The PJ Appreciation Thread
 

There are a lot of threads and a lot of posts out there that seem to say nothing but what Peter Jackson did wrong while making the films. 'Faramir is terrible', 'Shelob should be in TTT!', or 'Gandalf got his butt kicked by the Witch-King' seem to be what we are saying. I know, I know, I've done it too. :( It almost seems that we have only bad things to say. And while everything we say is true, I think it belies how we truly feel.

I, for one, am very grateful to PJ for making the films. I think he knew that all of us book fans would rip everything he changed to shreds. Despite that, he decided to set out to do something spectacular: Make a movie based on the Lord of the Rings. :D And even though I have personally bashed some of his decisions, I am happy he did what he did.

All told, I think Peter Jackson did an excellent job making a movie version of LotR. :D

I agree with Gurthang, although I am not the biggest fan of the films, I am still glad PJ made them. I have my dislikes, and have aired them, yet the good far outweighs the bad. I am thankful to see Middle-Earth in any form, remember, before the films were made , people argued as to which artist portrayed the Profs works best.

I've said again & again that any talking badly about the changes he made that I've done isn't bashing (usually), it's just honest, intelligent (or trying to be at least) discussion.

I am very grateful that he made the movies & was willing to at least stick to the storylines as closely as he did. It's certainly not that he didn't make an effort! :eek:

PJ had a fantastic attempt at something that was never going to please everyone as it had to be marketable to a wider range than just those who like Tolkien. The number of new members that have joined the Downs since the films were first released shows the range of people he reached.

I am very grateful to him and his fellow filmmakers for creating the world of ME onscreen, it's just so much fun to pick holes :D .

I'm quite sure a lot of people would not have known about the wonderful books if not for the movies. That would have included me. And I would never have been here with all you wonderful people. See, there's a whole chain reaction out there.

So, PJ, despite all your crimes against the books, thank you.

I think there's few who really despise the movies. It's not like the movies would have ruined Tolkien's world for us. If there's something wrong in the films, we can pick up our worn-out books and go to Middle-Earth that way.

Being intelligent sprites we are not blinded by grand settings, beautiful music, magnificent costume designing, handsome actors... ;) In an eleven-hour movie there has to be something that somebody doesn't quite like. Then that certain somebody comes here and says it out loud. And then we discuss it.

But I doubt that those who seem to bash Mr. Jackson's films really hate them. We just like the films so much that we aren't afraid to criticize them. We love and cherish the story and our feedback - no matter how negative it may be at times - won't change that fact. Also, talking here with other people helps us to accept the "flaws" (or convince us about things like PJ's Faramir was the greatest blunder of film history :p).

But due to this is an Appreciation Thread, I wrote a Haiku poem for the greatness of PJ. Since I don't have a clue how to count syllables in English words, this may not fill the requirements of a haiku but I don't care.

PJ, you are great
You deserved the Oscars
Just do the Hobbit

I would like to complain about the films being made, as I seem to be spending all my time arguing about the Gandalf v Witch King scene ;)

I could lead a normal life if the film's weren't made :D

The comments and criticisms are typically specific, as are the anti-PJ threads. If one looked at this data, one may note that it is these few scenes and changes that have irked some, and not the entire movie (one in three).

My hope is that someone sees the money that can be made (1) in Middle Earth and (2) doing something not blessed by the Hollywood mindset, and runs with that.

Someone might feel, in a decade or two, that we need to revisit the LOTR and make yet another set of films (if that would even be the media then) and we then would have something new to enjoy and to carp about.

As my real-world example, look at the Dune movies (first as a movie, then and a made-for-TV-movie). The second production was in answer to many of the critizisms of the first (but then that spun its own madness - "they did A in the original movie, and so we are NOT doing A no matter how much sense it makes or how much not A doesn't!")

