What a gorgeous film! I have to admit, above all else, this movie is a visual feast. I'm ready now to book a cruise to see the kings towering over the river myself!
Others have reviewed this film, and comments have flown on the reviewing, and for the most part, I think everyone's opinions were rather fairly represented. I, however, wish to share a few of my own thoughts on the film - points I didn't see addressed elsewhere.
I will NOT attempt to review the movie in its entirety, but rather I want to point out a few pieces in the hope that I can spark some discussion.
First off: I liked the animated adaptation. I know that's a heresy among Tolkein purists, but I enjoyed the movie and I always thought Bahkshi got a bad rap for it. Everything I saw in tehis movie is going to be colored through those glasses: the glasses of a boy who first read the Hobbit when he was 10 and saw the movie when he was 14 (well over a decade ago...) and who'd been playing fantasy games since 1981.
What I really liked:
The visuals were incredible. Moria gave me shivers watching them wander around in the dark. My wife held tight to my arm during the snowstorm. I wished I'd had dramamine during some of the snooping, soaring scenes around Sauroman's tower. I want to visit New Zealand in the hopes that they actually built a Shire instead of just using a lot of CGI wizardry to fool the eyes. And the horses at the head of the flood with Liv Tyler - that was just downright cool.
Most of the casting was good. Ian McKellen of course, stands out as the best choice. Sean Astin was great, too. Elijah Wood did well, but half the time looked like he was thinking "what has my agent got me in to?" instead of "what sort of quest have I wandered in to?" Liv Tyler was only there as window dressing, but that's not a bad thing. With my pre-formed image of Boromir in mind from the cartoon, it was tough to see Sean Bean in the role, but he performed well.
What bugged the dog snot out of me:
The CLICHES! OK, that's like saying "Casablanca" has too many cliches in it. I know this is where they all come from! But do we have to make them sound like cliches?! The worst of the lot: The gathering of the fellowship during the council at Rivendell. "Then you shall have my bow!" ~ "And my axe!" ~ "And my vomit!" I thought along silently. Again, going back to my background: the animated version shows the company setting out, with a voice-over narration of how they were chosen. More than a few movie-goers and game-players hammered the D&D movie for the ham-handed and "accidental" way that the party comes together in that movie. Sorry, but that almost seemed downright natural to the way this bunch were rammed down our throat. I don't blame Tolkein; I blame Jackson for forcing us to sit through some of the worst dialogue I've seen in years.
The tavern in Brie - minor point here, but that was one of the worst tavern scenes I've ever seen. It was almost as iff Jackson couldn't decide to lift a tavern from 980 AD in central Germany, or from Thieves' World, and ended up with a bad hybrid of both that did nothing to move the story along properly.
Lothlorien: who's idea was it to shoot it as a tanning parlor with blue UV lights everywhere? (My other joke was something along the lines of those annoying blue-light bug-zappers, but I never could get it worded right) Again, compare with (a) the book, and (b) the cartoon: Lothlorien is a place of rest and recovery, the last happy time the companions have together before setting out again, healed and provisioned. The play, they laugh, they dance, they don't wear Oakleys to prevent catarachts and they don't hide under the trees as if Cate Blanchett is seconds from slipping into a coma and toppling over and killing them.
Cate is another HUGE problem. What's with the MIB-space alien shape-changing act? Galadriel (again...) in ol' Ralph's movie seems to almost mock Frodo when he offers her the ring. She shows him the folly of her suggestion the same was Howie Mandel would - by poking fun at it. She knows Frodo is already overwhelmed by the quest and is aware that he knows not what he suggests. If I were Frodo in the Jackson movie, I'd have needed a change of underwear. I guess that goes back to my image of Lothlorien as a healing/nurturing place, not as a KMart Christmas Commercial (American TV watchers will understand).
The rest of the casting: Whoever cast Ellrond should be shot; Thora Birch did a better job of not reading from cue-cards. John Rhys-davies is almost forgotten under there. I've said my piece about Cate Blanchett. Bilbo I thought was well-cast, and then underused. I know it was already a 3 hour movie, but I thought he could've used some more screen time. Christopher Lee was too stiff to me, but then I saw the chair he was sitting in, and if I'd had to do more than one take from that thing, I'd have been stiff, too.
So there are my humble comments. I'm sure they'll spark no end of debate, especially since I actually liked Ralph's cartoon version. For the most part it was a good movie. It was not the "movie of the year" that everyone raves about it ("The Score" was a better movie - heck "Ocean's Eleven" gives it a run for it's money if you take it strictly as a movie).
My biggest fault with it is just this: there are cliches in this story - the grand evil of Sauroman, the great power of Gandalf, the gathering of the fellowship, the tavern scene - this is where the cliches come from, after all. That doesn't mean they need to look like cliches, and sound like cliches. We've been waiting for this movie for how many years now? I'd expect a few more takes of the scenes in Rivendell and Lothlorien to get it right after all this time.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)