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The Fellowship of The Ring vs. The Two Towers vs. The Return of The King


John

The Fellowship of The Ring vs. The Two Towers vs. The Return of The King  

33 members have voted

  1. 1. Which film is better?

    • The Fellowship of The Ring
      20
    • The Two Towers
      4
    • The Return of The King
      9
  2. 2. Which score is better?

    • The Fellowship of The Ring
      16
    • The Two Towers
      2
    • The Return of The King
      15


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I know there has been some backlash against the large amount of polls created recently, but this is a poll that had to be made.

 

 

Which film and score is your favorite from the epic The Lord of The Rings trilogy?

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Have we not done this already?

 

FotR is the best film. RotK is my favourite film.

 

RotK is also my favourite of the scores.

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I rank the films and the scores in the same order....the order of their release.

 

Though I confess that while I think FOTR is absolutely the best of the trilogy, my fondness for the score may be based in sentimentality. Objectively speaking, both the subsequent scores are at least as good, if not better (though I've always felt ROTK "felt" different from the first two).

 

1 hour ago, KK said:

Have we not done this already?

 

I haven't been around that long, but I was thinking....hasn't pretty much every topic imaginable regarding any genre film or score be covered already around here?

 

As someone who hasn't been around that long, I'd love to see a robust discussion of the SW OT scores vs. the LOTR scores. Both as individual scores and a lifetime achievement. But I'm sure THAT'S been done more than once also. 

 

So bring back the JWfan greatest hits I say!

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55 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

As someone who hasn't been around that long, I'd love to see a robust discussion of the SW OT scores vs. the LOTR scores. Both as individual scores and a lifetime achievement. But I'm sure THAT'S been done more than once also.

 

There you go:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
4 minutes ago, Richard said:

EE: THE RETURN OF THE KING

 

I'm not usually someone who gets hung up on minor errors or picks nits, but for some reason whenever I think about the ROTK EE I immediately think about the "disappearing body of Mouth of Sauron" continuity error.

 

But overall, yeah that's probably my favorite EE too.

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Here is Aragorn killing the Mouth of Sauron:

 

Then at 3:13 of that video, after it's cut back to the theatrical version, they ride away from the Black Gate and the horse, body, and head of the Mouth of Sauron is gone.

 

It doesn't bother me all that much, but it does take me out of a bit when I'm watching the movie.

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Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring -- Basically my favorite movie adaptation of a novel ever.

 

Score: Return of the King -- Can't even tell you how much I love the final disc of the CR. Just perfect!

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/24/2017 at 2:24 PM, Nick1066 said:

I rank the films and the scores in the same order....the order of their release.

 

This

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  • 3 months later...

It also has the best memories attached to it, the first time experiencing it all.  I still remember the first night in the theater.  It was such a visceral experience of Tolkien's vision, all so impeccably and singularly crafted, really awe inspiring.  We all knew it was going to be huge.

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6 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Its the best of the three overall. The most focused.

 

But not the most dramatic.

 

If I were to distill the verbal chunk I wrote above, I'd say this: that it is the least-flawed (or, better yet, closest to being "technically" perfect) entry doesn't necessarily mean that its the best

 

Although again, if I favor Return of the King better its only by a hair. They're all cut from the same cloth. The same is true, for me, in trying to pick a favorite out of The Hobbit trilogy. In both cases its the result of the filmmakers having scripted, filmed and assembled all three at the same time.

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The problem here is that I'd say Fellowship for both, but it's unfair to some extent because the stories get inherently more complex, and time was clearly becoming a luxury, as the trilogy went on.

 

Shore's FotR feels more streamlined, whereas by RotK, I can't shake the feeling that he had written certain bits very quickly, and it shows.

 

PJ was juggling so many storylines by RotK, and while he did a fantastic job (compared to some attempts at epics), I don't think it's as good and 'clean' as FotR.

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3 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

The problem here is that I'd say Fellowship for both, but it's unfair to some extent because the stories get inherently more complex, and time was clearly becoming a luxury, as the trilogy went on.

 

Shore's FotR feels more streamlined, whereas by RotK, I can't shake the feeling that he had written certain bits very quickly, and it shows.

 

PJ was juggling so many storylines by RotK, and while he did a fantastic job (compared to some attempts at epics), I don't think it's as good and 'clean' as FotR.

Pretty much my feelings as well.

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I think The Two Towers shows the signs of Shore going through the material (composition and production-wise) in a hurry, much more than Return of the King. If one gets this feeling from Return of the King, I think its because of Shore's knack (in that specific film) to pit the themes against one another and create this dense score with all these similar-sounding hybrids. But that's a deliberate choice, rather than a flaw in the scoring process.

 

With The Two Towers, however, Jackson delivered the film very late, and if you compare the length of the CR to the movie length (minus additional credits), The Two Towers is by far the most thinly scored. It also features more tracking, including one really egregious example: When Legolas watches the Wargs arrive, we hear the Moria theme!

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I never quite understood a lot of the criticism TTT receives. Granted, its probably the weakest adaption of the three, but it's still a pretty awe inspiring film. You get the incredible opening battle between Gandalf and the Balrog, the brilliantly acted conversation with Gollum/Sméagol, the Battle of Helm's Deep, Sam's speech in Osgiliath; all moments that are sure to become some of the most iconic scenes in cinema. All three films are going to age into such great classics.

 

Also, this pretty much sums up my feelings on which film in the trilogy is superior; FOTR is the better film, but ROTK is the best film. The former, on a more technical level, is superior to ROTK, but ROTK pulls on your heartstrings and emotions on a far more profound level than probably any movie I have ever seen.

