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Thorins_apprentice
Nargothrond
Aug 23 2014, 5:39am
Post #1 of 23
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WHo do you think could have played a better Legolas or Frodo.?
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We are more connected than ever before, more able to spread our ideas and beliefs, our anger and fears. As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged.
(This post was edited by Thorins_apprentice on Aug 23 2014, 5:40am)
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DanielLB
Elvenhome
Aug 23 2014, 7:13am
Post #2 of 23
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Jason Isaacs and Daniel Radcliffe. /
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VValar
Mithlond
Aug 23 2014, 7:37am
Post #3 of 23
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For me OB and EW ARE Legolas and Frodo. Coudn't picture any other to play those roles.
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Barbarb
Lindon
Aug 23 2014, 8:02am
Post #4 of 23
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In The Hobbit? I think it would have been too jarring to have different actors playing these characters. Even if an actor looked similar, and really nailed the part, ( I know Dan Rad and Elijah Wood used to get mistaken for each other quite often!) the replacement would probably bother me too much.
Elijah Wood still looks close enough to his LOTR self. Orlando Bloom not so much, but in his case I would have preferred reduced screen time over a different actor.
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Silverlode
Forum Admin
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Aug 23 2014, 8:30am
Post #5 of 23
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Jason Isaacs would have been my choice for Elrond. //
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Silverlode
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"Dark is the water of Kheled-zâram, and cold are the springs of Kibil-nâla, and fair were the many-pillared halls of Khazad-dűm in Elder Days before the fall of mighty kings beneath the stone."
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dormouse
Gondolin
Aug 23 2014, 10:48am
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The implication is that they weren't very good, or that they were particularly weak members of the cast, and I'm not sure that's true. Roll back time over twelve years and more and there will have been umpteen actors they could have cast, and actually considered for Legolas and Frodo - fact is, they decided on those two. Presumably because they were they best fit with the roles as envisaged by Peter Jackson and co. and with the rest of the cast they had assembled.
With Legolas, who had always been one of my favourite characters, I was glad they captured the athleticism and fighting strength of the elf. Other adaptations - even the BBC radio adaptation, which in other ways was brilliant - other adaptations had a tendency to make the elves rather fey and delicate. I'd say Orlando Bloom was good casting.
Frodo I'd always imagined as older, as he is in the book, and fairer in colouring, and - sorry - English. I know that's prejudiced, but in my head he always speaks with an English accent - RP, probably, or at least Home Counties. So Elijah Wood (and Sean Astin) took longer to get used to. But now they're both so much part of the whole that I'd say they beame their characters and I can't imagine the films working as well with anyone else.
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dubulous
Nargothrond
Aug 23 2014, 10:48am
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After so many years it's hard to imagine anyone else
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But if the movies were being cast now, with no one having played those roles before, I would say Logan Lehrman might have palyed Frodo (or Asa Butterfield who looks very much like Elijah Wood).
I'm not sure about Legolas. Maybe Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Nicholas Hoult?
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DaughterofLaketown
Mithlond
Aug 23 2014, 9:26pm
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I like both of them. I only wish that Orlando had gotten more lines.
"And so they stood on the walls of the city of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air."
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glor
Nargothrond
Aug 24 2014, 1:07am
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Oh and least we forget 2001; No one and I mean no one had ever played a convincing Elf on screen before. You are out of drama school, you get your first major role and you have no other performances of Elves to draw on, any other role from superhero to gangster, from romantic period lead to drug addict, and you would have been able to learn and get inspiration from other great actors, elves,nope, zilch, nadda, zero etc.
No matter what you think of Orlando Bloom's post-LOTR career, he didn't just look like an elf thanks to WETA and PJ's team, he moved like an Elf and so became one. Note; Blanchett and Weaving didn't have to move (much).
The same goes for almost every other non-human role actor in LOTR, they were acting something that had never, if rarely been acted before, except for Gimli, who sometimes fell too far into the cliched comedy dwarf for my liking. Although PJ has made up for that since
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DaughterofLaketown
Mithlond
Aug 24 2014, 4:28am
Post #10 of 23
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True. Bloom was fresh out of drama school and playing a mythical being. Not an easy task.
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"And so they stood on the walls of the city of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air."
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burgahobbit
Nargothrond
Aug 25 2014, 12:20am
Post #11 of 23
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Better in The Hobbit. Not in LOTR.
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As this thread was created in The Hobbit movie discussion and not LOTR, I am pretty sure what Thorin's apprentice is getting at is that those particular two characters didn't feel right to a lot of people when they reprised their roles.
