Qin Xa

[Wade Garrett]

If Peter Jackson actually said that, then he apparently he didn't even read the books he was adapting, which would certainly explain New Line Studio's Quest For More Money....I mean, the Hobbit trilogy.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

There's also the problem that a lot of the raging LotR fanboys can't seem to understand the books and movies are two completely different media, and what works in one of them won't necessarily be successful in the other - one being a series of words recorded in a specific order and the other is a moving picture show.

[Kol Saresk]

 

 

But it is a rather common method of storytelling. Pretty much every season of Supernatural(Especially Bobby), the Doctor Strange animated movie, Predators(the one with Laurence Fishburne), Aliens and more than a few comics, anime and manga. Everyone either gets taken out or beaten down and then you get "the final showdown" where the hero gets his rear handed to him, then he catches his second wind and everyone cheers as his plot armor triumphs.

There's a difference.

 

I'll give you a few examples from the Lord of the Rings books versus the movies, but first a disclaimer: I've read the books, but Jesus Light didn't explode out of the pages for me like it does for so many other people and it was frequently so boring and dry that it would take me days or weeks to finish a chapter. A lot of these fans, one of my best friends among them, were upset at some of the changes PJ made in the movies, but if you listen to the commentary, he explains in detail why he made them and politely calls Tolkien a mediocre writer for most them.

 

1) The all powerful One Ring.

 

None can resist its lure; not even the timeless elves or the demi-god-like Maiar are safe from it's seductive whispers of power. By chance, there was this one hobbit, though... this one brave, adventurous hobbit seemed inured to its evil and he was willing to sacrifice all for even the slightest chance of destroying it forever.

 

Not bad, right? It's the beginnings of an epic story that will change fiction forever.

 

Oh, but WAIT! OK, sorry, we were wrong. There was... you know, there was this other guy, right? This human. Faramir. You know him, I think? Brother to that Boromir guy? Yeah, he's also immune. No, seriously. I know, I know... we said NONE were safe from the One Ring save this one singular, unique, exceptional hobbit kid, but as it turns out, this Faramir guy kinda waves the ring away like "LOLNO" when Frodo tries to give it to him. So there's two people, mortals no less, living in the same time period and that just happen to cross paths that are completely immune to the all-consuming power of the ring. The ring that Gandalf and Galadriel didn't dare touch for fear that it would consume them.

 

Just two people. That we know of.

 

Maybe more if we went out and looked for them. *cough*

 

So, that's bad writing. Tolkien essentially disqualified the real power and fear of what the ring represented by having some other schmoe be completely immune to it. Which is why PJ changed it in the movie to keep the malicious power of the ring real.

 

2) Gollum.

 

From day one, this psychotic little ball of eyes and bad intentions is trying his best to drive a wedge between Sam and Frodo. He's doing a one-man show of Good Gollum/Bad Gollum at every opportunity, befriending Frodo and alienating Sam, for weeks and weeks and long, boring chapter after unceasingly boring chapter, and what comes of all of his effort? This protagonist that has spent every waking moment trying to split this duo apart?

 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There's no payoff for all of Gollum's effort and the thousands of wasted words spent carrying us up that big hill on the roller coaster ride, only to have it stall at the top.

 

Bad writing.

 

I don't want to type out paragraphs of spoilers, but you know what happened throughout most of Nemesis with the Mary Sue Demon Skin and then end where the assassins make their stand. Terrible. Dragged us all the way up that roller coaster hill, and not only did it stall, it left us up there all night in the rain.

Exactly. Its not the method, its the presentation. The method is rather common and has some success. But, if you put a bowtie on a pile of crap, its still a pile of crap.

[Wade Garrett]

There's also the problem that a lot of the raging LotR fanboys can't seem to understand the books and movies are two completely different media, and what works in one of them won't necessarily be successful in the other - one being a series of words recorded in a specific order and the other is a moving picture show.

Hey, you'll get no argument from me that Tom Bombabil was best left on the cutting room floor, but when I am presented with things like Thorin going from "I have never been so happy to be wrong!" to "If he dies, he dies!" with no explanation besides bad writing maaaaagic and :cuss ing elves shoehorned in whenever possible, I feel entitled to spew some venom and bile.

[Aegnor]

The innate ability of the Scars to make people forget/ignore about them is in evidence again given how far off track this thread is. ;)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

There's also the problem that a lot of the raging LotR fanboys can't seem to understand the books and movies are two completely different media, and what works in one of them won't necessarily be successful in the other - one being a series of words recorded in a specific order and the other is a moving picture show.

Hey, you'll get no argument from me that Tom Bombabil was best left on the cutting room floor, but when I am presented with things like Thorin going from "I have never been so happy to be wrong!" to "If he dies, he dies!" with no explanation besides bad writing maaaaagic and ing elves shoehorned in whenever possible, I feel entitled to spew some venom and bile.

http://i.imgur.com/oFPAuRu.gif

Preaching to the choir, man. I loved the LotR trilogy and HATE the Hobbit films. I wasn't even going to see the second one but a friend swore to me it was SO much better than the first. Yeah... no.

The innate ability of the Scars to make people forget/ignore about them is in evidence again given how far off track this thread is.

Ouch.

Right. I'll take the blame for that. I'm trying to reset my severely screwed up sleep schedule and I haven't slept in over 30 hours at this point, so my mind is wandering all over the place.

[Kol Saresk]

The innate ability of the Scars to make people forget/ignore about them is in evidence again given how far off track this thread is.

To be far, this thread was necroed before it was derailed. So it was forgotten, then thought off, and then repeated. Remove the plank from your eye so you can remove the speck from mine?

[reckoning]

I actually like both the LotR trilogy and The Hobbit movies. If you take them for what they are, entertainment, and not an accurate retelling of novels covering a mythical world, you might be happier. Then again you might not like them for their entertainment value and thats okay. One of my best friends loved the trilogy but hates The Hobbit because he considers it slapstick. To each their own I guess. I also liked the Warhammer 40k movie. It could have been better granted, but its entertaining. 300, one of my favorite movies, is based off a comic and makes a mockery of the real battle of Thermopylae, but its entertaining.

 

Sorry for adding to the derailment. Just got done watching Desolation of Smaug.