I’m afraid that this extended edition was more of a disappointment than a treat for me. There were a few scenes that I really enjoyed, but I felt like I was waiting around for hours for certain scenes that never came.
Favorite additions:
- The statue of the king at the crossroads that is “re-crowned.” Very beautiful.
- Gandalf’s brief history lesson concerning Númenor, including allusions to the fall of the Númenórians and their culture of death as described in
The Silmarillion.
- Saruman’s quote about “brigand’s brats who roll on the floor with the dogs” (sorry, don’t have a book handy to look up the exact quote). Makes me laugh :-P
Problems:
- My major disappointment was with the portrayal and treatment of the Mouth of Sauron. First of all, he didn’t scare me; he was just disgusting. He wasn’t portrayed as a twisted, lost man (which would have be a hundred times more eerie), but as a specialized orc. More importantly, Aragorn’s sudden and relatively unprovoked beheading of the MoS was barbaric. It was an unnecessarily violent and thoughtless action that added nothing to the plot and was certainly not indicative of kingly, noble character. That Jackson could derive such a scene from a source text that emphasizes mercy and fair play on the part of the protagonists puzzles me.
- I was looking forward to the Houses of Healing and a developed relationship between Faramir and Éowyn, but the extra scenes were only tantalizing, not satisfying in the least. The developing love between Faramir and Éowyn was shown so briefly that it may have been better to leave it out altogether. It suggests that Éowyn, knowing that she couldn’t have Aragorn, settled for the next handsome man. Very poor character development.
- This may just be a personal peeve, but what was the point of having Éomer tell Éowyn that battle was man’s domain? To further develop a feminist theme simply not present in the original work? Probably so. Nonetheless, I did not appreciate the point being made at his expense, as if to make a bigot out of one of Tolkien’s greatest heroic figures (not in the sense that his statement is necessarily a bigoted one, but in that it is meant to be interpreted as incorrect and chauvanistic). I am a woman, but that doesn’t mean I need a pep talk at every movie I go to. I love Éowyn as a woman who is fighting for her people and for renown, fighting as a
person, not as a cause.
- Why does Gandalf have to order everything “into the abyss?” That phrase seems a bit overused (if not melodramatic). His staff being shattered was simply awful. It draws ties to Saruman that are less than flattering. And I can’t imagine Tolkien’s Gandalf ever being knocked over like an old man, no matter how fearsome the foe, and certainly not because some flying reptile screamed at him.
- I understand why Jackson left out the Shire at the end, and I almost liked his version of Sharkey’s End. Right up until he fell off Orthanc and landed on that spike. That was just gruesome. Rather poor taste if you ask me.
- What was up with the avalanche of skulls in the paths of the dead? Major overkill. Does Jackson realize how many people those skulls would add up to?
- And finally (probably to your relief
)…enough with the Gimli slapstick! Sheesh.
In conclusion, it seems to me that Mr. Jackson still hasn’t gotten past his horror, B-rated genre days. LotR probably helped him get out of the rut, but he’s still too wrapped up in gross-out and shock-and-awe scenes for their own sake to truly, in my opinion, do justice to a work like LotR. A little subtlety can go a long way. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve enjoyed these movies, but in the end I find my admiration waning under disappointments that just kept piling up.