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Dec. 19th, 2003 04:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmI just saw Return of the King, with perhaps the rudest audience in the history of the world.
I shit you not when I say, the horrible woman sitting in front of me spoke through the entire thing, and that her remarks included such exclamations as "there's my nigga" after one particular Legolas entrance, and general annoyance at Frodo not getting any pussy. No, really. She also repeatedly muttered, if you can call anything at that volume muttering, "homo" derisively under her breath.
That said, I did bawl uncontrollably through the last fifteen minutes of the film, and the man sitting next to me handed me a tissue when it was over, and we talked through the credits, and then he put me in a cab, before returning home to Delaware apparently (he was in town for some corporate training). It was strange, but correct.
Spoilers below, much of them very critical, but I have an eye for detail especially when distracted by rude people. That said, while not unequivocably thrilled, I am thrilled and suspect the second viewing will do a lot for it for me (I was very iffy on my first viewing of Two Towers too)
It is absurd (for any number of reasons) for me to have issues with heightened reality in a very fictional universe, but I feel LotR demands realism to be told effectively, so some of the Peter Jackson moments, didn't really work for me (which is to say, some of the color palates at the end, the stylized reforging of the sword, etc). The vanquishing of evil does not necessarily make the sun come out.
The first thing everyone should be taught in film school -- stay away from invisibility, and if you can't, make sure the parties involved are rolling on the ground. Because no matter how realistic you get it, it can't be real to us, and as such will always look lame. This has bothered me throughout the triliogy, even as it's an unsolveable problem, but was the best in the first film in the scene with Boromir.
Script! I'm not sure what happened, but I thought the writing was weaker here than the first two.
The hobbits really stepped up, both as characters and actors. Merry and Pippin just rocked my world so entirely.
Eowyn -- thumbs up.
Aragorn -- you're gonna have to give in to this king thing eventually, how about doing it while the film is still going, yeah?
P.S., Viggo, bitchslap the continuity person, would you? Your beard changed colors 5 times in the last 30 minutes of the film. No, really.
Faramir has become the great side-story tradgedy of this film, and I'm fascinated and compelled. Peter Jackson succeeded admirably at hinting at a whole life for him and Boromir and Gondor. Neato.
Why is Legolas the Sigorney Weaver character in Galaxy Quest?
Why has Peter Jackson apparently borrowed Clive Barker's brain?
I finally understand how the guy who made Heavenly Creatures made this movie. He has a real thing about romantic friendships and violence in the same place. What is up there?
The battle scenes were great, but the scenes just before the battles, or as they rushed into them, were astounding, and people in my theater lept to their feet, not to cheer, but to raise their arms and cry out with the men on the screens.
Which made up for the idiot in front of me and the kids talking about screencapping when Frodo gets it from the spider and is foaming at the mouth (oh fandom, could you be any louder?)
The extended version will fix the editing which drove me batshit.
Arwen and her lifeforce and the ring -- one more sentence, just one. Tell me it's affecting all elves, or all elves of her kind, or why her as a special and delicate elf flower. Just one sentence.
One of the reasons this tale devastates me, one of the reasons I'm glad I waited a day to see it, one of the reasons I need to go back and see it in an emptier or at least more respectful theater, is that I am utterly obsessed with the beauty of sadness and the notion of leavings. For it is an unfortunate truth that it is only in loss that we see not only what we have or had, but find courage to express what was always there. When Frodo goes into the West, when everyone goes their ways into their lives, it is hard for me to know, who is left behind and who is leaving. It is hard for me to know, who to identify with (which is something I need in my stories), and it is hard for me to know if I can feel secure, or regretful, in my choices. Which is powerful stuff. The best films don't answer these questions.
I will also note that dealing with this trilogy, has in many ways reminded me of going to see Metropolis or other silent films. As a modenr audience we don't know what to do with all that overwraught overacting, and we giggle nervously. These films do that to people, and that's probably good, but often frustrating. Give up, just go with it, shred later. Take the moment. Don't argue with it.
One of the particularly strange things about these films is also their scale on a number of levels -- the size of the undertaking, the ubiquity of the story, and the level of the technology. The films _are_ flawed, and theoretically one shouldn't be able to say "there can't be a bigger achievement" about any artform, but the confluence of things here, poses that possibility, at least for an incredibly long time. It's a little frightening truth be told.
I shit you not when I say, the horrible woman sitting in front of me spoke through the entire thing, and that her remarks included such exclamations as "there's my nigga" after one particular Legolas entrance, and general annoyance at Frodo not getting any pussy. No, really. She also repeatedly muttered, if you can call anything at that volume muttering, "homo" derisively under her breath.
