Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is a masterwork on all counts. Its lore, world building, character development, thematic juxtapositions, and pacing are all incredible. If it has one pronounced flaw, it's that the denouement could stand as a film on its own, but taking it away would be an injustice.
A film that failed to explain itself or the rules of its universe is Denis Villeneuve's Dune. That's the film to watch if you want a visual aid to the novels that has zero character development and is wholly a visual spectacle.
I feel like the lack of a hobbit mention here is sufficient evidence by itself that you weren't paying any attention at all.
It's a novel perspective...
Unless you’re Peter Jackson, in which case Gandalf (a) falls on his own accord, with no whip around his ankle, and (b) whispers, which sounds nice on camera, but wouldn’t be heard by his fellowship.
The movie is chock-full of this bullshit. Now, I’m not upset that Jackson deviated from the book, although I do notice — I’ve been reading LOTR since I was 9, and did research on Tolkien in graduate school. My problem is that many of his changes make things worse.
Yes, he got some things right, but the consistency of his flaws just grates on me. Faramir, for instance: in the book he does the right thing, and lets Frodo and Sam leave unhindered. This is in clear contrast to his brother, and an important illustration of one of Tolkien’s core beliefs: the evil is a choice, not determined fate or destiny.
In the movie, though, Faramir succumbs to the ring initially and leads the hobbits around for 15 minutes. I’m convinced that Jackson made this choice, and many others, only to pad runtime. He did the same thing to even worse effect in The Hobbit.
And yet with all that padding, he left out The Scouring of the Shire, one of the most important parts of the book. Screw Tom Bombadil: he was fun, and his immunity to the ring is a great moment, but the story can live without him. Leaving out the Scouring though is an awful choice; it’s a lovely and concise illustration and recap of most of the books themes, and shows the character’s growth in a clear light.
It's really weird however that in some parts, Jackson goes at length to be very faithful to the book, almost in an unnecessary way. Yet in most places he decides to venture far away from what Tolkien wrote or suggested, making it into a pretty mixed bag.
Not only missing the Scouring of the Shire was bad, it was essential in Tolkien's philosophy of life (which is essential Christian at core). You can do good, but nothing guarantees that you will be rewarded for it, and the Scouring of the Shire is a stark reminder of that.
Instead, Jackson went for a Disney(TM) Happy End. Seriously?
Let's not forget Jackson is also to thank for Gandalf tackling Pippin with his staff when he finally grows up and tries to act like a responsible adult in front of Denethor as he tells about Boromir's death. That must have been the worst thing in the whole trilogy. This is exactly the opposite of how Gandalf reacts in the book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5OxGHBMFEo
Aside from that, Jackson has a weird tendency to make everything look overtly visual instead of suggesting things. Theoden is "possessed" by Sauron, not by some kind of magical spell (that makes his beard change size!), but because of Wormtongue's ill influence over him. That's it!
In the same line, The Mouth of Sauron is represented by a character whose Mouth is the only thing visible from his face, and overtly large and dirty. This does not make sense. The Mouth of Sauron is not litterally the ugly mouth of some kind of demon, it is simply... a spokesperson. It's really tiring as he does this over, and over again.
As sacrilegious as this sounds to the majority of the fanbase, I hold hope that the trilogy will be rebooted by another director. Not necessarily as a way to create a superior product, but to compare how two studios have approached the story.
They replaced Glorfindel with another character that makes just as much sense and made it so the movie was not even more male dominate then it already was. It also improved the romantic relationship considerably. In some ways its actually an improvement from the books.
Overall I think that is just complaining on an incredibly high level. Sure, lets make a new set of Lord of the Rings movies every 5 years, I'm in. But given the history of Fantasy in Movies, LotR pulls of the nearly impossible.
He does. He's the only character on which the Ring has no effect.
> If they were accurate with the books it would cost way too much and they would need 30 hrs of runtime
Even by keeping it at the same length, it could have been way more faithful. Faramir is portrayed as an asshole in the movie while in the books he understands that his brother was mistaken and does not make the same decision with the hobbits. Going to Osgiliath made absolutely no sense at all.
Such changes were NOT needed.
At also made showing the taking of Osgiliath more natural in the movie.
I have only one thing to add: Sam, who apparently knows the book, says:
> "We should not even be here"
Hear hear.
I wonder though..
It seems to me that because you love the books so much you are applying and insanely high standard. Given where Fantasy has been before and since in movies what was achieved was almost unbelievable how amazing it is.
> In the movie, though, Faramir succumbs to the ring initially and leads the hobbits around for 15 minutes.
I think this is not even a bad change. It made Faramir and thus Boromir and the family dynamic a bigger part of the story. It gives it way more impact later when Faramir rides out.
> He did the same thing to even worse effect in The Hobbit.
In the Hobbit he had to jump in last minute and the studio forced it to 3 movies. There was no saving that thing. The only reason he directed it at all is because they might have pulled the movie from New Zealand.
> And yet with all that padding, he left out The Scouring of the Shire, one of the most important parts of the book.
There is just no practical way to include this even in the extended editions. The movie gets made endless jokes about how it has like 7 endings. It just not how movies work.
Remember even the cinematic editions had to cut so many things, it totally insane to think they could have added what amount to a whole other part at the end that can arguably be its own movie.
They have could have removed the 7 endings and just included that one instead. The other endings felt completely out of place anyway. That's typically the sign of a director that does not know what to include and to cut out.
Do you seriously want to stretch the hobbies in bar scene at the end into a what could be its own movie. It simply doesn't practically fit.
My personal reduction of Jackson's realization of the novels is a group of hobbits looking at each other with an over-abundance of weariness. I sort of took it as the editor's sympathy with the audience.
But LOTR was ground breaking on many levels and will probably never be surpassed in my lifetime. Amazon is making a LOTR TV series that I thoroughly expect I'll hate every second of but I'd love to be wrong, though my faith in the film industry is exceedingly low.
And the romantic plots were in the book as well.
Are you sure you are not mixing up Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?
I disagree, but there are people who know what they're talking about that have similar thoughts.
Sure the movie that is closely based on one the most critically acclaimed and most sold stories in the world totally fails as story telling
> The movie lurched from set piece to set piece and lacked the connective tissue of storytelling.
Clearly you weren't paying attention.
> just elves walking
I really seems you were not paying attention.
> The world failed to establish any rules or explain itself adequately.
Its Epic Fantasy. Not like some modern fantasy where everything has to be based on quasi scientific rules. Not getting all the rules explained and discovering the world is part of the point.
> In the modern vernacular, the whole movie is payoffs with no setups.
I assume you were not watching the Extended Editions. There is plenty of setup there, but there is enough even in the cinematic edition (even when I haven't seen them in a decade).
They are beautiful visually but fail on every level of storytelling.
The whole movie was long flowing landscape shots with music swells and battles that were boring.
There was no discernible plot, just elves walking and occasionally running or flying in the forest, or a field sometimes. The world failed to establish any rules or explain itself adequately.
The movie lurched from set piece to set piece and lacked the connective tissue of storytelling.
In the modern vernacular, the whole movie is payoffs with no setups.
Go ahead, burn my account down :-)