The Qt3 hivemind will NOT tolerate such opinions!! I declare you a HACK and your thoughts null and void.
For the record, I completely agree with you. RotK’s 20 endings were laughably bad. And no scouring? No winning. Duh.
Each of the endings are actually very solid pieces of cinema. It’s the slooooow fade to white between each that cripples them. I mean ‘you bow to noone’? Brilliant. Riding back into the Shire? Sweet. The scene in the pub? Perfectly judged. It’s just as a whole that they falter.
And the super emotional ‘farewell’ scene flails because the actors feel so much more than the audience, who by the time it arrives are slaves to their aching asses.
But, John, really? the Scouring? MIDGETS. Fighting GROWN UPS. It would have looked fucking ridiculous.
Yeah, that bed scene was some quality cinema. How DARE anyone criticize that scene. Clearly they need to watch more movies to gain perspective and hone their critical faculties to be Qt3 razor-sharp.
Having specifically watched each “ending” so I could document on my poll for “best ending” to LotR, there was only one fade to white. That was where the last ship sails into the sun, and was perfectly fine as a moment for the audience to reflect and then transition to Sam returning to Bag End. There are two fade to blacks, however. One at “the end of all things” that reflects the bleakness of Sam and Frodo’s position, and the end of the “Sleeping Beauty Awaken” scene, meant more as a non-abrupt change of scene and passage-of-time-and-location to the coronation scene. To someone who actually read the book, there was only one ending, and that was the one that occurred at the end of the movie.
And the super emotional ‘farewell’ scene flails because the actors feel so much more than the audience, who by the time it arrives are slaves to their aching asses.
Didn’t feel that way at all. Today’s audience are simply wimps - (adopting yorkshire accent) in my youth, we sat through double features, with a large drink, and never got up. But I suppose I’ll be sorely tested today, since in one hour I’ll be going to Lorini’s house to watch the Blu-Ray back to back to back LotR marathon.
But, John, really? the Scouring? MIDGETS. Fighting GROWN UPS. It would have looked fucking ridiculous.
It wasn’t necessary to conclude the story, and the movie already had a protracted denouement. Toss it on the cutting room floor along with Tim Benzedrine…ummmm…Tom Bombadil.
Okay Mr Pedantic Pants, fade to black. Same point applies.
To someone who actually read the book, there was only one ending, and that was the one that occurred at the end of the movie.
Comic book guy voice time:
To someone who actually read the book
To someone who actually read the book
To someone who actually read the book
(PS I am calling you a smug nerd for this statement)
Did I say otherwise in those cases? I probably wouldn’t have made a point of it except the examples you cited specifically did not have a fade to white or black.
Comic book guy voice time:
To someone who actually read the book
To someone who actually read the book
To someone who actually read the book
Not sure why you try to turn it into a sneer or condescending remark, rather than a simple comparison of those who are familiar with Tolkien’s ending and therefore had an expectation of what the actual ending would be, and those that hadn’t and therefore weren’t sure of what the actual ending was (and could therefore misinterpret the director’s artistic decisions).
(PS I am calling you a smug nerd for this statement)
Well, thanks for saving me the embarrassment of thinking you were just teasing me with that first bit of name-calling.
My comments were meant as observations on the nature of the movie, not a personal challenge or intended as any kind of affront.
Arise!
I know how I’ll revisit the movies next month.
The review for the Blu Ray extended edition is up at The Digital Bits: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/bdreviews061411.html
Discs One & Two (BD) - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Extended Edition
… The most important thing to know here is that the HD image quality for this film is vastly improved from the Theatrical Blu-ray. It’s actually a new presentation, remastered from the film’s original 2K digital files. In fact, it’s breathtaking. There are significant gains in fine detail and overall contrast. The image is delicately textured and refined. You can actually see the very light grain structure of the image, which results in a far less digital and far more film-like presentation. Contrast is excellent, with deep, true blacks. Colors are pleasing too, though it’s worth noting that the color timing for these films has been redone. I’ve confirmed with production-related sources that Jackson and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie were directly involved in all decisions related to this new transfer and approved it personally. So to the extent that there are changes to the color-timing, they were made at Jackson and Lesnie’s direction - the films look exactly as they want them to.
