I'm with you...I left the theater grinding my teeth.
I suppose when you've loved these stories since childhood, as I
have, theatrical license might bother you more than most. The whole
of the film seemed very cartoonish to me and quite a spectacle. I
very much liked The Fellowship of the Ring, lest you brand me a
doomsayer.
Specifically:
The Paths of the Dead: The dead themselves should never have
appeared at The Battle of Pelennor Fields. Aragorn arrives in the
Corsairs ships with the men of South Gondor who had remained to
defend their homes. The dead in the film seemed to be a giant can of
orc bug spray, espescially that bit with them attacking the mumakil
(which, I agree, were FAR too large)and sweeping into Minas Tirith.
Denethor: I was always struck by the gravity, sadness, nobility and
madness of Denethor. The film painted him as a buffoon. Gandalf
himself paid the man respect and that bit with him striking him
down with his staff had me tearing at my hair. And what was that
nonsense with his burning body going over the edge of Minas Tirith?
Sam: Am I the only one who has a problem with Sean Astin? I loved
Sam and Astin just seemed miscast. Sam's courage and simple
binding loyalty to Frodo, so critical, just didn't seem to shine
through.I agree that that business on the stairs seemed misplaced,
though I thought Shelob was very well done, and I liked Cirith Ungol.
Mordor: The massive blasted land seemed a small distance for Frodo
and Sam to travel onscreen. It looked right, just not large enough,
if you follow me. The battle at the Black Gates just seemed a bit
wrong to me as well, very Hollywood.
There's more, but I'm just grousing, I suppose, and liked the
other films far more when the extended DVDs were released. So I
expect the experience to be far richer and, now that I know what to
expect,
I'll see the films as themselves and not reflections necessarily of
the books.
I very much liked the prologue with Smeagol and Deagol and the
special effects, when not overdone, were fantastic. Minas Morgul
was great and I found the hobbits commiserating at the Green Dragon
touching. I would love to see the Scouring of the Shire but I
suppose there's little hope for that.
The thing about film adaptations is that they forever change the
initial vision for future readers, if they put forth the effort to
take the time to read at all when they could just pop in the DVD.
Modern times.
Greg
Oh dear, I think I'm about to be vilified... You see, I thought it
was, for
the most part, awful! I don't know whether it was the (over) hype
prior to
seeing it or what, but it left me cold. And I liked the other two
films a
lot.
Specifically:
It was badly edited. In places it just dragged and in others the
flow seemed
to be interrupted for no good reason. The confrontation between
Eowyn and
the Witch King has already been cited as one example. Some action
occurred
without explanation, unless you'd read the book, and added to the
confusion.
The battle for Minas Tirith had me almost laughing. Here's the
biggest, most
well-protected fortress city we've seen and the walls are destroyed
by the
first chunk of rock that slaps into it yet it takes a good half
dozen swings
with a gigantic battering ram to break down a reinforced door...?
Obviously
physics isn't a certain director's strong point.
Faramir was basically an afterthought. As was Gimli. In fact, if
you took
the dwarf out of the film, no-one would notice.
I still think Galadriel was miscast.
The far too Hollywoodian ending. The way the film ended, Frodo had
not yet
achieved his heroic stature: he failed at Mount Doom, don't forget.
As one
cinema goer behind me said to his girlfriend, "what happened to the
hard
···
hobbits sorting out the scum back home?"
On the other hand:
Shelob was good.
Gavin
