Yet another Sunday night post
Dec. 21st, 2003 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnedaxLots of stuff on my mind, but the only thing that wants to be a post right now is some additional thoughts on RotK after last night's second viewing.
By and large my opinion is the same as after the first viewing. I noticed a few places where I thought it could have been tightened (do we have to cut to Gandalf's concerned face in slow motion quite so many times?) but by and large it's still a pretty solid film. So, that said, here are minor quibbles I found with it.
I was wrong, Merry and Pippin haven't really gotten better since the first film. What they got was a more impressive list of accomplishments. Unfortunately they grate on me almost every time they appear, and most of their great moments try to be cute, and thus just irritate me.
The Palantír (hey, PJ, it's not a Palántir!) is nice to see in there and all, but not only does the scene last too long, Aragorn of all people shouldn't act like he's being electrocuted by it. And since when does Legolas have Sauron-detecting powers?
The mûmakil are actually not as bad as I thought on first glance, although they still remind of AT-ATs, somehow. They're too large, but for film I can see why.
What is Gandalf talking about with dying and going to the white shores and green meadows? Is he saying everyone gets to go to the undying lands? Is he just lying to make Pippin feel better? Huh? And "death is a path we all must take" only if we exclude elves. And wizards, for that matter.
Middle-earth seems far too small. Minas Morgul can be easily seen from Minas Tirith, Mordor seems to take about 2 hours to cross, and Faramir seemingly rides out to Osgiliath before Denethor even finishes his dinner. At the same time, it takes about 12 signal fires to light the way from Rohan to Gondor, when it's only a three-day ride. Dramatic, but silly.
Oh, and as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tpau pointed out where did Frodo get his clothes back from, since they change out of Orc gear halfway up Mount Doom? Maybe this is explained in the extended edition. Maybe not.
By and large my opinion is the same as after the first viewing. I noticed a few places where I thought it could have been tightened (do we have to cut to Gandalf's concerned face in slow motion quite so many times?) but by and large it's still a pretty solid film. So, that said, here are minor quibbles I found with it.
I was wrong, Merry and Pippin haven't really gotten better since the first film. What they got was a more impressive list of accomplishments. Unfortunately they grate on me almost every time they appear, and most of their great moments try to be cute, and thus just irritate me.
The Palantír (hey, PJ, it's not a Palántir!) is nice to see in there and all, but not only does the scene last too long, Aragorn of all people shouldn't act like he's being electrocuted by it. And since when does Legolas have Sauron-detecting powers?
The mûmakil are actually not as bad as I thought on first glance, although they still remind of AT-ATs, somehow. They're too large, but for film I can see why.
What is Gandalf talking about with dying and going to the white shores and green meadows? Is he saying everyone gets to go to the undying lands? Is he just lying to make Pippin feel better? Huh? And "death is a path we all must take" only if we exclude elves. And wizards, for that matter.
Middle-earth seems far too small. Minas Morgul can be easily seen from Minas Tirith, Mordor seems to take about 2 hours to cross, and Faramir seemingly rides out to Osgiliath before Denethor even finishes his dinner. At the same time, it takes about 12 signal fires to light the way from Rohan to Gondor, when it's only a three-day ride. Dramatic, but silly.
Oh, and as
tpau pointed out where did Frodo get his clothes back from, since they change out of Orc gear halfway up Mount Doom? Maybe this is explained in the extended edition. Maybe not.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-21 11:11 pm (UTC)Osgiliath is closer, but having Faramir ride to Osgiliath is kind of dumb anyway - let's assault complex terrain on horseback, but first let's ride across an open plain with no shield wall to protect us from bow fire. I mean, hell, we only lost defending the convoluted home terrain with two thousand heavy infantry versus an amphibious assault, we are definitely up to the task of dying horribly here. It's okay, we can get more horses from Rohan if we need to, and we have an endless supply of plate mail, and we really have too many infantry compared to archers anyhow.
If it makes you feel any better, none of that happens in the actual book.