Well it’s not just LOTR, but LOTR is what got me thinking. Since everyone’s interpretation of a book (like LOTR) is a little different, the movie version can’t possibly as good as the pictures in a reader’s head. For example, from what I read in the 2 Towers, I imagined Shadowfax was 8ft tall, looked like he was made out of polished chrome, could run 150mph & could solve a New York Times crossword puzzle. In the movie though he was just a normal white horse. Gandalf also seemed 100 times more powerful in the book (because JRR never even hints at what his limits are), Sauron 100 times more mysterious & evil, the Ents 100 times cooler (I imagined Treebeard having a voice like James Earl Jones) & it was 100 times more exciting when Gandalf showed up with the cavalry in the nick of time & so on. An english prof I had in the summer said that JRR definitely didn’t want anyone to make a movie of the books because that sort of thing would be lost. The viewer has to see things the way the director saw them & it definitely isn’t exactly the same for everybody. I wans’t disappointed with TTT, but I would have done a lots of things differently (more action w/the Ents). Still a cool show though, I’d see it again.
Good call! Overall, I loved the movie, but a movie, especially a fantasy movie, just cannot live up to the pictures in your imagination.
For me, I expected the Ents to be about 3 times taller than they truly were for example.
The biggest difference for me was Gollum. Although I liked what it saw with TTT, Gollum was very different than what I had imagined. Blame it on the cartoon version of The Hobbit, the dramatic readings of the Lord of Rings on Cd and a mix of what I've imagined on my own, but the movie version of Gollum was by far the most different of them all. Was this ok? Yes! But it did alter my perception of the movie.
Movies have come a long way and while they can bend reality, nothing can bend reality as much as our own minds.
I haven’t seen The Two Towers yet, but when I saw The Fellowship, it was actually almost exactly how I imagined it, even the scenery, and even Gollum (what little was seen on the Two Towers preveiw). But from what I have seen of TTT, I know Treebeard will be much different from what I imagined. And I have to echo you on the mysteriousness of Sauron. But good observation. The book is always better (although in my opinion this one came close). At least they didn’t change the plot, like they do most of the time!
I thought the imagery was remarkable particularly treebeard. But I did really want alot more action from the ents, especially at Isengard. I wanted to see Sauraman go down. I did not like what they did with Faramir either, he was a wise and under appreciated soldier in the book, not a dick. I also did not like what they did with Frodo freaking out over the ring. If anything he bacame more resistant to it’s power. Those are my complaints. As just being a movie, it was excellent, I thought the first one was more true to the book than TT. I think they took to many liberties with the story in TT.