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Bkeela is offline Bkeela
King
Brisbane, Australia
Oct 1999
time: 15:17
  Old Post 29-12-2001 04:19
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My Unfavourable LotR's Review Suffering from ads?

I was very excited by the good reviews at IMDb. The film has already been voted the greatest movie of all time!

My experience was one of massive disappointment.

Firstly I will agree that it was a visual treat, but for one who loves the book, and who also loves good film, this movie was sadly flawed.

The greatest flaw is the pacing of the film. We are so swiftly swept through the quest that one doesn't even have time to enjoy the beautiful scenery, let alone get to appreciate the characters.

Then there is the departure from the novel. Within the first few minutes, when I saw Sauron lost an entire hand of fingers, rather than just the One - I started to worry.
I knew Tom Bombadil was unfortunately cut. I knew Arwen was replacing Glorfindel. But I wasn't aware that Merry and Pippin's entire relationship to the fellowship would be one of accident [I mean, they rushed everything else, why not the conspiracy?]. I didn't know the regulars at the Prancing Pony were going to be portrayed as a bunch of hoods, unlike a crowd the hobbits gladly retreated into after the darkness of the road. I couldn't fathom why Strider would leave the hobbits alone to start a fire, nor that the hobbits could be so stupid as to do so on Weather top - at night! I wasn't aware the Council of Elrond would develop into a near riot - look, I could go on, and on, so I shall spare you.

There were brief moments of greatness, like the pledge of love that Arwen makes to Aragorn, the moth flying towards Gandalf at Isengard, and the temptation of Galadrial.

But these brief snatches were utterly erased by moments like the fight of Gandalf and Saruman, or the fall of Gandalf from the bridge in Moria.

To sum up, I think the series might have been good had they made a feature length film for each book of the novel - 6 films, for 6 books. As it stands, the impression I get is like what the original Star Wars Trilogy would be like compressed into 1 film. But of course our greedy, consumer driven society would not stand for that. This is not art, it's a product, designed for nothing more than to make money.

Oh well, at least I shant burn waiting 12 months for the next film.

It is my advice to anyone who has not seen this film yet, and who loves the book - DON'T DO IT! I wish there had been such a warning in the reviews here in off-topic.

Bkeela.

Seneca is offline Seneca
King
Bristol
Jun 2000
time: 05:17
  Old Post 29-12-2001 04:49
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quote:
Then there is the departure from the novel. Within the first few minutes, when I saw Sauron lost an entire hand of fingers, rather than just the One - I started to worry.


If that's the way you judge movies, you should worry...

CyberShy is offline CyberShy

Emperor
Delft, The Netherlands
Mar 1999
time: 06:17
  Old Post 29-12-2001 20:24
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IIRC Isildur cuts off only one finger in the movie.
And all your points are valid but very unimortant.

And since LoTR consists of 3 books I really don't understand your '6 movies for 6 books' suggestion.

Mercator is offline Mercator
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Sorekara no Nanimo
Jan 1970
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  Old Post 30-12-2001 03:45 Visit Mercator's homepage!
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You hit the nail on the head Bkeela!

I already knew a lot of the changes that were mad (like the absence of Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel as you mentioned), but I did still expect a very satisfying movie due to the many good reviews I saw at IMDb and here as well. But I was way disappointed (Iīd rate it 7/10).

The visual aspects were stunning, great special effects, beautiful landscapes etc. but apart from that I found the movie very bland. I kind of have the feeling it jumps from action scene to action scene skipping over everything in between with some nice scenery. And at the end of it I realized it was already over while I was still waiting for that one scene that would make up for the rushing through the rest.
Perhaps the end should have done this, but that was probably the part I hated most, because I simply have no idea why they changed it. The way they did it now was highly unsatisfactory and didnīt gain any time or anything... The thing that irritated me most was that Aragorn is represented as the hero, he kills the most Orcs and kills the Uruk captain. When Boromir dies, he has barely made up for the evil he has done, while in the book he ends as a remorseful and truly valiant warrior.

Some other things that bothered me were Galadriel in general and her flipping in particular. That just didnīt fit with my imagination at all. Also the "invisible world" looks way too freaky to me.

No thank you, this movie is not for me, I think I will see the sequels, but at least I now know what caliber of the movies really is.

