Peter Jackson succumbs to the lure of the Ring

Rating: Null/10 (27 November 2004)

There are great films,...Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Godfather, American Graffiti, Forrest Gump, One flew over the Cuckoo's nest
and then there are good movies, we like to watch them, but they probably don't deserve "awards",...Repo Man, Star Wars, Rivers Edge, Heat, Pulp Fiction, Fellowship of the Rings etc etc
Thats just to let you know where I'm coming from when I move on to my central point, which is this,...
I am a huge fan of Tolkien, and great books in general. You can't make a movie out of War and Peace, David Copperfield, The Brothers Karamazov, or even Crime and Punishment, or Of Human Bondage, and then look at yourself in the mirror next day and say,..."I did a good thing".
Jackson, as a Tolkien fan, knew exactly what he was doing, and knew exactly who he was going to tick off. I saw Fellowship on opening night, and went away, relatively satisfied, that it was handled with the care and delicacy the book deserved, but with a serious doubt in the back of my mind as to whether or not the film should have ever been made. After seeing the second installment, I knew it was a terrible mistake, and I hope this trilogy will fade away like other movies based on classic books from the past.
Not that Jackson needs my approval or anyone elses. Its ironic really, the true lure of LOTR is the fame, money, and power it would give to WHOEVER produced it. Just like the ruling ring. Jackson was a Tolkien lover and knew better than to tackle this, but he did it anyway. He was a second rate, washed up, horror movie bum, and didn't deserve it. A megalomaniac who had the audacity to put his own sophomoric visions into the plot line in an attempt to write himself into Tolkien lore. Just directing wasn't enough, he even put himself in the movie!
Jackson should be ashamed, and the academy should be ashamed.
And anyone that loved the books, and supported these movies, including myself, should be ashamed.
As one fan noted, who wrote to Tolkien when he was alive, begging him not to let someone make a motion picture of his works,...
"It would be like putting disneyland in the Grand Canyon"
Was it ever. What a shame.