…
Disc Six & Seven (BD) - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Extended Edition
… As was the case with Fellowship, the A/V presentation of The Two Towers: Extended Edition is magnificent in virtually every respect. Like the first film, it’s been given ample room to breath over two BD-50s. I’m once again blown away by the sheer depth visible in the image - something that just wasn’t visible to this degree in the Theatrical Blu-rays. Contrast is excellent - especially important during the nighttime Battle of Helm’s Deep. Detail is abundant - note the subtle textures of the different kinds of armor during the battle and the stone walls of the keep. The lossless audio mix is clear, crisp and natural, delivering in spades in both the quiet moments and the overwhelming din of battle.
…
Disc Eleven & Twelve (BD) - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Extended Edition
The 1080p video and lossless audio quality here is once again on par with the new Fellowship presentation. Fine detail is abundant, with lovely contrast and accurate color. The image is delicately textured and highly dimensional. The sweeping shot as King Théoden and his Rohirrim charge the advancing line of Mûmakil on the fields of Pelennor looks almost three-dimensional. And note the subtle pencil strokes in the Alan Lee character sketches that accompany the film’s closing credits. The DTS mix is just as enthralling here - from the thunderous battle before the White City to the pulsing, throbbing sound as we see the final fate of The One Ring. Thrilling, breathtaking - there aren’t enough positive adjectives to fully describe the splendor of this A/V presentation.
There is a lot more info on the contents of the other discs in the review. But I think that above explains why I’ll happily jump on those discs as soon as they come out.
Wendelius
I must affirm this position. Those of us who read the book were actually quite puzzled by the ‘too many endings’ criticism. I quite enjoyed the lengthy falling action appropriate for the ending of such an epic tale.
I’ve read the book. And I thought the endings were too drawn out thanks to a questionable directorial decision, namely a succession of long slow fades that signal ‘this is the end’, in the context of an already very long film, leading to an unnecessary deflation of dramatic effect from the final scenes.
Dividing the world into alpha nerds who came at the series from the text and implicitly mouth-breathing hoi polloi who are all GIVE ME MY QUICK CUTS BABES AND MTV DAMMIT is the division I was mocking.
Nice necro bait, you magnificient monster.
Odd, since I had the opposite reaction to the fade-to-blacks: “Oh, you better not end it there, Jackson…okay, good.”
Your complaint seems to only apply to a first viewing, really.
He left “perpetual whiners” off his list. ;-)
Yeah, I was a “don’t end it there, okay good” on the initial viewing at the theater. On rewatching without the suspense of where Jackson was going to end the movie, all the various fade to white/black/voiceover all work artistically for me.
Eh, de gustibus etc.
Like I said, I thought all the endings were really solid. The drink in the pub, in particular, was absolutely perfect. The only change I’d have is cutting all the damn fades.
Hm, I might experiment with how that plays.
And those of us who read all the books, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and The Lost Tales thought there were too many endings, especially given the transitions between each scene.
So there.
Wow, that is an extremely exuberant review. Can’t wait.
So you’re saying the book has too many endings, then. Interesting.
Agreed.
(plus Tolkien’s letters, Children of Hurin, 12 volumes of History of Middle Earth)
Implying that the terrible hacking together of the endings in RotK matches what was done in the book is just wrong (even aside from deleting the Scouring, which I thought was the right decision). I’m glad Grey Havens got kept, however.
The changes Jackson made to the RotK he already had in the can at the time he filmed all 3 movies, before the Fellowship hit theatres, were not for the better. King Kong clearly continued that decline into self-indulgent pap - much as I loved the LotR movies, I’m really concerned about the new ones. They already feel like the Star Wars prequels, and RotK is diminishing like RotJ.
The only one of those that I haven’t read is The Lost Tales, and if those are the only ones you’ve read, then you haven’t read them all either. [So there?]
All I meant is that none of us who knew where the story actually has its end were expecting it to end before then.
I thought Return of the King was a better film than The Two Towers, with or without the extended scenes.
I agree. I thought The Two Towers was the weakest of the 3.
Nope, but nice try at twisting my words. The book has one ending, doofus.
It’s not that the movies showed the gay bed jumping scene, the wedding, the Shire, the Grey Havens and Sam back at home again…it’s how Jackson transitioned from the gay bed jumping scene to the wedding to the Shire to the Grey Havens and to Sam arriving back at home again. The constant white screen fade outs that typically signify the end of a movie got old quickly and the wrap-up was a fairly consistent source of criticism amongst both movie reviewers and movie goers.
Of course, this flaw doesn’t mean that the movies aren’t pure awesomesauce. After all, I have purchased the regular, extended and Blu-Ray versions of all the films and will likely end up with the Blu-Ray Extended editions too.