I want my 3.5 hours back

Jack Olsen · 12-19-2003, 10:38 AM

It's not that often I find myself disagreeing with the entire world, but...

If you take Gollum and Gandolf out of the mix, there isn't a single acting performance worth watching. Everybody poses. The hobbits are constantly giving each other 'meaningful' looks, and a lot of the dialogue sounds like it came out of a fortune cookie.

About one in five of the action/effects sequences generate any emotional momentum at all. Mostly, it's like watching some incredibly elaborate table-top train set.

For some reason, all critics love it. However, one said:

"Jackson has achieved not Tolkien. He has made a cornucopian and corny hash of Tolkien, old John Martin spectacle paintings, head comix, Arthurian tales, Bob Howard macho-lit, New Zealand travelogues, Thomas Kinkade kitsch, '30s serials and the mountain films of Leni Riefenstahl, whose spirit hovers over the grand shots of relay bonfires on snowy peaks."

I loved the books as a kid. But the movies, aside from being a somewhat serviceable 'books on tape' version of some of it, have effectively erased over a lot of what I remember liking.

arcsine · 12-19-2003, 11:05 AM

I watched one of the episodes and was bored. Cool effects and plenty of handsome people but I just could not buy into it.

I can remember finishing the last book and feeling bummed because I could not tag along with them anymore on their adventures. To read the trilogy (especially as a kid) implied some dedication to a story that is too big to fit into 3 hours snippets.

Moses · 12-19-2003, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JackOlsen
... have effectively erased over a lot of what I remember liking.

This happens all too often. Richard Chamberlain killed Shogun.

I hope to avoid seeing Cold Mountain. The book was beautifully written and I don't want to ruin my memory of that.

dd74 · 12-19-2003, 12:01 PM

It's still supposed to make $120 million in its first weekend.

I thought the first one was okay. But I saw it on an oceanliner, and I was drunk, too.

tabs · 12-19-2003, 12:11 PM

I saw the first 2 episodes so far. The scenery was great. When watching the second episode I had forgotten what happened or who the characters were in the first episode. The battle scenes were great in the second installment...but ho hum I'm not excited about the 3rd, I guess I'd like to see what happens. Which one dies Frodo or his sidekick whats his name. You see I never have read the books.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-19-2003, 12:22 PM

No spoilers please.

Frankly, I've seen so much crap in the theatres lately that it's easy to overlook the flaws in Jackson's interpretation of the Lord Of The Rings. One thing's for certain, even with all the creative license he's taken, Jackson has been way more faithful to the book than almost any other book->film SF/Fantasy translation I have seen. Starship Troopers anyone?

vash · vash's Garage

starship trooper would have been just as good with the volume turn all the way down. oh yea, and cut out all the scenes without denise richards. i am going to get the book tonight. naw, i got calipers to rebuild.

Adam · Adam's Garage

Yeah...

I thought The Two Towers wasn't too bad. The first one (Fellowship of the Ring) nearly put me to sleep! I'll go see the last one, because it'll drive me mad not seeing it through.

Blue, I thought Starship Troopers was kinda strange. I remember that Dizz was actually a guy in the book, not that chick, and I kept wondering where all the powered armour suits were. Still, I really liked it. A great book for something that was first written in 1955!

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-19-2003, 01:27 PM

The book Starship Troopers, IMHO, is one of the best ever written.

Way ahead of its time (spawned many a "powered armor" concept, started the whole "military SF" genre, IMHO) and oft-imitated.

A lot of folks think of it as a "warning"--but if you look at Heinlein's personal history and his other writing, the politics in ST probably represent how he really felt.

And they're not that different from how I feel, either. Why SHOULDN'T we have public executions/floggings/etc.? It's not like our current penal system is deterring anything.

The movie was an unmitigated steaming pile of dog doo. But I guess that's to be expected, considering the director's immediately previous project was Showgirls.

cstreit · cstreit's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Moses
This happens all too often. Richard Chamberlain killed Shogun.

You got that right! I read it 3 times when I was 15, saw the movie and was just angry the whole time...

Moneyguy1 · 12-19-2003, 06:27 PM

Any relationship between Heinlein's book and the movie of the same name is totally coincidental. BTW...While we are on the subject. "Blade Runner" is the title to a totally different book which has nothing to do with replicants. The movie is based on a story "Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Personally, I reread LOTR every five years nd have found the movies for the most part faithful to the story. Hey, I isn't a deep plot. It is the interplay between good/evil/heroes/villians that make the book so much fun, together with a lot of Scandanavian folklore thrown in for good measure.

