Lord of the Rings - Have you seen it? Thoughts?

Not really any spoilers here

Wow, I just saw LOTR today and I am -impressed-. Perfect casting. I was especially impressed with what they did with the elves. Legolas was especially cool, man.. he was like a machinegun with those arrows. Great acting.. Great effects, beautiful landscapes. I'm talking all randomly because i'm still in awe of how good it was. Boromir's scene towards the end.. wow wow wow, so well done. I don't have a single complaint really, except for the fact that we've got to wait for a year for the next, and another one for the conclusion. Ugh.. it's going to be a long year

 

Very well done I have npot read the books as the fantasy genre does not interest me but a very well crafted film. With a mild homosexual undercurrent. I just founf the hobbits relathionship with Gandalf a little creepy all that hugging ewww.

 

You know what's funny, I didn't even realize the movie was based just on the first book until the end of the movie!!! I had assumed the movie was going to be about the entire trilogy; had I known, I would've finished reading Fellowship. I had only 50 pages left!!

Anyway, this is a good example of a book adaptation done right. It was faithful to the book but had enough changes to keep the story fresh and interesting, even to those reading the book (me!). This was how Harry Potter should've been.

Pros:
- I agree, excellent casting
- Awesome special effects and scenes; the orcs were great!
- Storyline well adapted for a movie, and some nice additions in the movie that weren't in the book. E.g., like the changes in Galadriel and Bilbo with the ring
- More humor, which was smart to put in
- Breathtaking battle scenes...VERY impressive

Cons:
- Ringwraiths looked pathetic; Strider drove five of them off by himself!?!? I like the book's version better
- Some of the "magical" atmospheric effects were overdone...i.e. the "foggy" effect
- Unsatisfying ending
- Gandalf was changed to look more like a "warm, nice old man"...I liked the book's characterization of him better. He's more interesting a little meaner

 

I am very happy with the movie. I read all the books when I was 11 because I was a nerdy little fucker, so I have been anticipating a (decent) movie version for many years. When I was in Taiwan, I met a lot of people from New Zealand and with the population there being small, everyone knew somebody working on the movie as crew or extras, etc. They all said it would kick ass and that he (Peter Jackson) wasn't going to fuck it up. Here's some gripes and some praise:
I like Ian McWhatever but he is a little kindly and dottering for Gandalf. Forgive me, but the animated Gandalf in that shitty Hobbit and Return of the King movies is a little cooler, if only because of John Huston's voice. But mostly Gandalf is pretty cool anyway. I wish that there wasn't as much obvious foreshadowing of Borimor's, uh, treachery. I mean you would have to be an idiot not to realize that the guy has a giant hard-on for the ring and that something bad was going to come of it. Also Galadrial was kind of lame, I thought. I pictured her as more warm and approachable than she is in the movie. And the part where she goes crazy with Ringlust was silly and reminded me of Evil Dead when the zombies start floating and talking about swallowing souls and whatnot. Not the effect the filmmaker was going for, I'm sure. And this from a guy who is crazy about Cate Blanchett. The Cave Troll was a little cartoonish for my tastes also, but not unforgiveable. These are minor gripes of course and for the most part, I loved the movie. Everything looks very very cool. Isengard and Saruman are awesome. The fights are all awesome. The Balrog is a really badass creature. Legolas and the elves are very cool. I think that they did a great job, because with elves the tendency might have been to make then effeminate and singing and really wussy, but they are cool. Liv tyler's screentime was mercifully short. The orcs look cool. Gollum is there a little and is pretty creepy. When it was approaching the end of the movie, I became sad knowing that I would have to wait a year to see the next one. After a three hour movie, I wanted more.

 

I am not going to write a huge dissertation - but I Think this is already in contention for best movie, but also for best book adaptation. Lucas could learn a lot from this movie.

 

I've only read the book fairly recently, but my first exposure to the series when I was a kid and saw the animated Hobbit and Return of the King on TV (which I still think are pretty good). Overall, though, I liked the film quite a bit. Casting was mostly pretty good, Elrond looked slightly off I thought.

My main beef would probably that they spent too much time on the action scenes. I liked the slow, leisurely introduction to the Shire, but in the latter half the fighting and action got to be a bit much (though it was still pretty cool), I would've rather they spent more time on stuff like Lothlorien or Tom Bombadil (ok maybe not). Speaking of Lothlorien, yeah the scene with Galadriel coveting the ring was lame. Also, the scene where Bilbo hisses at Frodo while they're at Rivendell was too much. The cave troll looked to CG-ish and the fight between Saruman and Gandalf...I was like what the hell.

But it's still a damn good adaptation I thought, and an excellent standalone movie as well. Can't wait for the DVD in 8 months and of course the next two installments.

 

I can't believe you guys don't like the Galadriel with the ring scene! My reaction was one of shock, and it seems as if that's reaction the movie was looking for. I thought the scene was very necessary to reinforce the overall theme/point of the story, that is, that power corrupts all. Elves, wizards, hobbits, and certainly men are no exception.

