Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Purists? - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
And it's not like you can close your eyes and lose track of the story. This movie was very predictable in some places. Ploddingly predictable. But the story unfolds so quickly you don't have time to get bored, and by the time the credits rolled I think everyone looked at their watch and said, "That can't have been three hours!"
Cinematically, if there is a weakness to the movie it has to be the pacing. The scenes are so fast and the characters sweep across the landscape so rapidly that any time they settle into a scene for more than a minute, the change in pace seems a little jarring. But short of making six three-hour films or cutting out even more of the story, I don't see that there is much else to be done with the material.
I was comfortable enough with the journey of the Ringbearers that I stopped and scoured the walls of Moria for some of those details we are supposed to know are there but cannot see. Did I see anything interesting? Well, there were a lot of runes carved on the walls. Whose runes? I have no idea. The camera didn't sit still long enough for me to get a good look.
It has been said that Peter Jackson treats the camera as another person in each scene. This is his way of drawing the audience into the story. He uses changing angles, reverse-action whatchamadiggits, and sweeping panoramic shots that scope out the countryside, focusing in on the action as it heats up.
If anyone is afraid that the movie departs from Tolkien's book, they may rest assured that it does. If anyone is hoping that the movie brings Middle-earth to life, they may rest assured that it does. Is it Tolkien's Middle-earth? Of course not. It's Peter Jackson's Middle-earth. But it's a beautiful image and one well worth absorbing at least once or twice.
I have to say that I liked the performances. Some of the dialogue was a bit below the actors. I got the impression that they wanted to say more but they couldn't -- they had to get on with the scenes and that was just the way it had to be. So there was an intensity about the delivery.
I'm a big Liv Tyler fan, so I'm biased in her favor. Nonetheless, I think she came off better than many people expected (or feared). There were some snickers from a few people when the sub-titles appeared. They were so low on the screen the bottom half of the words were cut off. Still, I liked seeing Liv and look forward to seeing more of her in these movies. Arwen doesn't have to be a prissy seamstress. People who insist that is all she can be obviously don't pay attention to what Tolkien wrote about Arwen and her family.
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