Rate the Cast's performance.

Personally, i think you are all being a bit too hard on orlando bloom, it WAS his first role in a movie. also, think about this: SILENCE IS OFT THE BEST HONOUR. by that I mean: although there are only a few lines for him to say, his expressions and the way he moves himself show greatness. i would rate him a 9 or 10.

Liv Tyler:Grace, beauty, and really working that voice, i would give her a 9 or 10 as well.

Viggo Mortensen: He did a great job as aragorn, but i think that certain scenes of his should have been left out.

and also, just a bit of info: a friend of a friend of mine trained all the horses for the movies. hehe.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

Nit-picking...

it WAS his first role in a movie

No, it wasn't. Click. Anyway, welcome to 'Downs orlandoscowgal! Enjoy being dead!

[Turin]

Just to point out...

What I have observed from reading the posts is that all those who speak about how the movies are "sooooo perfect" have inadvertantly criticised them, especially blaming poor delivery on "bad" lines or poor writing. Yeah.. the films were still REALLY perfect! (not)

Anyway....

Main characters:

Elijah Wood - normally an ok actor, but I think he was out of his depth in this role. He seems far too young to play Frodo and has a whiny type of voice that just irritated the hell out of me, and yes, his eyes do roll a lot.

Sean Astin can't act, but was redeemed by a better character depiction than most. At least he had a few decent lines, and it is always going to be favourable when you are in an emotional scene such as when Sam carries Frodo on his back.

Dominic Monaghan came off IMO as the most convincing hobbit out of the 4, though still was not happy with his lines or lack of sense, though granted he could hardly be blamed for THAT.

Pippin (can't remember the guy's name) - awful. Despite a crap characterisation by the writers, I just couldn't buy into the guy's depiction of Pippin. Don't know why... maybe it was his Scottish accent, or his facial movements.

Ian McKellan did an excellent job as Gandalf, but again, hampered by poor characterisation and inconsistencies in several places.

Christopher Lee Excellent! I've always rated his acting ability and he's character is not let down at all, except when the writers have interfered.

Viggo Mortenson I think he was average. As with Elijah, I think he was out of his depth playing such an important character. He just resemble and kingly, noble and stern character that he is in the book. I think his accent was also a hindering factor.

John Rhys-Davies how does one comment on a person's acting ability if the only thing one is shown is his character being a prat and a laughing stock? Too many lame comic-relief moments didn't allow JRD to to demonstrate his good acting skills. Plus, ill decision to use a scottish accent!

Orlando Bloom looks half-decent (only half, mind you) as an elf, until he has to move, talk and act.

Bernard Hill His acting is always good, although I would have liked to have seen him looking a bit older and having a white beard, as depicted in the book. Good job.

John Noble again, how do you comment on acting skills when the whole characterisation is so bad?? Fair enough it wasn't his fault, but "overacting" is a word that springs to mind when I think of him.

Liv Tyler Like Bloom, looks good as an elf, until she starts speaking. Another one with an irritating voice.

Eowyn Good. She comes out as one of the stronger actors in the movies.

Gollum/Andy Serkis the CGI was excellent, though maybe not MY cup of tea. Didn't agree with the voice, but can't really complain. Good job.

Minor characters....

Sean Bean A good actor and did a good job as Boromir, both stern and proud, but tragic.

Faramir Looked like Boromir's younger brother, but I don't think the material did him any favours; couldn't really expand the role.

Mouth of Sauron What a joke!! Scary? More like a bloke with dental problems and a bad neck! Appalling.

I think my opinions (and I freely admit it) come from a combination of: depiction of characters compared to the book; my visual representation of characters; the scriptwriters' portrayal of the characters, including the lines they were given; and of course, the pure "acting" involved. It is not meant to be another criticism of the movies: just my own views regarding the characters.

[Eowyn Wenhamir]

Aww, poor Billy Boyd. I liked Billy as Pippin, mostly because he managed to pull off the adorable naivety that only Pippin (and Sam, a little) seemed to have in the books. I would give him at least a 7/10.

I was extremely disappointed with the way Merry's character was written. Dominic Monaghan managed to pull off the scenes with Eowyn in ROTK well, and his anger in TTT at Treebeard was well-done. I think Dom's problem was a problem of bad writing, because he's an actor of considerable, untapped talent, as far as I'm concerned. I give him a 9/10.

As usual, I give my David Wenham a 10/10.

[Ainaserkewen]

Hugo Weaving (Elrond)- 8/10

Ah, I will beg to differ from your lack of a perfect ten my dear Boromir.

