Topic: Are the Lord of the Rings films the best films ever made?

[bgmnts]

As a series of films I can't think of anything better or more lovingly adapted.

Everything works for me. The acting, the script, the score, the costumes, the settings, even the CGI is well done.

I think its even better than Star Wars trilogy for me.

It's at least the best film adaptation of a book isn't it?

Its perfect.

I remember seeing the Two Towers in the cinema when I was about 11 and seeing Gandalf fight the Balrog whilst falling down the chasm was mindblowing. The scene with the Ents marching to war with Isengard too.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Difficult to think of a more awe inspiring first film anyway. Lots of the original film relies on old fashioned film making techniques and the CGI is used much more carefully.

Fellowship is definitely the best fantasy adventure film I've seen. Immersive, brilliant and tense and everything is going wrong.

When the narratives split off in the next two films the pacing gets very tricky. I still think they are astounding and hair-raising in places but would look at them as hugely ambitious rather than total successes.

[MuteBanana]

Most amazing trilogy in my lifetime I think. Every film is epic.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I like them a good deal, but best films ever? Nah.

For one thing, they would be vastly improved if the characters didn't all speak in slow motion.

[momatt]

No.

Mate, you must have never seen Starcrash.

[Dex Sawash]

I think you need to say best English language films because the Taxi films are the best series of films.

[Endicott]

They are incredibly audacious and extremely well produced. Generally very well cast with maybe only one glaringly obvious casting fuck-up, unfortunately in a very central role.



The problem with the adaptation is Jackson thinks he is a better story teller than Tolkien. Phillipa, the characters just don't emote enough for a modern audience, we must make them all into pointless feeble cunts otherwise no-one will be able to relate. Yes Peter I completely agree and you are so good at films.

Apart from that, yes very good.

[Kelvin]

Absolutely not. The first film is excellent, bar a couple of silly bits, but the 2nd and especially the third film are really repetitive slogs, adapted from boring repetitive books. Sauron being a literal eye, endless battles and inspiring speeches, crap special fx, 10,000 endings, and increasingly dull charachters.

A lot of these problems stem from the books, of course, but that doesn't make the later films any better.

[CaledonianGonzo]

What's the beef with Elijah Wood? He's uncannily well cast.  It's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role.

[BlodwynPig]

Bgmnts, young fool!!

[Small Man Big Horse]

No.

Mate, you must have never seen Starcrash.

Momatt speaks the truth. And almost as good as Starcrash is Sion Sono's Love Exposure which'd be my suggestion for best ever film. I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films at the time but have no urge to rewatch them, and I doubt they'd make my Top 100 list.

[Endicott]

What's the beef with Elijah Wood? He's uncannily well cast.  It's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role.

Godawful accent. And, well, just no. He's great himself, fabulous in The Ice Storm for example, but as Frodo Baggins? It's casting designed to make the film appeal to the American demographic. Sorry but this part required an English voice, not an American voice.

edit to add - I mean it's like a scar all over the whole set of movies. 'We will go through the mynes'. It's almost as stupid as having the rest of the hobbit party being a bumpkin, a Scot, and an Irish. Just fuck off Peter.

[magval]

...Sauron being a literal eye...

What's he in the book?

[St_Eddie]

Best films ever made?  If you're an insomniac, then yes, absolutely.

[Kelvin]

What's he in the book?

I don't remember. Wasn't it more a metaphorical eye, like an evil presence that could see the world? I just find the idea of Sauron being a literal eyeball at the top of a big tower utterly ridiculous - regardless of where it stems from originally. I preferred how they adapted it in the Hobbit films, with the eye containing a spirit of 'humanoid' sauron as it's pupil. More like a portal.

[Shit Good Nose]

Haaaaaaaaaa-hahahahahahahahahaaaaa.  Oooohhhhhh...

No.

Fellowship is good, the extended cut of Two Towers is excellent, the third hasn't got enough endings.  All three have aged quite badly.

You need to see yourself some Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Klimov, Herzog.  Hell, the portions of Caddyshack that focus on something other than Danny's love life and college plans are better.

[Kelvin]

Re: the eye

In fact, I really like how they did it in the first LotR film, with the eye piercing anyone who wore the ring, but feeling more like an incorporeal spirit, partially glimpsed.

[bgmnts]

Haaaaaaaaaa-hahahahahahahahahaaaaa.  Oooohhhhhh...

No.

Fellowship is good, the extended cut of Two Towers is excellent, the third hasn't got enough endings.  All three have aged quite badly.

You need to see yourself some Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Klimov, Herzog.  Hell, the portions of Caddyshack that focus on something other than Danny's love life and college plans are better.

Akira Kurosawa is a favourite of mine.

I just think the LotR is amazing.

[Replies From View]

Hello!


No the Lord of the Rings films are not even very good at all.


Hope that helps!!

[biggytitbo]

The first one is very good. Better than any of the Star Wars but not as good as Raiders of the lost ark.

The second one is a turgid cinematic atrocity that probably ranks somewhere between Confessions from a holiday camp and that film michael flattery made himself where he is a spy who has sex with loads of much younger women. The third isn't as bad as that, but it's still too long and tedious and self indulgent.

[Replies From View]

It’s basically Narnia isn’t it.  So if you have seen the BBC Narnia productions there is no need to watch any of the Lord of the Rings films.

[Funcrusher]

Massive no from me.

[NoSleep]

I can think of several books that have been adapted to film a lot better, too. It may be the most ambitious attempt, but not the most successful.

[The Boston Crab]

Great entertainment, the 'chips' of the medium but off the top of my head:

Chungking Express
Tree of Life
Seven Samurai
Sword of Doom
Tampopo
The New World
Jules and Jim
Bugsy Malone
Predator
Aliens
The Hidden Fortress
Home Alone
Ran
Gremlins
Terminator 2
Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Better

[BlodwynPig]

Bgmnts millennial falcon teaser

[Goldentony]

utter shit, no cunt gets their face torn off

[The Boston Crab]

Best films ever made if there apramets of your experience are Emorie magzine best ever films ussue

[Replies From View]

The Lord of the Rings is a list-of-things thread in the form of three films.

[BlodwynPig]

Merry Christmas

[Delete Delete Delete]

Its effectivly this for 9 hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuI23zCudKY

Way too long.