Yet another Sunday night post

[learnedax]

Lots 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 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.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

...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.

Well, Theoden specifies it's a very hard 3-day ride, so let's say 75-100 miles per day. Looking at the map backs this up, with a crow's-flight distance of ~250 miles.

Visibility in perfect conditions is about 50 miles. Those mountains are obviously NOT perfect conditions, with snowy fog, so let's say 10-30 miles. It looked like about 20 miles between signal fires. 250 miles / 20 miles = 12 signal fires. Makes sense to me!

If you look at this map, you can see the probable locations of about half of the fires; it only makes sense to tie them to the outposts of Amon Din, Nardol, Erelas, etc., etc.

Mordor seems to take about 2 hours to cross

This bugged me; I would have like two fewer shots of Frodo going "Oh god, it's heavy!" and two more 4-second-long shots of Frodo and Sam slogging across the plains of Mordor.

I believe Gandalf espouses his views on death, at least as drawn by Peter Jackson, accurately. He seems too at peace with it to be just flat-out lying. Likewise, it ties in with the death-is-a-journey theme of the whole movie (and, in fact, the meta-story of Peter Jackson coming to terms with the end of the series).

Frodo's clothes: I assume they found them, and he wore them *under* the orc gear. Yeah, could have used a 5 second explanatory shot.

The tribute to the AT-ATs I found more amusing than anything else. I was waiting for someone (probably Legolas) to climb up to the underbelly of one and throw a sapper charge in.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

sorry, forgot the link: http://www.ititches.com/middleearth/

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I would have like two fewer shots of Frodo going "Oh god, it's heavy!" and two more 4-second-long shots of Frodo and Sam slogging across the plains of Mordor.

More slogging. Also more delusions/illusions when Sauron is trying to get at him through the ring. More Sauron in general -- all we got is the Eye on the tower.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Huh. I guess you can ride a lot farther in a day than I thought. It was on the whole the lack of travel on screen that gave the impression that everything's just down the street, and I suppose the signal fires are actually a good way to show that there's still some major distances being covered.

The AT-AT strategy I expected was roping around the legs. I didn't see anyone do this, and it's not very practical without enormous ropes on hand, but still...