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Author Topic: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-16-2003 04:30 AM                     I just built 2 copies of this film. That's 10 reels, and roughly 400 minutes. Then, I sat and watched it. No, I did not watch it, I lived it. I was there in Mordor, Gondor, and Rohan. I was there when Men fought the dark forces of Sauron. I was bearing the ring of power. I've never been held captivated by a film for so long as I was this one. This movie has to be the perfect movie, as it has everything anyone would ever want in a movie. Drama, action, suspense, comedy, romance, cinematography, sound, music, visual effects, acting, writing, and etc. etc. etc. Some scenes brought tears to my eyes. I watched the EE of both films yesterday, and watched Return of the King today. At the end of it all, I must say, this is the finest trilogy of films ever created. I love Star Wars, but things have changed. Peter Jackson has really created something special here and it will be remembered for all time. AJG  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-16-2003 06:04 AM                     Positive comments Ditto to the above comments, this is a very good movie (and trilogy) indeed. This film inparticularly had an awful damn good sound mix! I ended up running it at 8.5 and almost went back to the booth to turn it up a little more. Anyone know who was responsible for the sound mix on this? Negative comments There were 2 distracting "problems" with this movie. #1 That fucking Deluxe Labs CRAP code on reel 5!!! #2 Someone was "edge enhancement" happy in the post production room. Some of this had so much digital sharpening applied that it made the film look like video in many scenes. This was a major distraction. Regardless of these negative comments, this is a movie that needs to be experienced in a theater. Go out and see it.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 12-16-2003 07:16 AM                     Well, looks like Brad was probably screening as late as I was, till 6am. Great movie, I think for theatrical purpses the ending probably could have been cut a little short. I have to agree, sound was superb, screened in SDDS at 6.0 sounded great.  |  IP: Logged John Scott Master Film Handler Posts: 252 From: Oakdale, MN, USA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-16-2003 11:28 AM                     Did anyone else who watched it in Dolby Digital have a problem with the digital dropping out every few seconds in parts of reels 8, 9, and 10? I loved this film, by far the best of the trilogy, and I think this trilogy will go down as the best of all time.  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 12-16-2003 01:24 PM                     Two things from someone who didn't read the books (SPOILER?): I was expecting Sauron to take physical form at the end of the movie to join the battle (similar to the beginning of Fellowship) and was disappointed when he didn't. A one on one battle with Aragorn just as the ring was being destroyed would have been cool. The way it did happen seemed a bit anti-climatic. I actually had Gollum's demise spoiled for me by watching the Lord of the Rings episode of South Park last year. So who thinks that this has a shot to sink Titanic?  |  IP: Logged Jacob Huber Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-16-2003 01:52 PM                     We had the problems with the sound dropping out in 8-10 also. One of the dropouts lasted about a minute. Really distracting. That being said, this movie was everything that I expected it to be, and more. I absolutely loved the battle of Minas Tirith.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 12-16-2003 02:38 PM                     No sound problems here. We watched it in DTS and it was amazing. We have one copy going into a Dolby house, so I'll to check it out once it is built. And yes Brad, the CAP code stunk in reel 5. I only saw it a couple times thankfully, but when I saw it, it was QUITE annoying. I was gonna mention, on one of our prints, one of the last frames of the trailer for Butterfly Effect had no soundtracks printed on it. It was only one frame, so I can't imagine it making a big difference. I didn't watch that print, so I didn't know what happened with it. Weirdness. AJG  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-17-2003 05:00 AM                     Did a test-run of my print tonight. I did not like "FELLOWSHIP/RING" and so I didn't bother to watch "TTT". I only built and tested "RETURN/KING" because the owner of the theatre wanted me to personally ensure that we opened with this particular movie with the very best image and sound we can offer (so I was evaluating the equipment, too). Anyway...I was essentially forced into having to watch "RETURN." And I *loved* it. Amazing to look at -- cinematography, effects and casting. The wonderful audio mix features a wide dynamic range with tons of interesting effects and some of the best use of surround channels I've heard in a long time. While I would consider this to have an aggressive soundtrack, I should note that I also ran at about 8 on the fader. Nice score, too. Minor complaints about the movie: 1. It seemed to end about five times (but I'm not terribly upset by that). 