So I just got done watching the 3 Lord of the Rings movies this breaks, having finished Return of the King just an hour ago. Iâm not sure why it took me so long. Iâve seen The Fellowship of the Ring multiple times through, and I saw The Two Towers at least once. But I had never seen RotK before. I was familiar with the basic plot of RotK, my dad read me the books when I was young so I have very vague memories of the plot, but I didnât know any of the details.
Anyway, hereâs just some immediate impressions of things I liked and didnât like.
- The One Ring of Power was very, very terrifying, and I loved the symbolism. The movie handled it very well. I got a little creeped out every time I saw the ring.
- The setting was very medieval. A lot of high fantasy is not really medieval but rather early modern, e.g. the Warcraft universe, and I appreciated that it wasnât that. There were no guns and no steampunk contraptions. Most people and places were dirty. The cities were small, even the largest city seemed to only house 10k-15k people. A lot of the battles were dirty skirmishes between a few dozen fighters at most, though yes there were a couple of climactic large battles.
- It didnât make war look cool or fun. The battles were dirty, brutal, and tragic. The destruction was palpable. War was clearly depicted as a horrible thing.
- All the exposition needed was handled pretty well, I think, which is good because that can often be botched in movies.
- The CGI was only used when necessary. The world really came alive with all the real props, settings, and practical effects.
- The acting was really good all around, I thought. I particularly liked the portrayals of Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam, Boromir, and Golem.
- The depiction of male friendship between Frodo and Sam, and Merry and Pippin, was great. They were true friends, not just comrades or teammates.
- The conflict between Sam and Golem over Frodo was amazing. I think there is symbolism in there for the struggle within Frodo, as well, between lust for power and the down-to-earth humility of Sam.
- Golem alone was very interesting. Him talking to himself, where Smeagle debated Golem, in The Two Towers, was really fantastic, and the dialogue felt psychologically believable in content.
- They managed to make both Gandalf and Saruman to be powerful, impressive, and even badass despite being old men, which I think is an achievement and could have easily come off as cheesy, unbelievable, or over-the-top.
- Frodo felt a little bland to me as a character, save his struggle with The Ring, which was fantastic. Other than that, however, I felt like he was a pretty generic everyman vessel for that struggle without many defining traits of his own outside of that.
- I know this isnât possible in a movie format, but I wish there was more time lingering in and developing the setting in the movie format. I could tell there is so much more there, but I felt like the movie just had to keep moving and I couldnât really let the world sink in.
- Similarly, a few plot points felt rushed to me. For instance, Aragorn venturing into the mountains to recruit the dead was only a couple of minutes of movie time, but I felt like that plot point deserved more like 15-20 minutes of attention. Also, I wish there had been more about the relationship between Gondor and Rohan.
- The extent and limitations of Gandalfâs powers are not really made clear. Sometimes he seems to be almost a demigod in his power, and other times he seems not much more powerful than a normal human, but itâs not clear why this is the case in each moment. This lead to him feeling like a deus ex machina at a few points without any real rationalization.
- I thought Gimili and Legolas didnât get a ton of fleshing out or character development, instead serving almost as body guards for Aragorn, which is a shame because I feel like there was a lot of potential there. Also, I didnât like the comic relief aspect of Gimiliâs character, which I understand was not in the book (though I understand why it may have been necessary in movie form).
- I think it was a mistake to not include the battle for the Shire at the end, though I can understand why they didnât.
- I was disappointed that the Dwarven kingdoms were not involved at all in the story, and that Gimili was the only Dwarven character in the movie IIRC. There was just nothing on them, not even an explanation for why they werenât involved in the battle against Mordor.
- I like Sarumanâs character, and the idea of the wise wizard/academic being corrupted, but Iâm not sure how I feel about how he fit into the plot. Like heâs the main antagonist in the first two movies, but then is defeated relatively easily by the Ents, who came out of nowhere and didnât have a ton of development or fleshing out themselves, and then itâs as if he didnât exist and they go on to fight Mordor. Also, heâs an obvious puppet of Sauron, and not even in a âright hand manâ way like Darth Vader is to the Emporer in Star Wars, which I think diminished him.
- I disliked all the enemies being subhuman orcs. I would have liked more of the primary enemies to be corrupted humans or something rather than just monsters. Yes, there were corrupted humans mentioned, but they never appear in an actual battle or plot significant event.
- Merry and Pippin felt like basically the same character, I wish they were differentiated more.
- Few significant female characters, and even the couple that were there were there just to support the heroes.
- The big battles dragged on a bit in my opinion.
Overall, though, I really liked the trilogy of movies despite those problems.
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