The amount of work PJ put into the three films, and the sheer commitment involved is admirable. He did an excellent job of creating a fantastic movie experience. It was risky and he could have upset so many fans, but he pulled it off in spectacular fashion.

I feel he deviated from the source material only as much as he had to, to create something that appealed to ordinary movie-goers. And he came up with something that no only pleases the fans, but delights this particular fan.

They are without doubt, fantastic films. PJ deserves a hell of a lot of credit for them. I could sing his praises until the cows came home for giving me a cinematic experience I'll never forget.

To Tolkien the Lord of the Rings was not fit for dramatization, there was just too much there to be put in a movie or even a trilogy. Many people believed that since the books have been around for half a century before someone took a strong stab at it.

PJ thought otherwise and after 8 years and $300,000,000 dollars he came up with his film adaptation. Even then it was not as good as the books, it opened up Middle Earth to people like me who are more atuned to visual stimuli then narrative. It made a fan out of me.

We gripe about details, and missing characters, and plot rearrangments, and missing chapters, but in the end we generally agree that this was the closest anyone has gotten. I feel sorry for the poor person that tries to do this again in like 30 years and top it.

Excerpt from ROTK-EE
"We now have two paths into middle earth. One way as written by Tolkien, and one way as written by Tolkien and interpetted by Jackson."

The films indeed are great and when I watch them I cannot help but feel admiration towards those that made them, and thank them because they deserve thanks.There are a lot of scenes that still move me deeply, such as the ride of the Rohirrim, wHich is my favourite. But exactly those scenes make me sure that they could have done much better if they had not changed so many things for the sake of viewers that can never understand whatLOTR really means. Although now I forgive many of these things, there are some that I cannot. For example the scene where Aragorn attaks the Mouth of Sauron. My respect for Aragorn-wich, I must admit, is very deep-does not alow me to forgive it. I think that, indeed, LOTR was a good movie, and that no Tolkien fan cannot help feeling proud of it for the tiumphs that it had, but neither can he overlook the things that have been so badly altered.

I really cannot imagine how else one would get a LotR bookmark with a Ring--everyone wants to be a Ringbearer!--mugs with various mugs on them, or be able to order Moriaburgers or Orcs-in-a-blanket. ;) :D

Yep, PJ deserves a cookie.

I will thank him eternally simply for not making Arwen a member of the Fellowship.

:p

And it's always wonderful to see things on film (as long as the film is well done, which I think we could easily say LotR was), particularly for people like me, who, though we can envision things, aren't the most visual people. Especially when it comes to geography....

More than a cookie, if you ask me....An Oero.... :p And perhaps a banansplit too. Yeah, sounds more like it. :D

The more I understand about what works in movies and what doesn't (and I am an almost complete novice), the more I appreciate Peter Jackson's LOTR phenomenon.

In fact, although I still don't like it, I am beginning to understand why Faramir was weakened, why Frodo told Sam to go home, why the Scouring of the Shire wasn't included, why Tom Bombadil got left out. OK, I guess I already knew that last one. No offense, Bombadil fans...

No, these movies were not perfect. Yes, they changed the books. Yes, they had events and even characters in them that are not kosher Tolkien, so to speak. The whole sequence of events at the Entmoot still drives me nuts, as do Aragorn's falling-off-the-cliff adventures, etc. But these were three incredible movies, three of THE best movies in the last few years, if not the best.

Hats off to Peter Jackson! Sir, you have created three films of huge depth and beauty, and throughout you have remained faithful to the spirit, if not always the letter, of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic! He might not thank you for your work, but I do. For heaven's sakes, yes, make The Hobbit!

P.S. I'm still mad over the "He's twitching..." line! :D

Brilliant point, E&E. I am certainly looking forward to seeing The Hobbit movie. I will be very dissappointed if it isn't made. LotR and The Hobbit just go together... like bread and butter. And since theire is certainly less material to work with, PJ might have an easier time trasnfering it to the big screen. I personally can't wait to see Smaug! :eek: