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OMFG are we there yet?
Is anybody else as tired of the whole pissy "PJ ruined LOTR!" whining as I am?
Jesus, people. It's one version of the book. One. Guy's. Version. (Well, him and the other 10,000 people who worked on it, but you know what I'm saying.)
It's over. Done. In the can. Finis.
Doubtless at some point some other studio will look back, see how much it made, and decide to do a remake. Which will be made by Some Other Guy. Who will also make changes to the story. Which you will also undoubtedly whine and piss and moan about, and make yourselves miserable over (not to mention those of us who got over any possible qualms about three years ago).
And guess what? The books will still be there. Right there. No, not there...over there. On your shelf. Where you've been keeping them for years, remember?
Remember the books? The version of the story that you've supposedly been so in love with for so long? What happened to them, exactly? When did whining and pissing about the films become so much more interesting than reading that story you love so much? If you don't like the films, just forget about them. Leave them by the wayside. Nobody is forcing you to watch them, talk about them, or even think about them. That's your choice. Try going back to the book, and let the whole film thing go.
It's been a couple of months now that people have been bitching and pissing about PJ doing the Hobbit film. People who declared that PJ was OMGRUININGLOTR!!!!! have now turned around and are demanding that he make the film. (So that they can then go back to excoriating him about how he fucked up again, of course.) Other people are taking the whole issue as an excuse to trot out all the old tired arguments about what a whoremeister PJ is and how he doesn't know what he's doing blahblahblahyakyakyak and another round of the Let's All Prove Our Ignorance Of Filmmaking Tango.
I'm sorry, but this is just so sophomoric and childish. They're movies, for gods' sakes. Movies are some of the most disposable, unimportant commodities produced in the world. Why would anyone go on and on about something like this? What is the friggin' POINT of drudging this crap up again and again, I'd like to know?
If you don't like the idea of what PJ might or might not do to The Hobbit, there is a very convenient and useful method of dealing with the possiblity of disappointment. Get a pad and paper, because you're going to want to write this down. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Ready? OK, here goes:
Don't go see it.
That's it. Very simple, actually. After all, if you saw an advertisement for any other film made by a filmmaker you didn't like whom you "know" is crap, you wouldn't go, would you? You'd roll your eyes and say, "Yeah, right, like I'm gonna blow ten dollars on THAT." Perfectly logical. So why not do it with this one?
See, that's what I do when I know something will make me crazy and piss me off and disappoint me: I don't go see it. I never went to see Mel Gibson's snuff movie, even though I've seen just about every other version of that story that's been made (bit of a hobby of mine), because I knew I'd hate it. So I didn't subject myself to it. I CERTAINLY didn't go see that horrifying film version of Stuart Little (a book I was in love with long before I'd ever heard of Tolkien), because after seeing the trailer, I knew the movie would make me want to hunt down the filmmakers, rip out their hearts and show them the bleeding ventricles before I made the bastards choke to death on them. So I didn't force myself to sit through something that would doubtless induce nausea for me. Neither of those were huge decisions on my part, but it certainly seems to be impossible for some people to make when it comes to LOTR. Fine! You want to make yourself nuts, go for it. But do you have to go on and on about it like a Jack Russell with a rubber bone? Christ on a cracker, leave it alone, already!
/exasperation
Jesus, people. It's one version of the book. One. Guy's. Version. (Well, him and the other 10,000 people who worked on it, but you know what I'm saying.)
It's over. Done. In the can. Finis.
Doubtless at some point some other studio will look back, see how much it made, and decide to do a remake. Which will be made by Some Other Guy. Who will also make changes to the story. Which you will also undoubtedly whine and piss and moan about, and make yourselves miserable over (not to mention those of us who got over any possible qualms about three years ago).
And guess what? The books will still be there. Right there. No, not there...over there. On your shelf. Where you've been keeping them for years, remember?
Remember the books? The version of the story that you've supposedly been so in love with for so long? What happened to them, exactly? When did whining and pissing about the films become so much more interesting than reading that story you love so much? If you don't like the films, just forget about them. Leave them by the wayside. Nobody is forcing you to watch them, talk about them, or even think about them. That's your choice. Try going back to the book, and let the whole film thing go.
It's been a couple of months now that people have been bitching and pissing about PJ doing the Hobbit film. People who declared that PJ was OMGRUININGLOTR!!!!! have now turned around and are demanding that he make the film. (So that they can then go back to excoriating him about how he fucked up again, of course.) Other people are taking the whole issue as an excuse to trot out all the old tired arguments about what a whoremeister PJ is and how he doesn't know what he's doing blahblahblahyakyakyak and another round of the Let's All Prove Our Ignorance Of Filmmaking Tango.
I'm sorry, but this is just so sophomoric and childish. They're movies, for gods' sakes. Movies are some of the most disposable, unimportant commodities produced in the world. Why would anyone go on and on about something like this? What is the friggin' POINT of drudging this crap up again and again, I'd like to know?
If you don't like the idea of what PJ might or might not do to The Hobbit, there is a very convenient and useful method of dealing with the possiblity of disappointment. Get a pad and paper, because you're going to want to write this down. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Ready? OK, here goes:
Don't go see it.
That's it. Very simple, actually. After all, if you saw an advertisement for any other film made by a filmmaker you didn't like whom you "know" is crap, you wouldn't go, would you? You'd roll your eyes and say, "Yeah, right, like I'm gonna blow ten dollars on THAT." Perfectly logical. So why not do it with this one?