I think for me also my first moment of doubt came when Isildur cut off all fingers. Why? Because it doesnīt add anything to the story, it doesnīt gain any time, it just happens like that because that would make for a jucier action scene I think. I know some things would have to be changed for a movie, but when things are changed to spice up the story, make things easier to film, or simply for no apparent reason at all, it pisses me off.

CyberShy:

quote:
And all your points are valid but very unimortant.


I hope you mean something like: "... but I donīt find them as important".

Unlike most people think, LOTR is not a trilogy. It is one whole, which happened to be published in three parts because that was more user-friendly. Furthermore, each of those parts consists of 2 books, so there are indeed 6 books (and an appendix)!

This definitely isnīt the definitive LOTR on film, unfortunately, if that could ever happen at all...
Iīm afraid Iīll have to set aside a billion dollars or so of my future fortune to sponsor a 6 part LOTR film project true to Tolkienīs masterpiece.

CyberShy is offline CyberShy

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Mar 1999
time: 06:17
  Old Post 30-12-2001 11:43
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quote:
This definitely isnīt the definitive LOTR on film, unfortunately, if that could ever happen at all...


exactly, a movie will never be the same as a book.
As soon as you can understand that, you're allowed to write reviews. I'm not even going to explain why a movie can't be compared with a book, and why for that reason the given arguments are valid but unimportant.

quote:
Some other things that bothered me were Galadriel in general and her flipping in particular. That just didnīt fit with my imagination at all.


yeah, let's make a movie that compares with all 100,000,000 imaginations that people have of the movie ! That would finally make the ultimate LoTR movie

This movie is the best that could be made at this moment without making it a 36 hour movie. And I doubt if for that reason in the future a better one could ever be made. But you can keep on dreaming of course, and slam down every attempt to it.

CyberShy

axi is offline axi
Prince
Athens Greece
Sep 1999
time: 07:17
  Old Post 05-01-2002 18:46
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I did not write all this stuff for nothing...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Relatively to the preposterous stuff we've seen from Hollywood these last few years, since directors shifted their preferrence to unrealistic effects (The Matrix, Armageddon, The Gladiator, Phanom Menace, Jurassic Park, Tomb Raider etc), the film was really good. At least it wasn't all a rush of adrenaline, it was slower. To one who has read the books, the plot looks rather coherent, but I don't know if the common spectator would feel the same about it. It felt good that I knew what's going to happen next, so I didn't get let down by the ending of the first part. But what made the movie irresistible IMHO is Tolkien's rather than Jackson's talent, since the greatest thrill was seeing ME come to life. This alone outweighs anything else.

What I didn't like inside the FotR movie, by order of importance:

1. NO SINGING WHATSOEVER. Everybody in ME sings, from Orcs, to Dwarves, to Elves, to Hobbits. Yet we heard not one song. They should sing in Bilbo's party, they should sing in the Prancing Pony, they should sing in Imlandris, they should sing on the Road!
And of course the film's soundtrack went totally unobserved, which wouldn't be the case if they'd put some Blind Guardian in it!

2. The Hobbit characters are quite off-target. Frodo is okay, but Sam looks too mature from the beginning, Pippin does not any different than Merry (he was younger and more naive) and they both look like kids. Visually, most of the times they are not short enough (they should reach Gandalf's waist at most), not to mention that their height varies from scene to scene. Their feet are not hairy enough. Plus their haircuts look like they've been adopted from Bakshi's cartoon (they're too 70's) while they should be more curly. Oh, and Butterburr was a Hobbit, not a man!

3. Frodo leaves Hobbiton in a hurry, which is not the case in the book, where he was stalling and leaving secretly (remember that the 4 plus Fatty Bolger were to go stay in the Brandybuck house for a while, in order to cover Frodo and Sam's flee). This part of the book was chopped up severely: No Old Man Willow, no Bombadil, no valley of the Tombs. We are missing the first adventures of the Hobbits, when they were travelling alone and were building on their adventurous spirit.

4. Bad allocation of time: we get tired of seeing closeups of the Ring and Frodo's face all the time, while other stuff could be shown instead.

5. The emphasis on the importance of the Ring and on the size of the threat posed by the Nazgul is given from the beginning, while all should be made clear in Imladris and not before that. This is related with the time compression mentioned before.

