Entmoot's first review of the movie!! - Page 2

Darkside Spirit · 12-24-2001, 11:34 AM

I saw it on Friday (with three friends). I really have mixed feelings about the film. With a book such as LOTR, it will inevitably be different to how you imagined it, and there was no way that everything could be included. I'm still coming to terms with some of the ommissions, though.

One of the people I went with hasn't read LOTR at all and enjoyed it greatly - even in the massively reduced form that is the movie, it's a wonderful story. Another person had only read as far as the Flight to the Ford and had similar opinions, not being distraught over the ommission of the Old Forest, Bombadil and the Barrow-Whites - "He kills people by singing at them!!" The third person, whom I sat next to, has read the book several times and is more familiar with it than I am. We spotted countless problems - Gandalf's sign on Weathertop, the supposedly daytime setting of the Shadow of the Past, whether Boromir was killed by Uruk-hai or orcs, the ommission of Saruman of Many Colours, the ommission of Galadriel's Elven Ring and far, far more. It was inevitably distressing to see so much cropped away, but in my heart of hearts I know the decisions taken were necessary and, for the most part, probably correct.

One thing I really hated was Gandalf coming back after a couple of days (it's supposed to be nine years or something!!) and saying "you must leave immediately" (he's supposed to leave it until Autumn, after their mutual birthday!!) That was a really cheap stunt, and demeans Tolkien's careful and realistic (if I may use a possible oxymoron) managing of story time. However, no other bits that I really took exception to spring to mind.

Overall, it's a good film, with some fantastic effects and fairly good adaptation. I still wish they could have made a film that precisely followed the book with nothing changed or left out, but that would have made it about twelve hours long! It's quite faithful to the book, and in the final reckoning it's a fairly good compromise.

Darkside Spirit · 01-04-2002, 04:52 AM

01-04-2002, 04:52 AM	#22
Darkside Spirit Hobbit Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 47	Up??

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12-24-2001, 11:34 AM	#21
Darkside Spirit Hobbit Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 47	I saw it on Friday (with three friends). I really have mixed feelings about the film. With a book such as LOTR, it will inevitably be different to how you imagined it, and there was no way that everything could be included. I'm still coming to terms with some of the ommissions, though. One of the people I went with hasn't read LOTR at all and enjoyed it greatly - even in the massively reduced form that is the movie, it's a wonderful story. Another person had only read as far as the Flight to the Ford and had similar opinions, not being distraught over the ommission of the Old Forest, Bombadil and the Barrow-Whites - "He kills people by singing at them!!" The third person, whom I sat next to, has read the book several times and is more familiar with it than I am. We spotted countless problems - Gandalf's sign on Weathertop, the supposedly daytime setting of the Shadow of the Past, whether Boromir was killed by Uruk-hai or orcs, the ommission of Saruman of Many Colours, the ommission of Galadriel's Elven Ring and far, far more. It was inevitably distressing to see so much cropped away, but in my heart of hearts I know the decisions taken were necessary and, for the most part, probably correct. One thing I really hated was Gandalf coming back after a couple of days (it's supposed to be nine years or something!!) and saying "you must leave immediately" (he's supposed to leave it until Autumn, after their mutual birthday!!) That was a really cheap stunt, and demeans Tolkien's careful and realistic (if I may use a possible oxymoron) managing of story time. However, no other bits that I really took exception to spring to mind. Overall, it's a good film, with some fantastic effects and fairly good adaptation. I still wish they could have made a film that precisely followed the book with nothing changed or left out, but that would have made it about twelve hours long! It's quite faithful to the book, and in the final reckoning it's a fairly good compromise.