The Lord of the Rings “The Return of the King” grabbed each and every Oscar nomination. Good on them! The cast and crew put assloads of time and effort into making an enjoyable Tolkien universe. No, I have not read the books. Yes, they are on my list, in fact they are sitting on my shelf? calling to me.
I willingly choose not to read the books before seeing the movies. I knew that after experiencing Tolkien?s insanely epic tale, there would be no way on this Earth the movies would live up to my expectations. Talking with Jay, an old friend from college, proved my theory was right.
Jay was a Tolkien fiend long before I could pronounce the man?s name. He had the most issues with the The Two Towers segment. He explained to me that Aragorn learned what it took to be a king by watching Theoden in action and that the elves did not appear at Helm?s Deep. Helm?s Deep was the humans? time to shine and the movie seem to diminish that fact. I couldn?t argue? as passionately? with Jay?s logic. But after viewing the extended editions? commentaries of the Fellowship and the Two Towers, I have a better understanding of why Jackson and the writers chose each plot direction. I couldn?t argue with them either.
The old, familiar conflict of the visual arts versus literature rears its ugly head again. For what it?s worth, my camp still sides with the movies. That was one hella epic tale of Good?s fight against Evil. Though, I am looking forward to the books filling in the missing stories and putting right some events that occurred in the movies.