6. No geographic reference. Those who have not read the books have no idea on how the various places are related geographically, which sometimes heavily affects the plot, f.e. referring to the Karadhras - Moria - Isen dilemma and perhaps later, on the choice of the Cirith Ungol pass and the alternative routes from Rohan to Minas Tirith. The one scene that the film should always return to is not Sauron's defeat by Isildur, but the Middle Earth map.

7. Gandalf's fall in Moria was utterly dissapointing. He should have gone down fighting with the Balrog as they fell, as in the book. Also little is explained to us about Moria and who Balin was and what this meant to Gimli son of Gloin and Gandalf.

8. We missed alot of things in Lorien, most important of which was the mallorn trees. Also the other gifts by Galadriel, which tend to get rather important later on (lembas , the rope, the hoods) and the attitude shift of Gimli towards Galadriel (he should start championing her as most beatifull of all the Eldar from now on).

Other comments:

I think that most of the major departures from the plot are pretty well executed (although not always justified). Arwen might have been in the place of Glorfindel (although there is no was she could have flooded the river by a spell). There might have been an Olog-Hai (if that's that that big dude was) in Moria. If the Ishtari had a duel, it would probably be something like that. If the book would show Saruman creating the Uruk-Hai, then such a scene might have happened.

Someone commented on Aragorn giving to the Hobbits the swords they should have found in the tomb. What is going to look even weirder is the damage that Merry is going to inflict on the Which King of Angmar with one of those swords (which in the books is explained thus: the sword was magically custom-crafted with the sole purpose to kill the Witch King, by one of his enemies, some lord of the lost kingdom of Arnor). Perhaps they will overlook this little detail and they will have Eowyn single-handedly dispatch the Witch King, while Merry wil simply act as a distraction (after all, she is "no mortal man", she is a woman).

As for the effects: the Balrog was COOL, exactly as it should be, can't wait to see one just like that dying by the sword of Turambar in a future "Narn-I-Hin_Hurin" film. Every time Frodo wore the Ring was a feast too and the Nazgul should look like that. Galadriel's trial with the Ring was majestic too. The good side in the battle should be more colorful, but Sauron's exit was great and it was clear that no elf or man was a match for him. thumbs up for the effects team!

Details: Have you noticed that the right people (Hobbits, Strider) have dirty fingers and the right people (Elrond, Galadriel, Boromir, Saruman) get a manicure? Have you noticed Bilbo's ageing without the Ring? Have you seen the Ring shrink to fit Isisldur's hand, the second time we see the scene? Have you noticed the originally blue Uruk-Hai getting a suntan (becoming black) after some days under the sun?

Wraith is offline Wraith
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Austin, Texas, USA
Aug 1999
time: 23:17
  Old Post 05-01-2002 19:14
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Looks like my review got zapped, so here we go again.

Bottom line, if you're very familiar with the books, don't bother with the movie.

The scenery is great. The costumes are pretty decent.

The camera work is horrible. Aside from the MTV-Rap-Video style combat sequences, we get extreme close ups of almost everyone who appears on-screen. Sorry, but I do not want to be able to count the number of hairs sticking out of Gandalf's nose. The actors also should have been fed better, or given candies to suck on, or something to stop them from chewing on the scenery.

This was done poorly enough that it became the second movie I've ever walked out of. This was right after the Nazgul started going up in flames like mummies and Arwen appeared out of nowhere to speak in her subtitled elvish. Unfortunately, she obviously didn't practice the lines, as she was speaking in that slow and over-emphasized tone of voice you use when you speak to a complete moron.

The characters varied from slightly wrong to totally off. A hint to any future movie-makers adapting books: Do no rewrite major characters. What was done to Saruman was inexcusable, not to mention Merry and Pippin. Even Gandalf doesn't come off very well (and the performance doesn't come anywhere close to Nicol Williamson's portrayal of Merlin in "Excalibur").

The changes in the plot really got to me, as well. Axi mentioned a couple, the swords and leaving Bag-end. There's also the entire nature of the Prancing Pony, the hobbits going off with Strider without any real reason to trust him, the DragonBall Z of the Ring Staff Fight, etc. Worst of all was changing Saruman to Sauron's slave, which makes me expect that last half of Return of the King isn't going to find its way to movie form at all.

