The Lord Of The Burger Kings: Anna And The King, Or Somesuch.

[backawayslowly]

I saw LOTR: Something About A King today. I figured...what the Hell, it can't possibly be more boring than an afternoon of watching soaps with my mother (on full blast volume) while she snores in her cocktail

Comments

[archanglrobriel]

It amazing how the year-long-journey that these characters in LOTR take doesn’t actually CHANGE a single one of them. In each of the three films, the characters always say the same stuff and had the same exact facial expressions

This is true and a criticism I had about the piece as well, however when I went back for a re-read of Tolkien I realized how little character development is even -in- the LOTR series. Tolkien was a folkloricist who was heavily influenced by Celtic and Arthurian mythology - so his work read kinda like a medieval epic rather than fiction as we tend to know it now (with characters and personal development etc..). But yeah, the characters in Tolkien were sketchy at best and while the LOTR series did flesh them out somewhat, they're still not what I'd call 3 dimensional by any stretch of the imagination.

That being said, I do think you have to have been exposed to Tolkien as a child and have had it open the world of fantasy fiction for you to really appreciate it. Kinda like being able to watch Star Wars for the first time when you're seven and you've never seen anything that kick ass before in your life (which is what happened to me)...yeah lots of stuff comes later that may have been "better" in terms of special effects, plot etc. but still, it was your first and so even though it's flawed, you love it best somehow.

Even as a diehard fan I felt like "Jesus Christ Frodo, Bilbo, WHOEVER you are - throw the frickin' ring into the frickin' lava would you PLEASE? I gotta PEE and it's been THREE HOURS..." *laugh*

[backawayslowly]

I appreciate it, I know why it's good cinema, even without reading the books. but THE BEST PICTURE IN THE HISTORY OF ALL MOVIES EVER? Nah. I think it's good that people are psyched about these movies (I think it's good that anyone gets psyched about anything these days), but I think the fans blow the experience out of proportion.

The Oscars help us keep perspective in a weird way - these movies get some serious attention at nomination time because they're good, but they don't win the serious awards because at the end of the day, they're action/fantasy movies where the drama is only very good, not great.

[mat_t]

*nod* I've always maintained that the characters in LotR exist solely so that there's someone around for the plot to happen to. Unlike much modern fiction, where the plot exists to give the characters something to do.