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 He's got two posts just sitting there unpublished!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

No Fire

Ticketmaster had the show listed for The Fire Theft, but it says it's cancelled. Plus, Tempe was the only city listed. Weird. Someone screwed up somewhere.

Return of Rancid

That's what we hope for anyway. I've become a neglectful concert goer lately. Rancid sold out and I didn't get any tickets ahead of time.

Possible exciting news. The New Times, an indy paper of sorts, is listing The Fire Theft as playing here January 14th. However, nothing is confirmed on TFT's website. Let's hope it's true. That would be awesome. Oh, and we'll get tickets ahead of time.

We did make it to the Return of the King, though. Mostly good. Stretched out ending that made it funny. I'm sure Brock will have more on it.

Things to do indeed

I’ve got a bit of a busy night ahead of me.

For starters, I’ve got to go down to my college and ensure them that I have financial aid for my classes. (Today was the payment date). Then, at 8:00, I’ve got to go to my other school and get my final math grade. For some reason, my math teacher thought it’d be a great idea to have all of his students meet in the classroom and collect their homework days after the class ended. I do want to get all of that back though; it’s not like picking that stuff up throws a monkey wrench into my plans.
Finally, I need to see if there’s a good slot or two for me to place a few more classes for next semester. I should have probably checked that out a week ago, but I was so busy with finals that I kind of neglected it. Oh well, everything’s relevant.

Today I worked on my ‘Best Albums of 2003’ list. I said that I would write that thing up during my winter break, and true to my word, here I am working on it merely 4 days after my last test. It’s going to be good, or at least I think so. There were definitely a number of good and not so good albums that came out in 2003. Hopefully, I can shed light on my favorites and ridicule some of my despised purchases.

And last but not least, I’m nearly done with my mix. It’s got plenty of good songs on it, but I’m having a hard time deciding the last few songs. I think I’m going to definitely use a ‘Sweep the Leg Johnny’ song as the mix’s closer, but the last few songs before that are up in the air.

Here’s looking forward to Rancid tomorrow night, and ‘Return of the King’ as well.

Things to Do

Well, there's a lot of stuff going on. Return of the King comes out tonight. Rancid is tomorrow night. I'm sure there's more.

Is Docto Octo supposed to have an accent? I dont' think he did in the cartoon. Not that I remember anyway. I have to say that the teaser got me excited to see the new Spider-Man. Looks thrilling.

Spidey Returns

Check it out! The Spider-Man 2 Teaser is online!

One complaint: Where's Doc Ock's accent? Maybe I'm mistaken, but isn't he supposed to have a Russian (or is it German) accent? Looks like they pulled a Rogue and had him drop it.