To take a couple other book to movie examples, let's look at Starship Troopers and Hunt for Red October. They fall on different extremes of the spectrum, from horrible transfer to good.
Starship Troopers, while a horrible movie in its own right, also manages to totally ignore just about everything in the book except character names.
Hunt for Red October, although missing a lot of things I would I have liked to have seen (top of the list being the A-10s giving a little warning to the Kiev), did not rewrite major characters or plot points beyond recognition.

LotR falls in between those two, but it's much closer to Starship Troopers than it is to Hunt for Red October. Very disappointing, and I'm not even going to be bothering with the other movies in the theater, much less buying them on DVD.

Guess I'll have to stick with Excalibur for live-action epic fantasy.

Wraith
Fantasy isn't our crutch -- its arcane

Buck Birdseed is offline Buck Birdseed
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 19:17 Visit Buck Birdseed's homepage!
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Ooh, okay, I'll review it (very briefly) as well. I thought it was pretty shite- basically, they took an awful book unsuitable for filming, and instead of cutting heavily and removing the tedious bits they managed to only emphasise them. Not that the story itself is particularly strong either. When you come right down to it, once you've peeled off all the mock-serious poseurism and tedious semi-religious babble, you're left with the most basic bare-bone fantasy scheme: Throw a new (probably unrelated) monster at a group of travellers every few scenes, have them beat it, put in a few walking and babbling bits, rinse, repeat. Add the general humourlessness and the tedium often becomes unintentionally hilarious, from the giant statues doing the Hitler greeting to the (awfully unscary) Ringwraiths being run over by a Guiness ad.

I admit it picked up slightly in The Mines at Moria or whatever. The fact that the Orcs looked exactly like the Zombies from Jackson's own Braindead (a much superior film) kind of bought out the best in the filmmaker, I suppose- gore, blood, people with cool swords, giant demons, etc. Fun. Still, apparently there was enough time to put in a ten-minute yawn-inducing Boromir death sequence. The scenery, I suppose, worked decently well too, though I don't think it was that spectacular or artistically coherent- a common weakness with Down Under stuff, I always felt. Look at the awful Sydney Olympics opening and you know what I mean. No imagination, no humour, realism, realism, realism.

axi is offline axi
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Athens Greece
Sep 1999
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 19:54
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quote:
Add the general humourlessness and the tedium often becomes unintentionally hilarious, from the giant statues doing the Hitler greeting to the (awfully unscary) Ringwraiths being run over by a Guiness ad.


Oh come on, are you one of those all-too-politically-correct people who try to find malice inside everything? I 've listened to too much of the "no women - no coloured people" rant, I 've read about Saruman being modelled after Sheick Ahmed Yassin (spiritual leader of HAMAS), about the Uruk-Hai being black on purpose, but the giant statues doing the Hitler greeting is a new one!

In fact, the gesture of the statues speaks: "Go no further evil Orc, here is the kingdom of GONDOR and we'll take no ****!"

And I assure you the Nazgul are much more scarier in the film than in the book. It's not their appearance that counts however, it's the knowledge of what will happen if they get their hands on the Ring.

If the plot seems to cliché and shallow to you, perhaps this is because you are unaware of the special fate of the Elves and their kin in Middle Earth. Have a look at the Silmarillion first and then tell me if the end of the 3rd book isn't one of the most touching things you've ever read.

Plus, don't forget that Tolkien was a pioneer in his field. How many fantasy writers do you know of, before Tolkien? He had to write a modern story based on the epic myths and songs of the norse tradition - he had to develop an art from scratch.

If you want to see REALLY tedious semi-religious babble, read the writings of his friend, C.S. Lewis (which are great, if you're a kid, but don't fit with the sceptic and inquiring minds of juveniles and adults).

Insolent punks like you are put under whip and stick and made to draw carts in Mordor, you know...

Buck Birdseed is offline Buck Birdseed
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 20:35 Visit Buck Birdseed's homepage!
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There are loads of Fantasy writers well before Tolkien. Not high fantasy, certainly, but then most high fantasy is boring high-horse stuff. Naw, the greatest pioneer is not Tolkien but Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan the Cimmerian short stories. Now that's fantasy! Blood, monsters, faint racism and implied sex as with Tolkien or whatever, but no ****ing overarching mythos or alternative world-building. I actually tried reading the Silmarillon back when I vaguely liked LotR, and I gave up after a dozen pages. No matter how nice the world is if he can't write about it he shouldn't even try...

axi is offline axi
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 20:46
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I like Howard's Conan too. But you have to admit that adapting LotR to the movie screen is much more difficult than giving Arnold a sword and having him grunt a couple of phrases...

