What I really miss is Saurons emmissary who is supposed to come out of the Black gate when Aragorn & Co. attacks Mordor. He is too cool.
But he really does nothing to help the story so I understand why they left him out.
I thought Harry Knowles had a very good point about the ending of the movie (spoilers):
THE ENDINGS are in actuality one. You see the story is THE LORD OF THE RINGS and the end of this film is about the passing of the ring bearers. We see the end of Sauron, the ultimate soul of the one ring, but we are also compelled over the course of these films to see the end of each who has carried the ring. In FELLOWSHIP we saw what became of Isildur and Boromir – both of whom carried the ring, no matter how briefly. In RETURN OF THE KING – we see the destruction of Sauron and Gollum… The passing of Bilbo, Gandalf and Frodo from the Gray Havens… and finally, the last ring bearer… Samwise Gamgee returning to his hole in the ground where the story which began in the HOBBIT started. THIS IS A SINGLE ENDING, following the narrative of the ring bearers and concluding as it began… with a hole in the ground.
As for my own thoughts, my favorite scenes were without the stilted Tolkien dialogue. Often just looks would put a lump in my throat. There were also some stunning images, like Bernard Hill (Theoden) galloping along the line of his mounted troops, touching his sword to their spears. I’ll be glad to see the extended version, because even at 3 hours, it was a little… rushed.
C.
I always gathered from the book that Sméagol was never normal. I would have maybe added that in the struggle with Déagol his throat was damaged and that’s why he made the gollum sound. But that’s just me.
I went into the movie expecting it to be good but also expecting a few jarring things but there weren’t that many. I knew it was going to be very compressed even though it was more than 3 hours but thought that it flowed pretty well. The Arwen plotline wasn’t too intrusive and actually liked the cameo by Eldarion (the character, not the C&F citizen). The charge of the Rohirrim into battle was great.
As for the continuous ending I thought it was necessary. It was made known early on that the Scouring of the Shire would be left out and to try and squeeze that in without adding an hour to the movie would really weaken it. Though a more cinematic, truncated ending would have been just as appropriate I think it’s the characters that really drive the movie and settling their affairs was PJ’s way of showing that.
I’ll probably see RotK once or more in the theatre but I’m definitely looking forward to the extended DVD.
Cheers,
Aaron
Ok, I’m going to join sturob in being a party pooper in saying that I really really hate the extended edition right now, and heres why (in the tradition of mastercard commercials)
Hours spent inviting, confirming and double checking all schedules: 5
Hours standing in line for tickets: 1 1/2
Hours standing in line to get decent seats: 3
Having all your friends walk out of the theatre and say: “It was a good movie but I cant wait for the extended edition to come out”: possibly one of the most aggravating moments in recent history
Ok, I feel better now 
I’ll give my version–
Hours spent inviting, confirming and double checking all schedules: 0.25
Hours standing in line for tickets: 0.125
Hours standing in line to get decent seats: 0.05
Having all your friends walk out of the theatre and say: “It was a good movie but I cant wait for the extended edition to come out”: that one doesn’t really apply to my situation.
I went with my girlfriend on Saturday and we live in a small city so scheduling and fighting the crowds wasn’t an issue. I wouldn’t have bothered anyways. All the aggro from fighting the crowd doesn’t really put one in the best mood to watch a movie that tries to compress a dense piece of literature into 200 minutes of film. Instead I waited and I would say I enjoyed the movie more because of it.
As far as people saying they can’t wait for the extended DVD… I say it’s just proof that Peter Jackson and Weta did more than just make film versions of the books… they created their own thing too which is pretty magical in its own right. That’s my feeling anyways. Other folks might just be dissappointed that so much was cut and changed and know that the extended DVD will at least fill some of the void.
They had intended to include the Mouth of Sauron and they have even filmed a scene with him but it just didn’t make the cut. In a book about all of the weapons and armour in the movie there were a couple pages of the Mouth of Sauron’s gear. I’m guessing we’ll see him in the extended DVD (I hear a couple folks groaning at the mention of it).
Cheers,
Aaron
There was soooooooo much epic scale battling going on that I found myself pushing the light button on my pda to estimate how long until Gollum bites Frodo’s finger off. Couldn’t some of that have been edited a bit? I guess by the time you blow that kind of wad on extras, equipment, set, costumes, you can’t bear not to make the most of it.
My 11 year old, btw, peed before the movie twice, 3 times during, and once after. He was somewhat disappointed to have missed the heads being catapulted.
Plenty good. Reminded me of India.
