Ringers, good and bad
Got the DVD! Watched the DVD! Love my fellow LOTR fans! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, first all the great stuff about Ringers:
1. It was fan-made by folks who had not made a movie before, and it's GOOD!OMG! I love the folks who made the movie, who have always been pleasant and fun to talk to, and clearly are big screaming fanboys and girls themselves, as well as immensely determined and smart and talented people. I love them for having the audacity to attempt this, and not only attempt it, succeed!
2. It has a great dippy sense of fun that can move you past parts of the film that might otherwise drag. I love the silly animation sequences that take me back to Monty Python.
3. It has some ridiculously funny sections with fans in the confessional, and a few genuinely moving moments with fans discussing how their lives or philosophy of life has been impacted by LOTR.
4. It has some interesting segments with celebrities who are fans and not afraid to brag about it. Yay, Geddy Lee!
5. Yes, it's fun to see .5 seconds of yourself flash on a screen.
6. It had the guts to talk about slash, which actually surprised me! I am no longer much of a slash fan--the appeal wore off almost instantly. But I was impressed to see it discussed in a "family friendly" sort of documentary.
Ok, now for the grousing:
1. Those damned dancing scenes go on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Not only that, they're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.
2. My big regret for both the movie AND the extras, and this is a big heap of sour grapes, I admit:
The fans have become lost, in my opinion. Yeah, there are a lot of shots with fans, but they become (to me) overwhelmed with the huge number of celebrity interviews. With the exception of the confessional sequences and some rather dragging shots of TTT line party, the only bits with fans were micro-shots of people or still photos. A couple fans got spotlighted (some of them understandably, since they were charismatic), but that meant that the huge fanbase never really got shown. It made the fandom seem tinier than it actually is. It was like the filmmakers became so tickled with the concept they could talk to STARS they just let the rest of the fans go by the wayside. Maybe it was just a marketing ploy. I don't know. I could understand the decision for the movie itself--this insistence on concentrating on the celebrities. After all, nobody cares about everyday geeks. Except, of course, the everyday geeks who will be buying the movie. But I can understand it. And that's fine, mostly, since it shows the huge spread of interest in LOTR. Not just us weirdos, but FAMOUS people like LOTR TOO.
However, then we come to the extras, where I was hoping and hoping to see more of the fans. And we don't. Not really.
When given a chance to show more of the everyday folks that make the Ringers world go round, they reshowed some of the confessional stuff we'd already seen (in their entirety at least, but nobody new), then had clips of celebrity interviews (the only Easter Egg also being a celebrity interview), a few photos already shown on the website, and that's about it. Even the stuff like the Full Circle segment...? Mostly just slight expansions of stuff we already see in the movie. Bummer, dude.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ringers. I'm delighted to own it. I think it does a good job of talking about fandom overall, and is certainly far nicer to fans than something awful like Trekkies. I'm thrilled for the filmmakers, who are nice people and I've loved meeting and talking with them over the last few years. I will happily pimp their movie and am doing so amongst friends and family. I just feel a little as if the LOTR fan community got passed by in the enthusiasm for making the movie "legit" or something. I know that compromises have to be made if you want it to have an audience, but I'm still a little saddened.
I thought the point of a movie like this was to show the experience of books and movie as seen by us everyday people, not to show us yet more interviews with celebrities (especially the LOTR actors), who have already had many MANY MANY hours of talking-heads dissertations on their experience of LOTR in the extended LOTR DVDs with THEIR documentaries. I mean, it's not like they have said anything new in Ringers. We've heard it all before.
On a petty note? I miss seeing more of all my myriad friends in LOTR, who have given so much to the community over the years and who show up only for a split second at a time, only to vanish in favor of more Sean Astin, or more Billy Boyd. And I am sad that some of those friends were originally in the film, and now no longer are...victims of the cutting room floor. And yet, none of the celebrity stuff has vanished, that I can see. That's...upsetting.
The dedication in the movie is to Tolkien, as it should be. But, I had also hoped to see it dedicated to the fans. After all, the fans are Tolkien's "deplorable cultus." Even he didn't take us seriously back in the day. This movie was billed to fans while it was being made as a movie ABOUT fans made BY fans. So...how is it that this fan, at least, feels the fans got taken ever so slightly on a ride?
Ok. Rant over.
BUY THE MOVIE ANYWAY. Because with all my grousing, it's still awesome and fun! No! It is! Really!
