LotR:TTT Part I: Plot
Dec. 18th, 2002 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosRandom thoughts on the movie:
Best summed up, actually, by a line from the film itself. I'll get to that in a minute; first I have to set it up.
There were all these totally inexplicable inclusions; I mean, I get that it's a movie, and they have to take out stuff I liked to make it fit in a reasonable time. I understand that. But when they take out stuff I liked and replace it with stuff that neither furthers the plot nor advances the characters nor comes from the book? Well. I get pissy. This happened repeatedly; the movie would have been much shorter without scenes of (in approximate order of appearance):
Gandalf telling Fanghorn that Merry and Pippin are hobbits. Why did we need to do this?
Unnecessary dream sequences with Arwen. Unnecessary dream sequences with all the elves, and Elrond, and Arwen not wanting to go West over Sea, and blah blah blah. Who cares?
Totally inexplicable battle scene pre-Helms Deep with goblins on boar/wolf creatures. Interminable battle sequence, threat-of-Aragorn's-death, blah blah blah.
Elves showing up at Helms Deep. Not only random, but detrimental; the point of the battle is that the men fight in desperation for hours because they have to at least try, even though they see no way to win. When you increase their chances, there goes that.
The Ents deciding not to go attack Saruman at the Entmoot but, instead, later having a reaction sequence to dead trees and then preparing for battle. One of the two is all that was required.
Faramir wanting the Ring for Gondor. Really, people. The scriptwriters have written out every human who did not crave the ring, or changed their parts so they did, which I think misses the point about men having different qualities. Faramir, who said something like "if I saw it by the side of the road, I would not pick it up," now desires the ring. Harrumph. And another harrumph for making me recall my displeasure with the selfsame treatment of Aragorn. Who're we leaving the world to, if all men lust after power? The whole point it that the world is changed by Sauron, but that there is still good in the world. Pfui.
Faramir taking Frodo, Sam, and Gollum to Osgiloth. The most heinous case. I get that Frodo and Sam don't have much to do in TTT; mostly, they wander, are hungry, are hopeless, get lost, get confused, don't know how to get to Mordor, and argue about whether Gollum can be trusted, with a brief Faramir-focused intermission. But they added an entire battle sequence! And ended up in Gondor, near Denethor! Huh, what?
All of this added unnecessary minutes that could have been better focused on such wonders as the relationship between Gimli and Legolas, Eomer's funny conversation with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn upon finding them in the Riddermarch, the Huorons, and so on. Pah.
Anyway, here's the line (approximate quote) that caused those of my friends who had read the books to burst out laughing. Sam and Frodo are in Gondor, for some unknown reason, and Sam says to Frodo: "This isn't right! I know we aren't supposed to be here. Something's gone terribly wrong." We joked all the way out of the theater that Sean Astin had actually paid attention when he read the book, and was being all "dude, why the hell are we here?" at the filmmakers.
Also, this was not TTT. The beginning of TTT was in FotR, and this only covered about 80% of the remainder, leaving out the Gandalf/Saruman confrontation, the Palintir, Theoden's decision to join Gondor, and the reunion of Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn on the Rohan side. On the Frodo and Sam side, we ended before they even began their ascent up to Minas Morgul and before the met the spider.
I get Peter Jackson not wanting to end on a downer, but, dude, George Lucas got away with it with an original work where no-one knew what was going to happen. End on a downer; that's the point of book two. Desperation, depression, and barely a glimmer of hope. When Samwise picks up the ring at the end of the book, that's an astonishing moment: the glimmer of hope amid terrible defeat. Just that one scene is a hell of a lot more powerful than this entire movie.
Best summed up, actually, by a line from the film itself. I'll get to that in a minute; first I have to set it up.
There were all these totally inexplicable inclusions; I mean, I get that it's a movie, and they have to take out stuff I liked to make it fit in a reasonable time. I understand that. But when they take out stuff I liked and replace it with stuff that neither furthers the plot nor advances the characters nor comes from the book? Well. I get pissy. This happened repeatedly; the movie would have been much shorter without scenes of (in approximate order of appearance):
Gandalf telling Fanghorn that Merry and Pippin are hobbits. Why did we need to do this?
Unnecessary dream sequences with Arwen. Unnecessary dream sequences with all the elves, and Elrond, and Arwen not wanting to go West over Sea, and blah blah blah. Who cares?
Totally inexplicable battle scene pre-Helms Deep with goblins on boar/wolf creatures. Interminable battle sequence, threat-of-Aragorn's-death, blah blah blah.
Elves showing up at Helms Deep. Not only random, but detrimental; the point of the battle is that the men fight in desperation for hours because they have to at least try, even though they see no way to win. When you increase their chances, there goes that.
The Ents deciding not to go attack Saruman at the Entmoot but, instead, later having a reaction sequence to dead trees and then preparing for battle. One of the two is all that was required.
Faramir wanting the Ring for Gondor. Really, people. The scriptwriters have written out every human who did not crave the ring, or changed their parts so they did, which I think misses the point about men having different qualities. Faramir, who said something like "if I saw it by the side of the road, I would not pick it up," now desires the ring. Harrumph. And another harrumph for making me recall my displeasure with the selfsame treatment of Aragorn. Who're we leaving the world to, if all men lust after power? The whole point it that the world is changed by Sauron, but that there is still good in the world. Pfui.
Faramir taking Frodo, Sam, and Gollum to Osgiloth. The most heinous case. I get that Frodo and Sam don't have much to do in TTT; mostly, they wander, are hungry, are hopeless, get lost, get confused, don't know how to get to Mordor, and argue about whether Gollum can be trusted, with a brief Faramir-focused intermission. But they added an entire battle sequence! And ended up in Gondor, near Denethor! Huh, what?
All of this added unnecessary minutes that could have been better focused on such wonders as the relationship between Gimli and Legolas, Eomer's funny conversation with Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn upon finding them in the Riddermarch, the Huorons, and so on. Pah.
Anyway, here's the line (approximate quote) that caused those of my friends who had read the books to burst out laughing. Sam and Frodo are in Gondor, for some unknown reason, and Sam says to Frodo: "This isn't right! I know we aren't supposed to be here. Something's gone terribly wrong." We joked all the way out of the theater that Sean Astin had actually paid attention when he read the book, and was being all "dude, why the hell are we here?" at the filmmakers.
Also, this was not TTT. The beginning of TTT was in FotR, and this only covered about 80% of the remainder, leaving out the Gandalf/Saruman confrontation, the Palintir, Theoden's decision to join Gondor, and the reunion of Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn on the Rohan side. On the Frodo and Sam side, we ended before they even began their ascent up to Minas Morgul and before the met the spider.
I get Peter Jackson not wanting to end on a downer, but, dude, George Lucas got away with it with an original work where no-one knew what was going to happen. End on a downer; that's the point of book two. Desperation, depression, and barely a glimmer of hope. When Samwise picks up the ring at the end of the book, that's an astonishing moment: the glimmer of hope amid terrible defeat. Just that one scene is a hell of a lot more powerful than this entire movie.
no subject
Date: 2002-12-18 11:38 pm (UTC)*laughs* I started poking Flint who was sitting next to me during that scene, whispering, "He's right! They're not! Metatext!" :)
no subject
Date: 2002-12-19 12:06 am (UTC)My friend and I kept looking at each other and making "what?" gestures when things were changed beyond the telling of it, but sometimes, you just had to whisper and laugh.