2. Some of Sir Ian McKellan's dialogue was delivered in a stage whisper and evidently they boosted it...and some noise came along, too. For the record, I was listening to the DTS track. The noise went away after each of his lines in that segment. I guess I should have made a note of the reel. Comments/Observations about the movie: 1. Androgyny galore! This film is a gender bender. 2. Homoerotic underpinnings -- gays in the military. That's really all I got out of it.  |  IP: Logged Jim Leko Film Handler Posts: 90 From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 12-17-2003 07:37 AM                     Being a big LOTR fan (love the movies, still working on the books), I was really looking forward to this movie, but I didn't know what to expect. I knew RoTK would contain the biggest battles of the Trilogy, but I thought there would be more story involved. The Frodo/Sam part of the movie was great (Oscar for Sean Astin please). I felt there was just too much fighting. One of the other projectionists screened it with me, and he told me the movie was much like the book, in that the war is virtually the whole book, but he did say there were many things left out, all of which were story enhancing. I am hoping the Extended Edition puts most of these back in, as I felt the movie I watched was one big battle. TTT kept the battle at Helms Deep long, but not so long as you begin to lose interest. I felt that if they wanted all those battle scenes, they needed to give us a break in there, with some slower story points. I will have to watch it a few more times, to really see how I like it. Ok, it's 5:35am, and I am sleeping at the keyboard. Maybe I can make more sense when I wake up. BTW, FoTR is my favorite of the three. {edit: Print was decent. Better focus than TTT I thought. Reel 5 went really out of focus for about 30 seconds. My boss called, and the reply he got was, they have no back-up reels, so they have to make a new one.}  |  IP: Logged Mike Olpin Chop Chop! Posts: 1852 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-17-2003 01:35 PM                     When it tailed out at 3:30 AM, I was ready to watch it all over again. The Prints: THESE SUCK! All four of our prints have a lot of negative dirt (white specks). Two prints have "black splotches" all through several reels. The final two reels produce very high Dolby error rates, and although the digital doesn't drop out, it "hiccups" every few seconds in the reel. Finally, one of our prints has a reel with faint whispy white fogging. (edited to correct spelling) [ 12-17-2003, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: Mike Olpin ]  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-17-2003 03:17 PM                     Yeah I noticed negative dust specks too but I see that on every movie. I can't wait for dCinema to rescue the industry from lackluster presentations.  |  IP: Logged Kelly Skaggs Film Handler Posts: 68 From: Springdale UT Registered: Jul 2003 posted 12-17-2003 04:13 PM                        WOW!!! Great stories done right on the big screen. Jar Jar Lucas you Toys r us slut take notes from this one. This finalized in my opinion the greatest trilogy ever put on screen. I did not notice any crap code, I watched for it in reel 5 but did not see any. We show in DTS and it sounded great. If this does not rewrite the Oscar books, there is a major problem with the academy, it should sweep the tech side. I to think Sean Austin deserves a nomination for supporting actor. If you are not a fan of the other 2 see this one anyway.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-17-2003 04:39 PM                        I'll begin by stating that I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan anyway... That said, I also did not see the first two installments of this film, so one can imagine the difficulty I had grasping what I was seeing on screen. My asst, OTOH, had seen the other two and enjoyed them both. We agreed that ROTK seemed to drag in parts, but the battle scenes were pretty good. That big eyed bald thing agrravated me thru the whole film, although the SE given it were pretty sweet. All in all, in didn't care for the film. It seemed to drag too much and it was, IMO, an hour too long. I won't recommend it, but I'll let everyone know why, given the fact that I didn't see the other two and I'm not really a sci-fi guy.  |  IP: Logged Michael Coate Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1904 From: Los Angeles, California Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-17-2003 06:27 PM                     quote: I'll begin by stating that I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan anyway... I didn't realize The Lord Of The Rings was science-fiction.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-17-2003 07:53 PM                        OK, allow me to clarify: I'm not a big Sci-Fi / FANTASY fan. Surely you can see how this film fits this category now, huh?  |  IP: Logged

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