*** Official THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Steve_AS]

Some of the 'Frodo amidst the lava' scenery was pretty obviously shot against a screen; almost quaintly old-fashoned looking, like in those old movies where people are 'driving' in a car and front of a filmed background.

Overall the SFX were pretty darned great though.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

That's so cute that Shelob takes after her mother.

 

[Greg*go]

Hmmm, I guess Shelob wasn't really real after all.

I thought the shot where they all bow to the Hobbits looked fake the first time I saw it, it took me completely out of the moment. The second time though I saw what everyone else meant when they talked about how emotional it was for them.

 

[Holadem]

Question: Is the discovery and driving of Sauron from Dol Guldur detailed in any of the Tolkien's work, be it Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales or others? I am really interested in that part of the story, how the Wise reacted in the face of growing evil in Mirkwood, thinking it was a Nazgul, until they realized it was Sauron himself.

--
H

 

[Richard Kim]

 

[Patrick Sun]

Upon second viewing, the CGI stood out more for me, especially the battle at Minas Tirith as Theoden leads the men (and Eowen) into battle. It was like I could actually see the seams between the live action persons and the effects in some angles of the footage.

 

[Kami]

SUrprised this hasn't been brought up yet...but apparently both PJ and Ian McKellan have been quoted as saying the ROTK:EE is 5+ hours in length.


It's from DVDAnswers.com.

Only time will tell, but that would be a nice final treat to this whole LOTR thing. I have no doubt that they have the amount of extra scenes to fill this since their philosophy was "shoot everything and pick and choose later."

 

[CarlosL]

Actually, that has been brought up before, and in fact someone mis-heard Peter. He actually said 4 hours and *15* minutes, not 50 minutes.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Thanks Daniel......

CGI: I thought the worst looking shots of the trilogy were:

1. Legolas on the back of the cave troll.
2. The fellowship running through the mines just after the cave troll fight (and running out of the mines after the Balrog fight).
3. Frodo running into the entrance of Mount Doom.

The rest looked pretty convincing to me, especially the shot of Gollum smirking at Sam after Frodo's "I'm not letting him go".

 

[David Nelson]

Hey Holadem,

Try The Silmarillion in the back chapter called "Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age". It details Dol Guldur and what Gandalf and Saruman did.

 

[Kami]

Yeah I remember that, but I thought this was from something different. And what's McKellan talking about then?

The plot thickens.

 

[Brian W.]

Yes, that's true. Ian apparently was a guest on Jonathan Ross on Friday the 19th, accoring to TVTome.com but it's always possible he could have been joking or misquoted.

 

[nolesrule]

I think this has more to do with the viewer's natural brain functions than anything else. There are rarely any shots in all 3 films that show hobbits and men/elves next to each other where both are standing and in full frame. I think it's the brain's way of not being able to rationalize a normal proportioned human with a height of 3.5 feet. So the brain tells the viewer that something doesn't look right.

It's easier for the brain to get past partial height-establishing shots, other types of effects like CGI creatures that don't really exist or with other creatures that don't look human, be it CGI, puppet or prosthetics.

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Re: Sauron driven from Mirkwood

It's tied into The Hobbit as well, with Sauron leaving Dol Guldor after the great battle before the Lonely Mountain.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It reminded me of the shot in Superman: The Movie where Superman is repairing the San Andreas fault. The lava shot with Sam and Frodo running, I mean.

 

[Chris Will]

Come on guys. I thought the lava stuff looked great. Lava is a tough thing to get right. I thought that it was some of the best looking lava I have seen in a movie. Anyone remember the movie Congo, just be glad the lava didn't look as bad as it did in that movie.

 

[Matt Stone]

I thought the lava looked great. Maybe I missed something...can someone name a specific shot that I should look for?

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Just saw it. Awesome.

There were minor faults, but film making and cinema is about the outcome, not the little tiny things that bring it all together (like semi-fake looking fire/lava) - and we have all voted on the outcome :star::star::star::star:/:star::star::star::star:

I would love to see The Hobbit made to round it off, so I hope that project gets taken care of.

All and all, it is refreshing to see that they can still make good movies.

5 HOURS FOR THE EXTENDED DVD!!!

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Sorry, dumb question:

When they all 'leave Middle Earth' at the end. What does that mean? Are they off to another land, or off the the after life Gandalf was talking about?

 

[Brian W.]

Gollum sinking into it. To me, it wasn't necessarily the lava itself, but like I said earlier, it seems like Gollum should have been at least smoking as he was going under, and at least have SOME painful reaction. As it was, it was more like he was sinking into an orange milkshake.