*TTT - Overall Impressions - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

mollecon · 12-18-2002, 04:58 AM

To address some of these issues in the order they appear on this thread:Faramir is certainly changed a lot compared to the book - I'm not too fond of it either, he didn't seem to have any mind of his own at all, until at the very end.Elves at Helms Deep? To tell the truth, I sorta liked that! In the books we're told about other people in Middle Earth fighting during the Ring-war - the Elves in Lorien, Dwarfs & Men at The Lonely Mountain (some of it in the appendices I believe). But I think it would seem very strange to the audience if the Elves didn't involve themselves in some way - I always wondered where the Elves from Riwendel was in the books (apart from Elrond's sons)?One of the reasons for the changes might be Jacksons interpretation of the story as being about genicide. In the books Sauron/Saruman doesn't wan't to destroy mankind - they wanna rule it!It was mentioned that all the other things happening took time from Frodo/Sam (& Gollum). I think that's deliberate & a typical 'movie' solution - by deciding to put emphasis on the action/special effects & general grandeur of things, it's difficult to expect an audience to accept over an hours intimite 'champerplay' between Frodo & Sam. Especially a modern MTV audience with an attention span of aprox. 5 sec's It was mentioned that Frodo's character was butchered. Frodo is actually one of the few characters I found a bit hard to accept already from FOtR - it's a combination of two things: the way Frodo is portrayed from the directors side, too weak in my opinion - + the fact that Elijah Wood is too young & too cute! Having that in mind, his behaviour in this movie isn't strange... But I too have wondered about how he's gonna get later!& it's true - the movie seemed a bit 'messy' narrative wise to me too. In general, I still liked the movie - not as much as FOtR, but on the other hand that's not a fair comparison since I've seen FOtR 40+ times & this one only once (so far).

12-18-2002, 04:58 AM	#8
mollecon Wight Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 188	To address some of these issues in the order they appear on this thread:<P>Faramir is certainly changed a lot compared to the book - I'm not too fond of it either, he didn't seem to have any mind of his own at all, until at the very end.<P>Elves at Helms Deep? To tell the truth, I sorta liked that! In the books we're told about other people in Middle Earth fighting during the Ring-war - the Elves in Lorien, Dwarfs & Men at The Lonely Mountain (some of it in the appendices I believe). But I think it would seem very strange to the audience if the Elves didn't involve themselves in some way - I always wondered where the Elves from Riwendel was in the books (apart from Elrond's sons)?<P>One of the reasons for the changes might be Jacksons interpretation of the story as being about genicide. In the books Sauron/Saruman doesn't wan't to <I>destroy</I> mankind - they wanna rule it!<P>It was mentioned that all the other things happening took time from Frodo/Sam (& Gollum). I think that's deliberate & a typical 'movie' solution - by deciding to put emphasis on the action/special effects & general grandeur of things, it's difficult to expect an audience to accept over an hours intimite 'champerplay' between Frodo & Sam. Especially a modern MTV audience with an attention span of aprox. 5 sec's <P>It was mentioned that Frodo's character was butchered. Frodo is actually one of the few characters I found a bit hard to accept already from FOtR - it's a combination of two things: the way Frodo is portrayed from the directors side, too weak in my opinion - + the fact that Elijah Wood is too young & too cute! Having that in mind, his behaviour in this movie isn't strange... But I too have wondered about how he's gonna get later!<P>& it's true - the movie seemed a bit 'messy' narrative wise to me too.<BR>In general, I still liked the movie - not as much as FOtR, but on the other hand that's not a fair comparison since I've seen FOtR 40+ times & this one only once (so far).