Watched for another year
Monday, August 4th, 2008 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanWell, I remembered to set the alarm on my mobile, but I forgot to set the radio alarm and was quite happy in my half sleep to stay where I was, oblivious to the passage of time. Luckily, Furtle was a little more awake, which is rather unusual.
We finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy last night with the fully extended version of Return of the King. I had forgotten just how long that movie is – even by the standards of the trilogy. Luckily the ambient temperature has been lower the past few days, so our monster telly did not over heat and we were able to watch it with all the interruptions being of our own making.
The ending of Return of the King is one of the worst in movie history, which rather spoils the overall achievement, but then this is Peter Jackson, so we should be grateful that he got as fat as he did and only buggered up irredeemably for the last twenty minutes in nine or so hours. That said, I seem to recall that the ending in the cinema release was even longer and that the editing at the end of the DVD is one of the few cuts made as other material was added back in. Nonetheless, it is a little too indulgent and in my humble opinion, having changed the story to get rid of the scouring of the Shire, the movie should have ended with the marriage and coronation of King Elessar. The return to the Shire and the trip to the Grey Havens could have been done without dialogue and shown under the credits, or dispensed with entirely.
I remember thinking that Gérard Depardieu’s death scene at the end of Cyrano de Bergerac went on a bit. That was the soul of brevity in comparison.
Changing subject, The Times is still doling out free books during the week. Today is Regeneration by Pat Barker. It is the first in a trilogy – this may mean expenditure if we read and enjoy it since we can’t be sure that the giveaway will include the remaining two books.
Right; I’d better do some work. Having complained about long and pointless endings, I too, should try to be the soul of brevity.
We finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy last night with the fully extended version of Return of the King. I had forgotten just how long that movie is – even by the standards of the trilogy. Luckily the ambient temperature has been lower the past few days, so our monster telly did not over heat and we were able to watch it with all the interruptions being of our own making.
The ending of Return of the King is one of the worst in movie history, which rather spoils the overall achievement, but then this is Peter Jackson, so we should be grateful that he got as fat as he did and only buggered up irredeemably for the last twenty minutes in nine or so hours. That said, I seem to recall that the ending in the cinema release was even longer and that the editing at the end of the DVD is one of the few cuts made as other material was added back in. Nonetheless, it is a little too indulgent and in my humble opinion, having changed the story to get rid of the scouring of the Shire, the movie should have ended with the marriage and coronation of King Elessar. The return to the Shire and the trip to the Grey Havens could have been done without dialogue and shown under the credits, or dispensed with entirely.
I remember thinking that Gérard Depardieu’s death scene at the end of Cyrano de Bergerac went on a bit. That was the soul of brevity in comparison.
Changing subject, The Times is still doling out free books during the week. Today is Regeneration by Pat Barker. It is the first in a trilogy – this may mean expenditure if we read and enjoy it since we can’t be sure that the giveaway will include the remaining two books.
Right; I’d better do some work. Having complained about long and pointless endings, I too, should try to be the soul of brevity.