As you can see, I think from the above, The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books. And, when I did not even know that the film adaptation was planned (or maybe it was not planned yet), I dreamed that I would make a movie on it, like Star Wars. Large scale, with special effects.
Dream come true? Not exactly.
Special effects and scale, yes. You can't take that away from Jackson's movie. The cast is already worse - all the actors are good, but do they fit the character type? Successful images: Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Boromir (Sean Bean), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimley (John Rees-Davies), Saruman (Christopher Lee) all hobbits except Frodo. Elijah Wood is a very controversial Frodo, someone too cute for a hobbit to play an elf. But the elves, all but Legolas, are completely unconvincing. I hate to say something offensive to actors, but elves must be beautiful. Inhuman, sophisticated. With all due respect, I can’t say that about Hugo Weaving or Cate Blanchett. They don't look Elvish. Even Liv Tyler is good in human terms, but does not reach the elf.
By the way, the love line between Aragorn and Arwen is brought to the forefront - but in the novel it was not practical. A concession to the mass audience, the girls will not like the film without languid glances and kisses. But timekeeping is not rubber.
Therefore, there is a lot of Arwen in the frame, but there was no place for Tom Bombadil, Biryuk, Old Elm, Graves. Yeah, none of that. Even the director's version. Because of this, by the way, it seems that the "Ponge Pony" is practically in the Hobbitania. Which is not so, because it is in a human settlement, and people in the Shire are rare. On the map, from Hobbitania to Rivendell - almost half of the Middle-earth! Peter Jackson cut the distance by half.
But Arwen is now a warrior. It's not even about the canon, Tolkien was a very conservative person, for him a woman in war is abnormal by definition. There is one such heroine in The Lord of the Rings, of course, but she is the exception to the rule, she dresses as a man and secretly enters into battle. And here Arwen is directly volunteering to save hobbits.
Basically, it's not bad. Perfectly shown the celebration in honor of Bilbo at the very beginning, the history of the Ring (only here it would not be necessary to disclose it in the prologue; would wait for advice from Elrond), Moria and subsequent events. Balrog I thought was more anthropomorphic, but this Diablo clone will come down. The cast is good despite some inconsistencies. Special effects - well, there's nothing to say, without cool special effects and should not be taken, it's fantasy. Is the atmosphere of the book conveyed? The film turned out to be epic and disturbingly depressing, while the book is more complicated - there was a certain contrast between the "thriller" and the good fairy tale. Due to the loss of several episodes, the emotional tone "aligned." This is probably bad.
Result: quite normal film adaptation, but the masterpiece is very short. Overrated film, and it is clear why – in the near future is unlikely to wait for a remake, you have to be content with what is. However, as a three-hour commercial of the epic Tolkien will do. 7 out of 10
Original
