algroth wrote:
I'm a fan of Tolkien-esque fantasy and love plenty of RPGs in the mold (My all-time two favorite games are Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II, while you can also read my review of Pillars of Eternity here), but Jackson's films didn't do much for me. There are individual scenes in the first two films that I enjoy, as well as some of the feel for them, but the third I feel gets bogged down by an excess of pretty sloppy spectacle and melodrama, all the way up to the dozen finales that occupy the last 40 minutes or so of the film.
I suppose you could say that Jackson was too faithful to the books because they are pretty much filled with melodrama and have the multiple endings.
Even then the Shire ending for Saruman was canned, imagine how long it could have gone on.
I think Jackson captured the feel and look of Tolkein's books superbly but then he was a big fan himself.
That doesn't mean to say that I didn't get fed up with Frodo's constant whinging and want to punch him in the face by the end. Sam Gamgee is better man than me, I'd have pushed him into Mount Doom with Gollum.
The spectacle is everything to me, the Riders Rohan sweeping down the hill, Gandalf sweeping down the hill at Helm's deep, people sweeping down hills all over. But I also thing he grasped the nuances of the books very well the costumes in particular we immaculate.
Although I must say I didn't like the way Elves marched around in lock step like nazi storm troopers in black armor.
But the battle of Minas Tirith is one of the great cinematic spectacles of all time it makes you want to stand on your chair and cheer for that alone it deserves a place in my view, and it is a film I know I will watch again and again over the years just to enjoy being back in Middle earth.