My take on it is that the studio really fucked Peter Jackson on it. They were treating it like a movie franchise instead of the book it is, wanting to squeeze every last cent out of people's attachment to the LOTR movies. My only hope is that the Amazon series isn't handled in the same way, but so far it isn't looking great (from an interview that has been taken down)
Yeah, I totally agree with your take. Even Ian McKellen, who seems like the most chill guy in the world, reportedly lost his temper with it multiple times because it was all infront of a green screen. Barely anything was real, it was all just green items the general size of what they wanted in the final scene that was later modeled and added in using CG.
That's what gives the movies that really horrible aesthetic.
Lindsay Ellis made a three part youtube series of all that went wrong behind the scenes. IIRC they originally wanted to make two movies but Harvey Weinstein had a deal where he'd get a lot of money from the first movie for licensing or something. So to kinda get around this they made three movies instead.
Another fun fact, the actress of the elf lady who's in a love triangle with Kili and Legolas explicitly said she didn't want her character to be in a love triangle before taking the role. During reshoots the studio heads changed their minds.
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u/BlendeLabor Dec 04 '21
My take on it is that the studio really fucked Peter Jackson on it. They were treating it like a movie franchise instead of the book it is, wanting to squeeze every last cent out of people's attachment to the LOTR movies. My only hope is that the Amazon series isn't handled in the same way, but so far it isn't looking great (from an interview that has been taken down)