LOTR review

[ftah3]

I was grumping enormously about this film before X-mas, but I was 
abducted off to the theater last night and saw it anyhow.

Nifty.  Kind of like...Lethal Weapon.  Except with Elves and magic 
and stuff.

;-)

I've never read the books, though I've tried reading both The Hobbit 
and FotR a few times and have been unable to get past the first 
chapter without dozing off.  So this is from the perspective of one 
who was clueless going in.  And regardless of having read Roger 
Ebert's review a couple of weeks ago, I'm notorious about forgetting 
what other people have said about a movie.  (Doh.)

My crack above about Lethal Weapon was only partly tongue-in-cheek.  
Special effects!  Action! Lots of make-up and explosions and things!  
Woo!  But in the end, who really gives a hoot about the characters?  
Other than, Boromir had "kill me after I try to betray the good guys" 
written on his forehead.  LOL.

> The main 
> problem was a severe curtailment of character development.

Egad.  Yes.

> All that 
> time showing us lush scenery and amazing sets, as much as I loved 
> them, could have been spent giving us a lot more of JRRT's 
dialogue.  

Ditto (probably.  I know zip about JRRT's dialogue, really.  But I'm 
all for more character development, less scenery!).

> If I hadn't read the book, I would have left the movie theater 
knowing 
> Gandalf and Boromir and no one else.  

I left the theater knowing:

- Sam is loyal, but somewhat dimwitted.  And does he have an 
attraction for Frodo, or is he just really highstrung? 

- Pippin and Merry are twits.  Really, totally twits.  Gandalf's rant 
at the one (I never figured out which was whom) in the dwarf mountain 
as to how the wee dude should throw himself down the well next time 
was probably the most meaningful and true-sounding statement in the 
whole film.  

- Aragon is also Strider, has had a fling with an elf girl, is afraid 
of being weak-willed like his ancestor, looks mysterious, but is 
basically Very Brave and a Very Good Fighter.

- Boromir is exactly what he seems: macho, susceptible to the lure of 
power, but in the end, the go-to guy.  Who is able to smite many 
large scary beasts while sporting two arrows through his torso, 
somehow.

- Gandalf is mysterious, wise but not perfect, presumably powerful, 
and...er, grey.  

- Legolas is hot.  But more to the point, he has a sort of very 
patient mind that allows him to 'taste the wind,' as well 
as fire off arrows with impecable precision.  I gather he's also 
brave, and I *think* he's saddened by the stereotype put forth by 
Gimli (sp?) at the Rivendell meeting thingy that Elves are snobby and 
untrustworthy.  

- Gimli is brave and fiesty with strong familial emotions.

- Sarumon (sp?) is a wimp and an idiot with delusions of grandeur.

- Arwen is brave, and at least *seems* the right kinda gal for 
mysterious future king Aragon.

- Galadriel is fab.  The only character who seemed not to need 
character explication at all, because the actresses natural charisma 
and the extraordinarily appropriate special effects did all the work.

- And lastly (because I really need to get on with it), Frodo.  
He...is my baby kitten. Or quite possibly Piglet, of Winnie the Pooh 
fame.  If there is nothing more to him than the fact that he is very 
small and very scared but contains the bravery and determination of a 
lion hidden somewhere very deep inside of him, then I get him.  There 
were two scenes which seemed to be to 'be' Frodo: when he says 
(twice, because they don't hear him the first time) that he'll take 
the ring to Mt. Doom...and then follows it with "though I don't know 
the way" in the same small, sure/timid voice; and when he wanders off 
and has to confront Boromir ~ I got the feeling that he was expecting 
the confrontation, and invited it, though again being small and 
afraid yet sure of what he had to do.

And yet I left the theater feeling as though the only individual who 
deserved more characterization was Legolas.  Frodo and Boromir seemed 
to be somewhat developed, but the rest of them really *didn't* need 
more development; they were developed enough to be the stereotypes 
that they were and play the stereotypical roles that they played. On 
the other hand, Legolas was the only character who seemed to have 
more going on in his head than he was letting on, and who hinted at a 
role to play other than what was obvious.  

> also missing is insight into the moral dilemma.  
<snip>
> If the quest is just a matter of 
> courageously taking the Ring to Mt. Doom, then this is just an 
> adventure novel; but it's not.  It's an ongoing moral struggle with 
a 
> very serious question at its heart:  can you use the enemy's weapon 
> against him?  Like JKR, who won't let Harry kill Sirius or allow 
> revenge against Peter, JRRT says no.  The enemy's weapon serves 
only 
> him, no matter how noble the intentions of those who would turn it 
to 
> other purposes.  

I did get this.  Maybe because I expected it.  But (and I forgot to 
note this above) the fact that the Ring was a character unto itself, 
as much as (or even, in some cases, more than) the people, whacked me 
over the head with the above dilemma.  I was fascinated by the fact 
that the Ring was able to actively affect people/events in order to 
get back to it's master.  It didn't seem intelligent, per se, so much 
as...fated.  That aspect of the Ring, as well as the reactions of 
Gandalf, Galadriel, Bilbo, Boromir & the Ringwraiths to the Ring, 
enforced over and over that to use it at all was to serve Sauron, and 
that the only thing left was to destroy it at all costs.

In that way, Frodo embodied morality, while Boromir, Aragon, Gandalf 
& Galadriel et al embodied the struggle, and Sarumon embodied 
amorality.

