So I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King last night. It�s almost as if an era is over. For three years, on the same relative day, me, H, and A have waited faithfully to watch the epic in the same theater, in the same seats. I remember when the movie first came out, the first year that we got together, I said, �I�m going to be 22 when this whole thing is done!� It seemed so far away then.
Now, it�s over.
This year, it wasn�t just H, A, and me. B, R, R�s brother and girlfriend, and the traditional three all enjoyed the three and a half hour movie, wide-eyed and emotionally hooked. It was a good end to some good times. I�m actually pretty glad that movies have finally gone the way of the geek. I mean, nothing is really that much geekier than kings, elves, dwarves, and hobbits. It�s good that movies have finally taken that twist toward rewarding those who spent their youth with noses in science fiction/fantasy books. It�s good that movies now have a new form of �cool�. It�s good that people cheered for those who took the time to don a costume to show their appreciation for Tolkien�s work.
That�s right, I�m a geek, and I�m damn happy that we�re finally winning.
Anyway, I thought the movie was excellent, despite the fact that the further into the story we got, the less it resembled the book. But�you have to look at the movie and the book as two separate works; appreciate them without comparing them. I spent a large part of the film thinking that 1) Aragorn looks a lot like the Romanized version of Jesus [the Jewish description of Jesus is not nearly as flattering] and 2) All they would have needed were some velociraptors and napalm, and then Men would have had the Orcs licked.
That�s right. I said velociraptors and napalm. If the Men had those two, it would have been a whole different kind of movie. Or what would have happened if in the middle of the movie, Arnold just beamed himself in as the Terminator?
I think that someone should do a spoof with that. That might make it to the Oscars with how badly the choices have been made for the past few years.