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3 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

The problem here is that I'd say Fellowship for both, but it's unfair to some extent because the stories get inherently more complex, and time was clearly becoming a luxury, as the trilogy went on.

 

Shore's FotR feels more streamlined, whereas by RotK, I can't shake the feeling that he had written certain bits very quickly, and it shows.

 

PJ was juggling so many storylines by RotK, and while he did a fantastic job (compared to some attempts at epics), I don't think it's as good and 'clean' as FotR.

 

I completely agree with every word of this!

 

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I think The Two Towers shows the signs of Shore going through the material (composition and production-wise) in a hurry, much more than Return of the King. If one gets this feeling from Return of the King, I think its because of Shore's knack (in that specific film) to pit the themes against one another and create this dense score with all these similar-sounding hybrids. But that's a deliberate choice, rather than a flaw in the scoring process.

 

I completely disagree with all of this!

 

2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Just get an avatar already dude.

 

I completely agree with this!

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ROTK has a great emotional heft, but it's a messy messy film.  Lots of continuity errors, dodgy CGI, and bloat.

 

The Best Picture win was very clearly in recognition of the achievement of the trilogy, not that specific film.

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1 minute ago, Disco Stu said:

ROTK has a great emotional heft, but it's a messy messy film.  Lots of continuity errors, dodgy CGI, and bloat.

 

The Best Picture win was very clearly in recognition of the achievement of the trilogy, not that specific film.

 

I agree with Disco Stu!

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2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

ROTK has a great emotional heft, but it's a messy messy film.  Lots of continuity errors, dodgy CGI, and bloat.

 

The Best Picture win was very clearly in recognition of the achievement of the trilogy, not that specific film.

 

You're almost making it sound like its a bad film: it isn't. If Fellowship is better made - its only by a hair. I certainly isn't bloated. Its just long. There are Hollywood epics exceeding its length (see Cleopatra).

 

I don't think that it won all those awards on the behalf of the trilogy as a whole: both Two Towers and especially Fellowship - won their own Oscars. Fellowship even won best cinematography! It deserves all eleven awards, and it would have deserved a best supporting actor nomination (if not a win) for Sean Astin.

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I think the battle at the Black Gate is bad.  It's dumb and badly made.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love that movie but the flaws have become clearer to me with time.

 

Anyway, I'm supposed to be boycotting you until you get an avatar!

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

ROTK has a great emotional heft, but it's a messy messy film.  Lots of continuity errors, dodgy CGI, and bloat.

 

The Best Picture win was very clearly in recognition of the achievement of the trilogy, not that specific film.

The bloat is perhaps my biggest criticism for RotK which sadly continued in the Hobbit films. But the film is undeniably potent closure to the whole three film arc.

 

FotR still takes the first place both film and score for me. There is something pitch perfect about the whole film experience for me.

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Films are dramatic narratives. Technical issues in films are only a problem if they plague a large portion of the narrative or if it so bad that it takes the audience out of the film. As such, the only true narrative flaw that I find in the film is that the instigator of Denethor's madness isn't fleshed out. But there are so many characters in the film that it might have been beyond the audience's capacity, and it was better to have just be an arse.

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2 hours ago, Incanus said:

 

The bloat is perhaps my biggest criticism for RotK which sadly continued in the Hobbit films. But the film is undeniably potent closure to the whole three film arc.

 

FotR still takes the first place both film and score for me. There is something pitch perfect about the whole film experience for me.

 

Yes, I think the main problem is length and bloat. The EE is around 4 hours which is stupendously long. I think PJ could've gotten it down to maybe 2:45/3:00 and kept the basic story. Lose some of the Pelennor Fields battle, lots of the ending and you're getting somewhere.

 

The length also allows us to focus too much on some below average CGI in places, which I'd imagine was largely due to the rush to finish the film in time.

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I wouldn't change anything about the film from the destruction of the Ring on.  I would've scrapped 85% of the Black Gate battle, and yeah a lot could've been trimmed from the Pelennor Fields battle too.  It was hardly the cinematic ideal of a screen battle the way Helm's Deep was.

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Of all the four hour films (of which there are more than you would think), Return of the King is the most deserving of that length. About the only thing I would have streamlined would have been the meeting with Saruman, which goes on a bit too long. In a way it kind of needs that length.

 

The multiple endings are understandable when you consider that this film wraps up the whole trilogy, not just itself: think of the coronation as the finale of Return of the King proper, and the other endings as the conclusion of the trilogy. Now that its a sextet, it's all the more warranted.

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Have you seen Lawrence of Arabia?  It's extraordinary and very much deserving of its 222 minutes.  LOTR is a true achievement, but only FOTR comes close to the cinematic elegance of something like Lawrence.

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Sure I do, I'm an post-graduate of Middle Eastern studies.:D

 

That a lightweight in terms of length. Look up Cleopatra, Branagah's Hamlet, and a few of the epics regarding the American civil War.

 

I like Return of the King infinitely more. Much more moving.

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If a film is a drama - it's objective is to be moving, and any and all production elements are subservient to that end. If the film is a clear-cut action film - it's objective is to be exciting; If it's a comedy - it's objective is to make people laugh, etcetra.

 

Simple.

 

Return of the King is primarily a drama - and on that level it works incredibly well.

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27 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I'm not sure I agree 100% with your policework there Lou.

 

Did ya hear the one about the guy who couldn't afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J2L 4685?

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