Changed My Mind: Jackson's LotR As Bad As DeLaurentis' DUNE

[bropous]

Boy, do I ever have egg on my face.

And Man, was I ever wrong. By a LONG shot. False hopes.

When I saw the first film, I swallowed my dissention, overwhelmed by the phenomenon of seeing my favorite work of literature brought to the screen. I saw it sixteen times in the theater, and of course, thought the rest of the films would redeem the differences I had with how the story was distorted.

I bought the party line, that there were a few changes, but hey, Jackson raised the money, he made the movie, it was his right to do the film as he wanted. Fine. I even went so far as to champion Jackson's cause on the Moot, being one of the prime apologists and railing against the "purists" who assailed Jackson's efforts. But it was slowly sinking in that I was on the wrong track, as far off track as Jackson. But I hadn't yet become able to admit the error. I held on for one more film.

Then Two Towers came out. Even MORE variance from the storyline, totally unbalanced retelling of this masterwork of English literature, but hey, I liked what I saw, for the most part, and glossed over the howling insult the film ended up being towards the story's creator. I saw it TWICE in the theater. That's it. Couldn't drag myself into the theater again to relive that sad caricature of the second book of the trilogy. So I set my sights on the third film, but daily was realizing I had been standing, all along, on the wrong side of the issue.

And so, here we go. We go back to the theater, only to witness what will be the most egregious facet of Jackson's b*stardization of this masterwork, a third film bearing little or no resemblance to the multilayered, heavily entertwined story that Tolkien worked so hard for so many years on.

Frankly, I take back all the good things said about the three films here and now. Now that the full scope of Jackson's rape of this masterpiece can be reviewed, I relegate this three-film set to the dusty bookshelf with the Rankin-Bass version of the Hobbit and Return of the King, and that Bakshi stab at the first half of Lord of the Rings. ALL fell far short of bringing Tolkien's world to view. Jackson's was the biggest disappointment of all: He actually had the money and the backing to do it RIGHT, and he FAILED MISERABLY, FOR NO FARKING REASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again, I'll be waiting for the REAL version of these books to come to the visual media. Will it be another 26-year wait?

Wrapping up, here is the essential question on the final product:

Is Jackson's Lord of the Rings as bad an attempt to bring a great work of sci-fi/fantasy genre to the screen as was Dino deLaurentis' abomination of Dune?

My echoing, resounding answer: YES!!!!!!!!!!!