Who's going to see Return of the King tonight?

[Erax]

I saw the movie this weekend. I liked it very much and thought it was very well done, but I still liked TTT better (not surprising, since the battle of Helm's Deep is my favorite part in the books).

ROTK was good, but just too different from the way I imagined things (this is subjective, I know). Barad Ungol was too large, Minas Morgul and Shelob too small. Mordor was not dark enough. The battle at Minas Tirith took place in daylight, not through the night as I recall it from the books. Small things like this kept getting in the way of my enjoyment of the movie, but the ending - or endings, if you like - were perfect.

(now for a spoiler - Alert Alert)

But what really, really buged me was this : spiders do not have stingers on the end of their abdomen ! What were they thinking ????!!

[Puke]

Did the book specify that Frodo was bit by the spider? I cant remember. Its a monster, whos to say it didnt have a stinger?

and as for Gandalf shooting the ray of light at the Nazgul and driving them off, the way they showed it is about exactly as I remember it being described.. except I seem to recall that there was only one Ring Wraith.

I really enjoyed the ending, and am glad that they kept it true to the book. Hopefully the extended edition will do a little bit more with it. I did hate those transitions, though. seemed sloppy.

and why did they lose Bilbo's mythril armor? I swear he kept it till the end of the book, but in the film they never collect it after he is captured, and they destinclty show him NOT wearing it, later. That was Bilbo's mythril mail, man! They cant just throw it out!

[Fyron]

Yes, Frodo was bit by Shelob in the book.

That thing at the end of Shelob looked more like the web spinning... appendage... than a stinger to me.

[Mephisto]

Shelob is no spider, just very similar. And in my German translation a stinger is mentioned but only one time and not in the paragraph where they describe Shelobs appearance but were the poison is mentioned.
Gandals does indeed ride out and meet several Nazguals while covering the retreat of Gondor. White Fire coming from his hands is mentioned but nothing more.

[Puke]

white fire from his hands, eh? I seem to remember it was a beam of light from his staff. My memory could be faulty, and I cant find my copy of the book.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that they used the same or similar special effect in the film, as for the part when Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan charge the Ork lines in TTT. I was sort of wondering how the formation of cavalry got through that tight line of braced spears.

Didnt Gandalf fry a whole bunch of goblins with lightening in The Hobbit? How come we dont get to see him kick any *** in the epic battles of LotR? They just alude to it.

[Phoenix-D]

If you watch the ROTK charge carefully, the orcs freak out and start to run before the calvery hits. For infantry facing calvery that is a Very Bad Idea. Break, and that nice wall of spears is gone.

[gravey101]

Yes, I observed that on both the TTT and the ROTK - I found the latter more convincing as the orc infantry had started to break already. In real life horses could not be made to charge an unbroken line of bayonets or pikes. They would just stop, or veer around.