If you thought the second and third installments in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" series -- "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King" -- were a little too CGI-ed, you're not alone: Star Viggo Mortensen thinks so, too.Mortensen revealed his distaste for the latter two films in the blockbuster trilogy in an interview with The Telegraph, where he discussed the chaos surrounding the filming of the movies, and the uncertainty over whether or not the final two films would even get a theatrical release. According to the actor, Jackson had blown through his budget making the first film, "The Fellowship of the Ring," and it wasn't until that movie went on to score big at the box office that the other two were officially greenlit for the multiplex, and earmarked for extra cash to finish their effects.
"Fellowship" is Mortensen's favorite of the trio, he said, because it was less polished and more coherent than its follow-ups, something he attributes to copious reshoots and bloated special effects getting in the way of the latter films' stories.
"It was very confusing, we were going at such a pace, and they had so many units shooting, it was really insane. But it's true that the first script was better organized," Mortensen told The Telegraph. He continued:
Mortensen went on to question Jackson's continued use of special effects on such a grand scale, citing his big-budgeted adaptation of "The Lovely Bones" as another example of CGI playing too big of a role in the film.Also, Peter was always a geek in terms of technology but, once he had the means to do it, and the evolution of the technology really took off, he never looked back. In the first movie, yes, there's Rivendell, and Mordor, but there's sort of an organic quality to it, actors acting with each other, and real landscapes; it's grittier. The second movie already started ballooning, for my taste, and then by the third one, there were a lot of special effects. It was grandiose, and all that, but whatever was subtle, in the first movie, gradually got lost in the second and third. Now with "The Hobbit," one and two, it's like that to the power of 10.
"That should have been a $15 million movie," the actor said. "The special effects thing, the genie, was out of the bottle, and it has him. And he's happy, I think."
Indeed, Jackson is no doubt content with the fortune that "Lord of the Rings" brought him, though we wonder if he would agree with Mortensen's assessment that perhaps the story could have been better serviced. Then again, it's probably hard to hear when you're swimming Scrooge McDuck-style through piles of cash.
[via: The Telegraph, h/t Cinema Blend]
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