The Problem with the films? They're too good.

[Black Breathalizer]

We're less than a week away from the conclusion to the greatest film fantasy series of all time. Ah, what glorious an..tici...pation!

One of the interesting things I've noticed: As the popularity and the critical acclaim for the film series has continued to increase over the past two years, so has the intensity of the complaints from a small but vocal group of Tolkien fans who were desirous of a more literal translation of the books.

So why has this happened? Here is my theory...

In the beginning, expectations were low. Most Tolkien fans were sceptical of the project. Most thought that a movie trilogy of the LOTR couldn't do the books justice. The most common comment I heard was that the only way you could create a live-action film version of LOTR would be to do a 20+ hour TV miniseries.

Then Jackson's FOTR came out and Tolkien fans were stunned and in awe of what they saw. Even those demanding a literal translation admitted to be caught up in "seeing" Middle Earth and experiencing universally accepted film translations from the books like the Gandalf versus Balrog confrontation.

But as Tolkien fans became more accustomed to seeing the films' incredible scenery, dead-on casting, magnificent art direction, and unquestionable directorial skills, they took it for granted and began focusing on the one significant area of divergence: the story. Even though the screenwriters had valid filmmaking reasons for all the changes they've made, the feeling among these people was: "hey, everything else about these films is near-perfection, so why couldn't Jackson have given us a perfect story too?!?!?"

So essentially, the films have become the victim of their own amazing quality. If these films had been another silly Ralph Bakshi-type production, we wouldn't be having this debate.