LOTR:ROTK

[phoenix]

The following review was cut and pasted from my LJ.

It seems to me that, despite the movie being essentially about Frodo's quest and his burden, he didn't do a terribly large amount of work nor did he do a particularly good job of his duties as ring-bearer - i.e. to make the right choice (re: to give up the ring) when the time came, and to prevent anyone else from having to make that choice. Now, throughout the movie, he offered it to (I think) Gandalf, Sam, Galadriel, and possibly Aragorn. In the book, he also offered it to Tom Bombadil. So much for the latter. And of course, when it came to the former, he failed miserably.

Sam, on the other hand, not only made the right choice when the ring was offered him, but he did his best to make sure that the ring didn't find an owner, even in Frodo. When he told Frodo, "I can't carry the ring for you... but I can carry you", I snickered and made a remark to my brother about him being the ring-bearer-bearer, but it seems to me that Gandalf saw this coming. Frodo lusted for adventure even before he came into the ring's posession - he was never a good choice for a ring-bearer. Sam, humble and strong, was ideal, but nothing could convince him to do the job on account of the very humility that made him ideal. Hence Gandalf's appointment of Frodo to carry the ring, and inevitably the employment of Sam like an extremely dedicated sheepdog hot on the heels of a particularly affectionate and effeminate sheep.

Gandalf is definitely a gunslinger.

In other news, I really did like the movie very much. As I was telling Chloe, part of what made it great was that the producers made no attempt at subtlety whatsoever. They had not a single qualm over dressing every single soldier in the good armies in white, shining armour, and having every single one of their enemies be either incredibly sinister or hideously mutated, and dressed in dark or rusty black armour. Further, all the battles that the bad guys won took place on a dark and stormy night, and all the battles that the good guys won took place in the daytime. When it looked like Sauron was taking the upper hand, the sky clouded over. When the cavalry showed up in one form or another, the sun rose. And just look at the casting. There is not a doubt in my mind that certain actors were picked solely for their looks. I'm not complaining, mind - never let it be said that you heard a Matrix fan complain about a lack of acting talent in a movie.

My favorite quotes:

After Legolas takes down the giant mammoth thing and slides down its trunk as it falls, brushes himself off, fixes his hair, and winks at Gimli, he snarls, "That still only counts as one" and plunges back into the battle.

I also liked Gandalf telling Pippin all the things that he shouldn't say during their interview with the Steward, then concluding with, "In fact, it'd be best if you didn't speak at all".

My favorite character is still Gandalf. Throughout the entire movie, he was the only one that had even a faint idea what was going on. And he's just so cool!

End review self-plagiarism. Has anyone else seen it yet?