how do you like the portrayal of frodo?

[Sauron the White]

book-frodo is definetly a complex chracter. much more complex as movie frodo

Given that every 100 pages of book was turned into about 50 minutes of film, is that anything less than a glaringly obvious reality? I have yet to see a film where the characters are MORE complex when compared to a well written, comparatvely much longer book.

This is comparing apples to cinder-blocks.

[Sauron the White]

WCH -- why do you persist in battling strawmen of your own making - not once but over and over again?

My point was certainly NOT the McDonalds argument as you call it. The fact is this - and this is NOT news. Normally, films which are embraced by the masses - as evidenced by their dollars and ticket purchases - are not well reviewed by the professional critics. And those same fan favorites usually are not the big winners for industry proffessional awards such as the BAFTA's and Academy Awards. Those three categories of measurement of a films success usually are mutuall exclusive - at least for one factor out of the three.

McDonalds may indeed have a large number of customers but they DO NOT win industry awards for the quality of their food, ambience or service. And I have never read a review of a professional food critic in which McDonalds is ranked with the likes of The French Laundry or other five star restaurants. Your attempt at being clever with the phrase using McDonalds is not even an apt one.

The three LOTR films were wildly successful by all three measurements of a film success. This is a very rare occurence. That should tell you that the vast opinion of both the average person, professional critics, and industry professionals all felt the films worked and were very good films.

Of course, the inside intelligensia who feel they are the true holders of the JRRT flame conveniently ignore this and prefer to compare apples to cinder blocks and surprise nobody when they declare that yes indeed folks, apples taste better and cinder blocks are much harder.

Like Claude Rains in CASABLANCA, I am shocked.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Excellent rebuttal, StW. It is indeed true that a bad film can generate huge revenue or rave reviews, but both at once?

I think it's sad in a way that we Downers don't get to watch the films afresh, from the perspective of those who have never read the books. Not that it was made exclusively for those people; it was made for us, too, but the effect is far different.

As a result of our love for the books, our feelings toward the films are necessarily colored. They're my three favorite films of all time, probably because of my love for the books. They're the three most-despised films of all time for other fans, probably because of their love for the books.

The tough part for me is to not just start screaming at the dislikers, "You're idiots; how in the world could you not like this?" Because they probably feel tempted to scream similar things to me. Both views are equally valid. I would love to start a thread about this, where those from opposite sides could seek to understand one another rather than scream, and perhaps I will.

Also, I will retract a bit about Frodo's film complexity vs. book complexity. What I meant was that he is weaker and struggles more than in the book. He is superficially more complex, because it takes a careful reading of the book to note the subtleties and nuances of Tolkien's portrayal. But I should not have said more complex, should have known better than to allow Jackson an upper hand in any area over Tolkien. Thank you to those who caught that.

Finally, I have not heard those words from Christopher Tolkien, but I disagree with them. I think there is a slight difference in human and hobbit aging; indeed, one would think that there must be if hobbits regularly live into their 100's. Thus, at the age of 33, Frodo might look 21. And at the age of 50, well, he would still look 21 or at least in that range thanks to the Ring. So Wood isn't that far off age-wise, in my opinion.
Of course, in spite of my views there, I still think he looks a bit too young. And he indeed does not display the maturity and leadership over the other hobbits that book-Frodo does.
But again, I think Wood's fantastic in spite of that. Brilliant acting, and I think his looks have a tinge of that elvishness that Sam noticed.