LOTR movies
Dec. 20th, 2003 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartSo, all the lists I'm on are discussing ROTK, and I won't see the cursed movie before January! It's not fair! I want to participate (and most likely to bitch about the movie). I feel so left out! *pouts*
Okay, I know I'll probably hate it. Reading all the spoilers I also know why I'm gonna hate it. It's like with fanfiction. No matter how well a story is written, if it changes the main plot of The Books and causes excessive OOC-ness by the main characters, I would hate it. Period.
And I'm afraid that for me the movies belong to the category of well-"written" but still godawful fanfic.
This will be a long rant, and I'll repeat a lot of things I've said before countless times, so this is your chance to hit the Back button. No offence intended to anyone who likes the flicks.
I won't deny that the movies are nicely made, on the purely professional side of things. (I'm up to the extended edition of TTT right now.) The landscapes are incredible, and most of the sets are very beautiful. I don't like the overly decadent look of Rivendell, but that's a matter of taste.
I don't like the vast majority of the casting either, but that, too, is a matter of taste. Bilbo, Sam and Gandalf were, at least, as I've imagined them. Legolas and Saruman were acceptable for me, aside from the hair. My Legolas has always been auburn-haired. But that's a matter of personal imagination, and at least Orlando Bloom looks good. I'm still grieving for the wasted chance of Jeffrey Coombs as Gimli, though. And, of course, they gave me Sean Bean as Boromir, and for that I'm willing to forgive a lot.
I've never seen any of the actors before (save Sir Ian Holm and John Rhys-Davies), so I was not prejudiced against any of them. My likes and dislikes are based on their LOTR-performances.
I can't even say that I blame the actors for the unforgivable rape of my beloved characters. They've just done their jobs as well as it was possible. But the movies made me hate Aragorn and Galadriel (two characters I'd loved for almost thirty years), they brought me very near to hating Elrond and Arwen.
I would hate movie!Faramir, if I could imagine him as my Faramir at all - but I can't. He's too twisted character-like and too wrong visually. The same for Éowyn. That puny wallflower would never be able to bear the weight of a real chain mail in the first place. At least she doesn't make the impression, and that's what counts for me in a visual medium.
I don't like the genderless Elves who all wear the same blonde wigs. I find them utterly ridiculous. I don't like the Dwarves looking like unwashed cave bears and behaving like brain-damaged Neanderthals.
And what I see reading the spoilers, I'm afraid I'm gonna hate Gandalf as well, once I get the chance to watch ROTK. Damn it, why have these movie people to turn plot and characters inside out and upside down?
I absolutely hate the plot twists in the first two movies. Especially the Elves at Helm's Deep, the stupid exorcism scene in Meduseld, Éomer's supposed exile, the fact that there were no soldiers in Helm's Deep, just women and children - wasn't the godforsaken Hornburg the main garrison of the Mark? I hate the Uruk-hai breeding, the Ents who had to be manipulated into attacking Isengard, the Wargs that didn't even remotely look like wolves, Merry and Pippin being reduced to mindless idiots, Aragorn wanting to flee his destiny half the times, Elrond being a morose, Man-hating, emotianally blackmailing father, the cheesy Arwen scenes, Viggogorn almost dying twice (and returning both times, alas!), Théoden as an idiot, Gríma as an obvious creep...
Okay, I think you got the picture about three paragraphs ago. It just feels good to express my utter dismay. And I don't have anyone to bitch with, except my schoolkids, who are just not enough for that noble purpose.
Yes, I'm probably petty. Yes, as fantasy movies go the trilogy is probably a great set of films. But I couldn't find the spirit that made me love The Books in the first two movies, and it doesn't look like I'd find it in the third one, either.
I apologize by the Edhellond crowd for having to read this repeatedly. I'm afraid I'll rant about this topic a lot more in the future, especially after having seen that third movie.
But again, this is my personal rambling place, so what the heck? I need to rant, and it's better to litter my own LJ with it than on any of the lists I'm on and offend people who liked the movies. They have a right to like them. Just as I have a right to hate them.
Okay, I know I'll probably hate it. Reading all the spoilers I also know why I'm gonna hate it. It's like with fanfiction. No matter how well a story is written, if it changes the main plot of The Books and causes excessive OOC-ness by the main characters, I would hate it. Period.
And I'm afraid that for me the movies belong to the category of well-"written" but still godawful fanfic.
