Homework: The Fellowship of the Ring vs. The Return of the King

[HoldenMartinson 221]

Good evening! Filling in for Nick Perkins, who is welcome to get his shit together and come back at any time.

 

Next week, Joanna Robinson and David Chen are pitting the bookends of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy against one another: The Fellowship of the Ring versus The Return of the King.

 

You can find the entire trilogy for rental on Amazon Video, or even $5 bins in Walmarts all over the U.S.

 

Also...

I was typing up my own version of this post and almost clicked the button, before I decided to check again. I found different availability options from canistream.it but I figure most Canon listeners have already seen these anyway.

 

Go team!!!

[FictionIsntReal 79]

I was typing up my own version of this post and almost clicked the button, before I decided to check again. I found different availability options from canistream.it but I figure most Canon listeners have already seen these anyway.

[Threshold 93]

Well if we're allowing "Neither" as an option now, might as well allow "the trilogy" as a third option; although this might be me fuming over my favourite LOTR film, The Two Towers, being omitted.

 

On the positive side, I love me some Joanna Robinson/David Chen action

[HoldenMartinson 221]

Well if we're allowing "Neither" as an option now, might as well allow "the trilogy" as a third option; although this might be me fuming over my favourite LOTR film, The Two Towers, being omitted.

 

On the positive side, I love me some Joanna Robinson/David Chen action

That's how I felt. The Two Towers is so much stronger, in my mind. The Rohan/Helm's Deep sections might be the best stuff in the trilogy. Also, at least there aren't seven different endings, like The Return of the King.

[phred2321 57]

This makes no sense as a VS, as LotR is really one movie divided into three parts. Unlike other film series/franchises, the individual films don't really stand on their own.

[jmhimara 10]

I think this makes a lot more sense if considered as a trilogy rather individual submissions. It's really one insanely long film (a good one at that). Peter Jackson filmed it as one and even Tolkien wrote it as one novel. It was the publishers that made him split it into three volumes.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

I lean towards Fellowship, but I also tend to have a bias in favor of the first entry in a series (that sense of discovery that you can't get back). Will be interesting to hear the arguments.

[gene_shallot 79]

Just wanted to also chime in my disappointment at the lack of The Two Towers. Not that parts 1 & 3 are chopped liver, but T2T boasts richer, more fluid, and just more fun character dynamics than Fellowship. The building of suspense, pacing, and execution of Helm's Deep is so perfect, it virtually eclipses RotK's Battle of the Pelennor Fields (despite the latter being the 'bigger' of the two) - not nothing, given the huge chunk of film each make up.

 

Andy Serkis' breakout as Gollum/Smeagol (basically putting mo-cap performances on the map) alone makes it worthy of inclusion into the Canon.

[mdicki02 0]

This trilogy is very overrated. I think the love of the source material is clouding folks judgement.

 

Peter Jackson is not a good director. He deserves full credit for producing such an ambitious trilogy, but as a filmmaker he lacks some basic fundamentals and knowing sometimes less is more.

 

And there are way too many close ups of Elijah Wood.

 

Pass on the whole series.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

This trilogy is very overrated. I think the love of the source material is clouding folks judgement.

 

 

I couldn't finish reading the books, but loved the movies. The first one especially was a revelation as to how compelling the mythology could be.

[NRoberson86 78]

 

 

I couldn't finish reading the books, but loved the movies. The first one especially was a revelation as to how compelling the mythology could be.

 

Would someone say that they're as overrated as, say, LA LA LAND?!

 

[alt0782 29]

Is anyone going to watch both of these before the next podcast? The idea alone is giving me anxiety. I like the trilogy fine, but I haven't revisited it since I watched RotK in theaters (skipped The Hobbit ones altogether).

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

 

Would someone say that they're as overrated as, say, LA LA LAND?!

 

 

I AM CERTAIN SOMEONE WOULD.

 

PROBABLY SOMEONE NAMED AMY.

[HoldenMartinson 221]

Rewatched the extended editions of the first two last night--which, in and of themselves, are huge mistakes, but they're all I have. It's so crazy how much better The Two Towers is compared to The Fellowship of the Ring on every level, making me even more upset that it's not in the conversation.

