One thing LotR does very well: lets men show emotions that aren’t anger. Frodo smiles, shouts Gandalf’s name excitedly, cracks a joke with him, and gives him a hug. That’s how you know they’re old friends.
Yeah, if made in last 10 years, they might have turned Aragorn into some kind of Conan the Barbarian ripoff. Not necessarily, for example, RDJ’s Iron Man has a lot of complex emotions and nice arc. But, they could. I mean, look at Galadriel in Rings of Power.
Go back, Sam! I’m going to Mordor alone.
Of course you are. And I’m coming with you!
It always makes me tear up. Fantastic films.
Conversely, the worst film I’ve seen in recent years must be the third(?) fantastic beasts film. I still have no clue what actually happened or what it was trying to tell. It was such a jumbled mess, and them changing out the actor of the main villain for the third time didn’t help much.
I can only tell if men are friends if they share a bicep-flexed hand clasp.
They need to shoulder bump too, otherwise they could just be former colleagues or perhaps two men who met for the first time yesterday.