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Without CGI, those films would never have even been made, I think.
I’ll agree when it comes to “The Hobbit” - the endless reliance on ever-perposterous CGI has destroyed the creative story-telling process.
I think Vigo’s criticisms are right on. I also think the headline writer is trying to create more of a controversy than Vigo probably intended. PJ went way over the top on special effects, and in the Hobbit, the effects are now driving the story, at the expense of the plot and characters.
The third movie ... the battle was too much "shaky cam" for me. Had it been in 3-D, I would've been nauseous. That said, I can see the advantage of producing them on the cheap to get them finished on the budget they had and they reworking it later.
That's silly - anybody can make small movies. All you need is an idea and small amounts of funding. It's the epic ones that are difficult to make, because of the gargantuan costs.
The worst thing to happen to film: CGI.
The chase in the goblin cavern is too much video game and too little movie sequence.
For my tastes, Vigo Mortenson can go pound lembas bread. He was probably the weakest character in all the LOTR films, a greasy, unkempt mumbler who showed little of the regal bearing required of Tolkien’s Aragorn. It was a bad casting job, and Vigo should be doing “Paint Your Wagon” at the Suburban Dinner Theater’s matinees.
When the world created by the mind of the ORIGINAL STORY writer, to create the environment within the character(s) live, breath, think, feel, and act, is changed by Hollywood to where THAT WORLD, i.e., CGI, takes precedence over the character-driven stories, as J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories have always been, the movie sucks.
Example: Edgar Rice Burroughs; John Carter of Mars.
TWICE made, once with Traci Lords, and one without. One called John Carter of Mars. The other, just John Carter.
TWICE sucked.
I have read Tolkien’s works many years ago, before the Bakshi-animated film, “The Hobbit”, was released. THAT film, though not CGI, did act as a precursor to today’s muddling CGI.
I think Viggo is a dork but I also think he’s right. The first movie was closer to the book, it was story driven. CGI in that one complemented the story nothing else. Starting with the next one, CGI started taking over, visuals over story and ROTR was worse.
The Hobbit (I’ve only seen the first one) was awful. CGI to the point of phoniness. I can’t blame the studios for funding these though, the movie going public (ie young people) don’t care about story. They didn’t grow up reading, they don’t have the desire for a plot.
This sounds like some old silent film actors.
When the movie studios discovered “talkies” they never looked back.
Useless Trivia: Viggo has a 30-something son with Exene Cervenka, lead singer of the 1970s and 1980s L.A.-based punk band X.