September 20, 2002

Why I Strongly Disliked the First Movie
Quirk

Why I strongly disliked the movie:

Perhaps I should have posted this last year, but here you go...

Friendship of the four hobbits almost totally missing, at least in anything approaching the way it was handled in the books.

Friendship between Sam and Frodo: Non-existent until the very end. And, I'm sorry to say, Sean Astin's acting reminded me more of a high school play than a professional actor.

Gimil's disdain for and eventual admiration of the elves. In particular his fascination with Galadriel.

Lothlorien: As already mentioned in the "Lacking Lothlorien" post, what in the world happened here? This *should* have been one of the better scenes in the movie, one of the more telling, one that gives us a depth of insight into some of the leading characters--Frodo and Gimli, for example. What about the gifts Galadriel gives to each of the 9? What happened to their sadness at leaving? (Of course, this sadness would have been better told had Jackson bothered to show us the intensity of the task at hand to begin with. Why would they hate to leave Lothlorien anyway, there were just some bad guys on black horsey's chasing them. Galadriel came across as a psychotic witch, not an elven beauty. This scene also *should* have been more mysterious.

I could go on and on about the absence of Tom Bombadil, but I hardly even noticed he was missing because I was so upset about everything else that was perfectly ruined. I didn't realize that Merry and Pippin were nothing more than a couple of jokers--how absurd was the scene at the party, with their hair a mess and their faces covered in ash? Maybe Jackson confused the childish nature of the Hobbit with the trilogy? The Prancing Pony--was it really full of mad men recently let out of an asylum? Strider was horrible--too pretty, too brooding-in-the-wrong-way. Yes, he was brooding in the books--but not like a broken child, more as a wounded messiah.

Suprisinly I didn't hate Liv Tyler or Boromir--I thought I'd be disappointed with both of them. Liv was fine, as long as you are no fan of Glorfindel. I could have done without the tacky, "If you want him, come and get him" line. And, though Boromir looked like a bad guy from the beginning--which I never pictured as I read the books--he played his role well.

The orcs were overdone, way overdone--especially the underground breeding scene and whatever the character's name was which Jackson made up. Sauruman' character was mangled--I don't recall him being Sauron's lacky.

The ring: Apparently it is just a toy to be dropped--3 times--not the most powerful object in all the world. I'm sure Bilbo and Gandalf would just leave it sit on the floor--Gandalf even walks outside, leaving the door open, while the ring sits on the floor. And then we are supposed to think it is some awe inspiring object of power? When, pray tell, did Boromir hold the chained ring in his hand?

Poor Jackson, he doesn't know how to "tell" rather than "show." Everything with him is a matter of special effects and over-doing things. He doesn't seem to be able to get intensity out of Galadriel's acting, so he distorts the character's appearance and uses amateur lighting effects--whatever happened to a well-placed shadow and/or ray of light? What the hell was going on with Bilbo's eyes? Dim the effects, will you? Were those photoshop effects he used when Galadriel went mad? I thought the intensity and emotion was created using subtilty in the books--while Jackson doesn't seem to me to know the meaning of the word. And please don't tell me that film requires explosions, special effects, and lots of exaggerated effects to make a point, that is just not true. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Pacific Heights, The Others--no matter what you thought of these movies, they were intense, at times, and used very few noticeable special effects. Lighting, shadowing, getting the most out of your actors, this is where the intensity and emotion came from in these films. I'm not saying Jackson didn't use these things, I'm saying that he relied too heavily on special effects. Probably this is all he knows.

There is more, a lot more, but I've taken up too much space as it is.

I think Two Towers will be worse, but as I remember that book least, and as I can pretend that what preceeded it was the book (and so I'll have the proper character development in my head), I'm likely to enjoy it more.

quirk