Things you did NOT like about Fellowship of the Ring.

[Fenros]

I really enjoyed this movie a lot. I mean, before this movie the choices we had to select from as far as full on quality fantasy cinema went were plenty slim.

I too thought Arwen's summoning of the flood at the ford was a bit much too. I really didn't mind that she replaced Glorfindel at all. I had zero attachment to the character to begin with. But as I listen to different friends tell me their opinions of the movie (friends that haven't read the books) I changed my mind. To them, they didn't percieve that Arwen was as powerful as Elrond or Gandalf. From their point of view she just invoked the power of her people's lands to protect her. It was the collected power of nature (that the elves have a close relationship with) that came to life as the flood, not her specifically. I asked them why they thought this was so. They said it was because she told Aragorn that the power of her people's land will protect her once she reaches it.

I thought about it and decided that made sense. Its not the book, but that's okay. I realize that translating book to film is a tremendous task of economizing as much as you can, so I agree with the decision.

Things that I didn't like personally -


Biggest gripes:

--Except for Lurtz, none of the other Uruk-Hai seem to be anymore dangerous than regular Orcs.

--The sweeping sky camera over the traveling scenes was pretty cool the first dozen times I saw it. But when it got to be too much was when the fellowship were in their canoes heading down river. It was sweeping shot on river, orcs running, sweeping shot on river, orcs running, sweeping shot on river, orcs running, ANOTHER sweeping shot on river. Ugh! C'mon, mix it up boys.

--Speaking of Orcs. It seemed like Lurtz and his group were using NATO Satellite data to go directly from Orthanc to the fellowship's camp area by the river. In the book, they ran into the Orcs because several groups of orcs were already patrolling that area not because one particular group zeroed in on them.

--The chaotic camera moves in the battle at Balin's Tomb.

I actually think the shakey camera thing can work. But you gotta be real careful. Really really careful. There's this line that separates this technique from being cool and from being plain confusing. Here, Jackson and the cinematographer walked right on the line. And that's too close to the realm of having it being too confusing. I was able to follow the action, but barely. I had to really give it 110%. Watching a movie shouldn't be THAT much work should it? I can follow the intricate moves of Jackie's end fight in 'Drunken Master II' easier than that battle.

--The music.

Thankgoodness that most of the time it was right on perfect. But when it wasn't......boy was it way off. I read a post where someone else mentioned this too and I have to agree. The music really fails in two scenes. When Elrond announces the fellowship at the end of the council meeting and when the fellowship does that walk over the mountain (the one we saw in the teaser trailer). Man was that ultra-cheesy. It was just misplaced. That fellowship rift that was used as they come over that mountain is used in several other places obviously. It worked great as Gandalf leads everyone running from Balin's Tomb. But again was lame as they did that 'walking over the mountian' shot.


Really Small Gripes:


--The creation of the Uruk-Hai.

As someone who has read the books, I know how they were created. Although barely. But as my friends pointed out the view of 'Joe Average' the way their creation was done in the movie it just looked like the regular orcs found them in the dirt while they were digging around. I reminded them of what Gandalf told Elrond in Rivendell of how he reported Saruman breeding them. Not finding them. They thought I was being apologetic for Jackson's shortcomings. Still not sure if they're right or not.

--Aragorn's fight against the Ringwraiths on Weathertop.

The way he made them temporarily flee from the halflings made the Ringwraiths seem not as deadly as we thought they were.

--The 'Lord of the Rings' logo at the beginning of the movie.

That underlit bronze like metal. I've seen it so many times already. In other fantasy films, in fantasy video games, etc, etc. I really wish they could've done something cooler with it. Considering the awesome art design apparent in the rest of the movie, I found this lack of creativity in the title logo to be odd.

--I did not find any of the elves to be more beautiful than humans. Except for Legolas, I admit he was a handsome fellow and fit perfectly as an elf. But look at elves like Haldir, man that nose was so not elf-like. To me at least. Don't even get me started with the unremarkable Celeborn.






With all that is said and done, this movie is still friggin awesome.

 

[Tratyn Runewind]

Hello!

Loved the movie. And while in principle any deviation from the books disturbs me a bit, most of them were understandable and didn't detract from the experience at all. The only things that kind of got under my skin were:

• Galadriel's test. She's a favorite character of mine, and to me, it should have been much more awe-inspiring, and much less "Beetlejuice".
• Boromir's horn. It should have been a mighty ringing in the hills, instead of the pathetic tooting it was.

Beyond that, the other changes seemed pretty harmless, and everything was wonderfully executed, especially Hobbiton (and the Party fireworks), Rivendell, Isengard, Moria, and the Argonath. As far as the Arwen thing goes, just figure that Elrond set the river up to flood when she asked it to, instead of when Nazgûl set foot in it. No need to assume huge power on her part.

That's my take on it, anyway...

 

[Igneous]

I'd heard so many fantastic reports about this movie before I went to see it that I couldn't help but feel disappointed at its shortcomings. Everything said so far concerning Arwen, the cuts and the Blair Witch style camerawork I'd agree with. The soundtrack didn't do much for me and I was really irritated by the way it frequently drowned out the characters voices with blasts of sheer volume.

The fight scenes themselves reminded me strongly of the choreography in Xena - Warrior Princess. Having Lurtz cast his shield and harmlessly pin Aragorn to the tree had me wondering when somebody was going to leap out of the trees shouting I-YI-YI! and throwing a discus.

