Viggo Mortensen critiques the LOTR and Hobbit movies

[Victarion]

Peter Jackson cut a lot from the ending of LOTR. In the book version, the Ring gets destroyed about halfway through ROTK. Most of the entire second half of ROTK, with the journey home and Saruman taking over the Shire got cut.

He couldn't very well cut the Grey Havens too without destroying Tolkien's work.

Didn't some of the second half happen at the same time as the first? I recall the first half as Aragorn and co, while the second was Frodo, Sam and Gollum's trek. It's been ten years since I read the trilogy, so I might be wrong.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Didn't some of the second half happen at the same time as the first? I recall the first half as Aragorn and co, while the second was Frodo, Sam and Gollum's trek. It's been ten years since I read the trilogy, so I might be wrong.

Only the first part. The Ring gets destroyed in Chapter III - Mount Doom.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think the entire LOTR trilogy is amazing. Though TTT is the most sluggish.

The Hobbit is where I feel Jackson gets self indulgent.

I agree. TTT is the one that shows a little of the same problems that would come to plague The Hobbit. Both FOTR and ROTK had a lot cut out. The former didn't impact the films much, but the latter resulted in a good chunk of TTT getting moved to ROTK (The Voice of Saruman, Pippin finding the Palantir, Minas Morgul, Shelob, etc.). This resulted in TTT being thinned out, so Jackson had to resort to padding (the fight against the Wargs and Aragorn going missing, Faramir trying to take the Ring to Minas Tirith, etc.). Basically FOTR and ROTK had stuff taken out and TTT had stuff added in, and as a result there is a fair amount of TTT where the story isn't really moving forward. This is even more apparent in the Extended Editions. FOTR and ROTK both got better in the Extended Versions. TTT got worse.

TTT is still a very good film (albeit the weakest of the three), but the same thing happened to The Hobbit to a far greater degree. There wasn't enough story there so Jackson made up stuff to fill in time. In The Hobbit, that's a lot of time so things slow to a crawl. It reminds me of Dragonball Z, where Namek is going to blow up in five minutes for like 10 episodes.

 

[gwynplaine]

Viggo is the Man, no matter what he says really.

 

[jmc]

I agree. TTT is the one that shows a little of the same problems that would come to plague The Hobbit. Both FOTR and ROTK had a lot cut out. The former didn't impact the films much, but the latter resulted in a good chunk of TTT getting moved to ROTK (The Voice of Saruman, Pippin finding the Palantir, Minas Morgul, Shelob, etc.). This resulted in TTT being thinned out, so Jackson had to resort to padding (the fight against the Wargs and Aragorn going missing, Faramir trying to take the Ring to Minas Tirith, etc.). Basically FOTR and ROTK had stuff taken out and TTT had stuff added in, and as a result there is a fair amount of TTT where the story isn't really moving forward. This is even more apparent in the Extended Editions. FOTR and ROTK both got better in the Extended Versions. TTT got worse.

TTT is still a very good film (albeit the weakest of the three), but the same thing happened to The Hobbit to a far greater degree. There wasn't enough story there so Jackson made up stuff to fill in time. In The Hobbit, that's a lot of time so things slow to a crawl. It reminds me of Dragonball Z, where Namek is going to blow up in five minutes for like 10 episodes.

I think the main difference between the middle films of each trilogy is that Two Towers had a far more natural climax that could be cultivated from book. With Smaug the film just ends with essentially a 'to be continued' moment.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think the main difference between the middle films of each trilogy is that Two Towers had a far more natural climax that could be cultivated from book. With Smaug the film just ends with essentially a 'to be continued' moment.

Actually, it always bugged me that they didn't wrap up Saruman's storyline in TTT. We had to go watch ROTK (and the Extended Edition at that) for something that really should have been in TTT. It wasn't anywhere near as annoying as the Desolation of Smaug ending, but it still bothered me.

I had no problems with Shelob getting moved.

 

[jmc]

Actually, it always bugged me that they didn't wrap up Saruman's storyline in TTT. We had to go watch ROTK (and the Extended Edition at that) for something that really should have been in TTT. It wasn't anywhere near as annoying as the Desolation of Smaug ending, but it still bothered me.

I had no problems with Shelob getting moved.

I sort of agree. I do think in hindsight Saruman should have been killed during the Ents battle which would have eliminated the need for the Flotsam and Jetsam scene. I think if Jackson had his way again he would have changed it along those lines because it would have avoided that really awkward ROTK beginning where Saurman's arc is kinda left hanging in the theatrical cut.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Jackson should have taken some cues from Cronenberg and had a completely nude Aragorn fight scene.

 

[The Endless]

With linoleum blades!