Of course I do agree with you that he did a superb job as Agent Smith, however I disagree and add that he was one of the strongest actors in the Lord of the Rings. Elrond as a character has always seemed to me the most difficult to grasp. The books offer many detailed descriptions of his personality and experiences, but the character he could've been if acted by someone else would have been extremely hum-drum. Mr. Weaving has the extreme ability to make characters his own. After the Matrix, he certainly wasn't what we were expecting as Elrond, but through the dialog and facial expressions he re-defines our vision of the Half-Elf. He has made this character into the entirely-different-than-anything-we've-seen-before guy that he ought to be. Just as he played the Agent program run amuck, he's added life to an otherwise mysterious role. Hats off to you Mr. Weaving.

Just a quick note on Orlando's performance: Mr. Bloom was exactly what he needed to be to play Legolas. He was unknown, had great fan potential, and a good actor despite some set backs. The Movie Legolas was created without the actor, but the actor made it work.

[Fingolfin II]

I apologise in advance for this long post.

It's actually harder than I thought to rate the performance of the cast; I mean after all, they were only doing what the script said. So in that sense, I suppose their acting was superb. But in actually emulating the real characters in LotR and capturing their 'essence' as best they could despite any disparities between book and script is where the real judgement lies. Like Boromir, I'll group my thoughts into the categories of Men, Women, Elves, Hobbits, Dwarves and Wizards.

Men:

Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen): A pretty solid performance by Mortensen here. He didn't really capture Aragorn in those rare 'kingly-mode' moments however, as commented already in this thread, and at some points in the movie some of his lines were soap opera-ish. He did well though- 8/10.

Boromir (Sean Bean): Excellent, excellent, excellent. PJ did extremely well here with both the casting and script for Boromir's character. There have been some grievances about little things like his hair colour etc., but Sean Bean really made the character of Boromir something special. He captured Boromir's pride, his fears, his knowledge (and lack of), his love for battle - his everything - superbly: 10/10.

Theoden (Bernard Hill): Another brilliant performance. The transformation of Hill from a weak, doddering man in his dotage to a strong and glorious king was particularly notable. Hill really seemed to fit the character of Theoden and acted it- well. 9.5/10.

Faramir (David Wenham): He acted well for what it was worth. Though he seemed to have the old 'boy trying to win father's love' feel about his character, he did well and put up a strong performance. However, once again, I feel that PJ and that Wenham didn't really bring out his majesty and humility as well as it could've been and that damaged his character. I much prefer the book version- 7.5/10.

Denethor (John Noble): Noble performed brilliantly, despite the fact that the movie didn't really bring out Denethor's character as I would have liked. His expressions were priceless and he had exactly the right face for the part (weird as it might sound). He played the part of the despairing, yet still cunning, Steward of Gondor impeccably and I really loved the way he said the line in the EE- 'You may triumph for a day....'- 9.5/10.

Eomer (Karl Urban): The character of the Second Marshall of the Mark was really hard done by in the movies, I felt. However, Urban performed well, though he seemed to come across as an overprotective brother and seemed like a common Rohan man, as opposed to a more exceptional one. What really irked me was that Gamling had a greater part in the movies than he did in the book, and that time could have been spent on Eomer, who's sister definitely gets more of the plot. Urban still did well though- 8/10.

Grima (Brad Dourif): Hmm......Dourif played the part of Grima pretty well. It wasn't a stand out performance, but that was probably because his character was overshadowed by the rest of the superb cast in the movies. He suited the character of Grima well though and his acting was a credit to the story; 9/10.

Women (inlcuding female Elves):

Eowyn (Miranda Otto): Otto did very well. I regretted that there weren't more fighting scenes with the character of Eowyn, as did she, but as this is about the perfomance of the actor/actress and not about what the producers did, she had a great outing. She had the 'steelsheen' quality about her and yet showed some of her more gentle sides too. Could have showed Eowyn's unrest a bit better I suppose, but she didn't really have much scope through the script. 9.25/10.

Galadriel (Cate Blanchett): Hard to say really. Blanchett did wonderfully well as PJ's Galadriel, but she didn't quite capture the book version's character. Then again, who can be expected to capture the daughter of Finarfin's character perfectly? . She did well though- her voice especially amazing; 8.5/10.

Arwen (Liv Tyler): Tyler did well. I didn't like the way she said 'You saw there was a child, you saw my son', nor the 'Come and claim him!' lines, but that wasn't her fault. Her beauty, smooth voice, and wonderful acting more than made up for these occasional lapses by the producers: 9/10.

