As an almost relevant side note to Noah’s thoughts on the space trilogy, it turns out that Disney doesn’t want to produce any more Narnia films. The first one did great, the second did half of great, and Disney doesn’t want to see how the third will do. (Hollywood Reporter by way of The New Republic.)
I saw the first one and liked it ok, I think. I might have fallen asleep. But it wasn’t as bad as the Lord of the Rings films, because those were longer and noisier. Worst of all were the new Star Wars movies. It’s like Peter Jackson entered into a compact with George Lucas to rid the world of CGI through aversion therapy.
The Reporter says Hollywood is losing interest in fantasy epics because The Golden Compass did so badly. Good.
You didn’t like the Lord of the Rings trilogy? But they had great special effects, amazing landscapes, swordfights, hair, and also lots of hair. What’s not to like?
I thought they were pretty great myself — not perfect in every way or anything, but solidly entertaining throughout and more often than you’d expect capturing the beauty of the books.
I haven’t seen the Narnia films, though; they sounded pretty bad.
The Fellowship was good, but after that, screw it. The point had been made, the rest was surplus. And if you don’t enjoy a film that’s long, loud and busy, you’re going to end up hating it. I hated The Two Towels, never bothered with The Return of Bing.
Which is a long way of saying that LOTR isn’t my sort of movie or book, and it doesn’t come in bite-size portions. Sitting thru the thing (for me) is like eating a pimento olive the size of a Volkswagen.
I didn’t care for the Lord of the Rings flicks either, but that’s pretty much all attributable to a basic irritation with that whole elven/dwarven field of play. There was some nice war type shit in the second one, and I liked Sean Bean in the first one, but those movies were for the most part pretty goddamn stupid.
I did happen to sit through the first Narnia movie, which was pretty bad too. The guy I was watching it with stood up about seven minutes in and said “i can’t take this fucking shit” really loud and walked out.
Do either of you guys like the books? And/or fantasy in general?
I thought golem, both in realization and as character, was pretty fantastic. The war scenes in both 2nd and 3rd were fabulous. There were a lot of great set-pieces (the king getting young again, for example) and some wonderful acting bits (Sean Bean most notably, as Tucker says.)
It wasn’t perfect or anything; they totally fucked up Faramir’s character; the Ent’s were kind of dumb; Frodo whining incessantly got pretty old (this is a problem in the book as well.) And I think they jettisoned Tolkein’s Christian faith in a way that makes chunks of it philosophically incoherent. But overall, it’s a way better screen realization of some books I really liked than I had any right to expect.
It’s kind of fun to be the one defending the sacred cow, though, I’ve got to say. Being the crank all the time gets a little old.
I guess I’m not really being fair–I can’t speak for Tom, obviously–but yeah, I don’t like the books. I remember liking my little brother’s version of the Hobbit that had those weird paintings in it, but reading that trilogy has pretty much turned me off that genre for life. I can handle swords fine, but when sorcery comes into play, I just get irritable and bitchy.
I did think Two Towers had some nice fight choreography. There was stuff I liked in the 3rd one, if I’m remembering it correctly, but I thought the last 45 minutes or so was terribly unwatchable.
I think i’ve grown more and more disenchanted with the films in recent years, just because of the vocal fanbase who prop up the flicks as some kind of Holy Art.
All that aside, I do have some level of respect/acknowledgment for Tolkien’s skill. He just worked in a field I don’t care about.
I think the Hobbit is better than LOTR myself. Children of Hurin (a recent posthumous Tolkein volume) was fantastic, though.
The movies are over-hyped, there’s no doubt. And if you don’t like the books there’s not going to be a ton there for you, I don’t think. If you haven’t read Narnia, though, you should give that a shot. Also Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. Those are probably my favorite creepy, apocalyptic fantasy books.
Elric is entertaining; haven’t read those in a long, long time, though.
I’ll echo Tom– I never saw the third because the prospect seemed exhausting. Though I’ve heard people watch all three like one movie, a la Satantango, but twice as long.
I would just add, in all seriousness, that the films would be improved with a totally metal soundtrack. Michael Moorcock did team up with Hawkwind, after all.
My tv-watching buddy was talking about seeing all 3 LOTR. He may actually have done it. He loves those things.
What does Hawkwind sound like? I remember hearing about it when I was a kid, but that’s all. That stuff is pretty rare, I would think.
Noah — I did read Earthsea when I was a kid, loved the first half of the first book, got thru the rest of the trilogy by will power. Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser was nice in theory, kind of dreary in practice. To tell the truth, I think I’ll go with Moorcock and Conan, and also some of the pastiches Lin carter did of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Also the first couple of Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander.
Hawkwind’s space rock/psych, though Lemmy of Motorhead played bass. For LotR, I'd want something more… metal. Something black & Swedish for the evil bits and Stryper for the elves.
And since you mention Conan, I'd recommend everyone see The Whole Wide World, about Howard, more or less. A very unlikely movie.
Oh, i watched them all in one day too. I did it just to get it out of the way.