April 2, 2003

Re: Be Grateful...
Undomiel

We haven't been GIVEN anything.

We are entitled to complain because in a word dear - we are the CONSUMERS.
WE pays the money - and we as such have every right to examine, critique, bitch about that which we have been asked to consume.

And if P Jackson dishes out big budget lucas-pablum, especially after the magical and majestic start that was The Fellowship of the Ring, is it HE who just raised the stakes and changed the ground rules. My two words for him are SELL OUT.

Now, really - tell me - if you went to a famous restaurant, and felt that the food was crap, served cold, poorly presented, burned with over zealous cooking, spoiled & over-done, and then were asked to PAY FOR IT , wouldn't you complain - tell all your friends how the reputation of the restaurant was all hype - never to go there again - maybe even complain and make a stink to the management?

Or would you just be GRATEFUL that you were given ice in the water, or butter for your bread ?

Think not .
I wouldn't.

The criticisms of TTT are VALID - and let me say too - speaking as an artist - that criticism is where you find the best and most valid feed-back - and AS an artist - (which I am sure P Jackson fancies himself - and who I can't completely give up on due to the brilliance of Heavenly Creatures and FOTR) that is where he will look (or SHOULD look) to see how well he is communicating with his audience.

Ask any artist - they will tell you the same.

He needs US - because as i said at the beginning we are the CONSUMERS, and it is we who ultimately PAY, and who he must ultimately rely on to be successful.

Below read MY review of TTT:

I am unmoved.

I went to a Monday night preview and was unmoved, but felt that I might have been too tired to really assess my feelings (it was a midnight - 3am show) decided to put my initial reaction on hold and see it again opening day.

I am still unmoved.

It was a movie, and a good movie - but a movie just like any other movie - well done, decently acted, great scenes and scenery,
but JUST a movie.

There was no magic...

...no magic of place... no magic of power...no magic of spirit.

I remember sitting in the theater opening day of FOTR and watching the battle of the Last Alliance... when those elves whipped up their spears with military precision, and when Sauron fell and that deep otherworldly basso roar flatten the minions about him - I was shaking, and I was hooked.

I remember scratching my head as I read the books every summer as a child what does an elven lord 'uncloaked in his power' look like? Why do people fear Galadriel? Tolkien speaks of her great power but (probably wisely never really describes it) " When I saw that amazing transformation of Galadriel at the mirror - I was speechless - THAT was not of this world - but of another a place where magic still reigns.

And the colors!

As the company left Moria - the slow motion and the bleached color as if with the fall of Gandalf all color had gone from the earth.

And the death of Boromir.....ahhhh.....the look on Legolas face as he witnessed for the first time - mortality.

But in The Two Towers, no magic dwells. No distortion of perception, no otherworldliness, my spirit was not swept away, my heart stayed still.

I felt that I was SHOWN much but asked to FEEL little. The scenes with Frodo and Gollum and Sam were remarkable . I could see Frodo's eyes mirrored in those of that poor gangrel creature. A living mirror of his fate.

And though I am loath to admit this (if anyone has read any of my I LOATHE LIV TYLER posts on the ROTTEN TOMATOES web site) the scenes with Arwen and Elrond, and the soul-shattering reality of her fate, was devastating.

Also, Brad Dourif (more screen time! I never realized how rich was Dorif's voice!), and Miranda Otto (what a PERFECT choice!!!)
were wonderful as well.

A scene where magic tried to shimmer around the edges of the movie was that where Eowyn stands on the parapet of Meduseld, the banner of Rohan is blown away as the Gandalf, and the three hunters ride beneath the gate - the Norwegian viol haunts.

The rest of the movie was, well, entertaining.
But the heart, the poetry, the nobility, the enchantment of the tale lost was in a sea of ridiculous and unnecessary plot devices, and conceits.

Seeing something unbelievable can make one say - wow how did they do that?

Feeling, and caring, and hoping against hope that those you have come to love will triumph - and that in that triumph they will make you weep, make you laugh with pure joy, make your spirit soar -

Therein lies the magic...
therein lies that which will move,
at least my heart