I think Jackson did a phenomenal job on Fellowship. It was just the rest with some of the sections that dragged on. I am not crazy about long, drawn out battle scenes either. It becomes boring after more than a few minutes of orcs getting slaughtered or slow motion Legolas doing some bullet-time bow and arrow shooting. It sounds like some people love that stuff, but it all seems to play out the same way and predictably.
Where the books excelled - not prattling on about battles. Getting the tone right - nobody was making Dwarf jokes or goofing around. There isn’t a need for levity. I think that was Jackson pandering to studios or he decided to go full George Lucas and make Gimli his Jar Jar Binks.
Where the books sucked - the chronology of the story telling. Jackson did a good job making it linear, instead of that “you just finished reading what group A did, now lets start back at the beginning and follow group B” style that Tolkien used.
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