Okay, so I'm breaking my own self-imposed rule about not writing in this journal when I haven't been working on my own fiction-writing, but I saw "Return of the King" and wanted to discuss my initial reactions (as I'm sure I'll see it again a couple more times, though probably no time soon -- after watching all the extras on the first 2 extended DVDs, I'm ready for a break!).

Overall, I liked it. My favorite scene by far was when Pippin was forced to sing a Shire-song to Denethor while the nutty old fella was chowing down, and they cut away to Faramir and the other remaining Gondor soldiers riding off to their deaths, and they never had to show the actual battle. You just knew what would happen next.

I thought there were too few nicely done moments like this in the film. As another person said, the film felt rushed, and I agree. (thanks for the link, Gwenda!) I also thought my bud Todd at the News & Observer was right-on with his review and comments.

Mostly, I think there was too much plot to fit into the early portion of the movie, and poor Gandalf was infodumping left and right. I wasn't crazy about the Smeagol flashback, though it was nifty seeing Gollum take shape. Did we need the fish-eating scene, though? Made my teeth hurt!

I was expecting a kick-ass scene with Gandalf (my favorite character of the books) taking on the Nazgul, and I thought it was gonna happen when he rides out on Shadowfax. But all he does is shine some light in the fell beasts' face. Sigh...

My other quibble was that the battle scenes weren't as good as in "Two Towers" and Elizabeth and I both agreed that the oliphaunts didn't need to die.

But all the main characters had really good moments, like Pippin with Denethor (and his saving of Faramir later) and Merry and Eowyn, (kicking some Witch King ass!), and Aragorn leading the charge against Mordor (I really liked how they played up the fact that they were stalling for time for Frodo), and Sam's heroism as he picks up Frodo and carries him up the mountain/volcano, and Gandalf, taking charge altogether.

And I kinda liked the five different endings. I like that it ended with Sam and Rosie, just like the book. "I'm back." Nice.

Overall, a very good movie version, if a bit flawed, and way better than any other movie I've seen all year.

And now I'm off to my 4th job interview of the week, after 5 last week. Later.