Exactly, just look at the horrible Hobbit moves. A breakthrough like LOTR takes an incredible effort, sacrifice, risk taking, and luck. We always look back at these big achievements and think they were inevitable, but that’s not true, it’s hard and rare.
The only thing Warner will achieve is spending a lot of money for somethig that nobody will talk about in 2 years, while people will still rewatch LOTR in decades.
Ah, I prefer “reread”. LOTR movies too have quite a lot of downsides. Like ignoring the whole of the Old Forest. And they lack the lore feeling which I can’t describe easily.
I like doing a reread/rewatch. Read the hook then watch it come to life. Honestly going back after all these years I find it like the movies more than when they released even. At the time I was young and wanted them to be more like the books, but as an adult I can understand and even agree with a lot of the changes. For instance, aragon is pretty different in that he’s given more of an arc in the films, and I like that. But of course there’s a thousand things I wish they had time to flesh out more. If they are going to do a remake I wish they’d do a series that allow them to slow down and really get into a lot of that. That’s really the only way I can see them even possibly living up to the Jackson films
At the time I was young and wanted them to be more like the books, but as an adult I can understand and even agree with a lot of the changes.
This sentence seems a bit manipulative, as if taking that point of view made one “more adult”. I’d understand resistance to movies themselves waning, as a separate thing of art of their own, being a sign of that.
is pretty different in that he’s given more of an arc in the films
Really?
Aragorn and elves, Aragorn and Gandalf, Aragorn and Arwen, Aragorn and the Rangers, Aragorn and Sauron even, Aragorn and Denethor, Aragorn and Boromir, Aragorn and Frodo, Aragorn and Sam, Aragorn and travel, even Aragorn and Gollum, Aragorn and Gimli, Aragorn and Eomer …
Wouldn’t seem so for me.
Sorry for the Reddit-ish tone.
If they are going to do a remake I wish they’d do a series that allow them to slow down and really get into a lot of that.
At this point I’d just want to live till the IP expires and see fans try.
I can only speak for myself. I think personally I have a better perspective on things now than when I was 14, but I guess I could be wrong.
I think you’ve misinterpreted what I mean by arc. I guess I meant the character undergoes more personal growth in the films. In the books aragon knows what he’s about from day one. He is stoic af. And I get why he’s written that way and why some would prefer that. In the films he’s much more unsure about himself and over the course of the trilogy you see him kind of grow into being the king so that by the time he takes the crown it feels like you saw the internal journey that got him there. In the books of course we know that this period is what, like, a couple years of his very long life so that would feel more out of place.
Anyway, those kinds of changes bothered me as a teenager, but looking back at them now I feel differently. That’s not to say I like all the choices Jackson made, but I’ve come around on some, understand others better, and have seen enough other material jump from book to film to be super grateful for the effort that whole team put in to try and do these films right.
I guess I meant the character undergoes more personal growth in the films. In the books aragon knows what he’s about from day one.
Not entirely, if you remember Dunharrow and the Palantir. And then his other transformations, in Rivendell, in Lorien, in Rohan, and after the coronation, and more. Other than those, where would a 70 years old man grow?
In the films he’s much more unsure about himself and over the course of the trilogy you see him kind of grow into being the king so that by the time he takes the crown it feels like you saw the internal journey that got him there.
Well, in the books it was a 50 years long journey.
In the books of course we know that this period is what, like, a couple years of his very long life so that would feel more out of place.
Yes, I think we understand each other.
those kinds of changes bothered me as a teenager,
For me personally they felt strange because, ahem, Aragorn seemed simply unfit for his role. A person which wouldn’t end up on that track.
I was trying to describe to my MIL (who hasn’t seen the Hobbit movies) how they were bad. I ended up with
Do you remember the barrel scene in the Hobbit? How would you describe it?
“It’s kind of where Bilbo really felt his confidence, where he tried the ring for the first time and rescued the dwarves, and they snuck out down the river to the city”
Great great, and do you remember the battalion of orcs trying to kill them while they went downstream with Legolas and Tauriel doing sweet kick flips over them, while Bombur bounced around jokingly killing a dozen of them, and then Fili having a moment of weakness for his elf princess love while he opened the gate and then he gets shot with a poisoned arrow?
…no
Well there you go.
They took one of the most endearing moments of the book and made it a joke. No, they cannot recreate the Lord of the Rings. Even if you don’t like PJ’s version, there’s just no way modern Hollywood can do to improve on it.
