Tolkien Totally Spoiled the Lord of the Rings Movies

By Carrie, Office Secretary



You know what I hate more than anything else? When someone spoils a great movie by telling me how it comes out. Like when "The Sixth Sense" came out a few years ago, I called one of my friends to ask if he'd like to see it with me and said "isn't that the one where Bruce Willis finds out he's been dead through the whole movie?" Needless to say, I was soooo mad at him and haven't talked to him since. So ever since then, I've been careful to avoid "spoilers" for movies. But the one movie I've found it almost impossible to keep from being ruined is The Lord of the Rings.



Now, it was bad enough when they released the novelization of Attack of the Clones almost 3 months before the movie. After that came out, you could hardly even get on the 'net without having some plot point spoiled. But with The Lord of the Rings, they've gone too far. Releasing the novel 50 years before the movie has made it just about impossible to avoid hearing all the important plot points. I mean, 3 months was bad enough, but 50 years? My grandmother has even read the books. And I can't tell off grandma when she says "everytime I see a spider, I remember Shelob, who almost killed Frodo. It must have given Sam such a scare when he thought Frodo was dead." Way to ruin the moment, Grandma.



Peter Jackson really dropped the ball on this one. Lucas at least tries to keep secrets secret. But it was like Jackson wasn't even trying. What was he thinking, giving the novelization rights out to this Tolkien fellow? Was he trying to ruin the movie? And don't get me started on that Two Towers trailer that showed Gandalf. It's as if he even thought that everyone already knew what happened.



When I talk about this to my friends, they never understand. They all just say "well, why don't you just read the books? That way you won't have to wait until the movie." To which I say, no thanks. I don't want to ruin my movie-going experience by reading a novelization first.