Friday, January 06, 2012

Day 24 - Favorite film based on a book/comic/etc.

This is highly unfair.  I want a day to talk about my favorite book adaptation, another for my favorite comic adaptation, another for my favorite big-screen incarnation of a TV show... but no, I have to choose one that stands above the others.  Pfui.

Well, I've already discussed the X-Men franchise here during this meme.  I discussed Firefly and its movie Serenity here during the last meme.  And I discussed my favorite film version of my favorite book here.  So now what?

I guess all I'm left with is The Lord of the Rings.  Which I came at entirely backwards, as far as this question is concerned -- I saw the movies before I read the books.


I realize this is heresy and lunacy and idiocy and probably several other things ending with -s/cy as far as most Tolkien fans are concerned, but I can't help it.  I read The Hobbit in high school and thought it was okay, but kinda boring.  (And yet, I'm all excited about the movie version coming out at the end of this year.  Go figure.)  I figured, why read Tolkien's longer work and spend 1,000 pages being bored?  It wasn't until The Fellowship of the Ring came to the big screen in 2001 that I got interested.  And, truth to tell, there were only two reasons I went to see it at all.  The first was that all my friends were going, including my boyfriend, who usually couldn't care less about seeing a movie in the theater.  The second was Sean Bean.

Sean Bean as Boromir, Captain of Gondor

I think Boromir would have been my favorite character anyway, but having Sean Bean play him sure didn't hurt ;-)  In fact, I can't imagine anyone else in the role.  That goes the same for most of the principle characters, with the exception of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, but I discussed that here long ago.  I love these movies, these characters, the setting, the story, the dialog -- I can't imagine them ever being surpassed on film, and I guess that actually makes them the perfect choice for this post.

The Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite of the three movies.

4 comments:

  1. And here I always felt like I was one of the last people to read LoTR, because I didn't read it until well after college (but long before the movies). I guess I'm not at all! Boromir was my favorite character from the first reading. Just loved him. Sean Bean, of course, was icing. I read The Hobbit once upon a time, but remember very little of it other than it didn't remotely reach me the way LotR did, but I'm also totally excited about the upcoming movie. I think it's because just seeing the preview, seeing that world look the same, I just can't wait to get back into that world. It's like SW... a gigantic portion of the attraction of that series is not the story or the characters but the universe that was created.

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  2. Yes! I love the world too -- regardless of the fact that The Hobbit still felt lackluster last time I read it (2007), I'm so jazzed for the films just so I can return to Middle Earth :-D

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  3. Hi there: Really love your blog (thanks) , and usually I do agree with your choices. I love Lord of the Rings trilogy but in one point I must differ because I think Viggo Mortensen was great as Aragorn. (But that could be because I do like the man).
    Eagerly anticipating The Hobbit, read the book many years ago and I didn't find it as riveting as LotR so let's hope Peter Jackson can enchant us again.

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  4. Hi, DaphneU! Glad you like my blog :-) My mom totally agrees with you -- she loves Viggo as Aragorn. And let's hope our faith in Peter Jackson is not unfounded! Only what, 9 more months before we find out?

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