The Lord of the Rings
January 2nd, 2007
After over a year of exile from Middle-Earth, the itch was getting too strong to resist. Much too much has been said about these movies already, so here are just three thoughts: (1) If you’re going to do a marathon, I strongly recommend the theatrical versions over the extended edition. You want the epic span of the story, but you don’t want all the buttnumbing footnote scenes. Sorry, purists. (2) In retrospect, The Two Towers is the weakest of the series. Gollum is terrific and the film’s climax offers good payoff, but the subplots about Faramir, Rohan, and Treebeard just aren’t nearly as interesting as the major storylines in the other two movies. (3) Return of the King has such a wealth of incredible visuals and is pitched at such an intense level of drama that it’s bound to remain a milestone for a long time to come. It also makes King Kong seem especially pointless–everything that movie was supposed to do, Return of the King had already done much better. As epic genre film, as ensemble melodrama, as special effects extravaganza, and as literary adaptation, The Lord of the Rings still reigns supreme.
The Fellowship of the Ring. Peter Jackson, 2001. *****
The Two Towers. Peter Jackson, 2002. *****
The Return of the King. Peter Jackson, 2003. *****
[tags]the lord of the rings, fantasy, hobbits, peter jackson, viggo mortensen, sean astin, elijah wood, cate blanchett, orlando bloom, ian mckellen, tolkien, adaptation, trilogy, marathon, film, 5 stars[/tags]
The Return of the King: Extended Edition
December 15th, 2004
For the third special edition, Jackson added a hefty 50 minutes, for a total of almost four hours of Hobbit action. There’s more fighting, more dwarf jokes, and more speeches about friendship and hope, all of which I can take or leave. What works are the more fleshed-out bits about the Paths of the Dead (which now has a much-needed bump in the dramatic arc), the Houses of Healing, and various odds and ends that slow the rush toward the finale in the last hour. Saruman gets a final scene (you remember Christopher Lee went public with his anger at being cut out), the Mouth of Sauron makes a great appearance, and Gandalf faces the King of the Nazgul. As always, the extended edition makes for a more filling experience.
Now I’ve got six hours of documentary footage and sixteen hours worth of commentary tracks to watch….
