[The Saucepan Man]

Warning: This post is incredibly long and contains links to lengthy reviews. Please feel free to skip it if you have no interest whatsoever in what reviewers have said about the films.

A central theme in this thread is how the changes made to the story and characters as part of the process of simplifying them and broadening their appeal (my preferred expression to “dumbing them down”) might affect the “average moviegoer”. To what extent are the “inconsistencies” and “plot-holes” that have been raised on this thread likely to confuse them and thereby impair their enjoyment of the films?

There is also an underlying theme concerning the quality of the films in which the majority, while accepting that they are popular and, in many respects, well-made, do not regard these films as classics.

So I thought that I would do a little research. Now, clearly I couldn’t go out and conduct my own survey of “average moviegoers”. But I thought that it might be worth looking at some of the reviews of the films from those whose job or hobby it is to review films. My own perceptions of the critical acclaim which the films received had been based on UK press reviews, so I thought that I would cast my net (if you’ll pardon the pun) a bit wider. So I did a Google search on “Lord Rings Review” and looked at some of the sites that came up. I have posted links to some of the sites that I looked at below.

Note:

• These are broadly representative of all the sites that I looked at. I have not merely selected positive reviews.
• Many of these reviews are by those whose hobby it is to write reviews for internet sites – just the kind of people who would pick up on inconsistencies and plot-holes.
• Some of these reviewers had clearly read the book before seeing the films. Others clearly had not. But none of them seem to be “Tolkien fanatics”.

So … You Wanna Sell A Script?

This seems to be a website for aspiring scriptwriters, and so I thought that it would be interesting to see whether they might be alert to the kinds of issue raised as concerns on this thread (inconsistent characters, plot-holes etc).

Link to various reviews of all three films.

(Warning – you might find one or two of them rather offensive.)

Well they are a mixed bag, but nevertheless mainly appreciative. Dr Scott in particular is wildly enthusiasticabout the films, which he regards as certain to become enduring classics. The main criticisms are the length of the films (including the “multiple endings” in RotK), too much dialogue/exposition at the expense of the action, bad dialogue (it’s not clear whether these comments refer to Tolkien’s original lines or those written by Jackson, Boyens and Walsh – but the archaic style is criticised) and the feeling (in one review) that the special effects took over in RotK.

Moving on to the Internet Movie Database , this provides some statistics which confirm the mass appeal of the films.

RotK was the highest grossing film of 2003. TTT and FotR were the second highest grossing films of 2002 and 2001 respectively. Their positions in the all-time highest grossing films are as follows:

US: RotK - seventh, TTT - eleventh, FotR – sixteenth.
Non-US: RotK - second, TTT - fifth, FotR - seventh.
Worldwide: RotK - second, TTT - fifth, FotR -tenth.

Note - most of the films on these lists are action films, so this is clearly a desirable niche to be in.

The reviews included with the individual entries for the films are pretty disparaging. FotR is described as a “video game version of book” that translates badly to film. The reviewer asserts that the story feels rushed and that it is impossible to care about characters unless one has read book. He sees it as a film by fans of the book for fans of the book (!), and yet considers the book to have been “butchered” to an unsuitable format. The review of TTT claims that the special effects could not save the film because the story is boring (!), while the review of RotK refers to bad acting, clichéd and melodramatic moments and a boring final 30 minutes.

These comments are not, however, representative of the views of the members of IMDB as a whole, who have rated the films very highly. In the IMDb All Time Top 250, RotK is third, TTT eighth and FotR thirteenth. It will be interesting to see the extent to which they will be able to maintain their positions on this list (which looks pretty sensible to me), but given the quality of the films throughout the Top 100, they will be doing very well indeed even if they slip down a fair few places.

ReelViews

This provides glowing reviews of the film trilogy from someone who read the book twice as a child. He clearly sees the films as defining the fantasy film genre and a milestone in film-making. Of course this is one person’s view, but I have included it because I find many of the comments that he makes interesting, particularly as they reflect my own views very closely (except for the bit about "stodgy" Tolkien purists). I thought it worth quoting a few (in parts provocative) extracts.

On the trilogy as a whole:

But, in bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's milestone trilogy to the screen, Peter Jackson has finally given fantasy aficionados something to cheer about. I went into this movie with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, but left it exhilarated. Although it had been 20 years since I had last opened the books (I read them twice, at ages 12 and 14), many images remained fresh in my mind, and The Lord of the Rings matched them all. Almost everyone I have talked to, regardless of whether they have read the books or not, enjoyed the films. And, as the years go by, I expect that their importance will only grow.