H.P.Lovecraft was before Tolkien too. But they were all kinda pioneers in their genre. Don't forget that befor Frankenstein (1815), there weren't even Science Finction and fantasy was found in obscured hand-made tomes stashed away in monasteries.

Harry Potter, OTOH, was fairly easy to write, I guess...

Bereta_Eder is offline Bereta_Eder
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 22:44 Visit Bereta_Eder's homepage!
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You can't really compare Howard with Tolkien.

Howard's world (because he DID create one too) was nothing special while Tolkien's was breathtakingly colorful. (assuming you had the patience to go through all 3 books).


As for the movie, it only verified my belief that NOTHING can substitute your own fantasy. But it was enjoyable.

Buck Birdseed is offline Buck Birdseed
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  Old Post 05-01-2002 23:13 Visit Buck Birdseed's homepage!
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Howards world is largely an afterconstruct. Basically the stories are unencumbered by location, mythology, self-connection and attempts at literature and are all the better for it.

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  Old Post 05-01-2002 23:16 Visit Bereta_Eder's homepage!
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Yes. I guess it depends on taste. Tolkien's book are weighted down by too elaborate descriptions I agree. But in the end they do form a more complete and colorful world.

Howard's world seems to be just an ancient - dark ages with some magic thrown in it. Nothing even remotely original.

MOBIUS is offline MOBIUS
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Well I thought it was a cracking good Movie!

What did you guys expect? You can't entertain all of the people all of the time - but I think Jackson did a bloody good job!!!

What I don't understand is why you all venerate Tolkien's storytelling and writing abilities so much - they're not that hot really when you think about it...

What Tolkien is a genius for IMO is his realisation of one of the most richly detailed and fabulous fantasy settings ever! (Though a lot of that can be attributed to the prodigious output of supporting materials by the armies of fans out there, and things like MERP etc...)

I personally found reading LotR an uphill struggle - he uses too many descriptive words in his stories and lets face it, most of the first book is pretty boring...

If Jackson had stuck to the original storyline religiously, the film would have been longer and the audience would have fallen asleep! Characters like Tom Bombadil are nauseating in the extreme and deserved to be cut! Other parts of the film were shot to aid in the pace of the film and things like the character development IMO in general you were given just enough to know what was what - such as the whole Moria episode. Basically you know Gandalf doesn't want to go there because of the Balrog and that Balin got killed - if you want to know more, read the book...

I do have issues with some things such as Saruman being in league with Sauron (They probably figured the US audiences couldn't handle the concept of more than two factions vying for control over the ring's destiny!), the staff scene - which as well as being unnecessary also was badly flawed, how did Gandalf avoid being splatted on the ceiling and end up on the roof? Oh I forgot - he's a wizard...

Anyway, a lot of the character development flaws mentioned here are due to constraints on time and in the most case have been handled admirably IMO. Interestingly though, there is even dissent amongst the 'purists' as to which scenes they liked or disliked - which just goes to show that the book and the film are interpreted differently by each person. I bet there's even people out there that actually like Tom Bombadil's character...

So, if Tolkien hadn't written such a boring first book perhaps it wouldn't have been as badly mangled as all the purists make out?

More to the point, only 5% of the IMDB audience give it a '4' or less - I somehow doubt $300m (probably twice that amount to do it justice in the eyes of the purists!) would have been spent trying to appeal to such a minute number of people...

Oh Snapcase - yeah I thought they were doing the Hitler salute as well...

Paul Hanson is offline Paul Hanson
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  Old Post 06-01-2002 04:39
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I'm surprised nobody mentioned the classic line from Gimli, "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" Hilarious!

All in all, I liked the film. I found that familiarity with the books is something of a mixed blessing; although you can understand what's going on better, you also have an image in your head of what everything ought to look like, making you somewhat disappointed when it's done differently in the film, and the surprise is gone from it all, as you know what's going to happen half the time. But still, it's a good film.

Lonestar is offline Lonestar
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Whine, whine, whine. *I* Liked the movie....

