the corner office

Amazing! R & I decided to live on the eeedge and watch the midnight screening at Montecasino last night. We got home after 4 so we're a little ragged today.

Unlike the Matrix, I think it's a given that anyone who's interested in seeing it knows how it ends, so I won't worry about hiding this. If you don't want a spoiler, don't carry on reading.

It started off a little disjointedly, and I sat in the cinema fearing that the movie would be a flop. Thankfully things picked up pretty quickly and on balance, I'll just say I thought it was excellent. The effects, and especially the battle scenes, were absolutely mind-blowing. The Oliphaunts and cavalry battles were unbelievable. The Scouring of the Shire was left out as expected, but they handled the end rather sensitively.

It wasn't without its niggles though. Some of the plot changes from the book made sense, but others I didn't enjoy. In a few places they seemed like rather cheap and transparent attempts to build up a bit of drama. Arwen's life being tied to the ring. Pfff. The 'negotiations' with the dead army. Pffff. Gollum framing Sam. Pffff. Also, I don't think they portrayed Denethor too convincingly. He came across a lot less 'noble' than he should have been, and his trauma over Faramir came across more as selfish madness than true grief.

The movie was around 3 and a half hours long, and despite that, and as expected, certain parts seemed a little rushed. I read somewhere that Christopher Lee was dismayed that Saruman was left out of the movie, completely, and it was a pity. About 10 seconds of Isengard and that was that. I thought the whole Palantir issue was glossed over a little, and the soppy side of me thought it would have been nice to see Eowyn and Faramir's relationship develop. Aragorn's healing and whatnot also got the chop, as did the Captain of the Gate. I hope that the extended version includes some of these scenes, we'll have to wait and see.

A lot of people have said that the Fellowship was the weakest of the 3 movies. RotK is definitely more like the Two Towers than the first. I have to admit that for me, the first movie was still the most moving, because by now I'm a little desensitised to the huge panoramic shots, the amazing recreation of Middle Earth. In a way, I think we now take for granted things that were absolutely unbelievable two years ago. Having said that, I can't complain. The Return of the King was the monster finale that I'd been waiting for, and personally, I'm a happy Tolkien fan. Now, I'll be interested to see what the rest of the world, fans and otherwise, think?