June 17, 2004

Favorite Movie
Danny

For me my favorite movie is a real toss up. Fellowship is always going to be a very special one because it was first. That was the first time I got to see an interpetation of Middle Earth put on the big screen. It was the first time seeing Black Riders and Balrogs, the Shire, Rivendell, Moria etc etc. It is hard to compete with firsts. It also does have the fact that the deviations from the book weren't as drastically altering to the nature of the characters. Losing Bombadil was not bad for the films and it didn't detract from the nature of the characters etc. In the other two films, the characters themselves were drastically changed. We have already discussed Faramir, and ROTK's having Frodo send Sam away is in my mind almost as bad a change if not worse. So in a lot of ways I am inclined to think that FOTR is.

The thing that I struggle with on FOTR is that it takes a long time to get going. ROTK is a close toss up with FOTR because it did finish the story. It finished it pretty well also. The changes are there and those are frustrating from a Tolkien stand point, but the movie is good. ROTK is the film that has the strongest emotional impact to me though and I think that says a lot. So to me the two are kind of a toss up. Fellowship has its great elements, and ROTK has its great elements. Overall the trilogy is amazing, and even TTT is a good film even if the adaptation is not as good as I would have liked in some ways. I also think that it is a bit early to judge because we haven't seen the extended ROTK. If that turns out well (and nobody breaks Gandalf's staff) then I think that it will keep ROTK in the ranks with FOTR quite nicely.