Any Lord of the Rings fans?

Wow....just....wow! The story about your son, very moving, I am choked up right now reading it. You touched on something so personal, so important to me as far as SW goes. The fact that I have 3 boys ages 9, 13, and 14, and they see my passion and develop their own love and passion for SW. I am passing on the legacy to them...!!

 

Thank you. I always get a bit wet-eyed when I tell that story!

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings belong to what I call the tradition of good stories, well told. There's a lot worse we can do as parents than to pass on these great stories to our children. My son and daughter are teenagers now and they've seen the Star Wars films (both at home and at the cinema) and they have their favourite episodes (sad to say that some fans I know who are of the same generation as me have "banned" their kids from seeing the prequels. Such households must be positively Orwellian to live in!) and they're looking forward to seeing how the current trilogy develops this December!

 

Well dip me in vinegar and call me a fish supper! My son came downstairs this morning and put on the first disc of The Fellowship Of The Ring (we still have the DVD box set but the Blu-ray is on my wish list) and he has been working his way through the story throughout the day - with natural breaks for fresh air and food, of course. We are now on disc two of The Two Towers. The legendary Bernard King has just delivered his "Where is the horse and the rider?" speech - surely a moment worthy of the bard - and one of the best cinematic battles is about to begin. With my wife and daughter otherwise engaged for the rest of the evening, it is likely that he will reach the end of Return Of The King before bedtime.

I'm envious and proud in equal measure. I haven't even done a Star Wars marathon yet and I'm four times his age!

 

Massive Lord of the Rings Fan here!

When I was 12 I asked my father for a good book to read. (Oh, the good old days, when kids still did such things!)
He looked at me, walked over to the bookshelves, pointed at TLotR and said: "This is a good book! But first you need to read this!" He then handed me The Hobbit! That day I began a journey, I'm still on to this day!

They were translations ofcourse, but even according to J.R.R.T. himself, one of the very best out there!
I finished The Hobbit in like two days, after which he gave me the one I was craving for.
I finished it in 4 1/2 days! (I was such a fast reader, soon after, when I asked for a book for my b-day, I asked for the english version!)
I've read them almost once a year since then!

Mind you, I have ADD and PDD-NOS and had the attention span of a Jack Russel-terrier!
So for a book to keep my attention, the way TLotR did, it must be well written!

I was fortunate to have seen the movies in cinema and with 2T and RotK in marathon format!
I have the Extended Boxset on DVD and Blu-Ray and have them countless times!

Alas I wasn't able to see the Hobbit Trilogy on the big screen, but on BR and love them nonetheless!
Maybe they're not as good as the LotR but I wouldn't miss them for the world!
But I wish PJ was given the time he would have needed to make them the way they deserved!

The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter are my three favorite Movie-/Book-franchises!

I revisit them regularly!

 

Still love this scene,

 

You shall pass!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why doesn't anyone ever listen to Elrond?

 

Because we wouldn't have this scene if they did.

 

OK so you folks have fired me up again about LOTR......as I said I used to be a regular member of LOTR Plaza http://www.lotrplaza.com/forum.php, got into many many indepth discussions about the movies and books. That forum has a very vocal group of members who love the movies and another group who liked the movies, but were disappointed in many things that PJ did (I am one of the 2nd group).

My main point about the LOTR trilogy movies, that I always argued, was that PJ did too many random departures from book plotlines and radically changed the characterization of major characters (Faramir, for example.....Aragorn as well.....also turned Gimli from a feared warrior into a wisecracking comic book character).

Anyway, I digress......LOTR movie lovers would inevitably always fall back upon the "PJ only had so much time, he could not turn the entire book(s) directly into movies" argument. My counter point was that if PJ did not do the weird plot changes, focusing on certain areas(that Tolkien did not in the books), he would have more time to include/modify scenes that were iconic from the book.

For example, if you read the book "The Letters of JRR Tolkien" (highly recommended if you want to learn more about Tolkien...), you would know that his most FAVORITE scene in all of his books was the showdown at the great gate of Minas Tirith between Gandalf and Lord of the Nazgul. PJ completed screwed this scene....only in the extended version do we see a showdown, but it is not at the great gate and loses all of its importance to rallying the morale of the Gondorian soldiers.

The infamous "Elves at Helm's Deep" was an unnecessary departure from the book by PJ.....and made no sense if you understand what was going on in Middle Earth at that time- all of the Elves up North were involved in battles already - no way they could spare sending troops to Helm's Deep.

Aragorn's sword, Anduril, is a central important object in Tolkien's books.....but PJ really messed it up by not having the sword reforged and presented to Aragorn until Dunharrow??!!?!?, by Elrond????? The sword should have been reforged (from the shards of Narsil, which was used to cut the ring from Sauron's hand at the end of the 2nd Age) and presented to Aragorn, just after the Council of Elrond in Fellowship of the Ring. Anduril was used many times by Aragorn to rally troops throughout all the books.

There is more to discuss and I need to get my thoughts together.....there are aspects of the movies that are just breathtaking (the score, how Minas Tirith looks, the Shire, the lighting of the beacons scene)....and other aspects that are just maddening.

 

I didn't think the Two Towers movie was that bad; I don't see why it's so disliked.

 

@Sage Ehlers I didn't say it was bad....just as a fervent fan of Tolkien and his masterpieces, I wish Peter Jackson would not have been so reluctant to stick to the books closer......

 

I'm a bigger fan of Peter Jackson than the LOTRs. The trilogy is kinda magnificent. Glad that it happened so Pete could make Kong in the end..

I'm still mad he hasn't shot HALO though. It's at his fingertips.

 

I have 3 major obsessions- Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars

I kinda ping pong between them, though I've currently been stuck on Star Wars since TFA came out.

 

I am a fan of LOTR, but Two Towers was my favorite. Ents and Helms Deep are the best parts of the movie.

 

Yes those battles.....Peter Jackson was quite a fan of battles.....and Legolas. According to Jackson, nothing occurred in Middle Earth without Legolas there.

--- Double Post Merged, May 13, 2017, Original Post Date: May 13, 2017 ---

Will Legolas be in HALO?

 

Come on now. Films based on books aren't meant to follow them to the letter, there's only so much you can fit into its runtime, and artistic freedom takes priority over source restrictions. So long as the final product resembles the source material enough, and is of good quality, then should be nothing to complain about.

We saw what happened when Peter Jackson didn't get full creative control, the mixed bag Hobbit films.

 

He's like Artoo, nothing important happened without him around either. The token Elf, just along for the ride, fixing everyone's problems... wait a second, he is Artoo!