Lord of the Rings: Book vs Movie

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Aubrey009
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Re: Lord of the Rings: Book vs Movie

Post by Aubrey009 »

My kids are addicted to both the movies and books. They've gotten friends on board. My daughter even dressed up as Gandolf for Halloween this past year. My husband warned my son before he started college about class attendance--my husband had skipped a week of classes rereading LOTR trilogy again. We're all officially LOTR nerds.
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Post by Seeking_Adventure »

I love them both! I think Peter Jackson did a great job on the lord of the rings movies, but not so much on the hobbit...
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Post by NicholsC97 »

I prefer the books but I have to admit the movies were excellent too. They really nailed the casting on Aragon!
Aubrey009
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Post by Aubrey009 »

Can't count the number of times my family has watched the trilogy. My kids say the books are better though. I haven't read them yet.
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Nisha Ward
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Post by Nisha Ward »

I like both but the books a bit more. Some of my favourite parts aren't in the film and I like Tolkien's prose a lot.
"...while a book has got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the reader it's got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the writer as well." - Terry Pratchett on The Last Continent and his writing.
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Post by mariana90 »

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is so awesome no movie can come close, even though I agree 100% they are great movies (except for the ending of ROTK, hated it). It's impossible to compress Tolkien's material in such a short time, so I think that's why the movies will always pale in comparison. I thought it a great shame they didn't include the battle for the Shire in the movies, though I understand it would have added another hour of running time.

I read the Beren and Lúthien book and enjoyed it immensely. It's a strange book to read, because it isn't a story but a reconstruction of one, with Christopher Tolkien trying to piece together his father's many drafts of that tale. Definitely worth the read.
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Post by Njdockrat »

This may sound like a cop out, but I don’t think you can really compare the two. Books and films are such different mediums that I you have to judge each one individually. You can convey a lot of information in a couple of pages in a book that would require an hour to explain fully on film. On the other hand, the visuals and sound in a film can connect in an incredibly visceral way. When I watch a movie adaption of a book I have read the big question I ask is “Did the filmmakers capture the essence of the book?” In the case of LOTR, I think they did about as good a job as anyone could.
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Post by Charlie19 »

i have not read the book of the lord of the rings because i hate series books they made me feel lazy but i loved the movie.
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Post by stewartje »

LOTR is my favorite book series of all time and I do regular re-reads of it, but I feel like the movies are such good representations of the material that I also regularly re-watch the movies (extended editions of course!) There are obviously things that had to be cut when making the movies (Tom Bombadil, the battle for the Shire) but it would have been unreasonable to expect literally everything to have made it into the movies. They are also extremely well written books, so even if the movies had been completely comprehensive I would still want to re-read them.
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Post by RoxieReads »

The movies are incredible, but nothing beats the books. The books have so much more detail and scenes, but I think that overall the movies did a very good job.
~Roxie~
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Post by HeatherEi »

I love both equally. I love the casting for the movies. I think Peter Jackson did a great job with directing and bringing the story to life.
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Post by AdamRedWolf »

Honestly, all very underwhelming. The movies did a good job of including most important parts from the books, but the books often became snoooooooze-fests.

I know this is an unpopular opinion for a fantasy reader, but hey, LOTR just doesn't get me there.
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
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Post by Rachael S 1 »

This is one of the few times that I have to say the movies won out over the books. There were little things left out, but as a whole, it was really well done. Even the Hobbits was well done.
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Post by Ra Ka »

The Lord of the Rings books are better than the movie, but watching the movie is still fun
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Post by Susan Gibbs »

I enjoyed reading the book(I have all three books in one), but in this particular case, I think I will say the movies are better. The movies really are spectacular. It's wonderful to escape into these movies and be amazed by all the special effects.
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