Diego saw Return of the King today, and had some comments to make, which I agree with on the whole. Funnily enough, I took my 9-year-old nephew to see it today. That was the third time I’ve seen it, and it still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when the riders of Rohan come over the top of the hill.
What’s more – my nephew, who is physically incapable of sitting still for 5 minutes and ran around non-stop during the last film I took him to, remained spellbound and totally transfixed throughout. The whole three hours. Even the slow bit at the end. Now if that isn’t the sign of a good film, I don’t know what is!
Diego mentions missing “the effect of the Ent’s drink”. That’s in The Two Towers extended edition. He also points out the omission of Gondor’s Palantir, which is interesting – during Faramir’s charge back to the river, I had to explain to my nephew why exactly the Steward was mad.
I think my favourite moment still has to be the sequence with the lighting of the beacons. I don’t know why. I suspect the soundtrack has a lot to do with it. This might be the first film soundtrack I actually go out and buy. I think it’s also because it’s from this point onward that the movie stops plodding and starts racing along at a manic rate.
I can’t wait for RotK extended edition to come out. While Fellowship only added a few bits here and there, Two Towers extended edition was practically a completely different film. If all they add to RotK is an extended battle scene and the end of Saruman, I’ll be happy. Hopefully there’ll be a lot more though 
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