quote:
but this film was meant to appeal to a wider audience.
Yeah, but do you really think it acheived this? Sure it had some cool effects and some top fighty-fighty bits, but plot-wise the film was utterly inaccessible to anyone who doesn't already know the story.
The first time I went to see it there were about 10 of us, and only 4 or 5 of us had actually read the book. We all loved it although we had reservations about the changes.
The others came out grumbling about the length of it and saying things like "yeah, very pretty, but what was all that crap about the sword of this and the horn of that and the mountains of something or other, and what was the deal with those two beardy blokes and the girl in the floaty dress speaking Welsh, and..." etc etc etc.
My girlfriend actually fell asleep.
What I'm saying is, even though they shaved about a quarter of the plot off there was still far too much to be digested raw in 3 hours. Because of the depth of the story you have to go for either utter bastardisation to make it universally accessible, or painstaking pedantry to delight the Scary Tolkien Fanatics. I can't see the point in compromise, since it will lose appeal at both ends of the spectrum.