This will be a long rant, and I'll repeat a lot of things I've said before countless times, so this is your chance to hit the Back button. No offence intended to anyone who likes the flicks.
I won't deny that the movies are nicely made, on the purely professional side of things. (I'm up to the extended edition of TTT right now.) The landscapes are incredible, and most of the sets are very beautiful. I don't like the overly decadent look of Rivendell, but that's a matter of taste.
I don't like the vast majority of the casting either, but that, too, is a matter of taste. Bilbo, Sam and Gandalf were, at least, as I've imagined them. Legolas and Saruman were acceptable for me, aside from the hair. My Legolas has always been auburn-haired. But that's a matter of personal imagination, and at least Orlando Bloom looks good. I'm still grieving for the wasted chance of Jeffrey Coombs as Gimli, though. And, of course, they gave me Sean Bean as Boromir, and for that I'm willing to forgive a lot.
I've never seen any of the actors before (save Sir Ian Holm and John Rhys-Davies), so I was not prejudiced against any of them. My likes and dislikes are based on their LOTR-performances.
I can't even say that I blame the actors for the unforgivable rape of my beloved characters. They've just done their jobs as well as it was possible. But the movies made me hate Aragorn and Galadriel (two characters I'd loved for almost thirty years), they brought me very near to hating Elrond and Arwen.
I would hate movie!Faramir, if I could imagine him as my Faramir at all - but I can't. He's too twisted character-like and too wrong visually. The same for Éowyn. That puny wallflower would never be able to bear the weight of a real chain mail in the first place. At least she doesn't make the impression, and that's what counts for me in a visual medium.
I don't like the genderless Elves who all wear the same blonde wigs. I find them utterly ridiculous. I don't like the Dwarves looking like unwashed cave bears and behaving like brain-damaged Neanderthals.
And what I see reading the spoilers, I'm afraid I'm gonna hate Gandalf as well, once I get the chance to watch ROTK. Damn it, why have these movie people to turn plot and characters inside out and upside down?
I absolutely hate the plot twists in the first two movies. Especially the Elves at Helm's Deep, the stupid exorcism scene in Meduseld, Éomer's supposed exile, the fact that there were no soldiers in Helm's Deep, just women and children - wasn't the godforsaken Hornburg the main garrison of the Mark? I hate the Uruk-hai breeding, the Ents who had to be manipulated into attacking Isengard, the Wargs that didn't even remotely look like wolves, Merry and Pippin being reduced to mindless idiots, Aragorn wanting to flee his destiny half the times, Elrond being a morose, Man-hating, emotianally blackmailing father, the cheesy Arwen scenes, Viggogorn almost dying twice (and returning both times, alas!), Théoden as an idiot, Gríma as an obvious creep...
Okay, I think you got the picture about three paragraphs ago. It just feels good to express my utter dismay. And I don't have anyone to bitch with, except my schoolkids, who are just not enough for that noble purpose.
Yes, I'm probably petty. Yes, as fantasy movies go the trilogy is probably a great set of films. But I couldn't find the spirit that made me love The Books in the first two movies, and it doesn't look like I'd find it in the third one, either.
I apologize by the Edhellond crowd for having to read this repeatedly. I'm afraid I'll rant about this topic a lot more in the future, especially after having seen that third movie.
But again, this is my personal rambling place, so what the heck? I need to rant, and it's better to litter my own LJ with it than on any of the lists I'm on and offend people who liked the movies. They have a right to like them. Just as I have a right to hate them.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-21 02:42 am (UTC)Though I personally don't share your opinion (which doesn't means that one of us is 'right' and the other 'wrong', of course), I think I get your point. Hm, I share a part of your opinion - especially Aragorn's bathtime and the Lassie-like horse.
And I prefer a reasonable - even if based on personal feelings - dislike instead of all these girls who run into the movie but don't even *try* to see and understand the plot because they only want to see more of Orlando.
*thinks*
*evil smile*
Though, of course, it would have been the same with you, had PJ casted Julian McMahon for Gil Galad...
*laughs and runs away*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-21 08:34 am (UTC)I only become very irate when people try to make me see the wrongness of my opinion and to convert me to their own. That usually pushes me into the opposite direction, and I become very aggressive and say (and do) things I later regret.
As for Julian McMahon... well, I do like the guy, but not so much that I'd run into the cinema to watch any movie with him. Of course, if he'd be starring as a sexy vampire... hmmm...