Capturing Tolkien's Vision vs. A Literal Interpretation

[BeardofPants]

The fading of the elves, and of the third age:
Pj has them turning up at helms deep to fight against Saruman's hoard. Is this the mark of a race whose fëa is fading? Whose time was drawing to a close? Not to mention the fact that it completely mucks up the Last Alliance. In Tolkien's world, the elves are estranged from the world of men: if Men are to overthrow Sauron, then they have no one to turn to except themselves. PJ has completely shot this theme to pieces.

Reduction of the role of hobbits, and how even the smallest can come through:
Pj has taken out the scouring which would have shown how the hobbits had come in a full circle from a primarily internallly turned race, to one that was forced to fight for the freedom of the shire. No longer could the hobbits rely on the rangers fending for them, or for Gandalf to turn up at some opportune time. In PJ's world, it seems we will not get to see the maturation of the hobbits as a people. However, I reserve my judgement until I've seen the last insallment. The POV on the movie shifts from the hobbits to that of Aragorn (primarily.)

The elvish concern with preserving their realms:
PJ gives us turbo-Galadriel, a fiercesome queen who seems more concerned with terrifying the be-jeezus out of everyone and stealing the ring, than preserving her people, and her realm. Elrond seems more concerned with xenophobia towards an inferior Aragorn, and telling off his daughter to worry about *his* realm. Again this hearkens to my point about their "fading"; rather than being geographically, and socially isolated from 'man-kind' they're gallivanting around the neighbourhood kicking elvish butt. So much for the inwardly turned aspect of the elves. There is no real allusion to the timelessness of Elrond's realm. A cursary mention is made of the lack of time passed in Lothlorien.

What it means to be a hero:
Admittedly, we're still waiting for the third installment, so I can't really give an absolute fail to PJ on this theme, however, thus far he hasn't succeeded too well. Frodo has turned into a mouse who likes to have occasional bouts of diarrhoaea/constipation, and random episodes of falling over. Tolkien's Frodo was scared at every turn, but displayed great courage in overcoming his fear. PJ's Frodo was just plain scared, and was oftentimes cowering behind some random member of the fellowship. Aragorn has turned into a reluctant king-to-be, easily caught off-guard by an elven hussy. The phrase, "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost?", no longer makes sense, because movie-Aragorn is clearly lost, and has no sense of self-worth in regards to either his love for Arwen, or his kingdom. Also, both his and Frodo's characters are completely bungled at the end of fellowship: Tolkien's more kingly Aragorn would never had left Frodo's side had he known Frodo's intentions to desert.

Environmental themes:
Pj has given a cursary examination of this particular theme to his credit: however, he fails to look beyond Saruman's obvious contribution. The theme is a lot more complicated than the obvious pulling down trees and making evil machines with them: it ties in with that whole thing with the fading of the third age.