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Dec. 22nd, 2003 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiThis is my obligatory Lord of the Rings review post. I wasn't sure that I really needed to make one, since I agree with pretty much all the reviews I've read. All in all, I loved it. I agree with all those people who say that the trilogy as a whole is a monumental achievement, one of the all-time great bodies of work. I laughed, I cried, I cheered.
What follows, though, are my criticisms. One was something entirely out Peter Jackson's control; the other was a directorial decision.
The first problem I had was something which has bothered me since the first film, and that's the casting of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. There was no way of knowing that she was going to be quite so unconvincing, I think, but from my point of view, she was an utter failure. Blanchett's a wonderful actress, but she lacked the weight required for the role. I never felt the character's power. I was never afraid of her: even her "all shall love me and despair" scene was all done with smoke and mirrors, not with acting. Blanchett just wasn't old enough to play this role. She was appropriately odd-looking, but far too insubstantial. Given that today's 50 year old Hollywood actresses look about 30 anyway, they could have cast an older woman in the part.
The extended version of the Fellowship may help this issue; I still haven't seen it. But I think this was just a bad piece of casting. As I say, there was no way to know in advance that Blanchett was wrong for the role, although I wish they'd taken a chance on an older actress.
The second problem is, of course, the decision to cut the scouring of the Shire. I can see why Jackson did this, but I really wish he had filmed it, if only to use as an alternate ending on the extended DVD. It would solve the problem of giving closure to Merry and Pippin--Faramir and Eowyn at least can be explained in the extended version, and Legolas and Gimli are never given all that much closure by Tolkien anyway, but without the Scouring, there's no sense of quite how much Merry and Pippin have changed and grown. Especially grown! It's their opportunity to take everything they've done and learned and make it useful at home. And I just don't see how Jackson is going to get that point across without this material.
I expect that there's been quite a lot of discussion on this point, which I haven't read, so I'll bring this to a close. All in all, though, the movie blew me away. As a longtime Tolkien fan I was highly satisfied.
And as a final point. I'm not a very visual reader: I don't get pictures in my head when I read. And I'm glad, because visually, that film was stunning. I loved the creation of Minas Tirith, in particular. The Byzantine-Italianate touches, and the way the mountain formed the prow of a ship in the courtyard with the white tree. Spectacular.
What follows, though, are my criticisms. One was something entirely out Peter Jackson's control; the other was a directorial decision.
The first problem I had was something which has bothered me since the first film, and that's the casting of Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. There was no way of knowing that she was going to be quite so unconvincing, I think, but from my point of view, she was an utter failure. Blanchett's a wonderful actress, but she lacked the weight required for the role. I never felt the character's power. I was never afraid of her: even her "all shall love me and despair" scene was all done with smoke and mirrors, not with acting. Blanchett just wasn't old enough to play this role. She was appropriately odd-looking, but far too insubstantial. Given that today's 50 year old Hollywood actresses look about 30 anyway, they could have cast an older woman in the part.
The extended version of the Fellowship may help this issue; I still haven't seen it. But I think this was just a bad piece of casting. As I say, there was no way to know in advance that Blanchett was wrong for the role, although I wish they'd taken a chance on an older actress.
The second problem is, of course, the decision to cut the scouring of the Shire. I can see why Jackson did this, but I really wish he had filmed it, if only to use as an alternate ending on the extended DVD. It would solve the problem of giving closure to Merry and Pippin--Faramir and Eowyn at least can be explained in the extended version, and Legolas and Gimli are never given all that much closure by Tolkien anyway, but without the Scouring, there's no sense of quite how much Merry and Pippin have changed and grown. Especially grown! It's their opportunity to take everything they've done and learned and make it useful at home. And I just don't see how Jackson is going to get that point across without this material.
I expect that there's been quite a lot of discussion on this point, which I haven't read, so I'll bring this to a close. All in all, though, the movie blew me away. As a longtime Tolkien fan I was highly satisfied.
And as a final point. I'm not a very visual reader: I don't get pictures in my head when I read. And I'm glad, because visually, that film was stunning. I loved the creation of Minas Tirith, in particular. The Byzantine-Italianate touches, and the way the mountain formed the prow of a ship in the courtyard with the white tree. Spectacular.
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Date: 2003-12-22 08:48 pm (UTC)I agree with the Shire/ Merry and Pippin issue. It seemes like the biggest storyline fully excised in this telling of the epic. Well, and Tom Bombadil.