Amph One Thread To Rule Them All: The Rings of Power + The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies

I'd put ROTK over TTT.

 

It's so much sloppier in its construction, though, with near-constant flashbacks in the first act (a flashback to a prologue from ten minutes ago!), a character assassination much more malignant than Faramir's, a poor, gutless ending to Pelennor, and a frankly lifeless handling of the Eowyn/Witch-King material. Even though half of the second film is pretty much made up, I've grown to find most of those changes effective and much more demonstrative of the themes of the book than when the writers play the material straight, themes like making hope from despair and the route through which Strider finds his own conviction necessary to lead others. I find Haldir's death moving, but am unfazed by Theoden's passing, and can therefore appreciate the elves at Helm's Deep when viewing Haldir's death as the fulcrum of the race's own slow death in the book, their migration to Valinor. The theatrical edition of TTT has brevity and thematic focus on its side, at least. RotK's main problem is editing and pacing. It's all over the place. See the complaints with the endings. Most people don't understand that the source of the complaints isn't with the amount of endings present, but rather the manner in which they are constructed, I.e. overuse of fade outs or shots expected to lead into fade outs.

I might also be bitter with Rotk because all of the EE villain confrontations are just shoddy. Saruman's death scene is a remix of the ten variations shot with minimal effect, the witch king confrontation isn't a fraction as memorable and striking as his entrance through the gates in the book, and the King of the West beheads an unarmed ambassador. Baaaaaaaaaaaaad.

 

I was specifically thinking of Everton and Mar17swgirl trying to organize a mini-celebration to watch, people searching for the best IMAX theater near them, etc. And remember how thrilled we were that Jackson himself would take over the directing duties?

 

Ah memories. Only a few days ago we were talking about the excitement ahead of AUJ. In contrast going to see BOFA felt like a chore.

 

You doubt that you do not and will not believe him...so you think he's right, and that the movie is terrible.
Okay. That's different, anyway.

 

First this weekend, and then the wait begins for the Middle Earth reboot. Next time, Tom Bombadoo and the barrow widgets get their own feature length film - The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings Part 2.

 

With each film having an EE that is a 10-disc boxed set.

 

Yes, exactly!

 

Quoting myself here because it seems like the reviews so far have been very short because the movie was as bad as those posters thought it would be. I'm sure we'll be seeing some "It was awesome!" reviews in this thread soon enough too. That's fine, but I'm just curious if anyone has anything else to add, especially if the movie was better or worse than someone expected.

 

I generally thought TDOS was better than AUJ. AUJ gets off to a great start, but really drags on after a while. TDOS certainly has many faults. but at least moved at a good pace.

 

I feel I'm in a unique position as someone who is getting Hobbit 3 as a "surprise" birthday present from my son. Because it's my son, I can't just pretend to like it. I really have to make a good faith effort to try to like it, to find the artistry and beauty in it. to understand the intent behind its execution and try to embrace it.

 

I have low expectations for it but I don't think it's going to be completely horrible. AUJ was enjoyable for the most part and TDOS was just mediocre.

 

I'll be seeing it in the theater with my son. We saw the first two in the theater together, so it just feels right to finish out the trilogy that way.

 

I'm kinda in the same boat. I swore as I walked out of TDOS that I wouldn't even bother going to see BOTFA at the theater, but I've seen all of the previous "Middle Earth" movies opening day, and I just so happen to have this Friday off--and I never get Friday's off--so it's as if fate is willing me toward seeing it for completionist's sake.

 

I'm going to see it tonight; a friend invited me and even offered to pay, so I can't really turn that down. I'm really hoping I like it. Despite everybody's general dislike of this trilogy, I have honestly loved it, and I think both AUJ and DOS are great, even if not as good as the LOTR trilogy. But then, that's hard to live up to.

 

1. FOTR
2. ROTK
   
   
3. TTT
   
   
   
   
4. AUJ
5. DOS
   
   
   
6. BOTFA

The Two Towers had by far the best Extended Edition though.

 

I think it benefitted the most from its EE, yes. I remember leaving the cinema after seeing the theatrical cut and feeling like I'd only seen something glaringly incomplete.

 

Yeah, glad this was free. This movie felt all over the place. It also felt like it was building to something that never capitulated. Also, Legolas' blue contacts still make my eye twitch.

 

Ok just came back, I will say this movie was not very bad, but didn't meet the expectation of a great finale.

Spoiler

The Smaug and the Sauron line was solved way too quickly and rushed, Smaug was killed like less than 15 mins after the movie started. The Sauron fight was also not interesting other than seeing Sir Christopher Lee still able to perform so well in his 90s. The Tauriel romance is still ****. Legolas was simply a fanservice.

As for the battle, too much was spent on the two 1 on 1s, the battle itself was too rushed and didn't have a convincing ending, it simply ended so quickly after Azog's death.

Overall I think it's on par with the 2nd one.

 

So, am I correct in assuming that the best part of the film is Billy Boyd's singing?

 

Slowpoke, do you agree the Hobbit films are utterly awful, cynical marketing attempts that have no artistic merit?

 

I don't think they are that bad, they are still better than a lot of blockbusters. However, compare to the LotR Trilogy, the quality of the Hobbit films is a lot worse.

 

it cracks me up that the general view is that the first film is the best and that each successive movie is more and more ****.

 

Saw the movie

It was awesome

Sue me.

 

But you have taken the names of two of the most boring, undeveloped, bland characters in fiction and made them your username. It's not a case of suing; you made the case for disregarding your content before we even got here.