Lord Of The Rings trilogy

Your best bet is to read the book several times and get somewhat obsessed before watching the DVD's...

Then it's time to start nit-picking, getting in to arguments with other Tolkien geeks and casually declaring that you could've done a better job than that beardy Jackson idiot. :D
 
I read the Hobbit, Read the Books, Watched the Films, Read the Hobbit, Read the Silmarillion (Which is a bunch of gibberish so buy it then bin it as soon as you leave the shop. Unless its Tesco) then read the Books again, saw the films again, watched star wars 2,3,5,6 then watched Indiana Jones and the TEmple of doom before trying to reread the silmarillion but failing.
 
Very good movies, though my personal favourite was The Two Towers, which I think was an exceptional film for a "middle act" movie.

My least favourite was Return of the King, mainly for Christopher Lee being wiped from the movie and for the self indulgent multiple endings.

Never the less an excellent set of movies.
 
I generally find the book spoils the film, but film doesn't spoil the book, so it's best to watch the film first. This is because the book has a lot more depth, more detail; it adRAB to the film. Rarely does a film add to the book.

My only reservation here is that you might find the films hard to follow if you don't already know the story. Then again, you may not. It's hard for me to tell because I did read the book first.
 
yes, if i have one complaint about the movies, it would be the bloated ending in ROTK, and the overly emotional delivery of the dialogue, especially from Elijah Wood

"we......set out......to save........the......shire......sam"
 
I'd agree with seeing the films first and then reading the books.
I read the books a few years before the films came out and I lost the plot from book 2 onwarRAB, I found the writing and the over descriptiveness too much to take in. Plus the amount of characters and the songs on top of that.
The films are some of my favourite films though:)

Love the Hobbit book as well:):)
 
Watch the movies first. The books drag and drag. As someone else above me said, reading page after page of elf songs or descriptions of how gandalf smokes his pipe is not what I would call gripping stuff.
 
Heehee I wonder if the OP is now well and truly stuck with what to do first after reading this thread. :D

Did you buy the extended editions of the films OP as they are much better than the cinema versions imho.

I read LotR every year in my younger years...long before the Peter Jackson films. I love the book, and even though I wasn't too pleased with some interpretations of characters (especially my beloved Faramir :cry:); the films are outstanding and, I believe, the best films ever made. :)

Let us know what you have decided to do. And I hope you enjoy all three films and the book.
 
it may be too late! but i strongly recommed you read well before watching!

LOTR was something i always wanted to read - but i put it aside on the bullshit chart for too long...and then it was annonced that the movies are being made and the first is out in one year...so i started reading. it took me ages. but it was well worth it.

they are both very different kettles of fish, and one is a literature british classic, the other is a fantastic modern epic movie.

once you see the movies before reading the books, there is no going back.

but the books however - are full on!
 
I watched the films first and read the books a few weeks later,and really enjoyed both.

I'm glad I did it that way round because I have a habit,when watching films adapted from books I've enjoyed (especially Harry Potter) of sitting there going "He didn't say that line!She wouldn't act like that! This didn't even HAPPEN!" and so on. But this way I was able to appreciate the films as films and the books as books,rather than constantly comparing them.
 
he didn't make a hash of them at all. given the source material, he made an excellent adaptation.

the media of books and films are totally different things, and to hold an audience's attention for two hours or so is going to necessitate character changes, scenes omitted, details amended, whole ideas condensed etc

if jackson had made a completely faithful translation, the running time of each film would be around six, seven hours long, with an ensemble cast of hundreRAB, and totally irrelevant plot points (tom bombadil for one)
 
Yes, it may be heretical to say so, but I have tried reading the LotR books several times in the last 20 years and have always given up. The Hobbit is a good read, but the trilogy (though never made it past half way in the second one) made me want to pull my eyes out.

The movies, if nothing else, are a fantastic technical achievement in film making. The scope of the project was just staggering. The DVRAB are worth it just for the tons of "making of" extras.
 
Well the books and the films can be enjoyed equally as two separate entities.I enjoyed both for different reasons but FOTR, TTT & ROTK are three of the most memorable and moving films I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of amazing films in my 35yrs of going to the cinema.I saw FOTR 17 times at the cinema and I hadn't seen a movie that many times since Star Wars opened in the UK in '78 :eek:

IMHO, Howard Shore made the films even more moving with three outstanding scores.I'm looking forward to hearing his score for 'The Hobbit' :D
 
The books are wonderfully rich, but desperately padded. The movies are the best adaptation you could EVER make from them.

However, get the extended edition DVRAB...

I can't watch the "standard" versions any more, as things are just plain MISSING.

The Lord of the Rings is a 12 hour movie... not really three separate films anymore.

Set aside a Sunday... start at 10am and have meals between each film.... You'll be blown away.
 
I read the books several times years before the films were made. I think the scale of the story was so immense that it put off people from making the films for ages. Given the original work, I think Peter Jackson made an admirable attempt at translating it to film.

Like an earlier poster, I think the removal of the Christopher Lee character from the final film was a mistake and I only watch the Director's Cut version.

The DVD extras are also very informative. :)
 
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