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Originally Posted by Mumriken
EDIT: You watch the movies maybe two times in your life...one time in the cinemas and one time by downloading it and check it out when you're bored...or you watch some shorts on youtube. They're not that great...just like Avatar wasn't that great. Soo much hype around these movies...
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Hmmm, I went to see all the films at least twice at the cinema, and have the 'plain' and the extended versions on DVD. I've probably seen each film a couple of dozen times. I enjoy them more than I hate them - I simply treat them as films, and I don't watch films for Art, I watch for Fun. Speaking as someone with a thirty year history of being a Tolkien nut. Who has read all of the books (including the Histories and just about any essay about Tolkien laid down on paper) more times than is good for me. I don't get the impression that Tolkien Society members get especially aereated about the films either, and you always see old timers happily wandering about in film inspired costumes at Oxonmoot etc.
I think if the criticism centres around the making of more cash (which is entirely valid a criticism) then we should look at Tolkien fandom as a whole, which I've had my eyes opened to as being a massive cash cow. After collecting probably 30-40 different editions of the books I twigged that the reason the publishers seem to release a new edition every 18 months is because of sad saps like me ("Ooooh, it has a new cover!"). And that's before I even get into things like
Tolkien Studies which always retails at about £5,000 per edition. Jackson isn't any more greedy than the publishers. But...there's no going back now. It will be a rip roaring success, just as much as a new edition with one new illustration is.