What reads well in a heroically styled novel does NOT translate well to the big screen - after seeing Aragorn scatter five Ringwraiths with ease, then charge a tight formation of fifty to sixty Orcs without a care in the world - why would he ever need help?! The classic swords and sorcery fighting style of having the baddies stand around waving their swords without attacking (so the hero can artistically slay them one at a time) was so blatant in this movie it was impossible to pretend otherwise. I was amazed to see the monster in the lake and the Cave Troll both 'play' harmlessly with their opponents rather than simply killing them, particularly since said opponents were carving pieces off them at the time. Let's not forget Gandalf hanging on to that ledge for an insanely long time while a Balrog that must have weighed several tons was hanging off his other wrist.

The thing that ticked me off above everything else was the way they crucified poor Boromir. Right from the start, they used his every appearance to hammer the point that this was the bad guy who would betray Frodo - no subtlety whatsoever! As for his repeated act of falling down when shot only to rise and fight good as new... Ugh.

The directors decision to introduce ten times the original amount of comedy also backfired badly. One of the books most dramatic moments was Frodo's decision to take the Ring in Rivendell. To quote:-

No one answered. The noon-bell rang. Still no one spoke. Frodo glanced at all the faces, but they were not turned to him. All the Council sat with downcast eyes, as if in deep thought. A great dread fell on him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice.

`I will take the Ring,' he said, `though I do not know the way.'

The directors decision to recast this whole encounter had the whole cinema laughing at what they thought to be a gag line from a stupid hobbit who had no sense of direction. Virtually every mention of Merry and Pippin was the same, making them out as Grade A buffoons. I wonder just how the director expects the audience to take them seriously for the next two movies, where those hobbits are dead serious and suffering for almost all of them...

I'm not normally this harsh on a film (I can even see the funny side of 'Air Force One'...) but after going in with such high expectations I got a nasty surprise. For the moment I'm just hoping that a DVD with the extra hour or so of cut footage will drastically improve things.

Compared to other sword and sorcery movies it I imagine it wouldn't fare so badly, especially given some of the shockers we've seen in that area lately.

 

[hong]

Did anybody actually like Arwen? Liv Tyler can't act IMHO.

I thought she was fantastic. Shimmeringly ethereal, even more so than Legolas (who just looked like a GURL, but apparently this makes him even cuter to gurls, or so I am told).

Lastly, the length of the scene when Sam "drowns". It was way too long. Even someone who's never read the books would know that the director's not going to kill off a character at that point, so building suspense just ain't going to happen.

Um, they just had.

 

[Noldor Elf]

Either Jackson is not accurate with details, but hilt of Aragorn's sword (at least shown in the battle of Amon Hen) is not Narsil, so very likely they change the order of receiving items (If I remember right rangers bring Elessar to Aragorn in the books, he doesn't have it untill at Isengard)(They are probably not going to show Elrond's sons, much likely Arwen instead of them too.)

Other little details:
- Glamdring, sword of Gandalf should have shine also in the Moria, according to the Hobbit.

- Did Aragorn took Boromir's gauntlet's in the book? At least in the movie he did.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I enjoyed the movie but I did not like how they made Frodo less manly. He came across as a wimp but in the books he was aways at the front of combat.

Also they did not show Grimli well. I wished they had put in the lock of hair bit, it was a defining moment for Grimli.

 

[Ashtal]

Oooh! Ooh! I did!

Did anybody actually like Arwen? Liv Tyler can't act IMHO.

I thought she did a great job, IMO. Removed yet earthy, thanks to her connection with Aragorn. She seemed to me the most human of the elves and given her circumstance, that seemed both plausible and likely.

 

[Gez]

The film is excellent, and very well done. However, I have a lots of minor quibbles.

• Taking out the conspiracy of the hobbits.
• Having orcs been created from stone
• Making the uruk-hai orc/goblin crossbreeds, whereas orc is synonym of goblin and uruk-hai were human-orc hybrids.
• Having Saruman telling Gandalf he has a palantir, and claiming he wants to join Sauron (rather than saying it would be better to use the ring against its creator).
• Having Gimli as a comic relief.
• Making Gimli, rather than Boromir, warn the fellowship against the Witch of the Lorien.
• Over-emphasizing Gimli's defiance of Elves.
• Removing Bilbo from the Council of Elrond.
• Having everyone know that Frodo left the fellowship alone. In the book, only Samwise guessed what Frodo was doing.
• Too much copper instrument in the music. Sometimes, it was also very uninspired. Like when facing the Balrog, or also in the Lorien. I dislike harps, it's too easy.
• Some inconsistencies. For example, in the moria, you have a window that brings a ray of light on Balin's tomb. Well, that's poetic and beautiful, but when you've got a troll-fight scene, you don't put sunlight unless you want the troll to be petrified.

Also, main critic:

• It's going to be three 3-hour films. I would have preferred 6 5-hour films.

 

[Tsyr]

My "biggest gripes" are all pretty minor.

Biggest one: Arwen. Dangit, Arwen did not cast some uberspell... why did they have to change that? Why? Really Arwen didn't do much of anything, but as long as they were going to use her, fine I guess, but WHY have her cast that spell?

Cutting the scene where the cloaks and soforth were given... They _have_them in the movie, so their decision to not explain them is... stupid, IMO. It couldn't have taken more than another 2-3 minutes, I wouldn't think.

Using Merry and Pippen as basicly nothing but some pathetic comic relief tagging along for no real reason.

 

[pontus]

The original Sauron - or should I call him Spike-or
The Ringwraiths - weren't they supposed to be frightening?