'The Girl in Question'
Frodo: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Aragorn"? Elrond: That's his name. Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Aragorn: I like "Strider." Elrond: We named the *dog* "Strider".
A discussion of Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. If you're a pervy hobbit fancier, this is the place for you.
My audience was pretty good except for one guy yelling "OH, COME ON, JUST *END* ALREADY!" when they faded up to Sam coming home.
Which was annoying, but I did kind of sympathize (it being nearly 4 am), except that the ensuing laughter threatened to drown out Well, I'm Back.
When I saw the first night showing of TTT, there were two babies in the audience (crying off and on the whole time).
This is why I am being a good parent, if a bad geek, and waiting. Until Xmas week so grandmother can babysit.
Putting aside the parenting issue, if you're geeky enough to want to see the movie on the first night, buying tickets ahead of time, etc., don't you want to enjoy it without distraction?
From the Salon review:
Tolkien purists may be less happy with "The Return of the King" than with the other chapters of Jackson's trilogy. Several subplots have been dropped entirely... and others...have been whittled to almost nothing. In some alternate universe, Jackson could have made a 30-hour miniseries to make such people happy. In this universe, he has merely made the grandest and most delicate of pop spectacles, an epic that is heroic but almost never grandiose, a story of war that understands that within every great victory there lies a kind of defeat.
Several subplots have been dropped entirely... and others...have been whittled to almost nothing
This is intensely frustrating. I'm assuming that's what accounts, for instance for the superpowers and the lost Faramir/Eowyn -- no time to go to the healing halls. It couldn't have been longer, but it should have been.
We didn't have those laugh points. There were some Gollum laugh moments that I didn't think very funny. Some "not done YET???" outbursts formed the bulk of our vibe harshers.
My "I totally don't see why you did THAT" for the movie was definitely the Arwen thing. Made precisely zero sense. Like the Ents coming to realisation so late in TTT and Carhadras in FotR, but moreso.
I don't think it needed to be longer. I'd have been happy exchanging some of the endless amassing for battle scenes for more character moments, like the Houses of Healing.
See, Jess, I found those to be character scenes. In the senses of the characters involved, the nations as characters, and the quest as a character too.
If I went to snipping, it'd pretty much be a random 10s off of every third scene, or something.
Until Xmas week so grandmother can babysit.
You know what the funny part is? The funny part is that grandmother heard about this plan and said, "No, wait, I'm going to this movie too."
There may be a series of viewings among the Nuttykin, each a different set of people with one left behind to keep track of Casper. I am doing my part by seeing it, with brother, tonight.
Hurray for Fandango and cell phones, as my planning is very much of the last minute. It is a womanful job, trying not to read the whitefont.
In the senses of the characters involved, the nations as characters
I can see that. For me, after the third or fourth time it happened, I was getting a little tired of PJ cutting away from Frodo & Sam to show us yet another wide shot of the Biggest CGI Armies Ever. I wanted to see more people fighting.