Seneca is offline Seneca
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Jun 2000
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  Old Post 06-01-2002 09:15
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I pride myself on not being anal - I have won the regional Avon and Somerest Non-Anal championship 9 times, 10 if you count the year that Avon was replaced with the County of Bristol in 1995, and I was allowed to enter twice, although, strictly this was in contravention of the 1983 charter of the Not-At-All-Anal society, the supposedly definitive set of rules, although people who actually remember the original spirit in which the Not-At-All-Anal Society was set up in will regard the 1978 charter as unsurpassable, notwithstanding the attempted 1993 revision (of which sections 8 and 13 were a travesty of the original section 5, whose article three actually prevents such blatent subilatorianism...)

Anyway, not being anal in any way, I found the film visually spectacular (the greatest Whhooooooahh!! factor since Bespin in the Empire Strikes Back), but ultimately that willing suspension of disbelief deserted me.
Dark Riders! There's a great big tidal wave coming towards you - why not try getting out the way, by retreating to that shore four yards away! When you're trying to catch a hobbit, try making your horse run fast! You're so much more likely to catch it!
Orcs! If there's more than a hundred of you versus 9, four of whom are short and useless, you really ought to kill more than one of them.

Besides which, one of the trees in Lothlorien has brown leaves, whereas on page 278 of the book it's clearly represented as having yellow leaves, so obviously the film's crap.

JohnT is offline JohnT

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I remember thinking throughout the movie "Hey! This is playing like Might and Magic!"

DanS is offline DanS
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The movie was by no means perfect. Rough around the edges. In that respect, it was very much like the books. Of course, we forgive these rough edges in the book because of the good that it offers. I'm doing the same with the movie, and because of this I thought the movie was really good.

I didn't have any problem separating the book from the movies in my mind. If you take the movie separate from the book, you might have a more favorable impression of the movie. Also, it helps to look at the movie and expect that it's not 100% realistic, but rather stylistic. We have no problem with this on musicals, for instance, so why not with LOTR?

JohnT: rather, you should say that playing Might and Magic is like watching LOTR.

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Originally posted by Snapcase
Add the general humourlessness and the tedium often becomes unintentionally hilarious, from the giant statues doing the Hitler


Snapcase, you of all people should have recognized this! It's not the Nazi salute. It's the traditional first hand gesture used when performing "Stop! In the Name of Love."

Richard Bruns is offline Richard Bruns
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 01:02 Visit Richard Bruns's homepage!
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I liked the movie. It seemed a bit rushed, but that is inevitable when they try to fit in so much. I think that it should have been six movies, or even better, a TV series with each hour-long episode being a chapter or two. The book is so big and dense that you would need that to truly cover everything.

There were lots of gems in the movie. Boromir's body being sent over the falls, Galadriel's temptation, and the ravaging of Isengard were all excellent scenes, both on their own and as adaptations of the book. The Shire, Rivendell, Moria and all the other locations looked great, and were very close to Tolkien's description. I'm glad they managed to fit in shots of Gondor and the Barrow Downs, even though they weren't a main part of the sory.

I did noticed a lot of flaws, like their being able to kill the troll. The arguing at the Council was also a big disappointment, and the thievery of Merry and Pippin and their accidental joining were annoying. But I can live with that. It was a good movie overall.

If you disliked the movie, I'd ask you to take a step back and consider how this movie compares to most movies nowadays. The typical adventure story consists of a group of heroes who run around, shedding expendable extras as they fight toward a neat victory, and living happily ever after. But in this movie, things are a lot different. If you hadn't read the books, you would really be surprised. Two important characters bite the dust, another two get hauled off by the orcs, and the remainder of the fellowship is split apart due to Frodo's knowledge of the corrupting power of the ring. That is certainly not typical Hollywood fare. Compare it to something like The Mummy and it suddenly looks a lot better.

As an adaptation of Tolkien's work, it was mediocre. As a movie, it was excellent.

Rufus T. Firefly is offline Rufus T. Firefly
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Sep 2000
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 02:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Richard Bruns
If you disliked the movie, I'd ask you to take a step back and consider how this movie compares to most movies nowadays. The typical adventure story consists of a group of heroes who run around, shedding expendable extras as they fight toward a neat victory, and living happily ever after. But in this movie, things are a lot different. If you hadn't read the books, you would really be surprised. Two important characters bite the dust, another two get hauled off by the orcs, and the remainder of the fellowship is split apart due to Frodo's knowledge of the corrupting power of the ring. That is certainly not typical Hollywood fare. Compare it to something like The Mummy and it suddenly looks a lot better.


