Amazon is ruining LOTR?

[badlands]

Do you think so?

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/202...t-look/amp

[Travis Stephens]

I have seen so much stuff about Amazon's new series that is boggles the mind.

Some of it is farcical-  One poster on another board said he would "never watch it or anything Disney did after what Disney did to Star Wars".  Lol!

I saw a podcast where the host reviewed the San Diego Comic Com trailer and complained vehemently about how the Balrog's roar sounded like Godzilla stepped on a cat.  Upon being informed that it was the exactly same roar used in the Fellowship of the Ring movie, he doubled down and said he didn't like that roar either.  Who didn't like the Balrog's roar in the Fellowship movie?
 
Then you have grifters claiming that it will be a "woke bait and switch" (whatever that is) and that (gasp!)  there might be some Black people in it.  Tolkien based Middle Earth on Europe and obviously there were no Black people in Europe in the Middle Ages.  Of course you might want to check the origins of places like Venice,  Christiana, or St. Petersburg before you make such statements.  

This is an adaptation and it is based on admittedly sparse source material.  But the LOTR trilogy had "Is it safe", "Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell", "Not Faramir", bearded Numenoreans, trolls walking in daylight, Dwarves with Scottish accents, and a couple dozen other obvious departures from canon when the producers and director had tons of explicit source material.  Yet I thought it was awesome.  

We live in a funny Age.  One in which people have an abundance of information at their disposal, yet choose to ignore it.  I call it Social Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.   I would stick around, watch it and decide for myself.  Already it looks like you will get to see the Big Green Wave, Numenorean steelbows, Romestamo and Morinehtar,  Utumno, and the Fall of Gondolin.  These are things I thought I would never get to see in my lifetime.

[Michael]

Well, Peter Jackson's movies didn't ruin the books. They portrayed Middle-earth in a very different way from Tolkien's stories (and after many years Christopher Tolkien finally admitted that he detested Jackson's adaptation). But the books are still there for anyone to read.

What Peter Jackson did do was create a Middle-earth that is the only version recognized by millions of HIS fans.

And I think the same thing will happen with the Amazon show. Assuming it goes the full five seasons, there will be millions of viewers who have never read the books, who will only know and interpret Middle-earth through the Amazon lens. They will be fans of an Amazon Middle-earth, just as fans of the movies are fans of a Peter Jackson Middle-earth.

While I don't want to see Tolkien's work forgotten, that is kind of what happens with popular concepts. We no longer have the original versions of many stories that are now told through the lens of film and television. There are, supposedly, 500+ versions of the Cinderella story - and scholars aren't certain of where it began.

So I don't think Amazon can ruin The Lord of the Rings. They can't touch the original story. So they're telling their own story. It will have to stand on its own merits. And anyone who demands faithfulness to the books will have to look away.