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(apologies in advance for gigantic nature of my ramblings; if you know me, you'll at least know they're in character...)
"But could you die alongside a friend?"
"Aye. That I could".
I enjoyed this a lot more than I enjoyed the Two Towers - that is, gut reaction, on leaving the cinema, I enjoyed it more, so hindsight will me like it even more. There's lots to gush about, obviously, but I guessed I probably ought to pick out the things that really made the film for me.
The performances, for a start. Merry and Pippin, both in their acting and the writing of their parts, managed to pull off the remarkable transition from a comedy-double-act to two seperate characters with noticable difference; that, I felt, was the most important thing in their parts. Ian McKellen's Gandalf pulls the whole thing together. Gandalf is the most remarkable character - the most powerful human (or therabouts) that we see, he's also the least afraid of what may befall him and yet also the most pessimistic. And, notably, he's one of the few characters who's been dead already. His speech to Pippin about what death is like was superb on both McKellen and Boyd's parts. I've loved the way McKellen has managed to bring an air of mystery, of true magic, to Gandalf; I'm not sure I've ever seen magic so well, so subtly realised on screen. Indeed, sometimes it's easy to forget the extent of his powers (or even the existence of them).
Theoden. I liked Bernard Hill's Theoden in the last film, but blow me if he wasn't superb here. Stern yet loving towards Eowyn, a remarkable leader of his men; when he leads them off to war, promising them the likelihood of early death, they are sceptical, but they just have to follow: when a fifty-year-old man with no helmet is at the front of the line, it's hard to deny him your support. When he rattled his sword along the front row of pikes - that really stirred me (and sent both Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe packing; nothing beats age as a demonstrator of experience, as well as fearless yelling).
Denethor was good, but my favourite Denethor scene was his death, where the single burning figure is promptly put into relief and obscurity by the war being waged around him.
Gollum: good as ever, but I particularly loved Andy Serkis' metamorphosis from Smeagol to Gollum. That was handled wonderfully, and that blink where his eyes become CGI... mmn, yes.
Shelob! Fucking Shelob! Brilliant. I loved every movement, every camera angle of this beastie. Beautiful animation, wonderful realisation of the chase; I'm not afraid of spiders and I just had the biggest grin every time she popped up.
Also, the blocks of horses breaking into gallop from line was wonderful, the gallops all breaking at different paces. The large-scale long shots of battle were most effective for me, simply because the most frightening thing is the sheer SIZE of Sauron's army. It really IS more things in one place than I've ever seen.
Production design: I would love to see the bigature of Minas Tirith, because it was just one of the most beautiful designs I've ever seen; perfectly realistic, strikingly daring in its desire for height over breadth, and incorporating that natural cliff promontary; every scene with it in made me grin.
(Other favourite bits of prod. design: the warty Orc, the Orc with the huge scar and human skull on his head, the black Oliphaunt riders with those wonderful beads and things, and Anduril. I want an Anduril, mummy, I want one now).
I loved the editing of Pippin's singing to the battle sequence. That worked well. For me, Aragorn singing was a damp squib and just seemed a bit token, and Annie Lennox singing was entirely unnecessary.
Now, some Moments in Rock:
Aragorn LEAPING out of the boat, with his two companions, and then hordes of green zombies decimate the place. Sod the zombies, when you see Aragorn leaping from the boat like that, it's like the Dukes of Hazzard climbing into the General Lee THROUGH THE FUCKING WINDOW because they are THAT FUCKING COOL.
Gandalf versus the Nazgul: he knows the big flying things are his responsibility, and then suddenly, you realise he's seeing the thing as a tiny insect he can swat. And he does. Beautiful.
Eowyn doing almost anything, but mainly kicking butt and taking names. Similarly, Legolas demonstrating (when he trashes the Oliphaunt) why he's more than just Paraphrase Boy.
Bad points: few, but some. Too many endings. Less Sam and Rosie, less interminable Frodo-in-Casualty, and bar the need to return to the Shire, I'd have loved the film to end on the fade to white as the boat leaves for the Grey Havens. (Loved Minas Tirith bowing, though). Also: I thought the Eye of Sauron was fairly omniscient, but I'd never have guessed it was a fucking searchlight. Gosh, I should have realised that ultimate evil was a line-of-sight weapon. Also, I thought the character of the Ring itself was far weaker than in the past two movies, where it was a truly personified, frightening thing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this as a conclusion to the entire arc; Fellowship is still, to my mind, the most successful of the films (and I don't quite have space here to explain why this is, I've rambled on enough, but I had a good natter with Vincennes about this after we saw it), Two Towers is weakest (but I might rate it more highly when I've seen the extended edition), and ROTK is a stirring, rousing, and uplifting conclusion which manages to take the viewer through a journey of real terror, and thus end up feeling real satisfaction, real relief at the end. Peter Jackson's pulled off a great thing. It's by no means the best film I've ever seen, but I'd put the trilogy as the best thing-which-is-oh-so-much-more-than-a-film that I've seen. |
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