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I think most people (even the most hard line fan of the books) will find a lot to like in the film. Its fun for the most part, captures much of the mood of the story & expands the (movie) universe nicely. I suppose the question is would you rather have these films or no films? Would you have missed out on the whole movie experience (not just the films & the tie-ins, but the whole community experience which they have fostered) would this site & its community even exist if not for the films?
So, certainly annoying in parts but to actually see Bag End, Moria, Minas Tirith, Erebor.... to encounter those characters in the (digital) flesh, well..... I think you'd have to be very churlish & ungrateful to wish they hadn't happened at all. There are some very annoying things, some points where Jackson seems to have let the technology run wild & also to have failed to rein in his imagination. I agree that the stone giants episode went too far - a glimpse would have been more powerfully evocative. Plus it was yet another point at which the characters, if real physical beings, would have simply died. Jackson seems to have no understanding of the effect of physical force (or fire!) on bodies. I don't care that Dwarves are physically stronger than humans, they wouldn't have survived that - & certainly Bilbo wouldn't.
Of course the book moves from childish innocence & silliness to adult, worldly-wise, seriousness, but Tolkien doesn't jerk back & forth between the two, & that's a major issue for me with the film which jumps from Tom & Jerry to The Silmarillion & back without any warning. When it works its brilliant, when it doesn't work it really, really doesn't.
Again, I think we''ll have to reserve full judgement till we can watch the whole thing.
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