LOTR Review

This afternoon, the C# team went to see LotR: Return of the King. I should preface this by saying that I'm not a big Tolkien fan (or a fan of fantasy in general). Note: There are some spoilers in this post.

It's not a bad film, but contrary to Scoble, I don't think it was very good. Here are my issues:

  • There was enough fluff to cut this down to 2:30 from 3:00 hours, easy. The first hour had very little action and could have been trimmed down without affecting the movie
  • The movie has 4 endings, all with pull-back shots and stirring music. First, the bad guys are vanquished. Then Aragorn (sp?) becomes king. Then, the hobbits return to the shire. Then, Frodo leaves. Then Sam has a final scene. 5 endings.
  • The military tactics are pretty poor. You have a bunch of trebuchets on your fortress, but you let the enemy attack you for 15 minutes before you start using them. You have a force attacking your front gate, and all you do is crouch inside, waiting for them to break through. Where are the platforms to drop burning oil on your attackers? Where are the murder holes in the gatehouse? Where are the arrow loops? Could you at least put some of your archers on the top of the wall?
    Or if your cavalry is decimating your opponent and you're confronted by warriors mounted on huge beasts, do you use your superior mobility to continue to rout the footsoldiers, which will be easy because they've broken? No, you stop chasing the footsoldiers, and instead try to attack the huge but slow beasts. Stupid.
    It always bothers me when people do stupid things in movies.
  • Too many confused fighting closeups.

If you're a bit LoTR fan, this may not bother you.