I highly recommend a take-off called "Bored of the Rings" (long out of print) published in the late 60s by the Harvard Lampoon. The adventures of Frito, Dildo, Goodgolf Greyteeth , Pepsi, Moxie, and the rest of the questers. And, believe it or not, it follows the original story!!!!

dd74 · 12-19-2003, 06:37 PM

Have any of you guys ever found the movie to be better than the book?

Only in one case have I: "To Die For," starring Nicole Kidman.

The book was almost unreadable; by Joyce Maynard, I believe.

But the movie was leagues better.

Translating that into a workable script says a lot for the great Buck Henry.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-19-2003, 07:17 PM

PKD was an amazing author as well. Offhand I can think of quite a few movies made from his books/short stories:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep --> Blade Runner
We Can Remember it For You Wholesale --> Total Recall
Second Variety --> Screamers
The Minority Report
Paycheck
Impostor

and some others...

Some "hits", many misses.

If you look hard you can find "Bored of the Rings" in pdf format on the web.

"Aiyee," shouted Legolam. "A ballhog!"

dd74 · 12-19-2003, 08:16 PM

Took sci-fi lit in undergrad. Studied everything from Mary Shelley (we all know what Mary wrote, right?) to Wells, and then PKD.

We read of PKD "Man in the High Castle." A crazed story about what San Francisco would be like if the Nazis and Japanese won WWII.

P.K. Dick was just amazing.

BlueSkyJaunte · 12-19-2003, 08:56 PM

I took something similar...unfortunately the prof was fixated on sex and gender roles, so we wound up reading stuff from lots of deranged female authors.

I place LeGuin in this category...

"High Castle" was great, and even better if you have some familiarity w/ Japanese culture. "A Scanner Darkly" was really good (if tough to relate to, considering my drug-free past), but my favorite is definitely "...Electric Sheep". I get a kick out of "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said."

Check out Alfred Bester. "The Stars My Destination" and "The Demolished Man" are absolute masterpieces.

dd74 · 12-19-2003, 09:28 PM

Hmmm...I liked LeGuinn. Boy, now the years are coming back to me. "Left Hand of Darkness," was fairly trippy, particularly as men could give birth. If I'm not mistaken, I remember a lot of snow in that book, and travelling across snow.

Or maybe I'm confusing it with "Smilla's Sense of Snow," which really is in a whole different category (espionage stuff).

HarryD · 12-19-2003, 10:04 PM

Lets get back on topic for a sec.

The $$$ of movies have appaernetly changed. It used to be a good story, shown in the movie house for a long period and after a long wait, off to video or (eons ago TV). Now, big 1st week Box office, the show disappears in 4-6 weeks if good, 2 weeks iof bad and reappears as a DVD 3-4 months later when the "real" money is made. I read somewhere (no I don't remember) that research has shown a good 1 st week results in better DVD sales. Add to the mix, that only vertain movies forms will have a big opening, you see less and less well made films on interesting topics.

It's all about the money man!

As an intersting aside, my parents, who hate Sci-fi as a waste of time, attended an elderhostel years ago where Ms. LeGuin was one of the lecturers. She actually turned their thinking 180 degrees. I was blown away.

All for now. OUT.

Icemaster · Icemaster's Garage

Why stay on topic?

Blue, I almost had my love of SF ruined by an undergrad teacher that taught a "Women SF authors" class. Like yours, too much fixation on sex. I finally got into an argument with her when she likened the worm jumping out of the cave after the Millenium Falcon to a cross between a phallic symbol and something related to vaginal dentita.

Whatever....

Anyone who liked "Starship Troopers" would probably also like "Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. Good stuff.

BlueSkyJaunte · 09:08 AM

Icemaster, did you go to Cornell? I think we had the same prof! Either that or they went to school together.

"Forever War" was great. "Forever Peace" was good. "Forever Free" was a horrible deus ex machina letdown.

IMHO.

Joe Haldeman is a generally good author, but like everyone else has had some flops...

Icemaster · Icemaster's Garage

Blue,

U of Cincinnati. Sounds like these two were definitely related however. Sad thing is, she was married to a professor who I have gobs of respect for; gave me insights on lit I'd never have come to on my own. Lot of good it did me in the IT industry...

Thanks for mentioning "Forever Peace"...I've been meaning (for like three years now....) to pick that up.