Worst "Surprise" Ending

i thought they ended it where the book ended. which to me makes a hell of a lot of sense. so i agree with yoda totally.

I've heard that argument before, but we're talking about a movie, not a book. Books have different rules. I haven't read LOTR, and I went to see a movie. Based on what I saw, I thought the movie was anticlimatic. It seemed unable to make up its mind about itself: was it trying to stay true to the book and tell a story, or was it trying to dazzle us as a special effects ride.


Umm, don't know how to put in spoiler (maybe someone can pm me) *****the following contains spoilers about LOTR****

I thought that the movie set up the good side against the bad, and that the climax would come with a final battle that would resolve this tension. Nothing like this happened, so I felt the movie didn't do its job.

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Movies do indeed have different rules, but that's beside the point. There was no way they could resolve anything in one movie. Think about it. If you know the rest of the story, you'll clearly see that it'd be impossible. So, they did the next best thing: they ended at a decent stopping point. They had three options.

1 - Ruin the whole thing by trying to condense the entire story into one movie, or changing it all around to end with a true climax.

2 - Pick the best stopping point possible for the first of the three.

3 - Not make the movies at all.

They chose #2...I don't see how they can be faulted for that, given their other options.

It didn't quite end the way the book did, almost. They put a little of the first chapter of the Two Towers, when they decide to find their freinds. As far as it being anti-climatic, remember the ending of The Empire Strikes Back? That movies ending had even more of a cliff hanger. If you use your same argument, then you must hate that movie too. It left with the Allies down, Empire up. But it had to stop at some point so you would come back to see the climatic ending. FotR ended when it had to. Personally I like that movie alot.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

The problem was, though, that they kept foreshadowing a great battle for middle earth, they built up the opposing magicians, and by foreshadowing over and over through the movie lead the audience to believe that this movie would end with destruction of the ring, or its capture by the evil side. There were so many scenes where the characters "almost" died, and where the music and tension was made to build as if it were the climax, and then everything was ok and they continued. Why bother? These "episodes" might be fun in a book, but they distract from a cenral focus in the movie. By the time the final battle rolls along, there is no tension left to build, no drama to anticipate--its just yet another loud-fast-flashy scene. Its fine to include as much of a story as possible, but this movie does not dish out screen time according the importance of the characters in this episode, it seems that everyone and everything gets an even slice of the screen pie, and in the end, the taste we're left with is bland indeed.

Well, I can see your point a bit, since you've never read the books. But what could they do? Alter one of the greatest achievments in literature of the 20th century, so it would make a more tidy ending in a movie? Trust me, it will happen again in The Two Towers, but not in The return of the King. My biggest complaint about the movie, is that it didn't really focus on the Hobbits as much as the book did. I know Yoda, you'll disagree , but in the books, its a whole new universe to these creatures, and the movie doesn't really give the feeling of awe that, in the books, these Hobbits generally always felt. They made Merry and Pippin into silly sidekicks, which they were not in the books. Every single chapter except ONE in all three books, centered around one, if not more, of the four Hobbits. There was no love intrest for Aragorn, but barely implied. Tom Bombadill and the wight barrows were completely excluded. Ever notice that Legolas never runs out of arrows? He continually had that problem in the books. Oh well, I still love the movie. I think the ending was satisfactory, because it followed the book for the most part. You know, you can't have everything wrapped up in the first part of a trilogy. Have patience.

They're building up for battles that WILL come...just not yet. As I said: you can complain about the ending, but really, how much weight can the complaints hold if no one seems capable of devising a better method? Sounds like they did the best they possibly could under the circumstances. Virtually everyone knew this was one of several films, anyway. I'm glad they didn't try to appease everyone with some crappily thrown together "ending."

Hear Hear!

The ending to films such as: -

I know what you did last summer
i STILL know what you did last summer
Scream 3

i DESPISE them.....about as unoriginal and suprising as waking up to finding that green stuff in the corner of your eyes....

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Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

ewwwwwww thats gross.

i cant even remember what happened at the end of scream 3 but i remember not liking that film much at all. the first one was good...second one was acceptable and by the third one...well...they had just gone TOO far!

in the 2nd one didnt the killer end up being the original killers mum? and then the 3rd one was somethiong like the orginal killers mums friend from their local supermarket or something. (that would have been a better ending) Its sooo stupid.

oh yeah i remember now. who was the mum? i cant remember. oh i remember...it was the woman from rosanne. i thought it was someone fit. or was she fit in it? hmmm...dont remember.

Jackie from Roasanne? I assure you....definatly not fit....unless you enjoy a woman with the face of an Ostrich

i seem to remember saying

'i thought it was someone fit. or was she fit in it? hmmm...dont remember.'

i never said i thought she was fit

(sisboombah is pissed of with blibblobblib for not telling her that he had mulholland drive when she ordered it from movietraks just the other day and it hasnt come through the post yet...she was going to wait till it got to her and then ask if he would like to watch it with her. she thinks he is very rude.)

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I don't have Parkinson's. I inherited my shaking head from my grandfather Hepburn. I discovered that whisky helps stop the shaking. Problem is, if you're not careful, it stops the rest of you too. My head just shakes, but I promise you, it ain't gonna fall off!

Well Sorry Picky Pickerson. Ive answered your question in my post, as questions require an answer. She was NOT attractive unlesss your an ornathologist.

(blibblobblib is answering snappishly to look like he can withstand himself in an argument and will apolagise to sisboombah at a later date for seein Mulholland Drive without her as it was a spur of the moment thing from Blockbusters)

the only one that comes to mind is the alternate ending to Clerks man that would have been so stupid if theyd used it

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back

Well anything would have been better than this...

Come on, man. Empire is arguably the best of the bunch, and it has perhaps THE most memorable twist in film, like, ever. Far from the worst surprise ending, that's for sure.

A note to the kiddies: When we (that is, people old enough to remember) sat down to watch the Star Wars films in the 70s/80s, there was just NOTHING cooler. This film series dominated a few years of my childhood, like so many other people my age.

I think it's time to get past this Tyranny of Youth which seems to consist of casually discarding proven classics now that they are starting to get a bit long in the tooth.

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I agree. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is down-right a masterpiece in every way possible. Who wouldn't love that twisted ending?