Not all of LOTR got me either. I even think digital visuals in those movies weren't perfect yet. Are they even now? It seems you have to use speed and quick cuts to hide the imperfections.
You know, I love the Rankin Bashi versions of those films. It was full of music, great animation, and it had a very traditional story-telling feel to it. I do agree with Tolkien that The Hobbit was written too juvenile a manner. But I love the battle of 5 Armies at the end. It's a shame ROTK ended with 30 minutes of bye-bye instead of the attack on the Shire, which brought the whole story back home to Hobbiton. One might even have to say that LOTR would not have really ended without Saruman attacking the Shire. Brilliant on Tolkien's part.
This is the difference between a gusher and a fan: I loved LOTR but accept it has flaws: There was far too much Arwen which ended up boring the sh1t out of me. The elves looked too much like humans wearing pointy ears. The orcs were a little "too black" shall we say and spoke with a grubby lower-class British accent. Mind you, Tolkien seemed to be a bit of a racist - several paragraphs in FOTR come to mind - so while that's politically incorrect now, it's probably closer to his original thoughts.
The director's/writers' commentary on the LOTR DVDs is well worth listening too. They had a very hard time deciding what to drop and what to keep. They had a big discussion about the 'Too many but still not enough endings'. There were two writers. One thought they'd got the balance right, and the other said in hindsight they'd got it wrong. Jackson was non-committal (He suggested they settle it with a nude jello wrestling match).
To be honest, in many parts I think they did a better job that the book. Boromir in the book was pure cardboard and the Battle of Helms Deep was three panels in a Conan Comic.
As interesting is what they cut out: A horrible idea (they filmed) with Arwen on the battlements of Helms Deep. I would have been calling out "GO ORCS GO!" and be cheering as they cleared each wall. At the end when Aragorn is fighting the troll when they shot it he was fighting Saruman(!) who took off his helmet and turned out to be so beautiful he'd turn you gay. Also a scene on the battlements of Minas Tirith where a Nazgul appears and about to kill Gandalf, changes his mind and goes somewhere else. As the writers put it, "I'll be back you later!" To their credit they're good writers, recognize their mistakes and correct them at editing. (Compare to Lucas who "writes" his film at editing.)
LOTR was called by many as unfilmable. While it's not perfect, it's an awesome piece of movie making and surprised most of us. I do know people who don't like the book or the film though: It's something you need to be willing to immerse yourself in.
This post has been edited by Toru-chan: 06 June 2009 - 09:50 PM