Review

Not the first time I had seen Lord of the Rings of course, but certainly the first time I watched all of them in one sitting. Whoo boy. That shit was a journey. In terms of the books, I've read the first book-and-a-half so I'm somewhat familiar with the differences between the books and the films. One thing is I think at this point I've watched the extended editions more than I have the theatrical ones so I'm not completely familiar with what scenes were added later on.

Fellowship of the Ring

Uncontroversially the best film of the trilogy. Certainly the tightest. I think the fact that very few scenes were added to the extended edition from the theatrical is clear evidence of that. I think by coincidence more than anything Fellowship most closely follows a clear three-act structure and so we get the easiest translation into a film. In watching these films together, it became more obvious than ever that the Lord of the Rings is really just one long extended story. So it's difficult to evaluate the films individually. Most evident with Two Towers.

The Two Towers

Has the unfortunate responsibility of being the middle one. When evaluated as part of the whole, I think Two Towers does exactly what it needs to do. We deal with the fallout of the breaking of the Fellowship and we fix the issues going on with Rohan so they can be our support for Gondor's problems in Return of the King. This is the movie where we're moving the pieces around. But when evaluated as a single movie it does feel like it drags. We start literally in the middle of a fight (though I do love the Gandalf and Balrog fight). Not in my opinion a very proper beginning. And we don't really end in a conclusive place. Frodo and Sam are walking to Mordor, as they were in the previous movie. We do get Gollum's proper introduction which is lovely because Gollum is wonderful in these movies. I had forgotten just how treacherous and bastard he is. But also so compelling as a character as we see Smeagol genuinely trying to resist the Ring's terrible influence. Great stuff with him. Andy Serkis is a gem. It's just a shame that Frodo and Sam don't really get a chance to do anything. Hardly Peter Jackson's fault given they don't do much here in the books either, it's just a fact of the material we're working with. Brad Dourif is also masterful as the man of grease and slime.

Return of the King

I actually did not mind the extended goodbyes even though I feel like I've heard that's a sticking point with people. After that extreme epic we went on, I think a good long emotional comedown is necessary. Also, another thing that I like was the change to how we deal with Saruman. Him being brought down by Wormtongue was still good. But the image of him being ground down by his own machinery after having been pushed off his own tower is magnificent. Great visual storytelling. I don't mind scouring of shire getting cut. Can't believe that too got cut in the theatrical though.