Ok, first all the great stuff about Ringers:
1. It was fan-made by folks who had not made a movie before, and it's GOOD!OMG! I love the folks who made the movie, who have always been pleasant and fun to talk to, and clearly are big screaming fanboys and girls themselves, as well as immensely determined and smart and talented people. I love them for having the audacity to attempt this, and not only attempt it, succeed!
2. It has a great dippy sense of fun that can move you past parts of the film that might otherwise drag. I love the silly animation sequences that take me back to Monty Python.
3. It has some ridiculously funny sections with fans in the confessional, and a few genuinely moving moments with fans discussing how their lives or philosophy of life has been impacted by LOTR.
4. It has some interesting segments with celebrities who are fans and not afraid to brag about it. Yay, Geddy Lee!
5. Yes, it's fun to see .5 seconds of yourself flash on a screen.
6. It had the guts to talk about slash, which actually surprised me! I am no longer much of a slash fan--the appeal wore off almost instantly. But I was impressed to see it discussed in a "family friendly" sort of documentary.
Ok, now for the grousing:
1. Those damned dancing scenes go on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Not only that, they're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.
2. My big regret for both the movie AND the extras, and this is a big heap of sour grapes, I admit:
The fans have become lost, in my opinion. Yeah, there are a lot of shots with fans, but they become (to me) overwhelmed with the huge number of celebrity interviews. With the exception of the confessional sequences and some rather dragging shots of TTT line party, the only bits with fans were micro-shots of people or still photos. A couple fans got spotlighted (some of them understandably, since they were charismatic), but that meant that the huge fanbase never really got shown. It made the fandom seem tinier than it actually is. It was like the filmmakers became so tickled with the concept they could talk to STARS they just let the rest of the fans go by the wayside. Maybe it was just a marketing ploy. I don't know. I could understand the decision for the movie itself--this insistence on concentrating on the celebrities. After all, nobody cares about everyday geeks. Except, of course, the everyday geeks who will be buying the movie. But I can understand it. And that's fine, mostly, since it shows the huge spread of interest in LOTR. Not just us weirdos, but FAMOUS people like LOTR TOO.
However, then we come to the extras, where I was hoping and hoping to see more of the fans. And we don't. Not really.
When given a chance to show more of the everyday folks that make the Ringers world go round, they reshowed some of the confessional stuff we'd already seen (in their entirety at least, but nobody new), then had clips of celebrity interviews (the only Easter Egg also being a celebrity interview), a few photos already shown on the website, and that's about it. Even the stuff like the Full Circle segment...? Mostly just slight expansions of stuff we already see in the movie. Bummer, dude.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ringers. I'm delighted to own it. I think it does a good job of talking about fandom overall, and is certainly far nicer to fans than something awful like Trekkies. I'm thrilled for the filmmakers, who are nice people and I've loved meeting and talking with them over the last few years. I will happily pimp their movie and am doing so amongst friends and family. I just feel a little as if the LOTR fan community got passed by in the enthusiasm for making the movie "legit" or something. I know that compromises have to be made if you want it to have an audience, but I'm still a little saddened.
I thought the point of a movie like this was to show the experience of books and movie as seen by us everyday people, not to show us yet more interviews with celebrities (especially the LOTR actors), who have already had many MANY MANY hours of talking-heads dissertations on their experience of LOTR in the extended LOTR DVDs with THEIR documentaries. I mean, it's not like they have said anything new in Ringers. We've heard it all before.
On a petty note? I miss seeing more of all my myriad friends in LOTR, who have given so much to the community over the years and who show up only for a split second at a time, only to vanish in favor of more Sean Astin, or more Billy Boyd. And I am sad that some of those friends were originally in the film, and now no longer are...victims of the cutting room floor. And yet, none of the celebrity stuff has vanished, that I can see. That's...upsetting.
The dedication in the movie is to Tolkien, as it should be. But, I had also hoped to see it dedicated to the fans. After all, the fans are Tolkien's "deplorable cultus." Even he didn't take us seriously back in the day. This movie was billed to fans while it was being made as a movie ABOUT fans made BY fans. So...how is it that this fan, at least, feels the fans got taken ever so slightly on a ride?
Ok. Rant over.
BUY THE MOVIE ANYWAY. Because with all my grousing, it's still awesome and fun! No! It is! Really!