The whole scouring of the shire was never filmed, nor did PJ ever intend to. Apparently he just didn’t like that bit. I think it was a mistake, since above all else, it shows how much Merry, Pippin and Sam changed since they left.
Wormtongue throwing the palantir down was cut from the movie, but will make it to the extended DVD.
Mouth of Sauron, was supposedly shot, but no idea if it will show up in the DVD.
Dunno about the rest…
I was also disappointed about the lack of the scourging of the Shire because, in a way, that’s sort of the WHOLE POINT of the story–the hobbit folk take home what they have learned. That’s why we have to have all those endings, especially with Sam–it’s important to the entire arc of the story.
However, I have seen a picture (a still) of Frodo & Sam, all cleaned up, standing with Merry & Pippin in their respective amour, standing together & looking quite impressive. I thought this would at least HINT at the scourging of the Shire idea, but then this shot/scene was not in the movie. I can only assume it will be in DVD, unless it was a promo still but it didn’t look like one.
I like ROTK but felt there were some serious omissions that, yes, hopefully will be in the DVD (sorry, Switchfoot!). I won’t go into all my favorite parts nor my nitpicking. I was one of the lucky Trilogy Tuesday attendees, and the emotional impact of ROTK was very powerful and satisfying, seeing it as the end of the one long movie that is the LOTR. So, in that sense, I was happy with it.
I do have to remember, though, that THE BOOKS ARE NOT THE MOVIES. We want them to be the same and they aren’t–due to the nature of the medium and the fact that JRR wrote the books and Peter made the movies. Two different people. At least Peter got a LOT of it right, especially the look of Middle Earth and the excellent casting & characters. I am rereading the books this winter, and I will now have the best of both worlds. I can use the images to make the movies the way I want them–in my head.
I don’t know if the Scouring is so much the whole point of the story. Tolkien came about these stories through his love of old languages and his creation of the Elvish languages. The Hobbits are proof of Tolkien’s skill as a novelist and storyteller. They are an excellent guide to Middle Earth for us modern day Big Folk. Tolkien not only was writing the story of the Elvish language but also filling the void of an English mythology. Because England’s lore is borrowed from Celts, Saxons, Danes, etc. Tolkien was also making up his own English mythology with its own linguistic history.
As for the shots of the Merry and Pippin in their armour it could be extended from the little bit in which they’re returning to Shire and riding past the same old Hobbit we saw in the beginning of FotR.
I wonder if there are any symbolic connections between Ted Sandyman’s big pumpkin and his role in the Socuring of the Shire.
Cheers,
Aaron
I meant the Scouring of the Shire is important in the sense of the arc of the entire book (it’s really one long book, in three volumes). I have a background in English, and so if you analyze the book the way it is structured, you really get the idea that the main character is Sam, and therefore the end stuff in the Shire is a key part.
But yes, I do know that it was Tolkien’s love of languages that pretty much “started it all” and was the impetus behind his writing. Of course, there’s a thousand different ways one can look at this amazing body of work. I was just analyzing it as a plain old novel.
I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what shows up on the EE DVD!
People have to stop arguing whether or not Peter Jackson got it right. That isn’t any good to anyone. Try and think of it this way; The LOTR story has been told twice. Once by Tolkein, and once by Jackson. Don’t think of Jackson as trying to immitate Tolkein, just think of him as a second storyteller telling the same story. Different storytellers will emphasise different aspects and you will hear a different story. And every storyteller adds their own embelishments, that’s part of the art of it. I realize that not everyone will like this movies, but don’t black-ball them just because the story told isn’t the one you were expecting.
Seth
Am I the only one who thinks that the whistle parts sounded like a pan flute (and much overdone)?
Sonja
Saw ROTK yesterday with my daughters. I enjoyed it a lot, the time passed very quickly and I think we’re in the running for family “bladders of the year” honors, none of us had to answer the call during the movie.
It was strange, there were times where I was thinking that the dialogue, facial expressions, etc. were getting a little predictable and derivative, like I’d seen it all before. Then I remembered it was just one part of a very long (9 hour) movie. It must have been hard to make the movie and avoid such repetitions, to have to remember “gee, did Frodo use that facial expression a lot already”. Still, it did seem like Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas and Arwen were using the same reactions and expressions an awful lot. As always, Liv Tyler retains her “best lips of all time” status.
I did read the trilogy (plus The Hobbit and Silmarillion) in college back when only nerds did that kind of thing but forgot enough of it that it didn’t effect my enjoyment of the movie. We give it three thumbs up.