Lord of the Rings, The: Book IV - The Journey of the Ringbearers

Review by buzzkill007 — October 6, 2009 @ 9:22 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by tehwallaby — October 4, 2009 @ 11:25 am

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Review by Brumous — June 11, 2011 @ 5:44 pm

A fine chapter in the series. In the original, the Rohan and Helms Deep scenes benefited from intercutting with Frodo’s story, but it turns out the opposite is not true. The Ringbearers’ journey stands fine on its own, and I think the consolidation makes Gollum’s scenes a more intense character study. The relationships among the three main characters seem to develop more naturally.

The big payoff was deleting Faramir’s abduction of the hobbits, for me the most annoying departure from Tolkien’s book in the entire movie trilogy. The editing gets a little rough toward the end of this, but I am impressed at Kerr’s cleverness in assembling a reasonable narrative from the original materials. Faramir is a more thoughtful and sympathetic character, which makes a better setup for the next episode.

Another important cut is Gollum saving Frodo from drowning in the marsh, which changes a lot about their subsequent relationship and makes Frodo seem a much more patient and generous character, and Sam less harsh. Overall the story flow is handled well and any moments of confusion or discontinuity resulting from the edits are few and minor. 9/10.

Review by mullholland665 — July 19, 2010 @ 12:37 pm

Part IV is beautifully edited and thought out. No major continuity issue here as I found with Part III, which is still pretty great by the way. I agree with the post here by White43: the two major changes he mentioned, which are in deference to the novel, work very well indeed.

Kerr, kudos to you once again. 10/10.

Review by Haltiamieli — September 12, 2009 @ 11:51 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*