No one wants to leave Middle-earth
*SPOILERS!!!*
LOTR is not overrated, it's not, it's not, I can keep saying that, until you believe me. I want to cry now still, and I watched it on Saturday.
Enough of the teeth-rattling, monster-sized action that had me gaping like a stupid goldfish, and all hail Peter Jackson, who "makes you cry, you don't know why". Gollum's horrific tragedy of a human, Sam's untainted loyalty, Eowyn's giving, loss and receiving.
I SOUND LIKE A BLOODY MOVIE CRITIC!
I still want to cry anyway.
Best scene with a female
Witch King: blablablabla NO MAN HAS EVER DEFEATED ME!
*dramatic pause, Merry tumbles in here somewhere*
Eowyn: (whips off helmet) I am no man.
*Stabs Witch King, who dies kind of easily, maybe that was the whole point*
Prettiest flower vase ever
Did anyone notice? Frodo gets stabbed by nasty Nazgul and wrapped up by Shelob, Gimli can't ride a horse himself 'cos he always tumbles off, Gandalf is dragged off a cliff by a vicious Balrog and whacked quite soundly by Saruman before finishing him, even Aragorn almost-drowns and is nearly stepped on, and Legolas gets not one friggin' scratch, never trips even when shield-skateboarding at Helm's Deep, and tackles a whole oliphaunt (or something) without even messing up his hair.
There's something wrong there. And the dialogue Orlando Bloom gets! He sounds like a centaur straight out of Harry Potter. "The mounts are uneasy.""There is a darkness beyond..."
It suddenly occurred to me that Pete wanted it that way, you know, so cool. Okay, fine, very cool. Pity he and Gimli had so little to do; I guess Tolkien had has reasons.
Best development in character
The hobbits, the hobbits, the hobbits. Particularly Merry and Pippin - when they stumble, and are helpless, and are pushed aside as 'halflings'? Who can't fight? They go out there, and they do, in the most unspeakingly moving sequences; Pippin defies Gandalf's orders to "return to the citadel" and stabs just one Orc, Merry stands alone and is swept onto Eowyn's horse. My favourite, favourite 'tears' scene is not when the ring is FINALLY (OVER NINE HOURS OF STRUGGLE) tossed into the cracks of Mount Doom, but when Pippin is bundled off to Minas Tirith by Gandalf and has not one inkling what it means. His "but we'll see each other again soon," (significantly without the "won't we?") to Merry, and when Merry dashes high up to watch Shadowfax disappear... and dunno, it was so full, that moment.
Plenty found Sam's marriage weird and unnecessary, I'm sure, but somehow it makes perfect and good sense... hobbits don't like adventures, normally, but they can show their extraordinary strength there nonetheless, and he still got - and richly deserved - what a hobbit would want... drinking at the Green Dragon, loving Rosie Cotton.
I LOVE this movie; where the stories of friendship and bonds, and not romantic love, are the most prominent and layered and lovely.
Most overused line
"It is time..."
At least SIX times, I promise you. We KNOW the time! That's why they're telling this ridiculously long yarn! Aragorn's refreshing take:
"...but it is not the time."