Dreadful movie

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2003)

SPOILERS ALL OVER IT
Seriously, how can anyone with at least one brain cell can say that this is a masterpiece? And how can anyone call Peter Jackson a genius? You want masterpieces, there are plenty of them out there... Vertigo, Barton Fink, from more recent years Gosford Park, almost all of Kubrick's filmography, Chinatown, Rosemary's baby, Otto e mezzo...
First of all I didn't walk in the cinema expecting a masterpiece like the ones mentioned above. I like a lot the Tolkien novels and I wanted to see a good adaptation. Having not liked the first one I thought I could spend an entertaining time watching excelent special effects. The film was so bad I couldn't even do that.
First of all, does any of the five (five!) screenwriters know what the word "adaptation" means? It's imposible to be faithful to such a long and detailed novel. You have to remember you're making cinema for people who didn't read the book and write a screenplay of your own and direct a movie of your own. That's the whole point, not just taking scenes from a book and shoot them as they are.
Second, the jokes. Gimli's one of my favorite characters. Why turn him into an idiotic buffon? Maybe because Jackson and his crew don't have a sense of humor? Gimli's jokes are pathetic and you want to strangle the guy sometimes. What a way of spoiling a good character.
Third, the direction style sucks. It has no epic notions, no drama... A lot of the scenes are completely spoiled because of Jackson's idiotic focus on the special effects, completely forgetting the means he has at his hands to make as scene exciting. This p***es me off- a guy is given such a high budget and completely spoils it. The reason? Lack of talent.
Finally the dream sequence with Arwen. Jackson is such a lousy filmmaker that he doesn't realize that he's shooting the dream in the same style as the rest of the scenes. This is a movie wich must be filled with an wonderful, magic atmosphere. Something that is from the beginning out of reality. How to make a dream in this context? It's an interesting question. But Jackson's answer is plain pathetic.
SAY NO MORE