[I deleted this after first submitting it as it's not about minor errors, but rather what are, to me, major errors. However, I recalled that my two "biggies" were also mentioned by Caroreiel, Lalwende, and 1-2 others. I assume they're still among the dead, so I decided to resubmit this as I'm just as beyond perturbed as I was before I wrote it!
]
I just watched my RotK EE this morning for the first time in about 3 months. When it was done, I had to ask myself, "Why?" Well, because I guess I was hoping the Maia had come and changed all the parts that have rendered it nigh unwatchable for me. It's rather ironic because when I first saw it (1st day, 1st showing in my city), I was so captivated and satisfied that I walked out of the theatre and got in my car, all the while murmuring, "Thank you, Peter Jackson." With each subsequent viewing, I grow to dislike this movie the most of the three. One reason is that it brings all the other gaffes from the previous two movies to mind, and the cumulative weight is impossible for me to bear. (Another reason is that I have grown to cringe too much at the raw fish chomping and the endless Gollum overkill in the first 10 minutes.) And, believe me, I want to love the movies with a desire that just doesn't seem to want to quit.
So, what with my pain and aggrievedness all renewed and stuff, I was happy to see this thread and so have a venting or two! (Thanks, in advance!)
For me, there are two most unforgiveable gaffes. The first is the on & off again Boromir hands during his death scene in FotR. Here's one of
the greatest death scenes of all times, and there's me trying to not notice Boromir's hand on and then off Aragorn's shoulder. Poor Sean Bean--I'd be so, well . . . extremely bothered. I was sore amazed when it seemed I was the only one in all LotR moviedom that noticed and/or cared. So it soothes my severely ruffled feathers to hear Caroreiel and one other mention the same thing here. (Barrow Downers are the most astute of all Tolkienites!)
The second biggest gaffe is also mentioned, albeit even more rarely than Boromir's disappearing hands. This also involves hands. (Hmmm . . . I wonder if Jackson was having us on with a running "hands-on/off" gag. I wouldn't put it past him.) I am referring to Pippin's tied/untied hands in TTT. Lalwende saw this and also had difficulty getting people to notice. Again, my feathers are soothed by knowing that I was not alone!
OMG--I never noticed Theoden's Pelennor horse changes color in RotK. Oh well, there's not much that can happen to make watching that movie any worse than it already is. I'm just glad it wasn't in FotR, which is my favorite, despite the thing with (and without
) Boromir's hands . . . (sigh)
As for that car you can see behind the corn field in FotR, I have looked and looked using slow motion on my DVD, and I have never been able to see it!
Here's one nobody has mentioned: Arwen in the last battle scene at Helm's Deep in TTT. When Theoden, et al, ride out and Gandalf, et al, come together and defeat the orcs, you can see Arwen around the upper right of the screen on horseback wielding a sword. You have to slow it down quite a bit to see it, but she's there.
I checked the web site devoted to movie mistakes. It seems too many people either have too much time on their hands or there is a vast difference in the perceptual abilities in many people's brains. It's a common thing to hear that what leaps out at one, remains too subtle for another to see. This is evident in this thread.
The first gaffe I noticed was in the theatrical version of FotR. It wasn't until the Fellowship was on Caradhras and Frodo dropped the Ring in the snow that Boromir's name was mentioned. Until then, he was nameless! The second gaffe I noticed was when I got my DVD version of FotR. Just as the fireworks dragon is flying over the heads of the hobbits, you see a group of anonymous hobbits crowded together on the ground. The woman in the middle changes position the second time the camera shows them. I've managed to get past that one. I guess it's because it's the only one that I see that doesn't mess with the story like the others.
And, my last one. There are many, many more, but I'm sticking to the ones that get me going every single time I see these movies. This last one is not strictly in keeping with the type of mistakes this thread is about, but I'm going to risk it anyway--it's not showing Denethor with his palantir. This is a really big mistake. Without it, he is more a Monty Python character ("Dinothaur" perhaps?) than a credible Denethor.
In the EE RotK commentary, I heard Jackson say, "What?
Another continuity error? Oh well . . ." and pass it off as another in a long line of tedious complaints by viewers. I think some of the sting in the continuity gaffes would be more tolerable to me if I knew that he cared more. Why spend all the time, blood, sweat, tears, and $$ only to let beginners' errors pass through all that editing to the final cut--especially in the three movies that would be watched repeatedly more times than any other except, perhaps,
Star Wars?
Sigh. And sigh again. It's just because I so much want to
be in ME, and these movies come
so close so often that I wax so wroth. One gets settled in and is thrilled, enthralled, and captivated, then . . .
wham! there's some small or big thing that jars me back into my 7th Age living room. I often dream of coming into possession of the raw stock footage!
Well, thanks again for letting me vent some of my frustration and disappointment. I wish I could be as many seem to be--able to pass off these mighty blunders as entertaining amusements. But I just can't seem to do it! I wonder if it's because I formed my attachment to LotR at 14 and have had over 3 decades to savor the imagined wonders of a finally-done-right movie version. After the Bakshi attempts, I think many of my tribe shrugged it off as being impossible to do (and maybe also thought, "That's probably for the best!") Then, along comes Jackson & Co., and . . . well, I'm about to repeat myself.