February 18, 2003

Various Subjects
Lady of Rohan

After reading several recently posted articles (especially's Brett C.'s "intensive review") on TTT, I felt moved to add my own little bit of commentary.

First of all, I too was disappointed with usual flaws: Faramir and Treebeard's uncharacteristic behavior, the long (and in my opinion utterly pointless) scenes with Elrond and Galadriel narrating the plot, and Aragorn's death fake-out.

Mostly though I was disappointed with the way PJ portrayed Merry and Pippin--Pippin especially. The chaper "The Uruk-Hai" is one of my favorite parts of the trilogy, mostly because it shows Pippin's bravery in leaving a trail for Aragorn to follow, and in his rescue of Merry and himself later on.

This in turn leads to the biggest beef I have with TTT--that most of it isn't there. I can see why PJ chose to have Shelob at the beginning of ROTK, but I cannot understand why he would leave out The Voice of Saruman scene. Instead of the campy "Theoden-exocism" bit, the director SHOULD have used the voice of Saruman to show that Gandalf is now the superior wizard (as Tolkien intended it to).

Brett C. pointed out at the end of his article that having Pippin look into the Palantir at the beginning of ROTK would pose certain complications in the films' plot line. It is my fear that PJ will do away with this scene altogether (unfortunately).

I also wonder if he will even point out the fact that the reason for Denethor's madness was his use of a Palantir?

I apologize for the length of this article, especially since it's really only re-stating what others have said.

Until next time,

Namarie

P.S. exclusively for Peter Jackson: ORCS AREN'T CANNIBALS!