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#1 | |
Stormdancer of Doom
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(Edit: the word 'mummified' comes to mind...)
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...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve. Last edited by mark12_30; 03-11-2005 at 12:12 PM. |
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#2 | ||||||||||
Corpus Cacophonous
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: A green and pleasant land
Posts: 8,390
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Warning: This post is incredibly long and contains links to lengthy reviews. Please feel free to skip it if you have no interest whatsoever in what reviewers have said about the films.
A central theme in this thread is how the changes made to the story and characters as part of the process of simplifying them and broadening their appeal (my preferred expression to “dumbing them down”) might affect the “average moviegoer”. To what extent are the “inconsistencies” and “plot-holes” that have been raised on this thread likely to confuse them and thereby impair their enjoyment of the films? There is also an underlying theme concerning the quality of the films in which the majority, while accepting that they are popular and, in many respects, well-made, do not regard these films as classics. So I thought that I would do a little research. Now, clearly I couldn’t go out and conduct my own survey of “average moviegoers”. But I thought that it might be worth looking at some of the reviews of the films from those whose job or hobby it is to review films. My own perceptions of the critical acclaim which the films received had been based on UK press reviews, so I thought that I would cast my net (if you’ll pardon the pun) a bit wider. So I did a Google search on “Lord Rings Review” and looked at some of the sites that came up. I have posted links to some of the sites that I looked at below. Note:
This seems to be a website for aspiring scriptwriters, and so I thought that it would be interesting to see whether they might be alert to the kinds of issue raised as concerns on this thread (inconsistent characters, plot-holes etc). Link to various reviews of all three films. (Warning – you might find one or two of them rather offensive.) Well they are a mixed bag, but nevertheless mainly appreciative. Dr Scott in particular is wildly enthusiasticabout the films, which he regards as certain to become enduring classics. The main criticisms are the length of the films (including the “multiple endings” in RotK), too much dialogue/exposition at the expense of the action, bad dialogue (it’s not clear whether these comments refer to Tolkien’s original lines or those written by Jackson, Boyens and Walsh – but the archaic style is criticised) and the feeling (in one review) that the special effects took over in RotK. Moving on to the Internet Movie Database , this provides some statistics which confirm the mass appeal of the films. RotK was the highest grossing film of 2003. TTT and FotR were the second highest grossing films of 2002 and 2001 respectively. Their positions in the all-time highest grossing films are as follows: US: RotK - seventh, TTT - eleventh, FotR – sixteenth. Non-US: RotK - second, TTT - fifth, FotR - seventh. Worldwide: RotK - second, TTT - fifth, FotR -tenth. Note - most of the films on these lists are action films, so this is clearly a desirable niche to be in. The reviews included with the individual entries for the films are pretty disparaging. FotR is described as a “video game version of book” that translates badly to film. The reviewer asserts that the story feels rushed and that it is impossible to care about characters unless one has read book. He sees it as a film by fans of the book for fans of the book (!), and yet considers the book to have been “butchered” to an unsuitable format. The review of TTT claims that the special effects could not save the film because the story is boring (!), while the review of RotK refers to bad acting, clichéd and melodramatic moments and a boring final 30 minutes. These comments are not, however, representative of the views of the members of IMDB as a whole, who have rated the films very highly. In the IMDb All Time Top 250, RotK is third, TTT eighth and FotR thirteenth. It will be interesting to see the extent to which they will be able to maintain their positions on this list (which looks pretty sensible to me), but given the quality of the films throughout the Top 100, they will be doing very well indeed even if they slip down a fair few places. ReelViews This provides glowing reviews of the film trilogy from someone who read the book twice as a child. He clearly sees the films as defining the fantasy film genre and a milestone in film-making. Of course this is one person’s view, but I have included it because I find many of the comments that he makes interesting, particularly as they reflect my own views very closely (except for the bit about "stodgy" Tolkien purists). I thought it worth quoting a few (in parts provocative) extracts. On the trilogy as a whole: Quote:
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The LotR films don’t make their top 100, but that seems to be rated by the number of reviews a particular film has received as well as the degree to which it found favour, and there are some pretty odd choices there. But the films are highly rated in their review section, which is particularly interesting because the entries include excerpts from media reviews: FotR TTT RotK I’m assuming that the excerpts in these entries represent a cross-section of critical reaction, since there are a few negative comments. But these are massively outweighed by the positive and indeed the wildly enthusiastic (some of which go further than even I would). Many of these comments hail it as groundbreaking or refer to it as a great cinema achievement. And, since these are people who review films either professionally or as a hobby, I tend to think that they know what they are talking about. Of course, there is some diversity in opinion, but that is to be expected as a consequence of differences in personal tastes. Other comments refer to the films as remaining true to the spirit of the book, while achieving the almost difficult task of translating it to, and condensing it for, the screen. I couldn’t resist repeating this quote: Quote:
The Hollywood Reporter FotR FotR (EE DVD) TTT TTT (DVD) TTT (EE DVD) RotK RotK (EE DVD) With regard to RotK, the following comment is interesting: Quote:
FotR TTT A nice comment, this one: Quote:
Again: Quote:
I could only access the summary review of RotK As I said, these are pretty representative of the reviews that I read. Clearly, they are overwhelmingly positive. But most importantly, as far as the issues being discussed on this thread are concerned, there is hardly a mention of plot-holes or inconsistencies. The main criticisms focus on other areas (primarily length and over use of dialogue/exposition). Also, it seems quite clear to me (particularly from the extracts from media reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes site) that many regard this film trilogy as a groundbreaking cinematic event and consider that these films are likely to become classics. Comparisons with the original Star Wars films are frequently made. Now, I must emphasise that I am not suggesting that anyone is wrong if they disagree with these reviews. I am sure that many here will. But they do, in my view, provide a useful indication as to the regard in which these films are held by those who know and love films generally (rather than only those who know and love Tolkien’s works). Finally, a bit of fun: Movie Mistakes.com is a nice little site that I came across during my investigations. It refers primarily to continuity errors and the like, rather than inconsistencies in the story and/or characters. They give a list of the 30 most mistake-filled films. The LotR films are at 5, 6 and 7 respectively. But two of the Harry Potter films are in the top 3, and Star Wars is pretty high up too.
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Do you mind? I'm busy doing the fishstick. It's a very delicate state of mind! Last edited by The Saucepan Man; 03-11-2005 at 12:57 PM. |
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