Charilaos Nikokavouras <cn399@ic.ac.uk
wrote (IMHO) a load of bol£$%ks.
Were you actually awake? God/Sauron help me if I end up on a ME side with
you, I will have to seriously reconsider my last new years resolution, never
stab a fellow allegiances nation in the back...............
Go see it again, and this time keep your eyelids open!
Irritated.
Andy
"The Knife in YOUR back, will be driven by J1indur" OR ME!
Message: 4
···
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 01:32:26 +0000
From: Charilaos Nikokavouras <cn399@ic.ac.uk>
Subject: Fellowship of the Ring
(major SPOILERS!)
Very disappointed here. I have no idea how many times the Professor is
turning in his grave.
I will start with the good things: Gandalf. The Balrog. Boromir and Frodo.
Many of the action scenes. The Balrog 
Now the bad things
1) The dialogue. They changed all the epic lines in the book with
Scwartzeneger-type quotes. They didn't even try to make 'I'll be back'
lines sound more like 'Back I will be my friends'. As a friend of mine
very aptly put it, 'Basically, the script is all the things the characters
might have said between the bits that Tolkein wrote'. Another friend of
mine told me that she hasn't read the books but the dialogue in the books
is 'difficult' so it is better that they made it 'easier' for the film...
Nothing to add here
2) The world. OK, I admit that my first and foremost griping is with the
elves, all elves. Why so arrogant and cold? We know they are not carefree
hobbits, but this? Elrond, Galadriel, Haldir, Celeborn, every single elf
that appeared with the _slight_ exception of Legolas who was unexpectedly
better than the others (and I say unexpectedly because from the trailer I
had the impression that he would be a bit on the soft side). Why don't
elves know how to smile? I thought they were into singing and
merry-making.
As I said, elves is just a part of the problem, but I mentioned them first
because I have a very soft spot for them. But the problem with the elves
is part of the biggest problem with the whole film for me, and took me
some time to pin it down. It is this: In Tolkien's book there is a world
of good and evil. The characters go from light to darkness and then come
out on the light again, before they plunge once more into darkness. I just
failed to see the light in this film. In the books Rivendell is a
stronghold of what is good in the world. Songs and laughs and merriment,
friends and stories by the fire. In the film it is a beautiful scenery
with an ice-cold bastard as a ruler (Elrond, whose casting was so bad that
I was expecting him any time to put on dark glasses and say 'as...
HU-umans... you... idEN-tify... yourselves through... sUFfering') (for
those who have seen Matrix). In the books Lothlorien is another stronghold
of good, although secluded and isolated. Galadriel is good and gentle. In
the film all the elves there have no goodness in them, they are arrogant
and cold-hearted and Galadriel a witch. Even Bree is a decandent place
that reminisces of that bar with all the scum of the universe from Star
Wars. The Dwarves? Gimli is even worse than the dwarf in that pathetic
Dungeons&Dragons film.
Are these the 'free' people? Is this the 'good' that the Fellowship
strives to protect? I have no greater sympathy for the Elrond and the
Galadriel and the Bree-landers I saw in the film than I have for Gollum.
Anyway, I understand that these are differences of 'interpretation', and
Peter Jackson's interpretation is as good as mine. It's just that my
interpretation does not disregard whole passages of the book.
I have many more gripings but I will not go into them. Of course I will
still mention them:
all the story changes. No point in going into this. Half of the audience
has not read the books, but they must pay for a ticket. Give them Liv
Tyler, lots of action instead of dialogue, lots of scenery instead of
script. There you have it.
Orthanc and Saruman - minion of Sauron? How much more can you alter the
storyline?
The orcs. What sort of B-Movie creatures were that? In times they looked
like they spawned fron an 'Alien' movie.
The whole 'council of Elrond' scene. One of my favourite chapters in the
books turned into a Jerry Springer episode.
The fellowship - no interaction between the characters, except Gandalf
with Frodo and Frodo with Sam. Gimli is Chewbacca and Pippin is Jar-Jar
Bings. Aragorn is good at times, but often he gets completely out of
character - like after Gandalf's fall and in all the scenes where he
doubts himself (I am sure this was intented to give 'depth' to the
character? (sarcasm)).
Anyway, there are many more things I could say but that's a rough idea of
why I am so disappointed. I am sure I would have enjoyed the film if I was
not so obsessed with the books. It had some very good moments, it started
beautifully and the end was good (although not faithful to the book). But
all in all, so damn frustrating. Finally I hope I did not offend anyone
who really appreciated it, I know how annoying it is when people knock
down your favourite books/films etc. I do not say that this is not a good
film, just that I personally disagree with it
Haris