That said, I did bawl uncontrollably through the last fifteen minutes of the film, and the man sitting next to me handed me a tissue when it was over, and we talked through the credits, and then he put me in a cab, before returning home to Delaware apparently (he was in town for some corporate training). It was strange, but correct.
Spoilers below, much of them very critical, but I have an eye for detail especially when distracted by rude people. That said, while not unequivocably thrilled, I am thrilled and suspect the second viewing will do a lot for it for me (I was very iffy on my first viewing of Two Towers too)
It is absurd (for any number of reasons) for me to have issues with heightened reality in a very fictional universe, but I feel LotR demands realism to be told effectively, so some of the Peter Jackson moments, didn't really work for me (which is to say, some of the color palates at the end, the stylized reforging of the sword, etc). The vanquishing of evil does not necessarily make the sun come out.
The first thing everyone should be taught in film school -- stay away from invisibility, and if you can't, make sure the parties involved are rolling on the ground. Because no matter how realistic you get it, it can't be real to us, and as such will always look lame. This has bothered me throughout the triliogy, even as it's an unsolveable problem, but was the best in the first film in the scene with Boromir.
Script! I'm not sure what happened, but I thought the writing was weaker here than the first two.
The hobbits really stepped up, both as characters and actors. Merry and Pippin just rocked my world so entirely.
Eowyn -- thumbs up.
Aragorn -- you're gonna have to give in to this king thing eventually, how about doing it while the film is still going, yeah?
P.S., Viggo, bitchslap the continuity person, would you? Your beard changed colors 5 times in the last 30 minutes of the film. No, really.
Faramir has become the great side-story tradgedy of this film, and I'm fascinated and compelled. Peter Jackson succeeded admirably at hinting at a whole life for him and Boromir and Gondor. Neato.
Why is Legolas the Sigorney Weaver character in Galaxy Quest?
Why has Peter Jackson apparently borrowed Clive Barker's brain?
I finally understand how the guy who made Heavenly Creatures made this movie. He has a real thing about romantic friendships and violence in the same place. What is up there?
The battle scenes were great, but the scenes just before the battles, or as they rushed into them, were astounding, and people in my theater lept to their feet, not to cheer, but to raise their arms and cry out with the men on the screens.
Which made up for the idiot in front of me and the kids talking about screencapping when Frodo gets it from the spider and is foaming at the mouth (oh fandom, could you be any louder?)
The extended version will fix the editing which drove me batshit.
Arwen and her lifeforce and the ring -- one more sentence, just one. Tell me it's affecting all elves, or all elves of her kind, or why her as a special and delicate elf flower. Just one sentence.
One of the reasons this tale devastates me, one of the reasons I'm glad I waited a day to see it, one of the reasons I need to go back and see it in an emptier or at least more respectful theater, is that I am utterly obsessed with the beauty of sadness and the notion of leavings. For it is an unfortunate truth that it is only in loss that we see not only what we have or had, but find courage to express what was always there. When Frodo goes into the West, when everyone goes their ways into their lives, it is hard for me to know, who is left behind and who is leaving. It is hard for me to know, who to identify with (which is something I need in my stories), and it is hard for me to know if I can feel secure, or regretful, in my choices. Which is powerful stuff. The best films don't answer these questions.
I will also note that dealing with this trilogy, has in many ways reminded me of going to see Metropolis or other silent films. As a modenr audience we don't know what to do with all that overwraught overacting, and we giggle nervously. These films do that to people, and that's probably good, but often frustrating. Give up, just go with it, shred later. Take the moment. Don't argue with it.
One of the particularly strange things about these films is also their scale on a number of levels -- the size of the undertaking, the ubiquity of the story, and the level of the technology. The films _are_ flawed, and theoretically one shouldn't be able to say "there can't be a bigger achievement" about any artform, but the confluence of things here, poses that possibility, at least for an incredibly long time. It's a little frightening truth be told.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-19 08:18 am (UTC)BWAH! Oh man, you just made me spit coffee all over this keyboard.
Aragorn -- you're gonna have to give in to this king thing eventually, how about doing it while the film is still going, yeah?
Word.
The extended version will fix the editing which drove me batshit.
It had better.
Arwen and her lifeforce and the ring -- one more sentence, just one. Tell me it's affecting all elves, or all elves of her kind, or why her as a special and delicate elf flower. Just one sentence.
Or, alternately, cut that plot thread entirely, since it's so very, very lame and stupid.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-19 03:09 pm (UTC)As to the editing, I have no fear -- TTT turned out to be a masterpiece.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-22 09:18 am (UTC)It felt sorta like an excuse. "OH, she can't possibly come to the battle today because she has to stay in bed and be helpless."
Which made me feel that perhaps the best woman didn't win in the end, after all.