The Lord of the Rings just works…

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The Lord of the Rings just works…

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Not without trannies they frickin' don't.

And everyone who complained about the rings of power thinks that scene was badass

Because it was perfectly done

ETA: I understood your sarcasm

Because they basically stuck to Frodo’s story for the three movies and used Tolkien’s source material.

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Because they basically stuck to Frodo’s story for the three movies and used Tolkien’s source material.

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Such a mystery how a director could put an already-beloved story to film, keep pretty true to the source material, and voila big hit. Seems simple but so many showrunners these days can’t pull it off.

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What is really crazy to me is that more than any movie or series I just can’t imagine anyone else playing Aragorn. Vig was born for that role.

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And wasn't initially cast , it was Stuart Townsend. I remember this from when they were still in production before the first film released



Regarding Rings of Power, there were definitely issues. Unlike some of the rampaging folks here, I don't think it was so much that it was "woke", as a couple other factors in play:
1) you had inexperienced producers, used to indie-films, that were handed an unlimited budget.
2) they were handed a concept that was going to be a problem, in terms of continuity and timeline
3) they felt, for whatever reason (insecurity, having to make a name, etc), to put "their stamp", their "own interpretation" onto the production.

You see the budget + inexperience happen a few times.

Exhibit A is the scene of Galadriel riding the horse on Numenor... it's really a stunning and great shot. Slow mo, sun shining in her hair, unbridled joy on her face, probably a feather in the cap for whoever was doing the cinematography. And they definitely spent some time and resources getting it just right.
Problem is, it has zero to do with the story, is out of place for the story (even within the show), was awkwardly long in addition. I mean, who knew- Galadriel was going to be such a bitch in this show, when all you had to do was get her a horse and she'd be happy?
It's a prime (no pun intended) example of doing something because you could afford to, instead of because the story required it.

The second issue- the timeline. The Second Age is long, and mostly boring. Even during events like the war on Eregion by Sauron, that lasted a century. Sometimes there's a thousand years between noteworthy occurrences.
You could kinda do that with Elves, since they're immortal; after all we see Hugo Weaving as Elrond talking to Isildur in LOTR. Time skips with Elves wouldn't be bad.
But including mortals from Numenor, and wanting recurrent characters- much different animal. You'd have to cast a whole new group each episode... or do what they did, and condense it.
In contrast, LOTR takes about 1 calendar year, from the moment they leave the Shire until they return.

The third element, putting their own take onscreen, I think plays into the inexperience of the producers. I think once they decided on the timeline condensing, they felt more comfortable on adding stuff (hey, we had to change it drastically already, right?), and things kinda got fuzzy as to what they were working on. You add in the apparent decision that 'book readers' weren't their audience, as much as 'film viewers'... ok then, we need Hobbitses. Viewers want little people in Middle Earth, and Gandalf too. Otherwise they will get mad and yell "where's the hobbits, where's Gandalf?"
My take on what they were thinking, not what I believe.

Toss in some contemporary "what if we did ____ to fool the viewer, everyone loves a surprise in shows now" stuff, and you got what we saw- a visually impressive show that, best described, was like a car driven by a 10 yr old. Couldn't stay out of the ditches, much less in their own lane, and shifting was a struggle at best. And yeah, I fully admit, this show hit a few mailboxes trying to drive, dropped the clutch a lot, ran over the neighbor's cat and so forth.

I understand Bezos is very much a fan of the source material, and this is his baby and tribute to it, and I kinda expect he's laying down some new guidelines . What little I've heard is that they will follow canon more closely.

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Because they basically stuck to Frodo’s story for the three movies and used Tolkien’s source material

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There it is. Absolutely correct.

I read "The Hobbit" and "LOTR" every winter. The past two years I've added "The Silmarillion". Stick to Tolkien, if you can make movies and films as he wrote it, then you've got a masterpiece.

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Because they basically stuck to Frodo’s story for the three movies and used Tolkien’s source material.

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Don’t sell PJ and his team short. They made some pretty big changes to the source material, but they also had such reverence for it that the changes they made maintained the spirit and tone of the work.

That’s the biggest issue these days. Writers and directors using beloved IPs as vehicles to promote their own thoughts and ideas with no respect to the spirit and tone of the actual IPs.

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It all feels so fabricated where LOTR feels completely real.

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Case in point.

I tried to get my nephew to watch them over Christmas.

12 years old. Prime lord of the rings age.

He couldn’t do it. Kids don’t give a shite about good story telling anymore. I told him if he gave it an hour, he’d be hooked, but nope.