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davywavyAm I the only person who had the urge, when the Mumakil arrived at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, to shout "Walkers on the North Ridge!", or am I just showing my age?
Two Towers grew on me after the film to the extent that I went to see it at the cinema more times than any film since Return of the Jedi, 20 years ago. I'm not sure that Return of the King will as, just to be controversial, I don't think it's as good. That isn't to say that it isn't the best film I've seen this year, because it is; however, it isn't the best film I've seen in the last two years. Any criticism of it is hypercriticism - like me standing in front of the Mona Lisa muttering "...I'd've painted her eyes a different colour..." - certainly not only could I not achieve what Peter Jackson has done, but I can't even imagine how I would start to try (unlike the Mona Lisa, where picking up a paintbrush would be a fair place to start). That said, I think the film falls short of what has gone before.
To me, it felt rushed; the media has been full of stories recent of how the film has been cut to fit a running time that the producers felt would be acceptable, and I can't help but feel that they cut it too far - not just in the 'big ticket' scenes lost, like the death of Saruman and the Mouth of Sauron, but also smaller things like Denethors ownership of the Minas Tirith Palantir (which explains his insanity) and the Eowyn/Faramir Houses of Healing scene. Many scenes also felt as if they cut just a few moments too early - where a few more seconds of interaction or even characterisation would have made the film flow a little better. I wouldn't have minded an extra two minutes of film-time for a slightly smoother ride, or even the loss of some other scenes (such as Denethor's unnecessary hundred metre dash to his fiery doom, or Legolas' cool-but-unnecessary Mumakil slaying, which does nothing for the film except to set up some more comic relief from Gimli) in order to make a few extra seconds for more character advancing ones.
Most of these things will be cleared up for the extended DVD, plus there will doubtless be a special edition cinema release next year to milk me of more hard-earned loot; and I am, as I say, hypercritical.
The only other thing that ROTK lacks is a sense of threat. In TTT, Haldir was specifically reintroduced against the flow of narrative in order to kill him off and show that orcs are actually dangerous; in ROTK, only the Witch-King achieves the death of a named character, meaning that the 250,000 orcs don't feel like a threat to the established faces (although Gamling, Theodens right-hand-man, snuffs it in the extended edition in order to give this sense). Certainly, the viewer never feels the Aragorn is at any point in the same danger as Eowyn is when she fights the Witch-King, and as such Eowyn comes out of the film a great deal more heroic and sympathetic than the hero we're all supposed to be rooting for.
Beyond that, I'm lost for words. The trailer for TROY before the film shows that CGI mass battles are now the wire-fu du jour and I expect we'll see many more big on-screen fights over the next few years, in the same way that the early eighties were full of Star Wars knock-offs and the late 90's with Matrix clones. The difference here is that unlike those two, LOTR has not run out of steam or vision by the end and manages to temper the action with emotion, something that the Matrix failed to do in the most risible manner possible.*
In between these little niggles there are hours of televisual enjoyment;![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
puddingcat complained about poor blue-screening at times, but I didn't notice any of that, perhaps because I was so caught up in the whole thing. As usual, the stand-out actors were Ian McKellern and Bernard "What, no Best Supporting Actor nomination?" Hill as Theoden, joined this time by Miranda "Didn't do much last time but blossomed in this one" Otto. There is a lot to love in this film; spectacular set pieces counteracted with scenes of human emotion, and it's rare that the scripting changes to the original Tolkein jar. In terms of film-making the overall achievement of the trilogy is, I think, unsurpassed - there are better individual films, and Citizen Kane is going to keep right on topping the 'Best Film Ever' tables, but The Lord of the Rings, as a trilogy, has no serious competition from any movie series except perhaps Sergio Leones 'Man with no name' films.
*Something that really detracted from my enjoyment of the film was slashfic; every time any characters showed any sign of positive emotion to each other - friendship, loyalty, support, even love - I could not shake off the mental image of just how untold thousands of online whey-faced, hairy-palmed teenagers are going to react to that, and TBH this was probably the single worst thing, for me, about the entire film.**
**I would like to point out that I am aware there is a difference between slashfic and fanfic; Fanfic can often be thought-provoking and interesting. What I object to in slashfic is taking any sign of loyalty or friendship or respect and turning it into fucking. I like to think that people are actually capable of higher emotions and are capable of emotional attachments that don't involve the need for words like "throbbing" and "moist". Life is constantly trying to disabuse me of this foolish notion.
