Hey, its me again, posting after a long long time.
Just to set the record straight, I saw LOTR: The fellowship of the ring recently.
LOTR: The Fellowship, is better than the Two Towers; slightly more watchable. The first 15 min are enchanting, almost flawless, I was very impressed. However after that, its grip on me started too loosen drastically and by the mid point, I was complaining and cursing it, like I did with Two towers.
LOTR to me, is nothing but a Hollywood hoax. There is nothing innovative or intellectual about this movie. All it does is ride high on it’s CGI implants, many sequences which come across as meaningless - while compromising the most essential ingredient in any film. The script!
The script is poorly constructed, cliched and filled with commercial innuendos and useless cut away sequences, that do little, but irritate.
Peter Jackson’s story telling skills are rooted in b-grade movie making, and that certainly shows. He cuts in between plots, like nobodies business and in the end it just irritates and tires.
He swears by cliched and overly used script devices; voice overs, revealing plot via dialogue, flashbacks, mainly because he is a very weak story teller. Alright, I am not harsh, I can tolerate 1, 2, or 3 flashbacks, but to clutter the entire movies with flashbacks and useless cut-away sequences. That I cannot digest.
Some of the scenes in the movie are outright silly. Those include, the battle between the wizards on the top of Sarumon’s tower and the snow blizzard, with Sarumon doing his dance of death on the top of the tower. It reminds me of the climax in that awful, Little John.
Instead of showing Sarumon is physically summoning the storm with his dance of death on the tower. Only a suggestion of this would suffice:
To have Gandalf say it ’’These are Sarumon’s storms’’
or
Have Gandalf see Sarumon’s reflection in the blizzard, in the tower(not on the top of the tower) casting the storm. Something like the scene in Neverending story, where Atrail sees the reflection of the boy in the ice.
No need forcing in a visual gimmick of flying to him on the top of the tower, pointing his staff in Galdaf’s reaction(comes included with a grunting sound)It just looks ridiculous.
The whole thing about Gandalf being at the top of the tower never worked with me. Why is he at the top of the tower? Why is Sarumon keeping him there? In the fight scene, didn’t Gandalf get thrown into the air. Did he penetrate thru the ceiling and end up at the top - or did he come crashing down - in which case he would have died.
Then there is a 30 second scene showing Sarumon commanding his vicious army of Orks to find Frodo and bring him back alive. Its not the concept that is flawed. It is the way it is executed, which is reminiscent of old z-grade movies, where there would be a throw cut sequence to the villain, commanding his goons to track down the hero and heroine.
Words cannot describe how silly the above examples are. Its very ironic, how a lot in LOTR can be traced to so many trashy z grade movies I saw.
LOTR could not hold my attention. I found it insulting to my intelligence and as it progressed, I was more and more disinterested and eventually rooting for it to finish. I was very happy when it did finish.
The length of the movie is a huge flaw. As many scenes go on too long, and the points can be made in much lesser screen time. After cutting out many useless cut away sequences and flash backs, it would be more crisper and fast-paced and not feel like the Neverending story; no, not the film.
I mean come on. I watch so many Hindi movies, and everyone almost runs for the same length as LOTR. I can completely tolerate a long movie. I’ve grew up with them.
But why did I find myself horribly bored and hoping for it to finish anytime soon. Its simply because the movie has such poor structure and even poor pacing.
However, it was not completely a waste. The technical wizardry was worth watching.
The cinematography, which was incredibly weak in TTT, was absolutely visually relishing in FOTR. Excellent use of lighting, colours and swooping camera movements and angles. However like TTT, there are some exercises in indulgency, but they are few and far in between to malign the overall incredible visual work of the cinematographer.
The visual effects are absolutely mind-blowing consistently. Brilliantly rendered graphics and fantastic implementation of the virtual camera. The CGI backgrounds, which still look a tad artificial, are also more impressive..
The technical discrepancies in TTT are baffling now. Its almost as if Peter Jackson was running out of money on TTT, or either rushed that version.
But alas, visuals are not going to save this emotionally shallow, monotonous, dry and shoddy b-grade epic. I am convinced, that if LOTR did not have such incredible visuals and battle sequences, it would definitely have gone up in smoke.