Reverse Gripes

[Mattius]

Originally Posted by Sir Kohran

I read a very good quote on this issue in a review that I think sums it up very well:

I mean, a man who stops the Hobbits being eaten, very slowly, by a tree with his power of song is just quite frankly ludicrous in this day and age. The film is already stretching the audience's suspension of disbelief as far as it can go. Hence the chaff of Bombadill is cut. He isn't relevant to the rest of the story so he can be done without.

Oh yes I was very pleased when that was chosen not be included. I recently re-read that part of the book and it seems so strange and at odds with the rest of the story.

Also on the subject of Sean Bean I remember when the cast was being announced for the movies before filming began and he was named as Boromir. I recall smiling and thinking that he would be simply perfect for the role. Boromir always came off to me as a strong, brooding and 'not too chatty' (in the company of strangers). However, get to know him and he would be smart, down to earth and fiercly defend his beliefs and friends. The role was simply made for a fellow Yorkshireman to play!!

[Elfchick7]

I love how PJ brought the Arwen & Aragorn story out of the Appendices and incorporated into the film. The way he did it was so nice b/c it didn't really pull from the main story but only added to the understanding of Aragorn's struggles. I especially liked how he showed what would happen to Arwen if she stayed in M.E.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Elfchick7

I love how PJ brought the Arwen & Aragorn story out of the Appendices and incorporated into the film. The way he did it was so nice b/c it didn't really pull from the main story but only added to the understanding of Aragorn's struggles.

Yes I liked that too and we also get to know Arwen better!

[Lush]

Arwen in "FotR" (NOT "TTT," except for that bit of her mourning Aragorn far, far in the future, and not in "RofK" either) I'm a fan of Glorfindel, but juggling a zillion characters in a film, even in a very long film, would have been suicide for Peter Jackson - so he wisely (yes, wisely) has Arwen usurp that role. I love the way she appears to Frodo in the very beginning.

People have griped that Jackson was pandering to modernity, but I rather think that we needed to have more of the future wife of the future king in the foreground. Arwen's character does work subtly through Aragorn in the book - influencing his moods and songs and decisions while he keeps her hope alive, and sometimes this symbiosis comes together nicely, and sometimes it doesn't.

I also happen to think that the beginning of FotR (the book) tends to drag a little bit, so yes, an improvement there.

Finally - Frodo's age. Naturally, Tolkien couldn't have had him as some giggly teenager, and the reasons for that are pretty obvious. I also think that having someone as mature as he go on a perilous quest is a nice change, a respite from the fairy tale that makes you grow up the minute you hit puberty (which can be so unconvincing, really). But I feel that there is a dissonance between Frodo's actual age and the way he thinks and behaves in the book. I still see him as a pretty young and inexperienced fella - a young guy way older and wiser than Pippin, or, for that matter, Merry, but a young guy nonetheless.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Lush

Finally - Frodo's age. Naturally, Tolkien couldn't have had him as some giggly teenager, and the reasons for that are pretty obvious. I also think that having someone as mature as he go on a perilous quest is a nice change, a respite from the fairy tale that makes you grow up the minute you hit puberty (which can be so unconvincing, really). But I feel that there is a dissonance between Frodo's actual age and the way he thinks and behaves in the book. I still see him as a pretty young and inexperienced fella - a young guy way older and wiser than Pippin, or, for that matter, Merry, but a young guy nonetheless.

I agree with Frodo's age, I think it a bit too old, but I would be careful bunching Merry in there with Pippin (concering wisdom)--- Merry, in my opinion, was almost just as wise as Frodo.