This admirably cuts to the heart of the matter. As someone who liked the film very much and who has no investment whatsoever in Tolkien's poorly-written reworking of Norse mythology, I have to agree. It was a good movie. Elijah Wood's Frodo is really weak (he has two facial expressions: scared and nauseated), but other than that it's good solid entertainment, with a well paced story that never takes a back seat to special effects (unlike most of today's fare). Let's face it: if you wanted to make a good movie here, you had to be unfaithful to the book, since the book is unspeakably dull. Indeed, this may be the best adaptation of a mediocre text since Copolla's first two Godfather films.

JohnT is offline JohnT

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Mar 1999
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 02:53
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quote:
Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

Indeed, this may be the best adaptation of a mediocre text since Copolla's first two Godfather films.


Spoken like a man who never had to read Jaws.

Fiera is offline Fiera
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I won't repost my contributions to this thread since I spent like half an hour looking up for words in the dictionary. It was hard just once, I'm too lazy to do it twice...

Fiera is offline Fiera
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Oh, and Fantasy Literature... I think you'll find it's a bit older than you all seem to imply. What about The Ilium and The Odissey, or La Morte'd Arthur? Even better, every kind of mythology is Fantasy literature.

Buck Birdseed is offline Buck Birdseed
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quote:
Originally posted by JohnT
Spoken like a man who never had to read Jaws.


Or Thackeray's Barry Lyndon.

lightblue is offline lightblue
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Oct 2001
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 04:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Elijah Wood's Frodo is really weak (he has two facial expressions: scared and nauseated)


Yeah, I thought he already started to grate in his first scene, and continued all the way through. Though I never liked Frodo in the book either, so maybe he's portraying Frodo like |Tolkien had in mind.

Wraith is offline Wraith
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Aug 1999
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 04:36
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--"How many fantasy writers do you know of, before Tolkien?"

Well, there was that chap, Homer...

Still, Tolkien's main strength was in his world-building. The incredible detail of Middle Earth is something that hasn't really been equalled in fantasy since, mostly because it doesn't look like there are many people around willing to pay that kind of attention to detail.
Some do try, and I've seen several series make gestures/attempts at creating their own languages, but quite frankly none of them have been backed by the actual knowledge Tolkein had.

--"the greatest pioneer is not Tolkien but Robert E. Howard"

There were actually a fair amount of good fantasy stories around that time, IIRC. Not sure I have the dates exact, but I think the Barsoom stories and Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series were about that time as well.

--"No matter how nice the world is if he can't write about it he shouldn't even try..."

To each his own. I actually quite enjoy the Silmarillion.

--"they're not that hot really when you think about it..."

I'll take Tolkein above, oh, Daniel Steel or Steven King any day.

--"If you disliked the movie, I'd ask you to take a step back and consider how this movie compares to most movies nowadays"

Well, that's the thing. I got tired of Hollywood and their typical action movie a while ago. Right now I'm quite into anime, and although it has its own conventions it is quite different from Hollywood. I can't help but recognize that there are good fantasy movies and series out there, like Princess Mononoke, or Record of the Lodoss War. Even in live-action this has been done better, as in Excalibur (another non-Hollywood production).

--"As an adaptation of Tolkien's work, it was mediocre. As a movie, it was excellent"

I have to disagree. As an adaptation it was poor (see the earlier animated movies if you want bad). I was watching it primarily as an adaptation. As a movie, it struck me as mediocre at best. It only rates higher if you don't consider anything made outside Hollywood.

Wraith
Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

Rand Al'Tor is offline Rand Al'Tor
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  Old Post 07-01-2002 04:51
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I had the same feeling watching it as I had reading it. Good, but what's all the fuss about. Granted, it IS a life's work (the book that is) and there are few to no other fantasy books that are that. But heck... So what if Arargorn's lineage can be given with name and stories to year X. So what if an encilopedia of ME would have to be bigger then one of this world, so what that you've got hunderds of landsapes described in details. The story and the characters, real but in a strange setting, are what count for me, and I suspect Tolkien and perhaps those that appreciate him more then I, care less about. They're still good plots and characters, but I think there are better.

On an unrelated note, I just saw Akira yesterday. Euhm... is there anyone who understood the last scene first time? Still, good one.

 
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