Hello to all!!
I went to the Tuesday showing of all three LOTR movies in a row.
I was there about 12 hours all together. (2:30pm to 2:30 am)
The Return of the King was great!!! 
Matter of fact I’m going back to see it again today!
When you got there they gave you this type of ID badge, So you could come and go as you please.
They gave you 45 mins between movies.
You could bring any kind of food into the theater that you wanted.
They gave you free refills on the large popcorn & drink all night long.
Between the 2nd & 3rd movies they gave out free pizza.
Best of all, everyone who stayed for all three movies.
They gave out this item that looked alot like a grave stone.(you can set it on your desk type thing).
Inside it was three film cells from the movies, one from each of the three films.
There was a guy from Newline there to give them out!
I went to the showing in Nashville,TN.
Half of the people were from out of state, some as far away as Sweden.
If you liked the first two you will love ROTK.
I give it 10 rings!
Man! I avoided drinking anything before going to see the other ones (a year apart) and I still had to pee before the end. How did you do it?
Tony
My wife and I dehydrated ourselves before seeing the film and managed to stay for all 3 1/2 hours. Fantastic film–probably the finest I have ever seen. Audience members were audibly in tears at several points. Better still, there are a couple of nice pennywhistle moments. What more could one ask of a film?
Geeze, 12 hrs, im not that active of a person, but even I couldnt sit for 12 hrs.. Though i did go to the 12:01 showing with some friends from school, that was great. I was expecting Shelob to look really stupid (how can you make a giant spider look good) but they did an awsome job. although at the begining I though smeagol seemed a little to, crazy before he even had the ring, i always pictured him as normal, and going crazy after being very unsocial for 900+ yrs.
Michael
I saw ROTK this afternoon (and my bladder cooperated). It is a wonderful movie, probably the best of the three. The whistle passages were nicely done, with tasteful amount of vibrato.
return of the king?
i thought elvis had long left the building.
I don’t know . . . I love the books and after seeing the other two movies a couple times I’ve grown to like them too, but this one just seemed to be missing something. It was just battle, battle, battle, and much of the endearing personal stuff that happens inbetween the battles that makes you care about the characters was cut out. I was actually a little bored in some places. Maybe just because I knew (or thought I knew) what was coming. Everything ended the way it was supposed to, but there definitely should have been more of a payoff on the Saruman and Faramir/Ewoyn storylines. Of course, it was still a great movie. I’ll go see it again in a few days–hopefully I’ll be able to appreciate it for what it is, not fault it for what it isn’t. Maybe I’ll like the extended edition better. Eleven months and counting . . .
SwtCaro
I agree that this movie missed some of the personal interactions like Merry’s friendship with Theoden, and Pippin’s friendship with one of the guards (I forget his name). I completely accept this though, since Peter Jackson was doing this within the confines of a movie. I also thought that this was the best of the three films. For those Tolkein purists, you’ll be comforted to know that Jackson takes the least ammount of liberties in this movie. A lot of things left out, but not much was invented.
The Mount Doom scene had to be my favorite of the entire trilogy. It was done exactly how I imagined it. I think I’ll see the movie again before the weekend is out.
Seth
Me too. But I thought this was going to be news of the long-awaited reincarnation.
Now when people tell you that if you don’t want to read about blah blah blah, don’t open the thread, they obviously were forgetting thread-titles like this one.
So this thread isn’t about eschatology?
I always bring a giant cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to a LOTR movie. Haven’t you guys ever heard of a NYC cabbie catheter?
I loved this movie, like others they did not fill in much with Eowyn/Faramir and the war that was suppose to happen in the shire with Saruman, but as it already was, the ending was very long. there were many times peter jackson could have ended the film being a movie (those who had not read the books would be satisfied), but it would leave out about 100 pages in the book (those who read the books would be upset with where there seemed to be a natural break, frodo and sam on the rock mt. doom). All in all I think Peter Jackson made some wise decisions as to where to cut and where to impress.
Go see this movie, it is spellbinding and the best of the three.
okay, i’ll go see the movie . . . but per walden’s post, i’ll be looking for all kinds of eschatological signs as well as some good ole rock n roll…
A good movie to be sure - though as has bene mentioned…a LOT was still left out or changed. I’m not sure if I’ll see it again in the theatre, or just wait for the more complete DVD version in a few months. Oh by the way, I didn’t stay for all the end credits. Did anyone happen to see any disclaimers about: “No Oliphants were harmed in the making of this film”? If I was an oliphant, I’d be seriously talking to my manager about what kind of crap roles he got me cast in!!! 
