I know what you mean, having been so used to the all one story then the next thingy of the last two books, getting bits of one story interleaved with the other gets a bit wierd.
I thought it captured the sheer desperation and hopelessness of it all very well, but I suppose it would feel a bit strange considering all hollywood sponsored movies seem to require a happy ending of sorts. So this one had to end on a hopeful note, albeit with the hint of betrayal from good old gollum. Personally I would have prefered to be left in the pit of despair, ready to be saved by the last movie.

Give me a "Crouching Tiger" ending over the standard crud anytime.

I would guess that 'Return' is going to start gloomy and get happier in the last half.

Although I can't wait to see how far he takes the end, will it end with the defeat of Sauron, or after Aragorn is crowned or best of all, with Bilbo, Frodo and Galdalf all sailing off with the last of the elves.

After mentioning the "Pit of Despair" reminded me of that other classic, the Princess Bride, oh well

oooh! don't spoil it for the rest of us

On the way out of the cinema, we heard a family discussing what was going to happen in the last one. They were all wondering about what might happen to everyone, like there was some big secret.
We didn't have the heart to tell them what was going to happen nor tell them where they might find out.

"The review from the SunTimes link was pathetic and left me wondering if the reviewer had actually even read the books. He was complaining that it was like an action movie, not a story of modest hero hobbits."

Ebert said this in his review as well, but I simply don't agree. Especially in the third book, Tolkien really focused on the action (Aragorn and company got half a book, the hobbits had two chapters and then hooked up with everyone else), not the hobbits.

As for the Farimire thing, this really did disappoint me. I still loved the movie, but this was such a drastic change that it did take from the movie. However, I've always approached these movies as a re-telling of the myth, and with that I think the succeed beautifully.

Actually, Ebert writes for the SunTimes. That was my link at the top And yeah, I disagreed with that too. I don't think he should have made such statements without re-reading the books.

as with all interpretations there will be some happy folk and some not so happy. But at least with this one it never quite makes it into the that was crap side of things!
I think the change of pace caught a lot of folk off guard, maybe they were expecting more of the first movie, who knows.

BTW, has anyone tried to buy a new copy of the books, I cannot find a paperback that does not have movie pictures on the cover. My old 'one book' version is so ragged now it really need to have a rest.

Ah, now you see that's why you should click on a link before you respond. . .

I would expect that the Faramir thing might have been to allow the Shelob portion of the story to be told in the third installment

The Shelob segment, if it was filmed at all, is likely to end up on one of the "extended" DVDs: the setup for it was only on the extended Fellowship DVD, not in the cinema release.

Peter

But, Gollum at the end kept saying that "she" will kill the hobbits. I had heard before that the plan was for Shelob to be in the third movie.

I'd bet that they'll truncate the scene in the orc's tower and the one with the tracking orc pair but keep Shelob. I wonder if they'll even have Sam carry the ring.

-Zeke

Comes out today....

That's old news by now.... check out the hot news I found out about "The Return of the King!" here (warning: very slow website!)

I can hardly wait!

tanstaafl.

edit: hmmm... website speed seems ok with IE -- maybe it just doesn't like Netscape?

ROFL!!