E3: Hands On with LEGO Lord of the Rings

[Steve Butts]

E3: Hands On with LEGO Lord of the Rings

Talking characters and realistic backgrounds.

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[Mumorpuger]

This will be the first LEGO video game I buy... I like how it hasn't been split up into 3 different games. I think Susan talking about LEGO Pirates of the Carribean in the most recent podcast made me want to check that one out too.

 

[TimeLord]

I got bored of the Lego games after the Star Wars iterations. This one looks like it will be a must buy for me!

 

[madwarper]

It looks interesting... But, sadly, the cuteness of Legos can't make up for the fact that they're portraying the shitiness of the Jackson movies, rather than the brilliance of Tolkien's books.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

The One Ring looks more like the One Bracelet compared to the rest of Frodo!

Interestingly, not everything in this game is made of Lego. Many of the backgrounds have the look of realistic miniatures.

To be honest this was a trend that started all the way back with Lego Indiana Jones. A lot of the environments in those games were modeled in a more realistic fashion and somehow it seemed to work there as well.

There's still quick travel to any location you want if you'd like to replay a mission for any reason, but the idea of having a seamless journey from the safety of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom is hard to resist.

This is what I've always said. The moment Lego get a hold of a franchise you KNOW that you will finally get a great game out of it. Being able to play the Fellowship's entire journey in one game has been my dream ever since we started seeing LOTR games. Thank you Traveller's Tales!

It looks interesting... But, sadly, the cuteness of Legos can't make up for the fact that they're portraying the shitiness of the Jackson movies, rather than the brilliance of Tolkien's books.

That's a rather damning statement...

 

[BehattedWanderer]

It looks interesting... But, sadly, the cuteness of Legos can't make up for the fact that they're portraying the shitiness of the Jackson movies, rather than the brilliance of Tolkien's books.

I don't think I've ever heard or seen words against the movies. Wow. And here's me, thinking (and happily so) that this was one of the best examples of book to movie translation where the books were actually worse than the movies. Unless you're just mad about the ending?

 

[JaceArveduin]

It looks interesting... But, sadly, the cuteness of Legos can't make up for the fact that they're portraying the shitiness of the Jackson movies, rather than the brilliance of Tolkien's books.

I don't think I've ever heard or seen words against the movies. Wow. And here's me, thinking (and happily so) that this was one of the best examples of book to movie translation where the books were actually worse than the movies. Unless you're just mad about the ending?

The books are still better than the movies, to be honest. There are a few things that grate with fans of the books, but most of the changes were made to make characters less of a "Mary Sue" and other's were just down to time and money constraints. Faramir starting to take the Ring to Minas Tirith is an example of the first, and them not showing Tom Bombadil the latter.

 

[madwarper]

I don't think I've ever heard or seen words against the movies.

Spoiler

Wow. And here's me, thinking (and happily so) that this was one of the best examples of book to movie translation where the books were actually worse than the movies. Unless you're just mad about the ending?

lolwut?
Have you read the books? Have you seen the movies? Do you want revise your statement?

The movies were only accurate as far as Bilbo's Birthday party. Everything after that was pure, unadulterated Jackson-made shit.

I could go into detail about the exact shitiness, but I'll let a scholar on the subject speak for me;

Spoiler

I find both of the Jackson films to be travesties as adaptations... faithful only on a basic level of plot... Cut and compress as necessary, yes, but don't change or add new material without very good reason... In the moments in which the films succeed, they do so by staying close to what Tolkien so carefully wrote; where they fail, it tends to be where they diverge from him, most seriously in the area of characterisation. Most of the characters in the films are mere shadows of those in the book, weak and diminished (notably Frodo) or insulting caricatures (Pippin, Merry, and Gimli)... [T]he filmmakers sacrifice the richness of Tolkien's story and characters, not to mention common sense, for violence, cheap humour, and cheaper thrills... o many of its reviewers have praised it as faithful to the book, or even superior to it, all of which adds insult to injury and is demonstrably wrong...

~Wayne G. Hammond [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotr_movies#Reactions_to_changes_in_the_films_from_the_book]

 

[Space Jawa]

*Sees complaints about the movies, rolls eyes*

I will never understand the sheer amount of hate the movies get from some people.