[Iron Giant]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
The movies are beautiful to watch. The effort in creating the middle earth enviroment is worth it alone. The detail on the armor. The stone work. Take them for what they are an adaptation and interpertation of the book nothing more nothing less.

Ditto. All things concidered, the movies are not only a faithful interpretation, but have some things that you simply cannot do in a book, like the imagery of the Elven king explaining the futility of his daughters love for a mortal king as the scenes of her future life pass on the screen behind or the expressions achieved when Gollum struggles with the person he is and the personality he hates... truly brilliant!

That said, the book simply MUST be read for those parts of the story to be enjoyed that cannot be done on the big screen.

For anyone over 25 (mentally and emotionally) the return of Frodo to the Shire is one of the most beautiful stories of paradise to be read and simply had to be cut from the movies. The extended stories are already well over 10 hours total and they took quite the gamble with that amount of material anyway.

If the movies detracted from the book, I never, ever would have seen past The Fellowship of the Ring. IMHO, they add to the experience of Middle Earth, and are more than a faithful interpretation, they deserve to be called the Lord of the Rings.