Two Towers grew on me after the film to the extent that I went to see it at the cinema more times than any film since Return of the Jedi, 20 years ago. I'm not sure that Return of the King will as, just to be controversial, I don't think it's as good. That isn't to say that it isn't the best film I've seen this year, because it is; however, it isn't the best film I've seen in the last two years. Any criticism of it is hypercriticism - like me standing in front of the Mona Lisa muttering "...I'd've painted her eyes a different colour..." - certainly not only could I not achieve what Peter Jackson has done, but I can't even imagine how I would start to try (unlike the Mona Lisa, where picking up a paintbrush would be a fair place to start). That said, I think the film falls short of what has gone before.
To me, it felt rushed; the media has been full of stories recent of how the film has been cut to fit a running time that the producers felt would be acceptable, and I can't help but feel that they cut it too far - not just in the 'big ticket' scenes lost, like the death of Saruman and the Mouth of Sauron, but also smaller things like Denethors ownership of the Minas Tirith Palantir (which explains his insanity) and the Eowyn/Faramir Houses of Healing scene. Many scenes also felt as if they cut just a few moments too early - where a few more seconds of interaction or even characterisation would have made the film flow a little better. I wouldn't have minded an extra two minutes of film-time for a slightly smoother ride, or even the loss of some other scenes (such as Denethor's unnecessary hundred metre dash to his fiery doom, or Legolas' cool-but-unnecessary Mumakil slaying, which does nothing for the film except to set up some more comic relief from Gimli) in order to make a few extra seconds for more character advancing ones.
Most of these things will be cleared up for the extended DVD, plus there will doubtless be a special edition cinema release next year to milk me of more hard-earned loot; and I am, as I say, hypercritical.
The only other thing that ROTK lacks is a sense of threat. In TTT, Haldir was specifically reintroduced against the flow of narrative in order to kill him off and show that orcs are actually dangerous; in ROTK, only the Witch-King achieves the death of a named character, meaning that the 250,000 orcs don't feel like a threat to the established faces (although Gamling, Theodens right-hand-man, snuffs it in the extended edition in order to give this sense). Certainly, the viewer never feels the Aragorn is at any point in the same danger as Eowyn is when she fights the Witch-King, and as such Eowyn comes out of the film a great deal more heroic and sympathetic than the hero we're all supposed to be rooting for.
Beyond that, I'm lost for words. The trailer for TROY before the film shows that CGI mass battles are now the wire-fu du jour and I expect we'll see many more big on-screen fights over the next few years, in the same way that the early eighties were full of Star Wars knock-offs and the late 90's with Matrix clones. The difference here is that unlike those two, LOTR has not run out of steam or vision by the end and manages to temper the action with emotion, something that the Matrix failed to do in the most risible manner possible.*
In between these little niggles there are hours of televisual enjoyment;
puddingcat complained about poor blue-screening at times, but I didn't notice any of that, perhaps because I was so caught up in the whole thing. As usual, the stand-out actors were Ian McKellern and Bernard "What, no Best Supporting Actor nomination?" Hill as Theoden, joined this time by Miranda "Didn't do much last time but blossomed in this one" Otto. There is a lot to love in this film; spectacular set pieces counteracted with scenes of human emotion, and it's rare that the scripting changes to the original Tolkein jar. In terms of film-making the overall achievement of the trilogy is, I think, unsurpassed - there are better individual films, and Citizen Kane is going to keep right on topping the 'Best Film Ever' tables, but The Lord of the Rings, as a trilogy, has no serious competition from any movie series except perhaps Sergio Leones 'Man with no name' films.*Something that really detracted from my enjoyment of the film was slashfic; every time any characters showed any sign of positive emotion to each other - friendship, loyalty, support, even love - I could not shake off the mental image of just how untold thousands of online whey-faced, hairy-palmed teenagers are going to react to that, and TBH this was probably the single worst thing, for me, about the entire film.**
**I would like to point out that I am aware there is a difference between slashfic and fanfic; Fanfic can often be thought-provoking and interesting. What I object to in slashfic is taking any sign of loyalty or friendship or respect and turning it into fucking. I like to think that people are actually capable of higher emotions and are capable of emotional attachments that don't involve the need for words like "throbbing" and "moist". Life is constantly trying to disabuse me of this foolish notion.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-22 07:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-22 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-22 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-22 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Oh dear, we're all sad and old. ;o)