Crazy About Lord of the Rings!

I have a feeling my friend Sara will appreciate this post - she's a huge Lord of the Rings fans, and fact of the matter is that I've spent I don't know how many hours watching the triology lately! :) I have also managed to read the book, so I'm hoping to get some time during the summer to read some more of Tolkien (I've only read Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit)!

Have to say I think the movies are really wonderfully done!! To actually pull through transforming such an epic to the movie screen is truly amazing!! I don't know why I've ended up in such a frenzy right now, but I just can't seem to stop watching ... the movies, all the extra materials, dvd commentaries ... can't bring myself to stop! *lol*

I have also made caps from The Fellowship of the Ring so far - so I'll add some graphics at the end of the post. Hope to be able to make caps from The Two Towers and The Return of the King as well - although it takes quite a lot of time.

I know there's been a lot of debate - especially when these movies came - about what should have been included, what shouldn't have been in the movies etc. And that's always tough. You can't include everything from the books in the movies, but I have to say I mainly miss two things. First of all - the most common one ;) - the Old Forrest and Tom Bombadill. It was such a wonderful part of the book, you can't help feeling that it would have been amazing on screen. I know they've sort of tried to insert bits and pieces of it later on in the movies ... some of the things Treebeard says to Merry and Pippin seem to be quite related to how Tom Bombadill would react for example. And also the tree that "catches" Merry and Pippin and almost "swallows" them in Fangorn Forrest in The Two Towers is exactly from the Old Forrest in the book. But I still would have liked to see the whole episode of The Old Forrest on screen.
The other thing I would have loved to see is the return of the hobbits to The Shire. There is a whole storyline built around that in the book (yeah, right: spoiler warning!!), where Saruman - in disguise - has influenced and manipulated The Shire. To me, this is a great way of showing how much Merry and Pippin - and Sam - has grown throughout their adventures. They were just "funny little hobbits" when they left, but they come back with so much authority and security and wisdom, it is fantastic to see what the journey has done to them. This is completely overlooked in the movies ... well, you get the feel for it when Merry becomes Esquare of Rohan, and Pippin is Guard of the Citadel in Minas Tirith, but it becomes so much clearer when they are at their home, in the Shire ...

I'm certain Peter Jackson has his reasons for not including these sequences - I guess some people think the movies are long enough as they are now! *lol* - but I still would have liked to see them! :)

Here are the graphics I've made so far:

And some variations on the same graphic:

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My Life At The Moment!
Currently reading: Andras Plåga/The Torment of Others by Val McDermid
Currently watching: The Two Towers Cast Commentary
Currently listening to: --
My Plans for tomorrow: Preparing for my trip north: cleaning, laundry, shopping, packing ...