@Brant: The Hobbits are rubbish and should die consumed by flames. Get a pirate copy of the Rankin-Bass. It's much better and hews more closely to the story line. And my nerdrage is a poor ember compared to my beloved's on this topic.
no need for a pirate. I have it here somewhere in a box
The Peter Jackson flicks are
not the Tolkien books. They're a massive LotR prequel loosely based on the books, starring Christopher Lee's thoroughly-British dentalwork.
But as long as you don't compare them to the books, it's not a bad yarn. It's just not the books.
The worst book-to-movie translation, without exception, is the Space-Movie-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named to which one of the lesser denizens of the Hollywood hog wallow tried to attach the title of a great book by Robert Heinlein. Hint: Doogie Hauser plays Himmler.
That's b/c they already had a movie written and went shopping for the rights to a media license they could slap on it, and found out the ST rights were available. The bought them, w/ options for sequels, and slapped them on an existing screenplay.
As soon as they jettisoned the power armor, though, the key plot of the back half of the book with the un-named platoon sergeant goes out the window, b/c you can see everyone's faces and there are no surprises.
Plus, it's clear they studied tactics at the George Lucas School of Braveheart Battle Scenes Only With Blasters Instead of Broadswords.
