Who here enjoyed the movie?

[Mithalwen]

I suspect I don't respond particularly well to visual stimuli. I do tend to find most film adaptations dissapointing. Noteable exceptions being things like Picnic at Hanging Rock and the age of Innocence. That said most of the things I liked about the LOTR films were costumes and props. And I get the impression there isn't much new on that front but a lot of the things I found annoying. And I am not sure I want my mental Images tainted. But it is very hard to get people to understand why I don't want to see them.

[Guinevere]

Last week I went to see "An Unexpected Journey" for the second time, and to my own surprise, I quite enjoyed it - but only up to the break! In the second half of the movie after the break, it got worse and worse, so that unfortunately the unfavourable impression had stayed with me afterwards. I had quite forgotten the things I had enjoyed, especially after reading, and mostly agreeing with, all the negative reviews here on the Downs.
Both my sons, and the young friend in whose company I watched the movie the second time, have read the book, but about 10 years ago, so that they remembered the contents only vaguely. They all enjoyed the movie without reservations!

All in all, it was worth watching, but I won't see it a third time. (I went to see FotR 5 times in the cinema!!)

[alatar]

It was just too long for me. And, regardless of how I feel about it being 'true to its source' or not (Not! ), the film was too internally inconsistent to be great. Good maybe, but so are a lot of things.

I never got the feeling that Bilbo or the Dwarves changed, or grew, or that I cared about any of them.

In the extended edition of Peter Jackson's FotR, you get a liking for Boromir, a character I never much cared for in the Books. PJ humanized him and showed his struggle with the Ring's call. So, at the end of that movie (different from the book), I felt bad when (spoiler alert!) Boromir dies.

Had Thorin or Bilbo died (or had fallen off a cliff to show up later), I wouldn't have cared one wit.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by alatar

So, at the end of that movie (different from the book), I felt bad when (spoiler alert!) Boromir dies.

How dare you post a spoiler! You have totally ruined the book and film for me now and also for the hundreds of users of this website!

[Alcidas]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

How dare you post a spoiler! You have totally ruined the book and film for me now and also for the hundreds of users of this website!

Damn!! You mean he kills off Boromir? Much better if he got rid of that bum Aragorn instead...

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

All in all, it was worth watching, but I won't see it a third time. (I went to see FotR 5 times in the cinema!!)

Ha, I saw FOTR a staggering 7 times in the theater I loved it so much.

I really wanted to like The Hobbit as much (not 7 times in the theater as much...), but I couldn't stand it. I enjoyed the opening. The chase scene with Radagast, the Goblin King, the Defiler with his gimp arm. They turned me off to the whole experience.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I'm just rereading Fellowship now, and it's striking to what extent Boromir as Tolkien wrote him really is rather a pompous ***.

[Michael Murry]

I enjoyed the movie when it ended. Not so much before that.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I'm just rereading Fellowship now, and it's striking to what extent Boromir as Tolkien wrote him really is rather a pompous ***.

Bit off topic but that is something that comes across in the radio version ..I nearly got lynched by a diehard Boromir fan for this post in Microphones in Middle earth

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...&postcount=155

my follow up comment was : "It just struck me on listening to the tapes, which is what we are talking about that everything Boromir says is either pompous or negative, just what you want in a travelling companion."

[Rhod the Red]

I did. Even the parts inserted by PJ, like the White Council meeting, were joy to my eyes and ears.

[Tidesson]

I very much enjoyed "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Like "The Lord of the Rings," it is one of the few films which contain scenes that make me tear up.

I wouldn't agree with many die-hard book fans about the so-called liberties Peter Jackson took for the film version. I am well-versed in esoteric/occult themes in real life, and Jackson nails them in this film as well. That is to say, Tolkien employed many symbolic elements in the narrative and Jackson enlivens and expands them to a postmodern audience; themes which are timeless. The wisdom of the sages throughout antiquity. Gandalf, for myself, captures everything the sages exemplified in the film.

One of the great sayings of Gandalf in the film which epitomizes everything he is about is when he is speaking to Galadriel in Imladris: “Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. That is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small things, every day deeds from ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love."

Gandalf is the great sage who lets everyone be who they are and steps in to show his power when it gets really serious. From Lao Tzu to the Buddha to Mithrandir. What really matters is compassion, and what stimulates a still mind is living with Nature, the simple life.

Anyway, there's more I could say, but, hello! interesting forum group here.