How Well Did Peter Jackson Do On The LOTR Trilogy?

[tgpo]

Now that all three movies of the series have been released, how well do you feel that Peter Jackson did on them?


He Did Fine, But The Book Was Boring

[MrShavez]

The book rules and Peter did a terrific job of bringing Midle-Earth on celluloid!

I´m in the middle of reading the book for the 4th time now, page 831..

[jaxxboss]

Read the Books 30 years ago and it was the FIRST book I read that I didnt have to be told to read. Did it on my own.
Pretty crazy words for a 16 year old Bostonian to comprehend at the time, but the blood and gore kept me going.

Just wish Frodo wasnt such a frign wussy in the Movie. If I hear him scream GANDALFFFFFFFFF one mone more time when the shadowfire gets him I'm gonna go beserk!

[Gazorgan]

A brilliant interpretation of some rather long and dry books. However, they were the 'first' of the gendre and influenced nearly all fantasy books afterward!

[SteelSpy]

It's been a LONG time since I read these books.

Were there ghosts saving Gondor in the book The Return of the King?

Everyone I saw the movie with didn't remember ghosts.

Maybe we are too old...

[tompika]

I'm probably narrow-minded and going to burn in hell for saying this but both the book and the movie were boring.

[goldenhawkofky]

Great books, great movies.

Does anyone have any info about when the Return of the King will be released on DVD?[/quote]

[mmasw]

Just wish Frodo wasnt such a frign wussy in the Movie. If I hear him scream GANDALFFFFFFFFF one mone more time when the shadowfire gets him I'm gonna go beserk!

thank god I wasn't the only one who grew to despise the wimp. Since LOTR was fantasy, I began to have a fantasy of the Elf pivoting quickly and firing half a dozen arrows into that particular hobbit. Of course then we would have had to endure about 5 minutes of Frodo staring sadly bug-eyed down at the arrows protruding from his helpless body. But then maybe that would have brought Cate Blanchette back for a little healing...always a trade-off in middle earth.

[Boffo]

The movie and the Book were stellar!!! Now, if I could only get a couple of McDonald franchises set u in middle earth!!!

[jaxxboss]

LOL, thats funny dude.

On a side note. Did anyone that read the books ever get a chance to read a spoof called " bored of the rings". thats some funny funny sheet. Leg-Of_lamb(Legolas) and others. funny. I highly recommend it.

[Timmychuck]

I never read the books, but the movies were great.
Can't wait for six dvd box set come out. Got mine order now.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001VL0K2/aguidetocurrefilA/102-6742024-6356959

[BJ_M]

I never read the books, but the movies were great.
Can't wait for six dvd box set come out. Got mine order now.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001VL0K2/aguidetocurrefilA/102-6742024-6356959

looks good - but i'll wait for the long special version out soon after .. something like 10 disks i hear ..

[Will Hay]

looks good - but i'll wait for the long special version out soon after .. something like 10 disks i hear ..

I can't understand these extra, extra, extra long versions....
As for the topic, I didn't read the books.
Will

[Timmychuck]

I could be wrong, but I don't thank theres a long version for Return Of The
King. The first two long version movies was about 3 and a half hours. Return Of The King was about 3 and half hours.

[bugster]

On a side note. Did anyone that read the books ever get a chance to read a spoof called " bored of the rings". thats some funny funny sheet. Leg-Of_lamb(Legolas) and others. funny. I highly recommend it.

I have a copy of that somewhere. Apparently its a collectors item these days. Was pretty funny.

[jaxxboss]

I still have mine as well. Maybe I should put it up on ebay. LOL
I highly recommend it.
Actually, it was a welcome relief to read it once you have read the real trilogy. Sorta like desert after a good meal.

[Capmaster]

Never read the book. The movies were great and I'm glad to see that Viggo Mortensen is finally getting the recognition he deserves. He's played everyone from an Amish farmer (Witness) to satan (Prophecy).

Just wish Frodo wasnt such a frign wussy in the Movie. If I hear him scream GANDALFFFFFFFFF one mone more time when the shadowfire gets him I'm gonna go beserk!

No doubt. "Fruito" did seem a bit light in the loafers at times, but overall he did a pretty good job. Quite a trilogy 8)

[adam]

Timmychuck an extended version of Return of the King will definitely be released. There are lots of details on it on various fansites all over the place.

Will the extended versions are awesome if you are a fan of the movies. The books cover way more than any movie could. The regular versions are really kinda akward because they had to make so many cuts and the extended versions fill in the gaps nicely. It makes much more sense.

[pacmania_2001]

I haven't read the books but most people seem to be saying that the adaption was pretty spot on so the books must also be boring as bat shit.

[andkiich]

The movies and the books were boring to me. I can understand why Uber-Geeks might drool over them, but I just was not moved or excited about the movies. I did not appreciate the style which Tolkien wrote, so the books were lost on me in that respect as well.

