Sheesh, I feel like a blog maniac today. Maybe that’s because after shoveling the driveway for a third time in 24 hours this morning, my body took the day off. I’ve been surfing most of the day, a thinly veiled attempt at research for tonight, when I’ll see a press screening of Return of the King for one of my freelance jobs. I guess that means I’ll be working on Saturday, but if it’s writing about Lord of the Rings, that’s OK.
In preparation for tonight, I watched The Fellowship of the Ring on Monday and The Two Towers last night. Both times it was the extended version, which director Peter Jackson admits is “mucking up the momentum.” I didn’t notice so much in The Fellowship, but I definitely felt it in The Two Towers. It’s fun to see the extra stuff, but I think the theatrical version worked better.
It goes without saying that I’m excited about tonight. I’m especially excited because I’m allowed to bring a guest (i.e., my wife), which doesn’t always happen. I was petrified at the thought of having to see this major movie and not being able to talk about it for a full week (how impatient we are).
I’m excited because it seems like there hasn’t been a trilogy since the original Star Wars that came out so strongly. Say what you will about the Matrix, I think the sequels fell short. LOTR is such a powerful story, I’m eager to see it on the big screen.
I know there will be disappointments. There always are. But I feel prepared. [SPOILER WARNING] I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there’s no scouring of the Shire scene in the movie. Those scenes beautifully finished off the book, and frankly Tolkien used them to do what few professional authors would do — he extended the story, and let his readers tarry a little longer in the magical world. That felt so right in the book. Maybe it won’t be necessary in cinematic form.
Maybe I like LOTR so much because of the story. There’s a complete and powerful story behind the movie, one that’s fully realized outside of the movie. No matter what Jackson does to muck things up, that story remains untouched, which means I can enjoy the movies as they are.
No matter what happens, I’ll be dipping into the books again for sure.
Sorry Kevin, I’m going to have to disagree with you about the extended edtion of the Two Towers. I thought it was a much better and more complete story in the extended edition. On a scale of one to ten, I think the Two Towers goes from an 8 in the first version to a 9 in the extended version.
I’d agree with “MT” for the most part about The Two Towers: there’s only a few scenes that truly “muck up the momentum,” and I’m still confused as to why they were cut out. Barry Osborne, one of the producers, can’t understand why the added scene with Boromir, Faramir, and their father was left out, and I’d agree.
The only scenes they really didn’t need are most of the one’s with Merry and Pippin: Treebeard’s Entwives song is a nice addition for fans, but doesn’t add much, the same with the drinking of “ent draughts” and the finding of tobacco at Isengard. Otherwise, the remaining stuff adds a lot, without slowing things down unnecessarily.
I find some of Jackson’s comments about “mucking up the momentum” rather funny. FOTR is far too fast paced, which made the EE version improve the film a lot in my opinion.
At any rate… maybe you should save ANY blog comments about ROTK until it actually comes out if you do, I’m not visiting for a week, fyi.