It’s not “modern” Hollywood. Hollywood has been pretty consistently trash over the decades, most adaptations in the '90s were shit as well.
Of course no-one’s going to beat PJ at LOTR. Because no good creative is going to be interested in the challenge when PJ already did the thing perfectly so only soulless corpo-ghouls think a remake is a good idea.
But there are still flukes like LOTR from time to time when the moons align and funding goes to actually talented creators. Two years ago we got Dune, this summer we got Barbie.
I wouldn’t put either of those in quite the same category as LOTR but I do agree that good stuff is still being made here and there, I think people just like to complain and also only think about the best bits of the past, while LOTR came out a million shitty movies also did you just don’t remember them.
I agree that it’s unlikely that we’ll ever get a better adaptation. But to say that PJ’s adaptions were perfect is a bit insulting to the books. They weren’t great adaptions. Good movies on their own, but PJ was very opinionated and they weren’t super faithful.
How about a pill that makes you not care about being thrown into the fire of mount doom? It will also remove your libido and may cause rectal spotting.
You don’t have to watch every damn thing involving your fandom. It’s pure capitalistic greed at this point.
Let a franchise fucking die already.
Demand better movies and don’t engage with film as product. Find passionate storytellers and not greedy corporate executives looking to milk every last drop of nostalgia for profits.
I listened to a podcast (99 Percent Invisible I think) and it said a big reason why the 90s were so great for movies were the creation of cinaplexes, big movie theaters with tons of screens.
More screens meant that new or different ideas that wouldn’t normally make it to the big screen (Forrest Gump, Fight Club, The Matrix etc) were given a chance, and found an audience.
Now everything is played safe. Hollywood doesn’t want new franchises because they are deemed too risky, and the names we know and love are running out of ideas and passion and risk ruining the whole thing.
Interesting perspective and makes me think that’s why the 18+ screen mega theatre is dying today. Not enough of those kinds of films to keep that many screens going and draw people in.
Still haven’t watched rings of power, probably not now that I cancelled Prime after the ad fiasco.
Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War were fun - but very non canon.
Anyone who bought Gollum at all should take what you’re saying to heart. Zero true fans of the Middle Earth world would put any money down for that game. If anyone bought it because they were a fan they deserved to lose their money, zero of the marketing material looked like it was going to be a quality product or decent addition to the story.
The last time I got a text that was obviously from a scammer I beat them to the punch with “I have a big bitcoin mining project but I need seed money. Are you willing to invest?”
Don’t think so. Asking for money seems to flip a switch on their “AI” and it gets very hostile, “this is my money, i have lots of it, it’s mine and you won’t have it”
Is it just me, or had anyone else lost all hope for good Lotr shows after Rings of Power? I saw lots of potential squandered by poor writing, and I fear more Lotr content is just going to be more content, not good stories.
With the infinite amount of excellent content available online, there is no point on wasting your time and attention or mediocrity. It was obvious from the news before launch that it will suck, so I waited, and the reviews confirmed it, so I didn’t bother.
Wrongcolor criticism, one can phrase it. Both in what you imply by “bad faith” and in the reason you do that, as it comes from a different pole of the society.
Only many of them were not that kind of complaints, so you only have your human social instincts to blame (and those who abuse those - it’s similar to being scammed).
It’s a bit like Disney played the “racist fans” card against those who didn’t like their Star Wars movies. So even those people who said and say they loved them have mostly lost interest to Star Wars in that very period.
It became socially dirty to criticize those movies, but the amount of the “approving” fans who still left the fandom shows the real reception.
Christopher Tolkien was blocking a lot of things. Even the Jackson films sneaked by and wouldn’t have been made of he could have stopped it.
He’s dead now, and the new heirs to the rights like money. They also have about 20 years before the copyright expires. Which isn’t that long; that’s about as much time between now and the Jackson films. To keep ahead of the clock, they’re greenlighting a lot of garbage and risk running their franchise into the ground.
I desperately hope so. The amount of effort that went into the current movies cannot be matched by anybody in Hollywood except maybe Christopher Nolan.
Frodo was the best of them, but he was carrying a great burden, so we saw him during an internal fight for his very soul, not as his usual self. Frodo was chosen to carry the ring because his pure and generous heart was the least influenced by its power, and it still almost consumed him.
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