Christopher Tolkien is not a fan of Peter Jackson
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To be fair, The Hobbit is a stain on him.
Christopher wasn't a fan of the LoTR movies either. He said they were too focused on action and missed elements of the story that were very important to JRR. I don't remember f he specifically mentioned the exclusion of Tom Bombadil, but I always got the impression that that was a big bone of contention for him.
I can't remember much about Tom Bombadil from when I read the books, but the gist of all discussions surrounding his exclusion came down to "he did nothing to progress the story, and the movie was full as is."
I actually agree. That whole sequence really wouldn't have translated well into film, but it was very important to Tolkien, and his son clearly didn't like that a lot of the slower, less action-oriented elements of the story were excluded from the films.
How long was the full, uncut trilogy again? 10-11 hours? Even more? I definitely saw that there were lots of other scenes filmed that had the same issue- it didn't progress the story, and whatever character building it did was insignificant. "Acceptable time constraints for an audience" is a real bitch.
Should have been a hexalogy like the books.
They already had the actors, sets, costumes. How much extra would it have cost to sit Gandalf down and have him read some poems and crap on set during lunch? Or improv some Bombadil on a green screen so the banshee and barrow could be filled in later.
I'm sure they knew many of the deleted/director cut scenes were never going to be seen in theater before they filmed them so I feel like there's a lot more they could have done with the intention of it only appearing in the 50 hour paint-drying release.
The extended editions clock in at just over 12 hours for the whole trilogy.
Or maybe its importance flew over your head.
He gives the hobbits the Barrow-blades that are eventually used to kill the Witch King because that's the point of them. Films don't include this lore however and the blades are just hobbit sized "swords" in the end.
if they had gone with 6 films (each book in half part 1 part 2) they could have probably fit everything in
only problem is it would probably take 3 days to watch all the extended editions of the films
films are at a disadvantage when it comes to adapting existing stories because they can only be so long (bring back the intermission i say) and i think that is why in japan in the 90s at least OVAs were so big, you had a story it was too big for a film but probably too small for a TV series (or not enough budget) so they made 3-6 hour long episodes instead
Read em again my man.
If it would have come out first, it wouldn’t get nearly as much hate.
It’s problem was it came out after a theatrical masterpiece that will never be replicated.
And if it had come out first, we wouldn't have Spider Legolas hogging screentime in a film he shouldn't have been in, period.
Point taken
Also probably would have gotten much less hate if it wasn't itself a trilogy.
There's a fanedit that someone did that condensed the trilogy down to one 5 hour movie that a lot of people (myself included) like more than the movies.
It's artificially padded to an insane degree.
Stellar reporting.
What simpler times that was.
Tolkien Estate Now: Enjoy delicious Lord of the Rings Rose Hip Ice Cream and Have an EPIC break with Kit-Kat and the Lord of the Rings Rings of Power.
Those things didn't exist then because of Christopher Tolkien's furious gatekeeping of his father's writing.
Just saw he died in 2020, explains why the rings of power came out as a project magically at the same time
Yup. I think this quote explains their mindset perfectly. (not just the showrunners but the family)
It's the Scouring of the Shire.
It's impossible to imagine anyone saying that line without tenting their fingers and cackling ghoulishly. How can these people talk about properties they claim to be lifelong fans of in such a fashion?
Lifelong fashion is what they are really fans of.
He said in an interview that Jackson "eviscerated" the Lord of the Rings by making it into an "action film" and that he expected him to do the same to the Hobbit.
Hard to believe, as Amazon is so much worse.
I assume this is all coming out (or being made up) to try to undermine criticism of the Amazon series. Really it just means that if he disliked Jackson's version this version has him rolling in his grave so hard he's going to wear a hole straight through to New Zealand.
Why did they allow the abomination that is "the rings of power" anyway?
Chris Tolkien died.
Rest of the family like $ more than grandpa's writings.