[phred2321 57]

Is anyone going to watch both of these before the next podcast? The idea alone is giving me anxiety. I like the trilogy fine, but I haven't revisited it since I watched RotK in theaters (skipped The Hobbit ones altogether).

Not going to have time this week but, every year around Christmas I watch the entire extended version of the trilogy in one day. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

Fellowship blew me away in the theaters. A singular experience that was not recaptured by the sequels. I suppose it can only be your first time once. My least favorite was Return of the King, but that was largely due to issues with the source material rather than any production aspects.

[Susan* 135]

My really good friend was a huge fan of the whole Tolkien spectrum and of course adored every aspect of each film in every format. I tried to be a good sport. (past tense because my friend died, not because she stopped being a fan--when we cleaned out her house we had to figure out who was going to get all the toys. )

 

What I remember most about seeing Fellowship in a theater was a dumb-ass family who brought a toddler to the movie. The noise and up and down and in and out and finally one parent trying to hold the kid in the entry tunnel to the huge theater that only served to focus the noise back into the seating area.

[LondonCallingRex 33]

Can't wait to hear how Amy finds a way to shit on La La Land in this episode...

 

Anyway, I would much prefer this as an All or Nothing vote, because that's how the books and films were made and because it makes no sense to only get part of the story in the Canon. People used that exact argument against Empire Strikes Back. But I'll live, because I love these movies. They're not perfect, especially the battle in RotK, but they're thrilling and fantastic and moving, they're impossibly difficult movies to get made considering the amount of work that went in to every aspect of the production design, and they've had a huge technical impact. Plus it gave us Andy Serkis's only job for the rest of his life. Since I'll apparently have to vote for only one, I'll likely go with Fellowship due to the wonder of being thrust into this amazing world, plus the sheer horror that mostly goes away in the other two movies, but drives so much of the plot and stakes in FotR. I need to do my annual marathon watch-through of the movies anyway, so I might as well do it now.

[Ryan L 57]

You know why The Two Towers isn't getting debated? It's the La La Land of the trilogy.

 

 

I'm seriously intrigued by this episode, since it feels more like a classic Devin type than an Amy type of debate. I'm personally leaning towards Fellowship, but I think Return is an expertly crafted film that fully deserves all of its Oscars. Should be a fun one!

[davhahn 4]

I just worry this will turn into the Star Wars vs. Empire or Godfather I vs. II discussion all over again. Arguments for the one that came first vs. the one that was widely recognized and won all the awards (although I would argue that it got all the awards in recognition for the audacity of the complete trilogy at the time). This could have been a cool opportunity to try out another VS format: 3 way VS (FOTR vs TTT vs ROTK) or trilogy vs. trilogy (although I can't really think of a trilogy that hasn't already been somewhat covered in previous episodes that would rise to this level... maybe Captain America, but I don't really consider that a trilogy).

 

Love listening to Joanna Robinson and David Chen though. Can't wait.

[Ryan L 57]

I just worry this will turn into the Star Wars vs. Empire or Godfather I vs. II discussion all over again. Arguments for the one that came first vs. the one that was widely recognized and won all the awards (although I would argue that it got all the awards in recognition for the audacity of the complete trilogy at the time). This could have been a cool opportunity to try out another VS format: 3 way VS (FOTR vs TTT vs ROTK) or trilogy vs. trilogy (although I can't really think of a trilogy that hasn't already been somewhat covered in previous episodes that would rise to this level... maybe Captain America, but I don't really consider that a trilogy).

 

Love listening to Joanna Robinson and David Chen though. Can't wait.

 

 

I don't think trilogy vs trilogy would work for this one; I can't think of anything comparable or in the same genre niche. I think Captain America vs The Dark Knight would possibly be the only scenario for that.

[AhronReinhard 7]

The Two Towers

 

Or I guess.. Return of the King

[DavidAustin 10]

This should really be between Two Towers and Fellowship, Return is the weakest of the three (though still good).

[Marsellus_H 118]

I agree that the exclusion of The Two Towers really made me listen up twice. That's really a random exclusion. Seems like we should think about a Tangerine-write-in campaign all over again

[FilmFanMan 15]

Just concurring with all the other posts regarding T2T exclusion. This would have been a great opportunity for the first Canon cage match by throwing three films into the "ring".