I don't really mind the Arwen/Aragorn changes, for the most part. LOTR is rather short on female roles. I remember when my mom (not a fantasy buff) read it, her first comment was "There are almost no women in these books". I don't blame Peter Jackson for wanting to broaden the movie appeal beoynd the geek base some by expanding the small bits of romance that are in the
novels. Fortunately Liv Tyler couldn't handle swordplay, so they canned their plans to stick Arwen in assorted battles.
I kind of doubt that those parts of the movie expanded the appreciative audience very much. And when I read below that they may cut out the romance between Eowyn and Faramir...
That would have definitely been a better ending. I think the reason they saved Shelob for ROTK is that there is very little story left for Sam and Frodo after Shelob. (Mostly the dreary march through the desert, and the goofy
part of the book where Sam and Frodo are mistaken for Orcs and march along with them.)
I heard that the reason they cut the movie off where they did was that if they had ended it in the right place, the guy that played Saruman wouldnât have had any part of the third movie. But that sounds almost too stupid to be true.
Well, they drive the Orcs into the mystery huorn "Orc Motel - Orcs check in - but the don't check out" forest. Or was that only in the extended edition?
I don't think that was in the version I saw. If they put it back in, it can't but help the story.
Well, it'll be *at least* 180 minutes. I heard rumors that it will be more like 210! That's plenty of time for the remaining material.
I'm trying to think what will need to be covered, given what we know is missing:
- Reuniting of Merry/Pippin with Aragorn & co, then splitting Merry/Pippin up
- Paths of the dead
- Theoden's ride to Gondor (& "Dernhelm" stuff)
- Frodo killed by Shelob & Sam's subsequent rescue. (I suspect this is going
to be an extended bit of the movie covering this)
- Frodo & Sam's dreary march through Mordor
- Frodo & Sam march with the Orcs
- Honkin-big battle at Gondor, with Aragorn and Theoden arriving,
- Witchking/Eowyn battle, Theoden death scene
- Denethor's despair, Faramir on the pyre
- Faramir/Eowyn house healing stuff (IIRC, I saw a rumor this is cut out)
- Aragorn's march to challenge (distract) Sauron, and the battle at the Black
Gate.
- Frodo/Sam/Gollum at Mount Doom, deus ex eagles
- Aragorn's coronation and presumable marriage to Arwen
I think that's doable in 3 - 3.5 hours without shortchanging things or making any
other cuts. Overall, I'm expecting that it will be a great movie.
I hope so. I'm going to keep my expectations low this time though. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