> Another thing missing from the decision is all the tension about 
> leaving the Shire.  Aside from telling us about Sam, the scene 
where 
> he looks into the Mirror of Galadriel is important because it shows 
> that they might be sacrificing the Shire by going to Mt. Doom.  
What 
> they left in shows what will happen to the Shire if they *don't* 
> complete the quest; that makes Frodo's decision to go on easier.  
But 
> in the book, Sam's choice to go on is made *harder* by what he sees 
> there, and the moral question is compounded--should he be staying 
home 
> to take care of things there, or should he gamble everything he 
loves, 
> everything they're trying to save, on this crazy long shot to 
destroy 
> the Ring?  We know the right answer, but in the book Sam doesn't; 
he's 
> tormented.

Oh, now, yes, that would have been excellent!  Even if it was shown 
that way to Frodo, rather than Sam, it would have raised the stakes 
nicely.
 
> Something that could have been drastically cut to provide time for 
> all this stuff was the fight with the cave troll in Moria.  

A *lot* of the kicky-fighty stuff could have been canned.  Actually, 
if I'd been at home with my remote, I would have fast-forwarded 
through much of the fighting, the walking about, and the panoramic 
scenes.  Probably would've cut the film time in half, but....

> let us see Frodo get stabbed so everyone learns about the mithril 
> mail, and get to the main action with the Balrog.  

Actually, I could have done without the ooh-ing over the mail 
completely ('mithril'? ...oh, right, er, that must 
be...significant?).  I have no clue what the big deal was about that 
stuff.  It's very, very strong.  ...so?  

> I loved the 
> way things look when Frodo's invisible:  it really captures the 
sense 
> that the Ring doesn't just make him invisible, but makes him more 
> visible to evil (and evil more visible to him).  

That *was* very neat.  Those scenes, and the one in which Galadriel 
was tempted by the ring, were the most atmospheric of them all.

>All the acting was 
> fine--well, I'd be happier if Liv Tyler would just face facts and 
stop 
> calling herself an actress, but she didn't have much to do. 

I thought she did fine.  Better than the main twit Hobbit guy, 
actually (the one that should've tossed himself down the well).

>I love the way they intercut between what 
> is happening to Gandalf and what's happening to the hobbits (though 
> they cut the travel time between Hobbiton and Rivendell so 
drastically 
> that Gandalf appears to have been imprisoned at Isengard for only a 
> week or two--and the orcs deforested Isengard and did all that 
forging 
> in that brief span of time as well).  

This got boring to me.  Especially when he was imprisioned.  Yes, 
he's imprisoned, I figured that out the first time.  By the way, what 
was with the moth?  And the bird ~ was the bird reallyreally big or 
did Gandalf make himself very small to ride on it?  And who sent the 
moth?  Because no self-respecting non-sapient moth would choose to 
brave the mess around the tower to have a chat with a wizard stuck 
much much higher than moths generally fly...would it?

>I was even okay with the fact that Elijah Wood looks 17 
> instead of Frodo's 51 (or, since he's had the Ring since age 33, 
33), 
> though I still find it bizarre that they made this choice.  I 
suspect 
> they were going for teen girl appeal.  

Hmm, the fact that the whole age:appearance convention was tossed out 
the window overall got me to the point where I didn't wonder how old 
*any* of them were or were supposed to be.  I just decided they were 
probably all a lot older than they looked, with the exception of the 
humans.

Things that bugged me:

- When we weren't being bombarded with action sequences, we were 
sitting through Walking All Over The Place sequences.  Very few 
scenes *meant* something.  Which is to say, the story went nowhere 
fast.

- Balrog ~ whoever designed that creature has no imagination.  That 
was supposed to be Gandalf's worst nightmare?  And, it took less time 
and 
effort to defeat than the troll or the armies of Orcs, or even 
Sarumon (who Gandalf couldn't defeat), and the Balrog only took 
Gandalf with it due to a fluke.  So maybe it wasn't the Balrog he was 
scared of, but of ending up in the big fiery pit (er, "shadow" or 
something like that I think) ~ in which case, why the HECK did he 
stand on a narrow bridge *right over the pit* to fight it??  And why 
didn't anyone try to save him?  And by the way, what *was* Gandalf so 
afraid of, that Sarumon knew, and that Gandalf apparently had to face 
when he faced the Balrog?  The 'great evil' or 'shadow' or 
something?  I completely did not get that.

- How did Gandalf get his staff back from Sarumon after escaping from 
the tower?

- How could a giant squid live in that stream outside the mine?

- If Sarumon was the head of Gandalf's 'Order,' where is the rest of 
their Order?  Or is it an Order of two?  And by the way, are wizards 
a 'race,' like Elves and humans?  Or are wizards Elves or humans or 
whatever who become wizards?  I kept waiting for someone to refer to 
Gandalf's alliegance, seeing as the weaknesses/strengths of the 
different races were constantly bandied about.

- The story was ramshackle.  It was about Frodo...or maybe it was 
about Aragon?  Or maybe the story is about Gandalf?  I guess it 
seemed that the story kept trying to make Aragon or Gandalf the 
center/hero, and 
was only dragged back to Frodo's central role grudgingly.  Which is 
too bad, as I rather enjoyed the small fragile fellow being the hero, 
instead of the tall dark and...er, fighty guy, or the tall brave 
wizard guy.  

- And we were given at least a smidgeon of a hint as to the future 
implications of most of the characters...except for Legolas.  Hints 
on his behalf indicated some role, but faded away just short of 
*what* role.

At any rate, I left the movie thinking, that was fun!  I'd watch a 
few bits over again, but mainly I think it will be fun (and no doubt 
action-packed to the full Hollywood extent) to see what happens 
next.  It doesn't really make me want to read the book, though.  What 
was enjoyable about the movie was the action.  What I got of the 
story itself was pedantic, and I'm thinking that to read the book, 
and get more text-talk and less action, would be to delve into even 
more pedantery.  But I could be wrong.

Still, fun movie.

Mahoney