If Jackson made "The Silmarillion the Movie"

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Thorin II
I'm not sure PJ is really "bound" by realism; it was more of a choice for how he wanted the film to look. He wanted it to feel more like historical fiction. Frankly, I think it was one of the better decisions he made on the film.

Tolkien already presented the book as historical - so whose history do you claim Jackson was trying to portray?

I agree with Sween - jackson was too human centric - one of the many problems with Lord of the Rings and something that would be completely disasterous for Silmarillion - especially since essentially it's the tale of the elves. Lord of the Rings was supposed to be the hobbits' tale and ended up the tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

[Thorin II]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Tolkien already presented the book as historical - so whose history do you claim Jackson was trying to portray?

I agree with Sween - jackson was too human centric - one of the many problems with Lord of the Rings and something that would be completely disasterous for Silmarillion - especially since essentially it's the tale of the elves. Lord of the Rings was supposed to be the hobbits' tale and ended up the tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

I didn't mean that PJ tried to make the movie more historical than JRRT's book. PJ's statement was meant to differentiate from other fantasy movies of the past (most of which have sucked). Movies like "Willow" made no attempt to seem realistic, which is part of the reason they failed. PJ wanted to avoid that, and I think he did.

As for the movies being to human-centric, I think it's a fair criticism of TTT. The other two movies were much more focused on the hobbits. In making the Silmarillion, I'm not sure PJ would know how to how how powerful and amazing the elves were. Then again, I don't know how anyone else would do it, either. Books have the advantage of imagination.

[Wayfarer]

Hey! Willow was a great movie.

I do think that the story is one meant to be portrayed as 'historical'. However, I dislike that jackson has interpreted 'historical' as 'dark, gloomy, gritty, dirty, and medieval' with a dash of the cheeziness found in traditional fantasy costumes and such.

[Gerbil]

If Jackson made "The Silmarillion the Movie"

I´d kill him.

If anyone thinks PJ has the directorial skills to do anything other than make the Silmarillion into ´pretty scenery, shame about the plot-changes´, then they must have just watched a different Lord of the Rings trilogy to me.

[Durin1]

Originally posted by Gerbil
I´d kill him.

If anyone thinks PJ has the directorial skills to do anything other than make the Silmarillion into ´pretty scenery, shame about the plot-changes´, then they must have just watched a different Lord of the Rings trilogy to me.

Exactly! Totally agree.

At best PJ is nothing but an average director who, whilst being able to make a good film, could never make a great film. Many aspects of the LoTR films are classic examples: poor characterisations (Merry, Pippin, Denethor, Gimli, Elrond, Faramir et al; they are either stupid, childish or comic-relief), inappropriate humour ( intentional and unintentional (Gandalf hitting Denethor, for example), bad dialogue (at most times) etc etc.

... Not to mention weird plot changes. Would Sam have really left Frodo at Cirith Ungol? Would Aragorn really sit on his backside until Gondor sent out beacons of help at the last minute?( Denethor was becoming mad but he wasn't stupid). Why would anyone believe that a lord of the Elves would suddenly come into the Rohirrim camp in the middle of the night to finally deliver Anduril? The introduction of the Grey Company would have (IMO) been much more effective, since it would show that Aragorn wasn't the only Ranger from the North, and it would have further enhanced his nobility and heritage (the Dunedain are said to be held in awe by the Rohirrim, who look like children compared to them).

And so on and so forth.

I probably went on a bit but just wanted to highlight what I deem as flaws in PJ's directorial abilities. And this is with all the clear-cut information gained from the books!

Can people really think that a movie could adequately be made by PJ from the immense complexity of The Sil (much more so compared with LoTR): with so many interpolations, background history, short scenes, limited character development etc? confused:

The major problem is that The Sil would have too many aspects to it which would have to be left to "interpretation" (and we all know what PJ did with interpreting LoTR; where much of it was confusing weird and just plain stupid).

In short, The Sil should never be made, least of all by PJ.

[Gerbil]

I agree, I think PJ is an average director.
That the LotR Films are great is simply because with such an incredible source, even he couldn´t get it wrong all the time.
In other words, I count the good bits as PJ being lucky, while the bad bits show his true form - not good bits are PJ´s responsibility, and the bad bits are unlucky.

Mind you, having said that, there´s probably plenty of directors who could have done an equally adequate job.

So same is true of anyone doing the Sil, they´ll probably churn out an ok film because quite frankly it´d be hard not to. Having said that, any plot changes in the Sil would be idiotic, and stand out like a sore thumb much more than LotR changes ever did (and they were pretty darned glaring!).

The Hobbit, now, it´ll be interesting to see that one, mainly because it´ll actually be quite a good way of seeing PJ´s REAL abilities. The story is simple enough not to warrant drastic changes (assuming his ego doesn´t get in the way again), the characters are relatively comic to start with, and the film itself is much less about battles and stuff but simple individual set-pieces.
In other words, I´d fully expect him to do a crap job, and manage to insert some huge battle in the middle just to remind people he´s got the software to do it - after all, what´s an epic film with only 1 huge battle eh?

[Nurvingiel]

I don't think the Silmarillion would translate well into a movie at all. No director could do it justice.