The Hobbit is a fairy tale. The Lord of the Rings is a legend. The Silmarillion is a myth. All three are masterpieces created by J. R. R. Tolkien, and once asserted to be unfilmable. Twenty years ago, Peter Jackson stunned the world with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and he did that by keeping to Tolkien's books in every detail. Ten years ago, Jackson did The Hobbit trilogy, this time with some of his own devices, most notably the she-elf and her love affair with one of the dwarfs. At that time, I kind of hoped that Jackson had been more faithful to Tolkien's works, as he had been in The Lord of the Rings, but it turned out to be alright. But that's only because The Hobbit is a bedtime story to start with.
The Silmarillion, however, is an entirely different matter. While The Lord of the Rings is about how small people can make a big difference, The Silmarillion is about the pure grandeur of bygone days in the middle earth, about the glory and magnificence of elves in their full power. Sometimes focusing on insignificant people in the grand history makes a solid and touching story, as in The Lord of the Rings, sometimes it just makes a ridiculous confusion. And mingling the lives of ancient Hobbits with the Great Wars, or forcing a love affair between two characters made up out of nowhere into a well-established myth, most certainly falls into the later case. It reminds me a lot of the last season of Game of Thrones, where they ran out of source materials. But at least George Martin was there for them, whereas Tolkien isn't. So please honor his memory, show some respect to his masterpiece, and stop all this nonsense.
And the cast is awful as well. Elrond and Gilgalad are the two most un-elvish elves I've ever seen. Gilgalad looks as if he's suffering from constipation. Elrond looks way too naughty. And Thondir (whom I believe is another made-up character) always seems like he's day-dreaming. Galadriel is the only character worthy of the show's title. For her alone I will finish the rest of this show, but that doesn't change the fact that this show is a fiasco. The Silmarillion is the one book that's truly unfilmable. And they should have left it alone.
The Silmarillion, however, is an entirely different matter. While The Lord of the Rings is about how small people can make a big difference, The Silmarillion is about the pure grandeur of bygone days in the middle earth, about the glory and magnificence of elves in their full power. Sometimes focusing on insignificant people in the grand history makes a solid and touching story, as in The Lord of the Rings, sometimes it just makes a ridiculous confusion. And mingling the lives of ancient Hobbits with the Great Wars, or forcing a love affair between two characters made up out of nowhere into a well-established myth, most certainly falls into the later case. It reminds me a lot of the last season of Game of Thrones, where they ran out of source materials. But at least George Martin was there for them, whereas Tolkien isn't. So please honor his memory, show some respect to his masterpiece, and stop all this nonsense.
And the cast is awful as well. Elrond and Gilgalad are the two most un-elvish elves I've ever seen. Gilgalad looks as if he's suffering from constipation. Elrond looks way too naughty. And Thondir (whom I believe is another made-up character) always seems like he's day-dreaming. Galadriel is the only character worthy of the show's title. For her alone I will finish the rest of this show, but that doesn't change the fact that this show is a fiasco. The Silmarillion is the one book that's truly unfilmable. And they should have left it alone.