re: worst movie endings of all time????

Knowing with Nicolas Cage, fairly recent movie

Planet of the Apes - Marky Mark edition

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You have my attention.

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Jackson basically turned the hobbit characters (esp Merry and Pippin) in the Lotr into chick and/or sidekick characters from a superhero movie. Their purpose became merely an excuse for the heroes of his film to perform some grand heroic action or to crack a joke at their stupidity. I understand to some extend cutting out the parts of the novels such as the trip through the Old Forest or the Scourging of the Shire due to taking a couple hours off of the films run time (that said if he could have cut out all the Arwen/elf fetish crap I think you could have gotten in the Scourging) but that doesn't mean you should make them mostly helpless and merely lucky throughout the rest of the film.

I think the best contrast to get at what I mean is the Watcher of the Deep scene in comparison to the film and the novel. In the film, one of the jesters (Pippin or Merry I don't remember which) tosses a rock into the pool I believe disturbing the monster and Frodo is snatched. Through the quick thinking and action of the films heroes of Aragon, Legolas and Gandalf they are able to fight off the tentacled monster and save Mary Ja...Frodo..in a big cgi fight with swords and arrows swinging and flying. In the novel, Frodo and Boromir accidentally disturb the water and a tentacle comes out attempting to snatch up Frodo...all the big heroes are don't react I think they are even described as frozen with fear...only Sam is able to react and frees Frodo with his sword, which seems to break the hold of whatever is clouding the minds of the others leads to them all running into the mine to escape.

The heroes of the Lotr is not Aragon or Gandalf but the hobbits, who in spite of their limitations (closer to the common man than the supermen heroes of Jackson's films), are caught up in the middle of great events and due to their courage and actions throughout the novels, evil is defeated. This isn't to say that Aragon and the like don't act heroically in the novels but they are not the superheroes that they are turned into within the movies.

First film I think you may have a point, but in the next 2 films, Merry and Pippin aren't so much comic relief anymore (even though they do have their moments). I think Jackson knew he could somewhat use them as comic relief (he did this with Gimli as well), but I think Jackson wanted to make Merry and Pippin's arc a "coming of age" story. The 2 characters are completely different in the end of the series and are more like their book counterparts in the end than they were in the beginning. And actually I do think it works in the film.

Merry was one of the smartest characters in the whole series and the fact that they grow over the course of the last two films is no different than their arc within the novels.

Understand through, I don't think Jackson's Lotr movies are bad by any means. As a technical achievement they are spectacular and the story that he told is both epic, wondrous, and action filled. It gets at the depth of details that was one of the great things about the novels that helps them stand the test of time especially in comparison to his successors. That said, Jackson does make Aragon the main protagonist of his story rather than the four hobbits making the story more pulp than literature. Also, his fascination with Arwen was incredibly annoying and the love triangle completely unnecessary. She is at least what 30 minutes of wasted screen time.

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Other than the one scene you mentioned with the tentacle monster,

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Merry knew about the Ring.

Frodo only escapes the Shire because of them.

Frodo resisting the Barrow Wright.

Sam and the hobbits actually think a fire is a stupid idea at Whethertop. (In fairness, it is the right thing to do in the novels but it is played exactly opposite in the movies).

Merry figures out that the Nazgul are in Bree because he is smart enough to scout out the town rather than go to the common room, thus, they are not killed in their beds that night.

Btw, without all that is there really absolutely any reason to take Merry and Pippin as part of the company? In the framing of the movie, taking them along is just incredible retarded. It didn't make a ton of sense in the novels but at least they had contributed up to that point and were not an active hindrance like they were in the films.

Merry helps solve the puzzle of the door at Moria.

Pippin played a far larger role in the defense of Gondor in the novel as well as saving Farimir.

Furthermore, it isn't even so much that in the latter novels what they do is much less than what they do in the books it is that the other characters in the novels deeds are so ridiculously expanded that the hobbits part in the story is diminished.

Gimli was always sort of comic relief. I actually didn't have a problem with that.

jumper