12-23-2003, 01:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-23-2003, 08:21 AM by Prophet Hero.)
Quote:Originally posted by OptimisticOx
Like Vicious said, I don?t think you can rightfully judge the movie until you have read the book series.
I completely disagree.
I think that a person who hasn't read the books will be a better judge of the films. Why? Simply because they will be watching them as films and not adaptations of a book. You can, of course, argue whether or not the LOTR movies were faithful adaptations. However, to give an honest film review you have to judge whether the ROTK worked as a film and, more precisely, as part of a whole (the books were split for financial reasons against Tolkien's initial wishes - the titles themselves, i.e. Fellowship, Two Towers, were made up because of this). I won't rate the movie until I see the Extended Edition although I did enjoy the theatrical cut.
In JJ's case, he simply didn't like the movie (although he didn't review it as such). Everyone feels this way about some film - I thought Matrix Reloaded was a load of pseudo-Christian/Greek mythology pap so I didn't even bother with Revolutions. Now lecture me.
Quote:Originally posted by OptimisticOx
...the entire Arwin Aragorn love story bullshit, the only reason that was put in was to appeal to female viewers.
Whether it should have been included or not is moot. I think it was justified - the scenes were constructed from the books' Appendices, so were pretty much an official part of the story - because it did offer another facet to Aragorn's character during the main story. It's subjective, really. Can you relate or care about a man - be he a warrior king or not - being in love and giving up that love for what he believes to be the greater good? Some prefer a hack 'n' slash-only character, but I like that Aragorn is shown as a man, quite different from the Elves, with strengths and weaknesses. After all the story was about the beginning of the Age of Men.