damerell

Serious:

On balance, I like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, but...

The obvious complaint is that what is done for comic relief is wince-inducingly awful.

Besides that, though, he's at his worse when Tolkien shines through. It's bad when JRRT's lines are delivered ineptly, but in a sense it's worse when his lines are delivered well and stand out from the rest of the lines from the character. Eowyn's actress _can_ do Tolkien's Eowyn and sometimes she does, and compared to that the rest looks so weak.

Class War:

Tolkien is not without his faults, though, and one that is apparent in either version is that Samwise Gamgee would be ten times the Ringbearer Frodo is. But he is lower class and so can't do it. Personally, I think Gandalf sends him because he knows in desperate straits Sam _will_ shiv Frodo to save the world. Sam is the only person who ever gives up the Ring without coercion. He could drop it.

40-odd people in a previous poll say I'm a boy version:

[Poll #1496119]

Practical:

Dear filmmakers: I am not a soldier, and I never have been one. Nevertheless, my understanding is that armour is and was worn because it provides a modicum of protection from sharp, pointy, and/or bludgeoning objects. As such, it would be nice if occasionally in your productions we saw it doing so. Or, indeed, we ever saw it doing so. Besides bits of LOTR I am particularly thinking of the end of The Last Samurai where apparently men in armour with big fucking swords are no more deadly then unarmoured men with fixed bayonets who never train to use them.

PPPS:

As I understood it Minas Tirith and Osgiliath are more than 500 yards apart.