[Jessica Jade]

I saw the movie first, and i have, as of last monday, finished the entire LOTR. Since i did see the movie first, i have a vague image of the movie actors when i read the book. Frodo, most definitly, is Elijah Wood to me. I don't know how i would have pictured him otherwise, but now i'll never know. I do agree though, that Tolkien's descriptions of him were quite vague. And i do think that Frodo was portrayed excellently by Elijah Wood. <P>It is the places that i imagine differently from the movie, even after seeing it. Lothlorien in the book was incredible to me...Tolkien's description was so much better than the movie made it look. Rivendell, on the other hand, was more beautiful than i thought the books described. I liked Rivendell a lot better in the movie, but i loved Lorien better in the books. I also didn't picture Isengard quite the same. It didn't really look all that circular, did it? I think the view from Orthanc was pretty accurate though. My favorite chapter in Fellowship was the Bridge of Khazad Dum, and i think that the book's description of Moria was extremely intriguing. They did a good job of it in the movie, but the picture in my mind is more enhanced and elaborate. In the book, that chapter is so much more descriptive-the way they described Khazad Dum and the terrible majesty of the dwarven halls, it captivated me much more than the movie. Nontheless, it was my favorite part of the movie and i loved it. Basically, the movie does not imagine everything for me, it merely gives me an idea, a sketch, of how things sort of ought to look. Hobbition, i think, was excellent. Couldn't have been better. And the characters were very well cast. The actors totally ARE those characters...but of course, maybe i wouln't be saying this had i read the books first.<P>I do regret not having read them first because i was robbed of the chance to imagine it ALL for myself, but i'm also grateful i saw the movie first, because i was able to watch it and appreciate the movie for its own sake, without any comparisions to the books. I think that initially, i was able to appreciate the movie more than others would have, because they would have been comparing it to their imaginations. Most people who've read the books and then watch the movie won't see the movie in itself, for it's own sake...they'd be seeing it for how it matches up with the book. Well, it willl certainly be inteteresting to see how the next two movies are going to be. I'm glad i got to imagine those myself!<P>Books that i've read a long time before the movie came out do not change my imagination of it at all. Harry Potter, for example. I saw the movie, and thought they did a good job, but i preferred my imagination ten times more. And when i go back and look at passages from those books, i still see the characters as i first imagined them. LOTR is the same way, the movie and the book are like two separate things. They're totallly different. There's the movie. And there's the book. Both outstanding but in dfferent ways. When i re-read over passages of LOTR, i see the places as I imagine them. For the characters, i've been permanatly affected by the movie, but i have sort of this vague image of them when i read the books. I don't see characters that clearly in my mind when i read. But descriptions of the places and setting are much more vivid in my imagination.