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Lord of the Rings was beautiful but disappointing

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Saw Lord of the Rings last night. It was at once very impressive and somewhat disappointing. It was impressive because the movie-making mechanics were spot on. Everything was as I'd pictured it, and beautifully done.

But that was what was also disappointing. I already had it all worked out so similarly! The casting met with the figures I'd always imagined; the sets and the monsters and the countryside was just as I'd pictured it; even the littlest things like the hobbit's homes and the fireworks and the doorway into Moria (well, we had a drawing in the book for that one). Also, it was indulgent and faux-weighty.

I've come to see The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in very different lights. It's The Hobbit that's the brilliant book - great pacing, massively original, superb world-building, all of it. The Lord of the Rings doesn't even read like it was passed by an editor.