Christopher Tolkien Despised Jackson's LoTR, and He Had a Pretty Good Reason
Upon release The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) was an instant success. Receiving wide praise from both its audience and critics, it became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time; followed by its two sequels The Two Towers (2002) and Return of the King (2003).
Fans of the books have praised the franchise's adaptation of the novels, commending their close attention to detail and how the narratives stay close to their source material. However, not everyone approved of Peter Jackson's depiction of Tolkien's works. Including J.R.R. Tolkien's own son… Christopher Tolkien.
Tolkien's son Christopher had repeatedly mentioned his dislike of Jackson's LoTR films. After Tolkien sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1969, Christopher may have initially sympathized with the films being made. However, he appeared to feel after their release that the franchise's success was a detriment to his father's literacy legacy.
Instead of being the very thing that had introduced LoTR to much wider audiences, he felt it had over-commercialized the story, corrupting the core meaning and messages of the original narrative. To many fans of the movies, this may seem like an extreme view. Jackson put lots of effort and care into each film, attempting to deliver the same tone and complexities of the books. However, Christopher Tolkien may have had a point after all.
During the production of the movies, Peter Jackson had to think carefully about how he could interpret the story from the novels onto the screen. Considering the first two films are just under three hours long and the third an additional 30 minutes, you would think that was plenty of time to include everything needed in the films. And yet Tolkien had included so much backstory and detail in his books that Jackson couldn't include absolutely everything as intended.
Some of the more involved aspects of the story, including character backstories and any side plots likely had to be cut from the movie altogether. What's more, other aspects were exaggerated or added, to help the film flow easier for audiences. Battle scenes were greatly extended, and overall there is a much faster action-like pace than how is described in the books. It can't be said that Jackson did not try to keep as true to Tolkien as possible, but there were still changes along the way nevertheless.
Ultimately Tolkien's legacy is now forever tied to Jackson's movies in the minds of many. Christopher may have felt that without the vast detail included in the books, fans are missing out on the real beauty and significance of Tolkien's work that was captured fully within the novels. Yet without the film franchise, the books would likely be considerably less popular.
Christopher Tolkien remained the literacy executor of the Tolkien estate until he died in 2020. His own son Simon, is now one of the directors of the Tolkien estate who is continuing to work in conjunction with Amazon to produce the inspired series The Rings of Power.