I was a little surprised with the Saruman and Gandalf fight scene as well, but I thought for mainstream viewing a scene like that is a lot more plausible than the one in the book.

 

I think that since you didn't start reading the books until just recently, you are probably les strict than people who read them a long time ago. My old girlfriend, who has decent tastes and movies and stuff thought that the Galadrial scene was fine and that I was being picky. She does not understand that I was damn near obssessed with the books from age 11 to 12.

I think that that is the way a lot of people will be about the movies. They will like them, but go on and on about little, seemingly insignificant gripes. The books inspired a lot of devotion in people so any deviation from the books will be met with criticism from someone. They are really great books. When I was growing up, no other author occupied as great a place in my mind as Tolkien, outside of perhaps Kurt Vonnegut and Roald Dahl.

 

That's true probably about books you read when you were younger as opposed to recently, funny you mention Roald Dahl, I mean look at what they Matilda when they turned it into a movie, that was dissapointing. Even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while a good film, couldn't compare to the book.

About Galadriel, yeah shock is a good word for it. I just thought that hers and Bilbo's reactions were kinda inappropriate for their characters, but I guess since they wanted to emphasize the corrupting power of the ring it makes sense.

 

As for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I have always depised the movie. It was the first book of over a hundred pages that I ever read and I did when I was like six or seven. I was totally in love with that book and was not even aware that it was a movie. The book belonged to my older sister who had moved away and I can't remember if I read because I saw it on the bookshelf or because my mom recommended it to me, but when I did I was sucked in. I mean I was a kid and I know that the book is not Crime and Punishment or anything, but wow, it just seemed like anything was possible in that book.

When I saw the movie for the first time, I was 12 and I hated it. I already had my ideas of what Charlie and Willy Wonka and Oompa Loompas looked like and it was definitely not Gene Wilder and Midgets. Plus it was all so seventies-tacky. I am pretty much alone in my disdain for the movie as everyone else seems to like it. I think if I had seen it when I was younger, I would like it more. To me it seemed almost sacrilige. They have made other books of his into movies. There is James and the Giant Peach and The Witches, probably others. I have never seen nor read Matilda, strangely.

I have read and reread The Witches, The BFG, Danny the Champion of the World, The Twits, George's Marvelous Medicine, Charlie and the Big-Ass Elevator, Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, The Enormous Crocodile, Boy- Dahl's autobiography which is actually awesome, and maybe some more that I can't remember off the top of my head.

His books are just awesome and if I ever have kids I will try to get them to read them. They are funny and light-hearted but with some darker, scarier undertones of poverty and injustice and cruelty. Within his whimsical, humorous stories he manages to inject some, uh, social commentary that I think kids can understand on some level. I was really sad when I heard that he had died a few years ago.

 

I thought the movie rocked. The actors and special effects were great. I did wish however the movie ended better as I was wanting to watch more when it was over. I can't get over how well they did on the hobbits and the dwarfs. Gimili, the dwarf ( real life Rhys-Davis) s like 6' 5'' feet tall.
I read somewhere online that Gollum was once a hobbit now corrupted by the rings power. Also, the trees the Orks were uprooting are some kind of magical tree that walks every so often and to see this is some kind of major lucky event. Is there any truth to this??
Anyway, I am very anxious for The Two Towers and Return of the King.
I also found some odd similarities between LOTR and the Star Wars Triology. For instance, in the LOTR encyclopedia, Middle Earth is also known as Endor, Frodos sword glows like a lightsaber. There are a couple others but I cannot think of them now. Anyway, not that they are in any way related or ripped off of each other (I think). Regardless, the movie rocks and I cannot wait for it to be released on DVD.

 

Yes, Gollum was a hobbit named Smeagol.
Yes, those magical trees are called Ents.

 

Just saw the movie today, and it was incredible. The scenery was incredible, and Moria was just awesome. They did an excellent job of bringing LotR into the mainstream, dumbing it down somewhat without losing too much integrity. Hopefully this will encourage many people new to Middle Earth to read the books.

A few gripes though:
Arwen. Why? Yeah, I don't like Liv Tyler, but they replaced Glorfindel with her. Which would have been better: The Ringwraiths chased into the raging river by an extremely pissed off, glowing elf, or Liv Tyler saying, "If you want him, come and get him."?
Elrond. First off, it's just hard to get over Agent Smith. Second, he didn't seem to fit. They could have made Rivendell a little less opulent. as well. It should have been more homey, I guess. A very minor complaint though.
Galadriel. I liked the transformation when she was offered the Ring, but she seemed overdone otherwise. Her voice was too... I dunno. Just overdone.

Still, a five-star movie. 10/10. I could pick it apart for inaccuracies, rage at the changes, etc., but it was just too damn good.

 

er.... homophope are you? well if that freak you out then you should read book 3 ( something happens in it thats going to be left out the movie)