Why LOTR Sucks: A Bad Beginning

Or should we call it a rebeginning? Or the tribeginning?

Whatever it is, I’m not sure why Peter Jackson feels the need to have all these flashbacks. What do we learn about Gollum? What do we learn about the ring? Not very much. Why have a flashback to show us what Gandalf already told us, unless we are getting something new? Something we didn’t already know. This flashback only makes sense if we didn’t already know how Gollum found the ring.

Of course, perhaps, this being three separate movies, there’s some need to recover old ground. I’m watching them back to back to back, so my demands as a viewer are different from someone watching them a year apart in the theater. Fair enough.

By the way, I’m six minutes in, and I have FOUR hours to go. I really wish I had the theatrical version right now.

Minutes Watched: 3.0:6.26

Number of Montages: 13

Number of slow motion close-ups of people crying: 50

Start at the beginning

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