What kills me about the LOTR movies, is that, supposedly, an attempt was made to make the movies in a way Tolkien and his diehard fans would have approved…obviously some things had to be changed, even Tolkien understood this. But in collection of letters from JRR Tolkien, there is a particularly enjoyable one where he absolutely rips the writer of a proposed screenplay a new one, step by step blasting every pointless addition with a detailed description of why it was ridiculous. It would seem that Peter Jackson must have been aware of these letters, and this one in particular, and would try to adhere to it a little more than he did.
Tolkien was particularly infuriated by “anticipation”, needless forshadowing of upcoming elements, showing no patience to let cool stuff happen only when it’s supposed to. So, we have Frodo, at first sight of the Ringwraith, falling into a trance and uncontrollably putting on the ring. Because thats what he does later, so lets have him do it now! But it would have been much more riveting to have seen that happen for the first time later, after Frodo was succombing to the ring.
Or in Moria,they have them enter and there’s bodies and skulls all about, and they say, oh this is a tomb. Why do this? It ruins the impact of the discovery of Balins death if we already know there’s been a slaughter, but I guess PJ thinks skulls are cooler than unknown nothingness.
Someone else mentioned modernized language. It’s awful- orc’s saying “I need to take a breather!”, or “Looks like meat’s back on the menu” When did an orc ever see a menu?
Treebeard saying walking south “feels like going downhill”! When did Treebeard ever look at a map?
Gandalf :“Follow your nose” :rolleyes:
Gimli and that tossing nonsense
For all the painstaking care Tolkien took over each and every word spoken, it seems the filmmakers often just chose the first thing that came to their mind, which is a shame.
All this I guess is pretty inconsequential in the films, and I did enjoy them to a degree, but its really bothersome.
There are sins of omission, sins of commission, and likewise virtues of both. I don’t envy what PJ had to do to get the books streamlined down enough so that the material would work as film, but it had to be a pretty mind-numbing and agonizing process, one which I don’t envy at all. A few virtues of omission: I don’t think having Orlando Bloom scream (like a girl), “Aiiee! A Balrog Has Come!” would have been anything close to a good idea. Likewise the two songs that the hobbits sang (both on the EE’s IIRC) were more than enough (and were saved by the peppy rhythm). There’s tons of corny stuff like that which would have mentally tossed modern audiences right out of the movie.
This is not to excuse any SOC that PJ made: the “Treebeard is an ignorant idiot” you mentioned would be at the top of my list-at least PJ himself acknowledged that the Scrubbling Bubbles of Death didn’t work. The more nuanced criticisms that I’ve seen-long story short: some of the depth was lost in translation, esp. during the relentless breakneck pace of the final movie as it rushed from plot point to plot point-might have the best perspective. But they were tremendous accomplishments anyway, in spite of their faults.