Finally Finished the Lord of the Rings Movies

Last night I finally made it through the last of the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings.  I don't have a lot to add to what I said last time except for these random thoughts:

1.  Length:  These movies are long!  The extended edition of Return of the King clocks in at 252 minutes!

2.  A lot of people didn't like the way Return of the King ended.  After the climax of destroying the ring, there are a number of scenes that wrap up loose ends.  Personally, I like the way it ended.  Happily they trimmed the whole Scouring of the Shire business from the movie.  I always felt that episode was a little odd and it never quite sat right with the rest of the book.

3.  My favorite movie of the three was probably the Two Towers, followed by the Fellowship of the Ring.  

4.  I thought Ian McKellan's portrayal of Gandalf was the best acting in the trilogy.

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The Lord of the Rings

I've been plowing my way through the Lord of the Rings extended edition movies for the past few nights.  These are fantastic movies, but it is a major commitment to get through them in a reasonable amount of time.  It's been long enough since I've seen the movies that I'm not really sure which scenes were in the theatrical releases and which were added for the extended edition.  I guess it doesn't really matter.

A few random thoughts on the series...

1.  I really don't like Sean Bean as an actor and I'm glad that Boromir was killed off in the first movie.  I only wish Peter Jackson would have found a way to kil him off sooner.  Maybe he could have fallen off of a balcony at Rivendell or something.

2.  The seamless integration of normal-sized actors as hobbits continues to impress me.  There are only a few places where things don't look quite right and they don't distract from the movie at all.

3.  The portrayal of Gollum is very well done.  I found Gollum extremely tedious in the books.  My precious this and and my precious that.  In the movie he is an interesting character.

4.  When will evil overlords realize that orcs make terrible soldiers?  They always find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

5.  I'm not sure why Peter Jackson sent the contingent of elves to Helm's Deep.  It seemed completely unnecesary.

6.  I liked the end of Saruman and Wormtongue in the extended edition of Return of the King.

Enough for now.  (Yes, I realize this is all five years too late.  But I wasn't blogging then.)

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The Clone Wars

The newest movie in the Star Wars franchise is opening on 8/15. This is an animated film that takes place between episode 2 and 3. It looks very cool - 50,000,000,000 times cooler than episodes 1 - 3. I'm pretty excited about it.

http://www.starwars.com/clonewars/site/index.html

Kung Fu Hustle

Lately I've had an interest in watching some kung fu movies. It probably started when I saw Kung Fu Panda. The first in my queue was Kung Fu Hustle , starring Stephen Chow, who also wrote and directed the film.

I picked this movie because I thought it had a great title. I was curious what sort of plot would go with the title, because it isn't really obvious. Is it about kung fu guys that work really hard? Kung fu guys running some elaborate scam like in The Sting? Kung fu guys playing pool?

The movie is about a wannabe bad guy named Sing and his sidekick Bone. Sing and Bone want to join the Axe Gang, the baddest guys around. Unfortunately for their criminal aspirations, Sing and Bone are incompetent. A true pair of lovable losers whose biggest success comes when they steal some ice cream cones.

In the course of trying to prove their criminal moxie, Sing and Bone accidentally incite a battle between the Axe Gang and the residents of a housing development known as the Pig Sty. Unfortunately for the Axe Gang, some of the residents are secret kung fu masters who are intent on protecting their home. Violence and mayhem ensue.

One of the cool things about this movie was that it managed to include nearly all of the standard kung fu movie plot devices, including...

1. secret kung fu masters masquerading as something else
2. over the top action sequences and well choreographed fight scenes
3. secret knowledge learned from a mysterious book
4. kung fu masters whose only motivation is to find and defeat a worthy foe
5. a heavy dose of comedy, both physical and verbal
6. good vs evil
7. a chosen one who, in the course of the movie, is able to unlock massive and totally unexpected powers

All in all it was a fun movie that captured my attention and held it through the entire movie. If you like light-hearted action movies and don't mind subtitles, give it a try.

The Dark Knight

Peder and I went to see The Dark Knight on Saturday. For the most part I liked it. The only real flaw of the film was that it tried to do too much. The movie clocked in at 2.5 hours and it didn't need to be that long. There were too many storylines and some of them weren't necessary.

I struggled with the character of the Joker. Heath Ledger's performance was amazing, but I was never really certain why the Joker was doing all the stuff he was doing. The film would have been stronger if it spent more time exploring the Joker's motivations. It left me wanting more.

While I'm complaining, I might as well add that I thought Gotham City was too obviously Chicago. At least they avoided showing us the Sears Tower. It made me miss the more gothic and fantastic Gotham City of the Tim Burton Batman films.

Finally, I don't think there was enough Batman in this movie. That sounds strange, huh? The movie could have used more fights and more gadgets.

Anyway, despite my complaints it was a very good movie and well worth seeing.