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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 577571" data-attributes="member: 177">Better?  Better at what?  The movie is perhaps somewhat better at getting the audience viscerally involved in the story - it has the advantage of fast pace, the ability to surprise, use background music.  In a movie one can get away with having an action sequence every 15 minutes or so, keeping the audience alert and closer to the edge of their seats.The book is far, far better at communicating the size and history of the world.  Tolkien has the liberty to insert a great deal of background information, so that we understand better the context of events.As a good example, let's think of Moria - riveting sequence in the movie - characters wandering around in the dark (visual darkness and tense background music always keeps an audience interested, a great fight scene, and a dramatic confrontation with a great piece of CGI...But it has little context.  The majority of the history of Moria doesn't make it into the movie.  Who the heck was Balin, and how is it that nobody knew that the dwarves in Moria were dead?  Even the death of Gandalf loses punch in the movie - we see hobbits collapsing in tears, but honestly, have we seen Gandalf have enough meaningful interaction with Merry and Pippin that they should be incapacitated with grief?  Another good examle is Gimli.  Even in the books, he's not the best developed character by a long shot.  But, due to time limitations, PJ is reduced to making Gimli into comic relief.  An entire proud race of Middle Earth reduced to a few paltry short jokes...Yes, Tolkien's prose and plot development seem slow to us.  Tolkien had more patience than most of his Hollywood-conditioned modern readers.  So, the movie is better at grabbing the audience, no doubt there.  However, the movie is incomplete.  It lacks context and content.  It skims the surface of Middle Earth - bouncing along on the skipping rock is fun and exciting, but it doesn't give you the full experience and perspective of the full ocean.</blockquote>

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