Mortensen is some kind of poet, which means he passes for an intellectual in Hollywood. He always seems like he's about to cry in his movies. He was good in LOTR but The Road was absolute torture. He just seems like the kind of person you'd ask "Do you want a beer?" and he'd look off into the distance, start to talk, stop, finally mutter something about "In ancient Africa there was this tribe, gone now due to capitalism, and..." and you'd be like, "Dude, I just asked if you want a beer," and then he'd start crying, silently, while looking disappointed at you.
He was only good in LOTR because the fight scenes made him seem manly. Without them, he would be as you described, which tortured the character of Aragorn.
I liked the movies, and likes the visual presentation of Middle Earth, but the movies screwed up many of the roles.
The most obvious was Arwen, Warrior Princess, who turned into Limp Arwen when the movie makers realized there was no way to write Xena into the LOTR.
In doing so, they took a critical scene away from Frodo, whose courage & strength are demonstrated in the Flight to the Ford in the books. And in the movies, Frodo remains a wimp. He doesn’t show an ounce of initiative or judgment, but screws up almost everything he touches.
Aragorn, in the book, WANTS to be King. In the movie, he rejects it as too great a burden - a Viggo sort of wimpiness that betrays the character of Aragorn. Had there been a fourth movie, I don’t doubt but that King Aragorn would have tried to compromise with the Orcs...probably by offering them a free dental plan funded by taxes on white farmers who had for so long oppressed them.
In the scenes at Rivendell, I kept hoping Arwen would say something like, “Grow a pair, Aragorn! You won’t get in my panties until you man up and get your throne! These breasts were made for princes to nurse, not poets”...although one doesn’t get the feeling Viggo would know what to do with them anyways.
BBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! I laughed out loud when I saw that! Take THAT, Viggio!!!
Did you see Carlito's Way? Even the liberal toad Sean Penn was good in that one. even in Mortensen's small role as an ex-criminal trying to set up Al Pacino, he was a crapper in that one too.
If I summarize what you (and others) have written: Mortensen comes across as a major league douche bag. Pure and simple: he's unlikeable.
“Mortensen is some kind of poet, which means he passes for an intellectual in Hollywood. He always seems like he’s about to cry in his movies. He was good in LOTR but The Road was absolute torture. He just seems like the kind of person you’d ask “Do you want a beer?” and he’d look off into the distance, start to talk, stop, finally mutter something about “In ancient Africa there was this tribe, gone now due to capitalism, and...” and you’d be like, “Dude, I just asked if you want a beer,” and then he’d start crying, silently, while looking disappointed at you.”
LOL