Out of all the characters who reprised their LOTR roles in The Hobbit, for most people Legolas and Frodo were the most jarring. Especially Legolas. His CG blue eyes, made up face, and odd aggresive attitude make him completely different from the kind, thin, brown eyed legolas of FOTR. Personally I'm good with Frodo, even though I like his reprised role less then those of Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond etc., but I can see why many would have a similar problem with his character in Hobbit. So Thorin's apprentice is asking, since Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood's roles in The Hobbit were less than satisfying for many people, who do you think could have done better?
My answer: no one. I would have preferred them not return to the films at all! 
"I've found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it is because I’m afraid, and he gives me courage.” - Gandalf the Grey.
"Do not be afraid Mithrandir, if ever you should need my help, I will come." - Lady Galadriel.
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dormouse
Gondolin
Aug 25 2014, 8:04am
Post #12 of 23
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Oh - well, if that was the question...
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... then the answer seems obvious to me. The only reason to recast any of the returning characters would be if the original actor were unavailable and that really would be a last resort, to be used only in the case of someone like Gandalf, who is absolutely essential to The Hobbit.
For me, Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood are just fine in The Hobbit and I'm glad they're both in the film.
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Noria
Hithlum
Aug 25 2014, 12:15pm
Post #13 of 23
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Do we know that Legolas’ blue eyes are CGI? I’d like to know the source of that info. I think it is on one of the documentaries on the DoS TE DVD that we see Orlando putting in a contact lens and then whistling and laughing and saying something like “That is a blue eye.” “Aquamarine” he calls it, IIRC.
To me Elijah Wood looks very little different physically. Orlando has changed a little more and so Hobbit Legolas looks a little less like the LotR Legolas, even if we ignore his eyes (which in LotR were sometimes blue and sometimes brown). His character is rather different, which to my mind is a good thing. I’m interested to see how this wilder, less sympathetic and less likeable Legolas develops and where he ends up.
I would certainly rather have both these actors than replacements in these movies even if time has marched on and they have changed somewhat. But then I don’t have a problem with the presence of Frodo or Legolas, especially the latter.
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dormouse
Gondolin
Aug 25 2014, 2:34pm
Post #14 of 23
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Yes - it is on one of the DoS documentaries.....
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... He comments on the shade of the blue contact lens. His eyes aren't CGI.
The fact that Orlando Bloom has changed in twelve or so years is inescapable and so best ignored - there's nothing anyone could have done about that and in all honestly, he hasn't changed very much. I agree with you about the character of Legolas. My feeling is that people are complaining that he is different without appreciating that he's different because the scriptwriters mean him to be, and for a reason. This is Legolas as he was in a period for which Tolkien left no blueprint. The king's son on his home ground, neither liking nor trusting dwaves. The addition of Tauriel has allowed them to show glimpses of the gentler Legolas we got to know in the LotR films just as the Council of Elrond allowed them to show glimpses of his haughtier, angrier persona. I'm working on the assumption that the experiences he undergoes in BotFA will change him, allowing the two sides of his nature to merge. We're just not there yet.
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BlackFox
Gondolin
Aug 25 2014, 3:20pm
Post #15 of 23
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The fact that Orlando Bloom has changed in twelve or so years is inescapable and so best ignored - there's nothing anyone could have done about that and in all honestly, he hasn't changed very much. I agree with you about the character of Legolas. My feeling is that people are complaining that he is different without appreciating that he's different because the scriptwriters mean him to be, and for a reason. This is Legolas as he was in a period for which Tolkien left no blueprint. The king's son on his home ground, neither liking nor trusting dwaves. The addition of Tauriel has allowed them to show glimpses of the gentler Legolas we got to know in the LotR films just as the Council of Elrond allowed them to show glimpses of his haughtier, angrier persona. I'm working on the assumption that the experiences he undergoes in BotFA will change him, allowing the two sides of his nature to merge. We're just not there yet.
******************************
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
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Darkstone
Elvenhome
Aug 25 2014, 3:29pm
Post #16 of 23
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Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier
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Either role. But the great lions weren't available so they went with, as McKellen put it, "young cubs".
Seems to have worked well.
******************************************
Aragorn and Legolas went now with Éomer in the van.
-Helm’s Deep, Chapter 7, Book III, The Two Towers
"Rorth Rorlingas!!"
Sauron: "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling hobbits!"
(Thanks to Brethil for image and battlecry.)
