"Do not speak to me of dragon fire" - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

The Sixth Wizard · 05-30-2018, 01:17 AM

I actually thought that was a fairly good addition. Tolkien's characterisation of Thranduil in The Hobbit was a bit light (although it didn't matter, as he was a bit part character in a light children's story). The reveal visually emphasised Thranduil's magical nature and his ancient age, and gave him a more compelling reason for being recalcitrant than just being a suspicious old elf (which works in the books but not really in a film context where we are used to the Elves being paragons of virtue).

It's one example of these movies' central problem. They had a few good story ideas peppered throughout a rushed, trashy mess. They should have been given twice the time to make two quality movies with a clear directorial vision. We got to see glimpses of the movies they could have been i.e. slightly more fantastical and lighter in tone than LOTR, closer to Tolkien's vision, with more exploration of the races of Middle Earth, instead of LOTR's huge set piece good-vs-evil battles. It's a shame they had so little of Gollum riddling and dwarves singing, and so much Legolas CGI acrobatics.

05-30-2018, 01:17 AM	#18
The Sixth Wizard Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Stuck under a rock in Valinor with Ar-Pharazon. Posts: 480	I actually thought that was a fairly good addition. Tolkien's characterisation of Thranduil in The Hobbit was a bit light (although it didn't matter, as he was a bit part character in a light children's story). The reveal visually emphasised Thranduil's magical nature and his ancient age, and gave him a more compelling reason for being recalcitrant than just being a suspicious old elf (which works in the books but not really in a film context where we are used to the Elves being paragons of virtue). It's one example of these movies' central problem. They had a few good story ideas peppered throughout a rushed, trashy mess. They should have been given twice the time to make two quality movies with a clear directorial vision. We got to see glimpses of the movies they could have been i.e. slightly more fantastical and lighter in tone than LOTR, closer to Tolkien's vision, with more exploration of the races of Middle Earth, instead of LOTR's huge set piece good-vs-evil battles. It's a shame they had so little of Gollum riddling and dwarves singing, and so much Legolas CGI acrobatics.