February 8, 2003

Re: PJ's Roman Circus
Cris

I can't agree with you more Steve. I have expressed these same sentiments myself. It is obvious that PJ is pandering to an audience that he thinks is too dumb to appreciate anything more than eye candy. I think he not only did a great disservice to the works of Tolkien but also to the future of fantasy fiction as a credible form of movie making.
Just one thing though. The part in the movie when Aragorn and Gimli seek out the side door to allow for the shoring up of the gate at Helm's Deep did happen in the book. However it wasn't just Gimli and Aragorn there, and of course there wasn't any use of Gimli as comic relief. I don't know why PJ was compelled to make Gimli such a court jester, you might think that when faced with certain death people might be a little more serious. And if you ask me, the whole Helm's Deep battle, while it looked good, was poorly done. Aragorn didn't shine at all as a leader of men in my mind, and the final battle scene seemed to come and go so suddenly that it was reminisent of Bakshi's (sp?)adaptation that ended so suddenly when he ran out of money during producion. All in all, the film was poorly done, and I can only hope that PJ pays attention to the fans' opinion of the TTT. I don't remember so many people being upset with TFotR, and rightly so, that was not only faithfull tot he books, but a much better movie.
Lets hope PJ doesn't destroy TRotK, and try to put this sad event behind us. However, I still want to cry when i think of how dissapointing TTT is.
Later
Cris