Jackson vs. Tolkien 0-2

Rating: 4/10 (18 January 2003)

Peter Jackson has taken one of the greatest stories ever written and turned it into mindless action. First off, the script is horrid. Where did the genius of Tolkien disappear? The dialogue is cut down and resembles one-liners. The directing is unbelievably bad with constant camera movement making character development impossible. Fast cut scenes are at all times jumping at you from the screen so you never get the time to fully absorb the story, forget about the time to think. And you're not supposed to, there are no layers (they are magically gone, thanks to the decisions of Peter Jackson), what you see is what you get. Continuity and development are sacrificed to create a pill more easily swallowed. It's like a restaurant where they feed you, and if they do it fast enough then maybe you won't notice that the food isn't cooked. This might work with traditional action (because let's face it, we like them because they give us a 90 minute vacation from our brain), but in the case of LOTR it only goes to diminish and destroy a work of art. Probably the worst thing about this movie is the music score (still it's much better than FOTR, as it's less titanic). Anyone with any understanding of music will see how shallow the composition is. It reminds me of composed music used in computer games, poorly directed and lacking depth. Also it keeps blowing what little suspense it has by frequently changing to custom fit each and every scene. Really nice touch this considering that the scenes change without logic. From the midst of the battle of Helmsdeep to Merry and Pippin in a quiet forest. Somebody please explain to Peter how suspense is built. Besides this, the music has nothing to do with "the lord of the rings", it doesn't capture the right atmosphere and it keeps repeating itself. It's just there and it's there all the time, every scene (another poor directing decision. It didn't give FOTR an epic feel and it failed again in TT). Wouldn't it have been nice if the music featured in the television trailer was actually in the movie?
In the storyline Jackson has made some unforgivable alterations. Tolkien would weep if he knew. The lord of the rings is mainly about the journey of Frodo, because if he fails then all is lost. This is also the most interesting part of the story because it is symbolic, dark and a psychological struggle. This is why two thirds of the books are about Frodo. In this second movie Jackson has devoted minimum screen time to this most important, atmospheric and perilous journey. In stead he has used countless minutes, not polishing the rest of the actual story (it often feels like it's on fast-forward and in many scenes the emphasis is on all the wrong things), but adding loads of new scenes which have nothing to do with anything. Apart from changing the story he has also changed some of the the characters (why?). Peter Jackson tries so hard to entertain us, deadly afraid that we'll get bored for even a second thus insulting our intelligence. He sets his own trap and blindly walks into it.
**SPOILERS** The book is supposed to be dark, hope is supposed to fade and "the two towers" is supposed to end in the mountains of mordor with Frodo poisoned and taken captive by the orcs and Sam stuck in some dark underground maze with the ring and nowhere to go. Instead the movie ends with Sam giving an inspiring speech about those "favorite stories where all seems lost but where you know that the good guys will win in the end", in some idyllic forest far from mordor with a lot of light and sappy music. This sums up what injustice Jackson has done to the LOTR pretty good. **SPOILERS END**
But why? Because Peter Jackson isn't the greatest director in the world. And because they wanted to make money and "the lord of the rings" as it is today is making buckets of it. They wanted a brainless action adventure that followed mainstream traditions that even children could pay to see. They wanted to sell Aragorn rangers and Arwen barbies. This I can understand, and if it weren't so the movie would never have been made. Work and a lot of money went into creating the visuals. What I can't understand is independent critics praising it, when clearly the movie is lacking. There's more to an epic than visuals. A darker, more true and intelligent tale would make a great movie, but it wouldn't make a sure box office income. In the end, FOTR and TT aren't that bad if you just look at them as action-adventure movies (specially FOTR). And one very good thing is that more people will now read the books. But they're just not Tolkien. And don't tell me that it doesn't matter, because it does. I was disappointed with both The fellowship of the ring and [specially] The two towers, not because they're so bad, but because they could have been so much better.