Which Movie was best overall? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

CSteefel · 10-19-2006, 08:24 PM

Yes, apples and oranges to some extent, but to me, The Fellowship of the Ring mostly did a brilliant job of capturing the spirit and excitement and the historical setting of the book. As a book, even, I prefer this one, but the contrast was even clearer in the case of the movies. The flight from the Shire might have been handled a bit better (it was flat out brilliant in the book), but the flight from Bree with Aragorn was quite good. And the scenes in Moria were great...

I thought that The Two Towers spent too long getting to Helm's Deep and then in the battle, especially with those frequent cuts to the women and children huddling in the caves. And the gratuitous fall of Aragorn over the cliff (although I did like the battle scene with the Wargs).

Return of the King did have some great scenes as well, but also way too many ridiculous ones, as pointed out above (the cascading skulls, the complete failure to capture Faramir as a character, the descent of Frodo into a Gollum like creature too early in the book, essentially robbing him of most of his nobility, and the garbled treatment of Gandalf, who is the all-powerful White Wizard in one scene, a de-staffed has been in the next).

10-19-2006, 08:24 PM	#8
CSteefel Wight Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 204	Yes, apples and oranges to some extent, but to me, The Fellowship of the Ring mostly did a brilliant job of capturing the spirit and excitement and the historical setting of the book. As a book, even, I prefer this one, but the contrast was even clearer in the case of the movies. The flight from the Shire might have been handled a bit better (it was flat out brilliant in the book), but the flight from Bree with Aragorn was quite good. And the scenes in Moria were great... I thought that The Two Towers spent too long getting to Helm's Deep and then in the battle, especially with those frequent cuts to the women and children huddling in the caves. And the gratuitous fall of Aragorn over the cliff (although I did like the battle scene with the Wargs). Return of the King did have some great scenes as well, but also way too many ridiculous ones, as pointed out above (the cascading skulls, the complete failure to capture Faramir as a character, the descent of Frodo into a Gollum like creature too early in the book, essentially robbing him of most of his nobility, and the garbled treatment of Gandalf, who is the all-powerful White Wizard in one scene, a de-staffed has been in the next).