I have been a fan of JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth since a child and one day I heard the news that Hollywood was finally going to make the Lord of the Rings into a movie. How excited was I? I lived in Hollywood at the time and I found myself looking for as much information as I could regarding the cast. Liv Tyler was going to play Arwen. Ok, good sign. She does look like what I would have expected the daughter of Elrond to look like. Frodo Baggins was going to be played by Elijah Woods. Again, so far so good. I stopped there. I was happy and really looking forward to the first movie: The Fellowship of the Ring.
I have never been so upset at a movie before in my life. I have seen all three of the films, and the first Hobbit movie. The only thing I can say is that they make Middle Earth come alive. The rest is a travesty.
Forget all of the usual complaints we have about beloved books being made into movies: "I cant believe they left that out!" or "Why did they add that scene (or character) to the movie?" We've all vented these frustrating words to no one in particular. What made me mad was that Hollywood seems to have completely given up on the hero. Faramir. Aragorn. Théoden. These were men who heeded the call without hesitation and showed what a hero does in adversity. Even Treebeard and the other Ents decided (in their own pace) to join the wars going on. The movies showed different personalities from the books. Book Faramir is one of the most beloved Tolkien characters of all time. He's brave and self-sacrificing. Movie Faramir? Not so much. He's unremarkable and almost completely unmemorable. As a die-hard book fan, that felt like a slap in the face.
I thought my feelings for Peter Jackson could sink no lower until the Hobbit movie came out and I was again reminded that these movies are not for JRR Tolkien fans. They are for the big box office weekends.
What is you biggest movie disappointment?
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