It’s hard to make a movie from a popular book. The core audience has already developed a relationship with the characters and the setting that must be quickly reconciled with the movie. And all in all, Peter Jackson has done a great job with the Lord of the Rings.

But I’ve just viewed the extended cut of The Fellowship of the Ring and I’m getting a bad feeling about things. The bad feeling started with Jackson’s treatment of Faramir in The Two Towers. By having Faramir attempt to take the ring to Gondor, Jackson blurs the distinction between the brothers Faramir and Boromir. And this presages further changes in come in The Return of the King.

The change in Faramir was bad enough. Now that I’ve viewed the extended cut of Fellowship, I realize that Jackson doesn’t really understand Aragorn. The extended Aragorn is afraid that he is truly Isildur’s heir and will also fail to destroy the ring. The real Aragorn has devoted a normal lifetime to becoming a warrior and a leader of men. He has traveled throughout Middle Earth to examine and thwart Sauron’s schemes.

Aragorn is the future of Middle Earth, The Return of the King marks both the end of the Age of Elves and the beginning of the Age of Men. I just hope that Peter Jackson knows it.