Aaron Woolsey

This film is my favorite film of all time. The sheer force of a narrative with no dialog, very little said in the entire film, only a single character who is silent through most of the film, but the story puts the viewer there with our man, so often the viewer understands what is happening just as the character understands it as well. Finally the ending is beautifully ambiguous. Just a perfect film, well conceived, directed, shot, acted. Bravo! I know lots of people who sail have a lot to say about how unrealistic it is. That’s fine. I can still enjoy Terminator 2 or Mad Max as films or The Last of Us as a game or TV show without being bogged down by how unrealistic they are. RR did an amazing job of acting here and I happen to like that we know nothing about our man, we don’t know if he is actually saved at the end or is that the hand of an angel of the afterlife extending toward him, he does commit daft error after daft error because he is an utterly flawed character. I love this film despite all of that and the lack of closure or understanding of the main character are things that always bring me back to it.

While I am entertained by this show, only two episodes in, I am annoyed at the liberties taken. But first, the positives: I LOVE the diverse cast and inclusion of people of color throughout. I LOVE that they have made a female character a major lead as nearly all of The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion is just a sausage fest. Tolkien wrote great epic stories but he was horrible at including real women in them. The only women I recall being of importance in his stories were Tuor’s sister (I have forgotten her name), Galadriel (in LOTR, but not in the Silmarillion) and Eowyn. Glad they are changing that aspect of the stories. The visuals are fantastic; Khazad Dum looks amazing, as do the Grey Havens and Eregion. Now for the stuff that just annoys me: Galadriel is now Arya Stark? Her staunch elven warriors are easily cut down by a troll but she does her bladesong and single-handedly takes care of business? She also seems to think that she has a special drive to go after Sauron, but somehow Elrond (great grandchild of Beren, Luthien, Turin, and Idril), and Gil-Galad and the rest do not? Speaking of Gil-Galad…Galadriel is married and is nobility among the Noldor. Gil-Galad could not have forced her onto a boat back to Valinor. Her husband, Celeborn, is of the elves of Middle Earth…the whole reason she stayed after the sundering was that her husband remained. And then, Galadriel’s brother was killed by Sauron? Oh, you mean Finrod Felagund, the guy who built Nargothrond? That guy? Finally, with anger management problems Galadriel, she leaps out of a boat just as it is reaching Valinor and then calmly starts doing the crawl back to Middle Earth? What?!?!!?!? I mean…it’s not the English Channel here, more like swimming across the Pacific Ocean!!! Other details bother me as well: the maps they show have the island that is literally a piece of Numenor broken off on it, yet…no Numenor in the show and anyway, that piece breaking off bit happens after the fall of Numenor…well after…nm, spoilers. Why is Celebrimbor talking about his grandfather, Feanor, as if he was some mythological figure? It’s his grandfather…he is literally from the same line in the same house of Feanor! How are Elrond and Durin old pals and what language do they speak when they speak to each other? So they speak a common tongue but Gandalf can’t utter words? I’ll continue watching a bit but I am very glad that I have read the books and am therefore not fool enough to believe this show depicts Tolkien’s vision for his stories.