pay off for these characters and this story that I love dearly. I can't really imagine sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a movie theatre for the siege of Minas Tirith that took up a good half of the movie, more than maybe three times. Ultimately, if given the choice, yes, I would rather see Master and Commander again.

That's about all I can think of.

Oh, wait -- Gandalf thwacked Denethor repeatedly with his staff. Damn, I loved that. I've wanted to do that to Denethor for years.