Return of the King
Itâs Christmas, so it must be time for another Lord of the Rings film! Weâve just got back from seeing Return of the King, and we are still stretching out our cramped legs. Overall, I think it was a fantastic filmâindeed, the whole trilogy has been superb. Naturally, some bits have been left out, other bits arenât as you imagined from the books (can anyone take Elrond seriously?), but it would have been impossible to make the films into everyoneâs vision of the book. Peter Jackson did a wonderful job. Even the long battle scenesâwhich bored me rigid in the books (on both readings)âwere exciting and spectacular. Some of the problems with the films are in fact problems with the book, most notably Tolkienâs almost complete lack of plausible female characters. There wasnât much that Jackson could do about that.
While watching the battle scene at Minas Tirith, you suddenly think, âFlaminâ Nora! Look at all those CGI troopsâtheyâre all doing something different!â But you donât think that right awayâit only occurs to you when you realise that there probably arenât that many people in the whole of New Zealand, so most of those combatants must be pixels.
Despite the fact that I loved the film, there were still plenty of scenes to take the mickey out of. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on a couple of the more ludicrous passages (some spoilers may be involved, though if youâve read the book, it wonât come as much of a surprise).