(This post was edited by Darkstone on Aug 25 2014, 3:32pm)
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Noria
Hithlum
Aug 25 2014, 5:15pm
Post #17 of 23
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... He comments on the shade of the blue contact lens. His eyes aren't CGI.
The fact that Orlando Bloom has changed in twelve or so years is inescapable and so best ignored - there's nothing anyone could have done about that and in all honestly, he hasn't changed very much. I agree with you about the character of Legolas. My feeling is that people are complaining that he is different without appreciating that he's different because the scriptwriters mean him to be, and for a reason. This is Legolas as he was in a period for which Tolkien left no blueprint. The king's son on his home ground, neither liking nor trusting dwaves. The addition of Tauriel has allowed them to show glimpses of the gentler Legolas we got to know in the LotR films just as the Council of Elrond allowed them to show glimpses of his haughtier, angrier persona. I'm working on the assumption that the experiences he undergoes in BotFA will change him, allowing the two sides of his nature to merge. We're just not there yet.
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Rickster
Nargothrond
Aug 25 2014, 6:50pm
Post #18 of 23
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everybody could have played a better Frodo than the one they had
He ruined the movies for me
I skip all parts of the movies with that actor in it.
I do not even want to know his name and hope he will never play any role again
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Glorfindela
Doriath
Aug 26 2014, 2:49pm
Post #19 of 23
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Initially I thought Frodo looked wrong (totally unlike a Hobbit), but I grew to accept him because there was so much else that I generally liked about LotR. As for Legolas, he was OK in LotR (minus the skidding, etc.), but I really dislike the back-from-the-dead individual of DOS.
I think it would have been just fine if neither of them appeared in The Hobbit – but then I think it's a very bad idea to try and link the two trilogies beyond how Tolkien did. It does neither trilogy any favours, and takes away the focus on Bilbo and Thorin's story – along with characters such as Beorn and Thranduil – in The Hobbit.
everybody could have played a better Frodo than the one they had
He ruined the movies for me
I skip all parts of the movies with that actor in it.
I do not even want to know his name and hope he will never play any role again
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ghost_matt
Ossiriand
Aug 26 2014, 3:16pm
Post #20 of 23
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I think they're both perfectly cast but
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I could picture Jude Law as Legolas too. I believe he was asked and turned it down, which is probably why he looked pissed at the Oscars when ROTK kept winning everything.
I can also picture David Bowie as Elrond or Thranduil.
Daniel Day Lewis would have been a great Aragorn. I think he was approached too.
Donald Sutherland as Denethor.
Anthony Hopkins as Theoden.
James Earl Jones as Treebeard.
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Snowghost77
Menegroth
Aug 26 2014, 4:00pm
Post #21 of 23
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That's gotta suck man... (phrasing boom!) I feel for you bro.
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In memory of operation FALLEN ANGEL and the mighty Heroes of SEAL team 6, the PJ's, SOCOM aviation, and all those who fell in the Tangi Valley.
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Kilidoescartwheels
Doriath
Aug 26 2014, 5:26pm
Post #22 of 23
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Well I usually skip through Frodo's scene, because it really is non-essential. But since they decided to use Frodo, might as well stick with the original actor - he looks almost the same. I have an easier time with Legolas, he is after all a Murkwood elf, but why recast him? His face is a bit rounder, I guess because he's a bit older, but he still looks fit enough to do most of his own stunts. Yes, they did mess up with the eyes but that's hardly HIS fault. I'm guessing that maybe PJ was trying to show a younger, "less wise & more dangerous" elf, so that's why he acted like he did. But if Orlando wasn't available or interested, then maybe Jamie Campbell Bower? If Elijah wasn't available or interested I'd say cut the part.
I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders.
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Fichtenbrenner
Nevrast
Aug 27 2014, 2:14pm
Post #23 of 23
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they were ok in the LotR-trilogy
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When I first read the books, I thought like many that "fairer than most" would mean Frodo was light haired, but I believe now it was "fairer" in its old meaning "better looking". So because of this initial understanding, I imagined a blond haired actor like Oskar Werner (he was already dead when I read LotR). He looked somehow hard to guess regarding his actual age and that's how I imagine hobbits, too (more boyish than adult men, just not that extreme as in Bakshi's film). Another hobbit-like actor for me was Michael J. Fox about 20 - 30 years ago (ironically he was even in a movie directed by Peter Jackson shortly before the work for the LotR-films began). I also think that Richard Attenborough as a young actor could have played Frodo or Bilbo.
I was actually disappointed that both Ian Holm and Elijah Wood returned in AUJ as for me they looked significantly older and the scenes were really surplus anyway.
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