January 3, 2004

Tedious Review
Tuor

Wow, that title will draw readers. I haven't posted for a while or even read the forum what with finals and then the many holidays in the past weeks. I tried to read what articles I missed, but with the long awaited release, there sure are a lot of them. Speaking of said movie, wow, what can you say? I loved the movie, it was done extremely well considering what could have happened, but it was definitely a roller coaster. In a nutshell, my thoughts were alternating between "that scene was done better than I ever envisioned" to "what in the Shire was that?", and in the last 45 minutes "Frodo, no!"

The whole Gollum being "tricksy" was good in my opinion. Really, it made Smeagol seem even more dangerous than Gollum, though Gollum was the mastermind. There was maybe too much comedy, what comes easiest to mind is at the Black Gate, when Aragorn charges, followed a few seconds later by only Merry and Pippin, then eventually everyone else decides to go. You know my feelings about the Saruman scene, or lack of, but I knew it wasn't in the theatrical release. Yay, Extended Edition.

There are many and numerous things that, while not necessary, did disappoint. First of all, you see Sam approaching the Watchers at the gates, with a nice ominous slow pan by one of them, setting up nicely what should have happened, but then Sam is safely on the inside of the gate. Then he gets to the top of the tower, where the mithril vest has mysteriously disappeared. So, onto the Black Gate. Aragorn calls forth the Lord of Mordor, where the man known as the Mouth of Sauron is supposed to ride out and throw Frodo's things at Gandalf's feet, crushing the hopes of all present, but instead a tidal wave of orcs rushes out of the gate. Again, the MOS wasn't necessary, but, come on, who here wasn't secretly heartbroken when he didn't appear?

Well this is getting long and I grow weary.
Tuor