ROTK was brilliant, I loved it. I didn’t come around posting till now but I saw it the 16th. It was great. A nice thing was that I sat with 2 hobbits, 3 elves, 2 orcs, a Nazgul (all in the same company) and 3 vikings (dressed as vikings just because there are’nt any in the movie), they were larpers of course. A lot was left out, Saruman wasn’t in the movie at all for example, but that will all be corrected for the extended one. There is a limit to how long you can make a movie that will go up on cinemas. All people with the slightest interest are supposed to be able to go. Guy’s that are not that interested won’t sit in a theater for 4.30hours to see a film. The extended ones are for those that are interested enough to do so. I think mr. Jackson and all the others have done a GREAT, GREAT job. I can’t say which film I liked the best, cause for me they are all the same film. They are so connected that I can’t give them an individuall rating like that. The trilogy however is for me the best thing I have ever seen on screen. It’s not as good as the books ofcourse, but then, a film could never be as good as a great book.
Well I finally saw Return of the King, and it was lufferly.
I wasn’t tooooo upset by most of the changes, and there were a lot. Most notably the lack of the entire scouring of the shire and the death of Sarumon and wormtongue sequences, and where wormtongue threw the evil-orb-thingy I forget the name of out the window of Orthanc, and Aragorn looking in said evil-orb-thingy to scare the piss out of Sauron. I can forgive all that.
What I cannot forgive, however, is the fact that they robbed my poor Pippin of his hero moment where he kills a troll and gets smushed by it, later to be found by Gimli. 
Also, as much as I find movie-Arwen to be an annoying twit, I must say I enjoyed the moment where Aragorn literally glomped her and made smoochy-face in front of old Elrond.
I give it 2 pointed ears up!
Sam, I really enjoy your choice of words. “Glomped”–that’s one I haven’t heard before. It’s great! Oh yeah, and the evil-orb-thingy is a “palantir.”
I finally got to see it, too!! Today. My husband and I went. He tolerated it and was glad when it was over, but I really liked it. True, whomever said “check your book at the door” was right…but I couldn’t do that. I was still going in my head “hmm, that isn’t how it goes” but I was still able to really enjoy it. I think the next time I see it I will like it even more because I will know how they are doing it and be able to relax more.
As someone said, I loved the Mt. Doom part the best, too…exactly how I imagined it. That is my favorite part of the books and I always cry buckets when Sam carries Frodo up the mountain. I did in the theater, too. The only beef I had with that part was when Gollum was fighting “invisible Frodo”–that part looked really dumb and unrealistic. Not at all fitting the book description.
Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the whistling…I assume Joanie Madden’s that she has told us about…I noticed it in three spots: Mt. Doom, the Grey Havens, and I don’t remember the other one. The most striking one was Mt. Doom. Here they were climbing up, half dead, covered in dirt, etc., and then this lovely whistle theme starts up. It was very poignant, perfect, and inspiring.
I was a little frustrated with the many changes but decided that all in all, it was a really good movie. I think this trilogy is going to become a classic and perhaps the best movies I will ever see made. And I’m really excited to see the extended DVD because, like the others, it will make it a much better movie, I’m sure. Three cheers for LOTR!!
Oh, gosh, well, here’s a post to balance all the honey. 
I thought ROTK was OK. It was pretty enjoyable, until the whole ring-is-destroyed, middle-Earth-is-saved stuff. Then, I felt like the movie was saying . . . oh, crap, we’ve got like SO many unfinished plotlines to take care of.
Is it over . . . no, looks like they have to go back to the Shire. Oh, where it’s been ravaged . . . no, looks like Hollywood couldn’t deal with the real ending so everything had to be hunkey-dorey in the shire . . . so it’s over. No, wait, Frodo has to write in the book. . . . no, not over, Sam has to marry Rosie (why that was included eludes me completely) . . . whoops, not over, looks like we need some elf action . . . OK, oh, look, here’s Bilbo . . . still not over . . . some folks are sailing West, it would seem . . . kinda over . . . wait, it’s over.
I seriously thought that we’d get a real-live, down-and-dirty rendition of the book, but NO, they took some real liberties with it to make it more feelgood than the books were. Ah, Hollywood. (Or Ah, Auckland, as the case may be.)
Good movie, kinda long, and I think they should have just omitted a bunch at the end. I liked FOTR the best.
How’s that? Did I live up to my party-pooper image? Eh, it’s just my opinion.
Stuart
Could have been worse, Stuart!
Personally, I wouldn’t have missed a moment of the ending of the film, sentimental or not, but when I saw the film there was quite a lot of snickering at the Grey Havens scene. I liked it a lot, though. And you gotta see Sam marrying Rosie! Wraps up his part in the story.
I was disappointed that the Scouring of the Shire was left out, but PJ & Co. had stated that at the time of the first film, so my disappointment is a few years in the past by now. 
Jens