Return of the King: Now with 40% more slow motion!

I think my biggest gripe about the Lord of the Rings films is the belief that these films are restoring a level of cinematic storytelling to movies. While that may be true of 'The Fellowship of the Ring', 'Return of the King' does no such thing. People gripe about the constant battle sequences and special effects in film series like Star Wars and The Matrix, but then gush over Lord of the Rings, when really there's no difference in genre or filmmaking taking place. Peter Jackson seems to be every bit the craftsman that Steven Speilberg is, relying on theatrics such as: drawn out conclusions and formulaic emotional pay-offs.

I'm sure at this point you think I hated the movie, but let me assure you that I didn't. I liked it very much in fact. However, I don't think that Peter Jackson is a godsend meant to deliver us from the greedy studios and their cookie-cutter films. Return of the King was a visually stunning movie with some good action. But it most certainly isn't the cinematic masterpiece that many are already making it out to be.

Really, most of my qualms with it come from the horribly long ending, which could have been cut down quite a bit without any loss of impact. If you've read the book you already know what happens at the end. Jackson altered it a bit and took out one of the major resolutions. And then he cranked up the slow motion. Waaaaay up.

Ultimately I enjoyed most everything about it, save for the half-hour long ending.

So, Gabe tells me that posts seem to be getting stuck. I looked into the control panel and sure enough, he was right. He's got two posts just sitting there unpublished! What's the deal blogger? We've always been kind to you. If this post doesn't go through I'm going to try 'republishing'.

Yeah, we missed Rancid, but it's no big deal. I've seen Tim Armstrong with the Transplants. I know, I know, 'you haven't seen Tim Armstrong unless you've seen him with Rancid'.

Hey, I bought the Appleseed Cast album Mare Vitalis today. Gabe put a song on his mix CD and when I heard it last night I asked, "who's this band?" Proof that it was time I bought their CD so I wouldn't ask stupid questions like that.

That's all for now I think. I should have that 'best of 2003' thing up sometime this weekend or next week even. Trust me, I've been working on it.

Cya,

-Brock