At the risk of derail, he isn't the only one. Tolkien was too over that whole 'Rings of Power' nonsense, if he wasn't already over The Hobbit trilogy. Less so the first three films, though, they were about as faithful as you could get for film adaptations.
Except for Legolas shield surfing or taking down an oliphant by climbing on it.
Me thinks someone in the writing room had a thing for either Legolas or his actor, cause he just got more ridiculous as the movies went on.
I personally think it was Peter Jackson himself, considering the elf was about as bad in the Hobbit trilogy.
Still, that’s just a personal nitpick. I have a ton of those, like an astonishing lack of Glorfindel for example, but the Lord of the Rings movies are still better than 99.9% of the schlock that’s getting shoveled out lately and even than it’s contemporaries.
I think it comes from the fact that the people working on those movies actually had a respect for the source material, and didn’t try to use them to shove whatever contemporary political issue was going on at the time in the audience’s face.
They just made a good movie, instead of trying to “reflect the world we live in today” or, as the Critical Drinker would say, push THE MESSAGE.
There’s a sincerity to those movies that most modern Hollywood productions lack. I could honestly make that argument about several film series from the early 2000’s.
The Nolan Batman series for example. It wasn’t obsessed with political messaging or grandstanding on social issues. They just told a story about a damaged man dressing as a bat and beating up criminals.
Yeah it’s a little more complex than that, what with the League of Shadows and the Joker, and one could argue that the last movie in the trilogy did a little of the social commentary thing with the whole eat the rich subplot.
But, overall, it might as well be a titan of cinema compared to todays movie going experience. Where a movie about a bear doing cocaine or a video game movie are honestly the most entertaining things going on right now.
Hell, I could make an argument that the first three Transformers movies are better than what’s getting made now a days.
Yeah they’re brainless, but at least they’re fun.
