Greatest sin of Peter Jackson

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Lets face it folks - more people have seen the film version of LOTR than have read the books. And that is the great sin of Peter Jackson. He was so successful that purists despise it that LOTR is now thought of as a film in the minds of hundreds of millions of people all over the world.

Yes, yes, yes, I'm sure PJ's cheque is in the post for you, along with the signed photo & stuff....

Howsumever...I don't 'dispise' Jackson. I admire the effort & dedication of PJ & all who worked on the movies. Unfortunately, Jackson seems either not to have understood Tolkien's work, or not to have cared. The movies are typical Hollywood fare - action adventure movies, nice looking but overblown. I sat through RotK on Sunday, just I couldn't find anything else to watch & it passed a few hours & I didn't throw anything at the screen. They're ok - for what they are. There's no depth, they don't challenge the viewer, but I don't expect that from Hollywood anyway.

I'm sure that 'Lord of the Rings' is now thought of as a film rather than a book by millions of people. I daresay there are some people out there who think its a radio series, some who think its a poster, some who think its an action figure franchise (& for all I know some who think its the name of the current Emperor of planet Tharg). Though what that has to do with the price of fish I don't know.

What I do know is that some readers genuinely dislike the movies (I'd perhaps genuinely dislike them myself, if I could summon up enough energy to feel anything for them) & all the arguments about how successful PJ was, & how much money the movies made or how much he 'improved' on the original are going to make exactly no difference to them.

If you really think that the only reason readers don't like the movies is jealousy then I can only think that you haven't actaully read what those who dislike them have written.