[Moralanqua]

(Haleth inspired me)

We were discussing how we both prefered Movie Boromir to Book Boromir. How certain things like compassion and respect came across better in the movie.

This lead us to Eomer who translated poorly in comparison.

What say you? Any other character thoughts?

[BittenBuggy]

Well, I must say that I was more disapointed in Faramir's character than anything. He wasn't at all like he was in the book... :sob:

But I liked movie-Eowyn a lot better. She wasn't as whiney and feminist. I skipped over most of her parts in the book because it was embarassing to see her attach herself to Aragorn like that and literally beg to follow him. I just wanted to kick the stupid puppy!

[JennnLee]

How about: I was real darn glad that I didn't have to worry about comparing Tom Bombadil to a movie version. Otherwise, I have to say that in Fellowship at least, I wasn't thrilled with Sauroman. (God, that doesn't look like I spelled that right - how embarrassing) I liked him in the book, but in the latter half of the film he reminded me of a cross between Snidely Whiplash and the Wicked Witch of the West: twirling his mustache and looking into his crystal ball and saying "I'll get you, my pretty! And your little hobbits too!"

[Haleth]

Uh oh. I'm an inspiration. Everyone head for the hills!

The biggest disappointment for me, character-wise, has got to be Denethor.

I don't know who the man in the movie was, but the only way he resembled Denethor was in the name.

Book Denethor was doing his level best to protect his city against overwhelming odds. He prepared as best he could, fortifying the Pelenor, laying in supplies, calling in the allies (yes, he summoned the Rohrirrm, a fellow named Hirgon took the message. Troops from the rest of Gondor came as well.) and sending away the non-combatants. Using the palantir to scope out Sauron's armies was what drove him insane.

In the movie, he was a useless twit who let the entire civilian population stay in Minas Tirith, refused to summon any outside help (apparently the entire population of Gondor lived in Minas Tirith), sent his one remaining son and most of the troops on a suicide mission and, when Sauron's army attacked, told his troops to run for their lives. There is possibly a passing hint about Denethor having access to a palantir.

I'm sorry, I don't care how devoted a population is to a ruler. If Denethor had behaved as he did in the movie, someone would have removed him from office.

My biggest beef is that this wasn't necessary. The palantir was the reason for Denethor's fall into madness. Gandalf tells Pippin that it was a shame and a waste because 'he was an honourable man'.

How hard would it have been to have put that into the movie?

[Haleth]

And while I'm on a good rant...

Did anyone else think Gandalf's line of 'get the women and children to safety' when the enemey troops broke through the main gate of Minas Tirith was one of the stupidest in the entire trilogy? House to house fighting is one of the worst, most bloody type of warfare going. Having civilians in the way only makes it worse. They get in the way and your soldiers tend to die while trying to protect them.

It's not like they didn't know Sauron's armies were coming. The civilians should have been evacuated to the next circle.

[Haleth]

[Moralanqua]

Eomer and Gamling turned into wankers with one line in ROTK. Was it really necessary to have them sniggering at Merry?

[Moralanqua]

The council attendees also peed me off. Useless unknown twats!

[JennnLee]

[Haleth]

Maybe the extended edition will correct some of the more glaring errors?

[Panneth]

Characters that irritated me -
Legolas (totally unlike the book)
Gimli (why did we need a comedy dwarf)
Arwen (the whole sickness thing)
Denethor (just seemed plain evil rather than disapparing and driven mad)
Faramir (that was just a massacre of his character)
Treebeard (why was he so grumpy and mean)
Haldir (did he really need to die - no)
Celeborn (he just comes across like a bit of an idiot, but better in TTTEE)

In fact all elves in general because they rode with saddles.

[Andreth]

Since most of my gripes have already been mentioned, I'll just add one positive and say that Sam came across wonderfully. I was very disappointed that Sean Astin didn't get more recognition for his role because he did an excellent job.

Theoden was disappointing in TTT because it was nothing like his character in the book, but they did recover Theoden's character very well in RotK so I can almost forgive the second movie. And plus Bernard Hill is just so damn cute. Agree with the others that Denethor's character was unncessarily butchered.

But Frodo has to be the biggest disappointment for me by far. In the book he was brave and adventurous - all the things that made him and others in his family unusual for Hobbits (not to say Hobbits weren't brave when they had to be). Movie Frodo just seemed whiny and defeated all the way through, and giving his defiant stance against the Nazgul at the Bruinen Ford away to "I've-got-the-Ring-Flu-and-I'm-going-to-die" Arwen was the kicker. Book Frodo was quietly noble and admirable, highly intelligent, brave and steadfast, and they took that away from him in the movie. Very disappointing.

[SilverMoonLady]

[Sorcia]

You know its pretty bad when PJ apologies to the masses about the character alterations from book to screen. I think he and everyone realized that the fan base would not be happy with the changes.
For me, in addition to Faramir being night and day, was the entire Legolas/Gimli side show that seems to develop-ew, just wasn't right.
Hopefully the EE of ROTK will somewhat soften the blow about the cutting we saw in the feature film version but they haven't a hope in h*$^ of saving some of those characters.

[Moralanqua]

And he kept falling on his bum! And crying! What was with that!?

Special mention to the Nazgul. They were fantastic and looked great! Witchking was smashing!!