Elves:

Legolas (Orlando Bloom): Legolas is potrayed very badly in the movies. Nonetheless, Bloom does have a rich voice and to his credit he gave Legolas some respectability. Very graceful- 7/10 for what it's worth.

Elrond (Hugo Weaving): Yes. He acted superbly and was brilliantly cast for Elrond. His slurs on Men were the fault of the scriptwriter/s, but he really carried Elrond's character well- 9.2/10.

Celeborn (Martin Czoskas): Negligable. It's not Czoskas' fault- Celeborn just didn't really have much of a say and didn't seem as wise as he was in the book. I won't rate him, as we didn't really get much of a chance to see his character; or rather what we did see of it wasn't much.

Hobbits:

Frodo (Elijah Wood): I would (get it- Wood?....bad joke) have liked to see and older Frodo, though Wood portrayed him admirably. His pain and suffering, his inner strength and his wisdom were all brought out by Elijah Wood in his role as Frodo. Particularly brilliant in the latter parts of The Return of the King. He had some vestiges of the cliched handsome hero and to some audiences, seemed weak, but his performance was anything but- 9.5/10.

Merry/Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd): Both wonderful. Light-hearted, funny, spirited, yet also strong and brave were what these two hobbits were. The increasing maturity of Merry and Pippin was really brought out through Monaghan and Boyd, especially with their growth through both physical and emotional battles. Their parting in Meduseld, Merry pledging his sword and begging to be taken into battle to Theoden and Pippin's song in Gondor were especially good. The song especially was a wonderful addition by PJ. 9.5/10.

Sam (Sean Astin): Astin dropped his 'American-ness' to pull off a stunning rendition of Sam in the movie edition of Lord of the Rings. He really was great and once again, was a good example of the examplary casting by the producers. Another 9.5/10 for this sturdy and loyal hobbit.

Dwarves:

Gimli (John Rhys-Davies): Davies was excellent. The comic relief forced upon Gimli's character aside, he really played the part magnificently. He looked exactly like the sturdy Dwarf he is in the books and his gruff manner was harsh, but oddly pleasing. I especially liked him when the Dark Tower fell- his change from jubilation to grief was particularly notable- 8.75/10.

Wizards:

Gandalf (Sir Ian Mckellan): He deserves the 'Sir' title in his name, let me assure you. Along with Sean Bean as Boromir, they were the most brilliantly played characters in the movies. The scene in TTT in Fangorn is particularly moving and wonderful. I won't say anymore, as it's already been said about him, but has definitely earned his 10/10 for me.

Saruman (Christopher Lee): Wow. His deep voice and sudden change from charming to deadly was brilliant. Especially in The Fellowship. Unlike many people, 'The Voice of Saruman' didn't hit it for me. His attempt to charm Gandalf and Co. with his smooth and subtle talk was nowhere as near as good as it was in the book and was really only one or two lines. This is partly attributed to him standing on the top of a very high building, so the voice wouldn't have as great an effect as it does when we picture it in our minds, but he just didn't nail it as I would have liked him to. Strong perfomance though- 9.75/10.

And there endeth my long and boring brief analysis (I know what you're thinking; is this is brief, then you'd hate to see an in-depth analysis ). The movies were brilliant, and overall they get a 9.9/10 for me- I mean, just compare them to other similar movies. Especially fantasy ones. The casting in Lord of the Rings was wonderful and each character brought something to their role. Some were hard done by, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

EDIT: Oh. Guess the post wasn't as long as I thought it was.

[Lathriel]

One thing that I liked about LOTR was that most of the actors weren't big stars at the time. I don't think some of the more famous actors could have pulled it of because they are too well known and then you might see the actor instead of the character he is trying to portray.

I think you should give Orli a break. I think he did well for the start of his career and I think he will learn a lot. So I give him an 8/10

Of Course I give David Wenham an 10/10. I know it is slightly biased but after seeing the EE... Those scenes in the EE made it for me cause I think that Faramir gets closer to the character he is in the book.

I think that Elijah's acting actually got better throughout the movies. In Fellowship I was like...okay. Then in the Two Towers I thought Hey... And in ROTK I thought he did very well.

I Like all the actors especiall Vigoo, Bernard, Karl and of course the rest of the actors.

The one actor I don't like is Hugo Weaving. As someone said earlier, he seems to grave and grim all the time. Plus he reminds me of the Matrix too much. But I think it shows it is really difficult to get the right actors for elves because they are so different form humans and so perfect.
Which is another reason why the guy who played Celeborn failed. (shudder) He si just not the way I pictured Celeborn at all. To say the least!!!!