I knew I was probably going to love The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring right around the seven minute mark. I had half-heartedly read The Hobbit in middle-school (and watched the musical cartoon version) and wasn't crazy about it, causing me to never get around to reading Lord of the Rings. But as I sat there on opening night just over ten years ago watching the above prologue unspool before me, not only was I utterly captivated and entertained, but I was left with a complete understanding of the fantastical world that these films would be set in, as well as exactly what was at stake. It was completely coherent and utterly comprehensible, even to a relative Tolkien newbie. In all 10-11 hours of the three-film Lord of the Rings saga, I was never once confused by the character names, geographic locations, or the broad plot movements. So when I tell you that John Carter confused the hell out of me, it's not because I'm some grumpy old man who can't handle his fantasy alongside his comic book adventures. It's because I'm pretty sure that everyone involved at the highest levels of production had either read the original books or was familiar enough with them to not even question whether a newbie could follow the film version. Peter Jackson never made that mistake...
Scott Mendelson
Scott Mendelson
I think you meant "neither" there at the end Scott.
ReplyDeleteI was really hoping for some Disney magic to strike. We'll see for me this weekend.
This prologue is the best thing in the entire trilogy (along with the best film, bar none)...so much so that it virtually makes the upcoming Hobbit films unimportant. That's how good that prologue is.
ReplyDeleteThe extended Fellowship of the Ring film is the best of the trilogy, and the prologue has some of the best editing.
ReplyDeleteI was extremely disappointed with some of the plot/character deviations that Jackson & co. decided to make; it almost feels like they (thematically) missed the point.