Like all great movies of this sort, this one is characterized by tremendous action scenes punctuated by moments of rest and reflection. The Lord of the Rings emphasizes two themes: the importance of brotherhood and the need for true strength to come from within. In the final analysis, this movie stands as one of the most rousing examples of entertainment to reach multiplexes in a long time. At last, someone has figured out how to do an epic fantasy justice on the big screen. Combined, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King represent one of the most engrossing and engaging nine-hour segments of cinema I have ever enjoyed. This series seems poised to go down as one of the crowning achievements of cinema.

On FotR:

Lord of the Rings devotees will be delighted to learn that the motion picture adaptation is as faithful as one could imagine possible (and, consequently, is nearly three hours in length). Jackson and his co-screenwriters (Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens) do an excellent job condensing more than five hundred pages of text into a script that never feels choppy, uneven, or rushed.

On TTT:

Stodgy Tolkien purists who disliked some of the changes Jackson made to The Fellowship of the Ring may be outraged by what he and his screenwriters have done here. The Two Towers differs much more from its written inspiration than the first movie. Yet, in tone and spirit, this remains very much Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, although altered in a manner that makes it more of a living, breathing cinematic endeavor rather than a point-by-point regurgitation (like the Harry Potter films).

Jackson has added dashes of mirth and romance to the film – two elements in short supply in the novel.

On RotK:

Tolkien purists will be as disgruntled with The Return of the King as they were with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, but this isn't made for them. This is Tolkien's saga as filtered through Jackson's fertile imagination, not some dry, slavishly faithful adaptation (although it is probably as true to the books in both spirit and narrative as any movie version could be).

Rotten Tomatoes

The LotR films don’t make their top 100, but that seems to be rated by the number of reviews a particular film has received as well as the degree to which it found favour, and there are some pretty odd choices there. But the films are highly rated in their review section, which is particularly interesting because the entries include excerpts from media reviews:

FotR
TTT
RotK

I’m assuming that the excerpts in these entries represent a cross-section of critical reaction, since there are a few negative comments. But these are massively outweighed by the positive and indeed the wildly enthusiastic (some of which go further than even I would). Many of these comments hail it as groundbreaking or refer to it as a great cinema achievement. And, since these are people who review films either professionally or as a hobby, I tend to think that they know what they are talking about. Of course, there is some diversity in opinion, but that is to be expected as a consequence of differences in personal tastes. Other comments refer to the films as remaining true to the spirit of the book, while achieving the almost difficult task of translating it to, and condensing it for, the screen.

I couldn’t resist repeating this quote:

The director and screenwriter brings unity to a somewhat unwieldy story and handles the spectacle scenes with flourish and coherence.
-- Philip Wuntch, DALLAS MORNING NEWS

I don’t agree that the original story is "unwieldy", but it is probably a fairly common view. There are, I am sure, many who have no time for the book who will enjoy the films.

The Hollywood Reporter

FotR
FotR (EE DVD)
TTT
TTT (DVD)
TTT (EE DVD)
RotK
RotK (EE DVD)

With regard to RotK, the following comment is interesting:

Jackson and co-writers Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh make noteworthy departures from Tolkien, including such crucial moments as what happens when Frodo is finally standing on a ledge over the Crack of Doom inside the volcano where the ring must be destroyed, and how Aragorn makes use of the Army of the Dead that only he can command. Whole swaths of the book have been condensed and eliminated, but Jackson and company usually realize splendidly whatever they take on.

The BBC Movies section

FotR
TTT

A nice comment, this one:

This is a compact, flab-free adaptation of JRR Tolkien's complex, lengthy book, and it suffers little from following three simultaneous adventures.

RotK

Again:

It's an astonishing piece of storytelling, sacrificing little of the novel, as it nimbly switches between several story strands without becoming confusing or dull (despite being a bum-numbing 201 minutes).

The New York Times

I could only access the summary review of RotK

As I said, these are pretty representative of the reviews that I read. Clearly, they are overwhelmingly positive. But most importantly, as far as the issues being discussed on this thread are concerned, there is hardly a mention of plot-holes or inconsistencies. The main criticisms focus on other areas (primarily length and over use of dialogue/exposition). Also, it seems quite clear to me (particularly from the extracts from media reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes site) that many regard this film trilogy as a groundbreaking cinematic event and consider that these films are likely to become classics. Comparisons with the original Star Wars films are frequently made.

Now, I must emphasise that I am not suggesting that anyone is wrong if they disagree with these reviews. I am sure that many here will. But they do, in my view, provide a useful indication as to the regard in which these films are held by those who know and love films generally (rather than only those who know and love Tolkien’s works).

Finally, a bit of fun:

Movie Mistakes.com is a nice little site that I came across during my investigations. It refers primarily to continuity errors and the like, rather than inconsistencies in the story and/or characters. They give a list of the 30 most mistake-filled films. The LotR films are at 5, 6 and 7 respectively. But two of the Harry Potter films are in the top 3, and Star Wars is pretty high up too.