[Hawkeye]

For starters, I was thouroghly mad on the 18th. In fact, too mad and upset to post anything! I've gotten mostly past the anger now, but i am still completely disappointed and sad. Peter Jackson and staff had a chance to recreate Tolkien's world, the chance of a lifetime, and they blew it. It feels like they changed everything and anything that they felt like! A few of the things that disturbed me the most were: <P>Faramir,Faramir,Faramir!!!! how COULD they????!!!! I looove him (my favorite character besides Aragorn), and they destroyed him! I barely reconized his character. The actor was fine, but he was playing a totally different person then the Faramir i know. That almost makes me want to cry, he was so mixed up. Especially when he forced Frodo to go with him! That was so wrong, I can barely stand to think about it. <P>The dream scenes with Aragorn and Arwen. I didn't like the way they portrayed her in FOTR at all, but i was able to handle it fine. But THIS was just morally WRONG!!!! plus, it didn't make perfect sense, and personally i thought it detracted from the movie in a big way.<P>There was waaaay too many modern touches! It just didn't feel like middle earth to me. They didn't have the spirit of it. In FOTR, there were tons of things they changed; some i was ok with, and others i wasn't. But they still captured the very spirit of Middle Earth close enough to cut it. (I loved FOTR).But in TTT, it just wasn't there! the language was modern, and so was lots of the actions. <P>The part with Theoden being 'possessed' by Saruman. That was awful! Never would have happened. Very disturbing. and when his beard and face all changed? oh, please! i mean, Theoden does start looking younger in the book, but nothing that drastic!in fact, there were a lot of things which i think would have been semi-ok, if they hadn't been overdone! <P>Elrond trying to persuade Arwen to leave middle earth. Uh uh. I dont' think so! I thought he was too stern in FOTR, but i was ok with that. but this? NO! <P>I was especially bothered by the scene where Aragorn basically told Arwen that it would never work out, and she should just leave middle earth. inconceivable!<P>The ents making the wrong desicion! i was fine with the way they were portrayed, although i've always thought they looked more like people, but having them make the wrong choice just made them look silly. and then they all appear and go fight when Treebeard sees the trees? no! they don't make quick desicions like that! unrealistic.<P>one of the really sad things is, that they basically had all the right actors, the right sets, the right costumes, the right special effects....and the wrong story.<P>....I could go on and on like this for hours, but i wont'. and yes, i'll admit, there were snatches here and there that i liked, some even that i loved. (for example: Shadowfax was absolutely perfect! mmm, beautiful. i also thought that Wormtongue was good, although he was in all the wrong places. the actor looked just right. ugh! and Sam was right. so sweet and loyal...it was a very nice touch where he said the part about "samwise the brave". and the po-ta-toe scene was spiffy!). but i was really disheartened by the whole thing overall. yes, i will end up going to see it again (maybe even two more times), just to make sure that i give it a fair chance. next time i'm going to attempt to view it just as a movie, not as something connected to the books, or trying to imitate it in any way. that's basically what i did on wednesday, and the shock was just too great. it's probably a good movie, taken apart from the books. but speaking as one who loves the books, as i'm sure most (if not all) of you do, i felt like it destroyed a wonderful story. i just hope that they do a better job with ROTK, although at this point i'm pretty doubtful. It's like Eomer said: "...but do not trust to hope, for it has forsaken these lands." that's what i feel like. all the hope in the books has been throughly squeezed out of the movie, leaving it feeling so dark, so desolate. so....hopeless.