The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is often and widely considered one of the greatest ever film trilogies, but to me, they’re very overrated! I am not saying that they are outright bad, as firstly there are some good bits in it, and secondly, there are other films, and trilogies that are far worse than it. I mean I think we can all agree tha the LOTR trilogy is far better than The Hobbit Trilogy, right? But, as I get older, I consider how lucky others who haven’t seen the LOTR trilogy are.
There was no chance I could escape The Lord of the Rings entirely. I remember when I was very young, my Dad talking about the books, and I think one of (if not both, it was a very long time ago) my brother’s read them too. And then when the first film was about to release, that same brother was getting super hyped about them, and plastered LOTR movie content all over the family PC. He even showed me the trailer, which just looked fine, I liked how it had a Troll in it.
Then when Fellowship of the Ring came out, the family decided to go see it, and despite not really wanting to go, they bought me a ticket anyway. I saw the film, and got very upset about a particular scene, which did really get to me. I was only about 12 at the time, and during the final battle, one of the Uruk-hai creatures, visibly get’s their head chopped off!
That was something incredibly brutal, featured in a film with a PG rating. How did that, pass with a PG rating? It should have been a 15 minimum! Not to mention you see one of his arms getting chopped off before hand. Incredibly gruesome, particularly for an early teenager. It was hard to get to sleep for the next few nights! That’s why I originally didn’t like it. That and the phrase ‘you wouldn’t like it, if you didn’t like Lord of the Rings’ which my brothers kept telling me over the next several months, anytime I wanted to watch a new film (but in fairness they were right about Spiderman).
Over time, I did slowly come to terms with the scene, and initially did come to like the world of Lord of the Rings, over the next two films. But as time progressed afterwards, the cracks began to form. Firstly it started with the implausibility of scenes, like how the ring being destroyed, somehow causes a building’s structure to collapse (very shoddy workmanship). And then after that, the question of all the good guys being stuck on an island, if they ground beneath all the Orcs disappears, and the orcs did surround them into a tight circle, so surely that would mean that the heroes would be stuck on an island for ever? Or of course, why not just take the easy option, and fly the Ring to Mordor on the backs of giant Eagles? Or why only have a company of nine to take the Ring to Mordor, when there’s several large armies between them and there?
Just stuff like that, and then the more I saw repeats of it via VHS (yes, VHS) and TV, the more continuity errors began to show, and frequently shine more than anything else that takes place in the film.
But the issue with trying to raise problems with anything Lord of the Rings, is how heavily defensive the fan base is, who refuse to see there are any issues. Talking to friends about it, they would tell me (in the kindest way possible of course) to basically shut up, and tell me (again in the kindest way possible of course) that I didn’t know what I was talking about, or that I was (again in the kindest way possible of course) flat wrong!
It was like I was being shunned for not liking something, like I was committing a media version of a hate crime! Although I would later discover their Kryptonite. Yes, LOTR mega fans have a built in weakness, like Kryptonite is to Superman, or the Probic Vent is to the Sontarans. And I will share that with you now, because mentioning these two words, does make them flip argument, and instead of defending the LOTR films, they will (for a considerable time) actively dislike them! Those two words are: “Tom Bombadil“! Sort of like this:
Now I am totally fine with fans defending their favourite things. I have spent a lot of my life defending the Godzilla films (which is mega hard to do in the UK due to the lack of the series presence, in the UK, for most of my life). And sure when I was younger I would defend it with my life, but as I get older, I would learn the value of a more structured debate/argument over the subject, highlighting important and credible points, whilst also raising noteworthy flaws; rather than say things like: “They are the best, because they are!”
But the Lord of the Rings trilogy finds itself in that slot, where simply stating their name causes the majority of those that like it to say “Great Films” or “Aren’t those Films Great”. It’s like when you mention Titanic, you get the same response, and noting more. No explanation as to why people like it. It’s very much like listening to one of Donald Trump‘s speeches: ‘Lord of the Rings, Great Films, Great Films, They are Great Films, Great Films’.
It does make it difficult for me to really join in the conversation about the films, as I get shot down incredibly quickly. And that’s before I can make other points about the film. Like how it’s set in a fantasy world but there’s no Dragons (at least Game of Thrones eventually got round to introducing them, a point I know despite not watching a single episode), and you have a Wizard, who constantly uses a sword in combat, rather than say use his staff to create a giant monster to appear, or an army of killer rabbits, or just create a massive flamethrower.
It’s got issues, and it’s caused issues. So I genuinley wished I had never seen them. That way, anytime it gets mentioned in conversation, I could just say “I haven’t seen them”, and then I could just move on with my life. There would be a couple of issues with that though:
1. I wouldn’t be able to tell the story of the time I rewatched Return of the Jedi-sorry-King on one channel, then switch over to watch Batman Begins on the other, and state how Batman Begins is the far superior film, and
2. I wouldn’t be able to ask how anyone who watches a film series that’s nearly 9+ hours long, thinks to themselves; ‘You know what, these films just aren’t long enough!’
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