[lindil]

Were you a first time fan who might never have looked at Tolkien's books if it weren't for the movie, or someone who had known and loved Middle-earth long before Peter Jackson?

No I read LotR at 11 or so in 6th or 7th grade the year before the Silm cam out in 77.

Were these original fears and criticisms justified?

'fraid so. I give Alan Lee and Howe's contributions a solid 'A'.
Casting and setting/Scenery were incredible as well, but the aspect that pretty much ruins 2 and 3 for me are the incredible and usually pointless liberties PJ and co. took with the scirpt. I was one of thousands who signed anti-'xenarwen' petitions and I am at least encouraged by the fact that they seem to have helped to keep her from becoming the warrior princess we all had heard rumours of. Oddly enough, while I am somewhat of a militant [anti- PJ] around here my purist sister in law flatly boycotted 2 and 3 after 1 [unfortunately not the expanded version which added much of what was worth seeing [more Galaldriel, elves, lothlorien and rivendell] and I must say having scene 2, 2+ and 3 [all but 3 multiple times] I might as well have saved the $'s. And put it towards Martin Shaw's audio Silm! It is amazing that PJ could have gotten so much right and then [from the standard purists pov] butchered the rewriting of lines, and equally the many plot discrepancies and charactrerizations. I give much of these a 'D'. I had no heart to see "RotK' again once was painful enough. I suppose I will give the extended version a watch, at least the new scenes.
So... PJ gave me some great imagery and still managed to confirm my worst fears...

Has this board itself changed in any way? Most importantly, has there been any change in the level or type of discussion of Tolkien and Middle-earth that is going on here(for better or for worse)?

Of course, when the 'eldest' of us landed here in the spring and summer of 2000 the movies had yet to really shape the serious Tolkien discussion or attract the thousdands of newbies. I think overall the admins [and Esty!] did an incredible job of making the Downs forums more relevant to both the N&N's and the oldsters. Of course that feeling of being in a cyber coffehouse had to due to shear numbers give way to something more akin to a food court in a large mall, but considering the massive influx, I never saw any other board adapt as well as we did. One thing I have noticed in the last few years are the large number of introspective Downs threads.
Discussing the fellow downsters, the forums and our community which now has a life of it's own. In the first year or so, there was virtually nothing but Tolkien discussions. I may have [without intending] began one of the first introspective-threads with my poll on polls during the ez board days!

Burra posted earlier that " there are still loads more good threads than at the start." Well and truly said. His points about the newness being gone as a bigger factor than the movies are certainly factors, but the movie generated newbies in a hornburg like assault on our little community, forever changing it even as the natural process of aging and maturing was ongoing at the downs.


Even though, for the last year, I am rarely in my barrows, and the longest threads [aften the most interesting] are simply time-prohibitive, this is still my favorite hangout place on the net, by far, changes and all. So many of the great early folks have stuck around as well as some from 2001 and 2 who have become some of the strongest members.[/QUOTE]

And, on a personal level, what did seeing the movie do for you?

Make we want to go back and read the books with the fervent prayer that the movie characters would not be burned in my mind like they are in the post Return of the Jedi novels! I seem to have escaped that disease for the most part, though I recall seeing Caras Galadhon from 'frodo's ' pov while reading not too long ago [fortunately 'Haldir's' commentary was missing[img]ubb/smile.gif[/img]].


Overall the Downs has succesfully navigated the waters of the movie and considering the massive addition of incredibly young members [ agood thing imo] the 'soul' of the Downs has stayed true to the inital warm-hearted and serious community that is here now.

If JRRT were around, I think he would enjoy it way more than the movie!!! [although he wouldf be saddenend to hear that the languages forum is only a secret link treasured by a few [actually if anyone still has it...]

It has been sad to endure so much commercialization [the pringle's 'Gandalf' comes far too easily to mind] and shallow comments by movie-going non-readers, but many of them feasted on the fragments of Tolkien that made it into the movie, and I am certainly pleased to find more worthy studies and such on the Legendarium and Tolkien than ever would have been possible without the massive spillover from the movie.

I am extermely proud that the Downs pre-dated the Movies and that it's essential character is above it, staying true to the Barrow-Wight's goal of a Tolkien/Books oriented community. No small feat in a world full of stalled attempts [being responsible for many myself!] and bitter disputes here is a little bit of Imladris...

Underhill posted :

Yet the Downs continues to draw many intelligent, articulate, and funny members. You figure out whose names to look for as you’re scrolling through the daily topics, the ones you can count on for a thoughtful contribution or a laugh or two. And as often as not, one of these bright people comes up with a new topic, or a new angle on an old topic, that you hadn’t considered before. That’s one of the joys of the Downs, which I still heartily enjoy. Another satisfaction which can only be enjoyed over time is to watch members, particularly the younger members – I’ll omit names to spare embarrassment – grow and mature.

So well said I felt it deserved a repeat.

Snowdog, excellent breakdown - of course I am pleased that I am old-school by a matter of months...