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Originally Posted by Daradon
Again, not to say your opinion is wrong, just that it didn't really bug me that much, if at all. Thanks for sharing though, was curious.
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I've read the trilogy 5 times all the way through, the Silmarillion twice, and basically every tangential publication so I have a heightened sense for what should and shouldn't be when it comes to Middle Earth than the average moviegoer.
I know there are people out there who are just generally pissed off when anything happens in the movies that didn't happen in the books. That's not my attitude - I didn't mind the Warg battle, for instance, even though it was kind of pointless manufactured drama when they "killed" Aragorn, given that he's an un-killable character. There are some things that I take issue with because I don't see why they did it; having Frodo figure out how to get into Moria instead of Gandalf for example, or having Merry and the audience know immediately that Dernhelm was Eowyn (which I could go on at some length on because it was such a missed opportunity for a reveal that would've worked fantastically in a movie format). And then there are things that they did and I know why they did it and I disagree with the rationale, like having Arwen rescue Frodo at the ford (if there's a single moment that could ruin a movie that close-up would've been it, but I got over it). There are other things that I can see both sides of, like having Saruman apparently invent gunpowder.
With the Two Towers it's not individual points to discuss as to whether the change was a good idea (though there are some of those), it's that they basically re-wrote the damned book, ostensibly because they didn't think it would make for compelling enough movie-watching in terms of action. Your response to those two points is meaningless because
I specifically said they're merely examples of the larger problem with TTT. Watching it from my perspective there is a general tone throughout that film of a total lack of respect for the source material intertwined with a strong emphasis on appealing to the lowest common denominator, the audience member who just wants to see swordfights, explosions and Legolas doing Matrix-style stuff. Where Tolkein didn't provide enough Michael Bayish bullcrap, they threw out the Tolkein and just made it up, and I could just see people throwing ideas around like "Yeah, that'd look SICK!"