The movies made good money, so I guess something must have been done right.

[Hardcoreruss]

Films were good, books were FAR too hard to get in to.

[BJ_M]

A brilliant interpretation of some rather long and dry books. However, they were the 'first' of the gendre and influenced nearly all fantasy books afterward!

before LoTR's , least not forget several other famous books ..

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", "Through the Looking Glass" and "Alice's Adventures under Ground" ,_ the original versions ...

The Wizard of Oz books -- as originaly written, not the version now published which has been edited ... there were 40 books in this series in fact but the first 14 were the "real" ones ...

there are also many others from h.g. wells to verne to other less known authors ...

in modern times (i.e last 20 years) , the best series has got to be the Raymond E. Feist series called 'The Riftwar Saga'. i would expect someone is thinking about this as movie material at some point .

and lets not even get started on sf .. there is another whole crossover there (foundation and ringworld come to mind)

but yes -- LoTR was and still is the series that set the genre for all to follow ...

[Will Hay]

Will the extended versions are awesome if you are a fan of the movies. The books cover way more than any movie could. The regular versions are really kinda akward because they had to make so many cuts and the extended versions fill in the gaps nicely. It makes much more sense.

I loved the movies, but I just can't see how they could possibly add so much more to the originals to make it worthwhile.
I may take you up and test your theory though, but I ain't buying, I'll rent.
Will Hay

[fritzi93]

I still have Bored of the Rings, came across it in storage a couple months ago. Haven't read it in 30 years, all I remember is the chapter with the big battle is entitled "Minas Troney in the Soup". Gunna have to read it again, funny.

Reviewers seem to like to compare Tolkien to fantasy writers like Wm. Morris, Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, et. al. Nah, that's a stretch, and as for science fiction, no way.

You have to remember Professor Tolkien was a philologist, expert in ancient languages. A man who composed drinking songs in ancient Gothic, and taught them to fellow professors so they could sing them at pubs. (He even devised crossword puzzles in Gothic for students but gave it up because he thought the vocabulary too limited.) He wrote learned papers on Beowulf and could carry on a conversation in Anglo-Saxon, among other languages. He himself said explicitly he aimed to create a mythology, a world complete and believable with its own languages and legends. Language and legend were his real interests.

Whatever you think of his writing or the story he tells, it seems to me his work is unique. The word's misused and overused, but it applies here.

[waheed]

the extended versions are awesome if you are a fan of the movies. The books cover way more than any movie could. The regular versions are really kinda akward because they had to make so many cuts and the extended versions fill in the gaps nicely. It makes much more sense.

Totally agree. i already own lotr 1 & 2 and will buy return of the king extended edition when its released.

i heard rotk will have over an hour of extended scenes. WOW, thats like over 4 hour 30 minutes.

[DivXExpert]

Read the books in 5th grade. And was very excited to hear about the movies comming out. Loved the movies. Return of the King was probably farthest from the actual book, but I think that it was the best overall movie of the trilogy.

edit : I loved the books. All time faves.

[little Mick]

The Movies Were Great....All other future epics will probably be compared to these 3 great films.....Also, lets not compare them to the books......It's a different medium....let's compare apples with apples.....

....but hey, that's what I think...... :P

[spiderman2k1]

I picked The Movies Needed More tgPORN I never read the books but I loved all three movie's. I think I like the second one the best the Two Tower's. But I can not say for sore until the extended version of Return of the King comes out.

[DTSL06]

Read the books over 30 yrs ago when I was at university. Fellowship of the Rings was great, Two Towers as a chore to get thru (and boring), Return of the King was easy read. The Hobbit was lite reading...more of a childs fairy tail. The movies are great in that I could never have imagined that they could have pull anything close to what PJ did with the way the books where written, some stuff is missing from the book but its a a better adaptation then many othe book to movie projects. When I 1st heard about them making a live action movie of the LOTR books, I kind of scoffed it off as a major flop to be in the making. Boy I am glad I was wrong. I luv the extended editions with the added footage, like prev post, it fills some of the holes in the theater versions. I wish that they just 4go the 2 editions stuff...just realese the extended one.

[IJM]

Enjoyed the books. Loved the movies.

This kind of live action adaptation could have gone sooo wrong. And I'm glad that it didn't. The movies make this story so much more accessable (especially Two Towers which is hard work to read).

I know people (my sister for one) who are so picky about these films not being more faithful to the books. And I recognise and acknowledge this. But to bring almost any book to the big screen always requires some kind of compromise. The Rings triology is a case in point.

But Peter Jackson has done a fantastic job. Where he has had to stray from the books, he has managed to keep within the spirit of the overall tale. It can't have been easy to squeeze this incredible story into only ten or so hours of screen time. Kudos to the guy.

I do hope that it is he and his team that does get to do 'The Hobbit'.

If only some other book adaptations could have been done so well.

Ian.