[Lunatique]

Yeah, a few months late, but I finally got to see it.

Overall, I wasn't disappointed or impressed. I think it did the job, but didn't floor me.

What I liked:

The exchange of dialogues between Boromir and Aragorn was actually better than the book. You get a better feel for the desperate situation in Gondor, and the weight that Aragorn and Boromir carry on their shoulders. It was especially moving when Boromir called Aragorn his King before he died.

It was a good move to add more scenes of Arwen and Aragorn. Tolkien was horrible at writing about female characters, and Jackson eased that awkwardness a bit.

Some of the fighting scenes were really well done. The battle with the troll in Moria was great. Legolas was just friggin' awesome with his bow.

What I didn't like:

I HATED the fact Peter Jackson did not convey early on that Sam, Merry, Pippin were all extremely loyal to Frodo and wanted to go with him no matter how dangerous the journey was. To me, that was the heart of the story--friendship and loyalty. How the HELL could Jackson have overlooked that is beyond me. Only towards the very end do you get the sense of their bond, and by then the movie was almost over.

Kate Blanchet was a bad choice as Galadriel. They should've had someone else--maybe Nicole Kidman or someone similar in stature with cold exterior/beautiful features.

The pacing was just too forced. I felt like I was watching a synopsis of the book instead of a movie based on the book. IMO, Jackson should NOT have tried to be as faithful to the book as he had. Literature and cinema are two completely different languages, and he should've had making a great film his first and foremost priority, NOT faithfulness to the book. In fact, it was when he STRAYED from the book the movie became great.

Yep, I guess that sums up my thoughts on the film. Jackson should've strayed away from the book as much as he felt necessary to make a great film.

In general I liked it, and I am still looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

[ April 11, 2002: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[Rat]

Pretty good, but not even close to the best movie I've seen (now to remember what that was...).

[wayfinder]

lunatique, you keep surprising me.. that was literally spoken out of my heart.

i told this in almost the exact wording to the friends i saw the movie with

*amazed!*

[Basse_Ex]

(I loved it).

(But then again, I seem to love every Peter Jackson movie, and it's been one of my favorite books since my mom read it to me when I was way too little).

[Lunatique]

wayfinder- kindred soul, brother.

Another thing I thought about was, WHY didn't Jackson include the part where Aragorn identified himself as Gandalf's friend? It made no sense that Aragorn just helped them at the Prancing Pony for no reason, and they followed him without any serious suspicion. If I was one of the hobbits, I would've said, "WHo the HELL are you, and WHY are you helping us and taking us to Rivendale?"

Hmmm. When he SHOULD'VE followed the book, he didn't.

Ok, to balance it out, here's another part I liked:

I liked when they all started arguing about who should take the ring, and Frodo yelled that he would. It showed the deep rooted animosity between the Elves and Dwarfs very effectively. HOWEVER, the change in Gimli's attitude towards Elves and his new friendship with Legolas was nowhere in the film. WTF was that all about??? In fact, when Gimli was taken by Galadriel's kindness and beauty was one of the most memorable parts in the book for me. Especially when Galadriel teased and said that she didn't know Dwarfs could be so sweet tongued.

Man, a lot of good stuff was left out.

[ April 11, 2002: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[SolarC]

I agree with you Luna, galadriel didn't look or act right to be maybe the most beautiful and wise woman in middle earth.

But what I hated the most in the movie was the soundtrack. Enya with a pan flute theme practically straight stolen from titanic in lord of the rings movie just doesn't turn me on.

While watching the movie second time with my friend, we actually found quite many other stolen themes in the other parts of the film aswell. I think someone like Danny Elfman would have done far better job with the movie soundtrack.

Other irritating things in the movie were balrog, which was a little dull for my taste and the voices of ring wraiths. Also merri and pippin were more clowns of the movie than real characters.

Overall I think the movie was ok, but my expectations of lord of the rings and peter jackson where much higher.

edit:

I heard some rumors that there would be coming out a dvd with 4.5 hours long directors cut of the movie. Does anybody know if this is true or not?

[ April 11, 2002: Message edited by: SolarC ]

[Lunatique]

Yeah, the Enya new age stuff annoyed me too, but I understand why it fit. I think it's because LOTR had its roots in folklore, and probably much of it is Irish?

Merry and Pippin were definitely altered too much. I mean, they could've been comedic relief AND real characters too, but Jackson kept them mostly as clowns.

[MoleculeMan]

Maybe you guys should see the new DVD cut thats coming out. It is going to be an extra 30 minutes longer and rater R!! I hope they put all the good stuff they left out in (especially gimli starting to like elves that was so memorable!!!)

jake

[strata]

molecule: he really doesn't start liking them that much yet... sure he should have gotten a lock of galadriels hair, but his friendship with legolas starts later...

what annoyed me the most was that it felt like Jackson was rushing to get as much in as possible in three hours... it felt like he didn't let the scenes play out at all, but rather that he cut of that extra half second on the end that would give a scene some closure...

And what he did with Aragorn and Frodo in the end... this has been stated many a time, but the fact that he chose to have Aragorn LET frodo go is in my opinion a very bad stray from the book as aragorn now doesn't have to choose between frodo and sam, and merry and pippin... there's no struggle for him... I dunno... it was beautiful enough to make me cry, but the editing ruined the experience for me...

[Diruo]

Luna: After my first viewing on the premier my thoughts was just about the same as yours. I thought it was ok.. but I wasn't amazed. I got (as you did) annoyed by alot of things, espessially the pacing and some of the changes. But I went to see it again.. and then again. And upon my third viewing i was in heaven.. and the most of the issues that bothered me had sunken in and they felt alright. I think I just was caught off guard on the premier. I hope you'll go see it again. I still have some issues with it (lothlorien for example) but I hope they will be fixed in the DVD.. at least I know at least that Lothlorien will be ALOT longer.