See, that's what I do when I know something will make me crazy and piss me off and disappoint me: I don't go see it. I never went to see Mel Gibson's snuff movie, even though I've seen just about every other version of that story that's been made (bit of a hobby of mine), because I knew I'd hate it. So I didn't subject myself to it. I CERTAINLY didn't go see that horrifying film version of Stuart Little (a book I was in love with long before I'd ever heard of Tolkien), because after seeing the trailer, I knew the movie would make me want to hunt down the filmmakers, rip out their hearts and show them the bleeding ventricles before I made the bastards choke to death on them. So I didn't force myself to sit through something that would doubtless induce nausea for me. Neither of those were huge decisions on my part, but it certainly seems to be impossible for some people to make when it comes to LOTR. Fine! You want to make yourself nuts, go for it. But do you have to go on and on about it like a Jack Russell with a rubber bone? Christ on a cracker, leave it alone, already!
/exasperation
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Can't say I'm all upset about it, either! People that wanky need to, in the gold words of William Shatner, get a life ;)
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I mean, I love to bitch about a movie as much as the next guy, but for gods' sakes, how long can a person keep doing that? At some point the gum loses its flavor, so the only thing to do is spit it out! *eyeroll*
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I usually can't remember things that long, anymore! (yay for middle-age!)
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Thought you might want to put that link up at your LJ, for all your Lost buddies. ;)
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Seriously, I came so close to giving FOTR a pass because of how disappointed I had been with the Bakshi. (I had faith, man, I really believed...) Damn, I'm glad I gave it a try.
Of course there are things I could quibble about. There were things I personally thought he had dead wrong. (Sure Sam's gonna head back home because Frodo's getting all pissy. Yeah right.)
But you've just got to give the guy credit for an amazing vision and passion. If anyone ever put his heart, soul, and future career into a project, it was PJ. And there was just such an amazing amount he got right. I would love to see his take on The Hobbit. Can you imagine what he could do with the creepy Mirkwood scenes? And Smaug would be magnificent, not to mention totally believable. And judging by his track record on eye-candy, I am so there to see who he would cast as Young Bilbo.
But does this mean that LOTR and the Hobbit should never be filmed again? Preposterous! That's quite a high bar to be jumped, but I have absolute faith someone else will do just that, and I'll be there with my $15 or $20 or whatever it will be by then, and my bucket of popcorn, and my willingness to be totally amazed all over again.
Big YO on that
I was apprehensive about FOTR until I heard who was doing it. I'd loved Heavenly Creatures, and PJ's imaginative use of film and story in that one got me thinking that he could at least do something interesting with it. (Thank the gods I'd never heard of Braindead, or else I would've been a lot harder to convince.) After all, once you've lived through Bakshi, anybody else is a fucking step up!
But some folks just can't see that. There are people who've decided to hate PJ's LOTR because of just one or two changes he made. That is SO out of proportion. Yeah, I got a bit pissed at a couple of things (yes on the Sam thing, and the Denethor Flambe still irks the shit out of me) but Christ in a sidecar! As you say, he got so much right that I can't understand why anyone is as bent out of shape as they are.
But no. Remind them of how hideously bad it could have been, and you get "That's no excuse! It should have been PERFECT!" "Perfect" meaning "the way I always saw it," of course. Which would mean it wouldn't be perfect for someone else, but who cares about that? And who cares if it IS perfect for someone else?
I'm gonna see the Hobbit pretty much no matter who does it. (There are a couple of people whose Hobbit I wouldn't want to see, but you know, those people are really fucking unlikely to ever make that film.) The Rankin Bass Hobbit wasn't really all that bad (half-hour kiddie cartoon, after all), and I'm thinking it's really unlikely that a big budget film version would be worse than that. If PJ doesn't make the film, I'll be bummed, but that won't stop me from seeing it. I'll just gird my loins for something...well, not PJ. If I could make myself swallow my apprehension and dismay to go see his LOTR, I can certainly keep a rein on the huge expectations that PJ has set up, to go see someone else take a whack at it.
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Whilst I'm personally dubious about some of the ideas he has floated about The Hobbit, I'd be interested to see what he'd make of it. OTOH, I don't think it's a heresy to contemplate someone else filming that or any other of Tolkien's works.
Of course, if whoever does make it gets Dain wrong, you'd better avoid my LJ for a while!
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And then there's the musical in Toronto, which I saw this summer. The staging and effects were magnificent, but the story was quite simply flat and boring, and Gandalf was wimpy. Imagine: a wimpy Gandaf!! I so wanted to love this production, but it just did not affect me at all.
PJ and Co got a lot right, and some things wrong. But for me personally, the resurgence in interest in LOTR led me here, and to writing fic, and for that I am eternally grateful.
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There were a few (maybe more than a few) changes that disappointed me, but on the whole I loved and was in awe of (and still am, unreservedly) what PJ & Co accomplished, and will be grateful forever for them getting SO much of it right, and in some cases making the emotional power of the story resonate to an unimagined degree.
I dunno. The gleeful bashing is getting on my last nerve. Especially the so-called humorous entries that smack of spite more than fun.
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Oh Goddess, yes. That really gets up my ass. Especially when they aren't...how shall we say?...oh yeah, FUNNY. For me, the sort of humor that usually comes under the heading of "fannish" just isn't funny. It's usually either bad puns, finger-pointing or that kind of "heheh, we're SO MUCH SMARTER than everyone else, aren't we" yuks that, as you say, smack much more of derision than actual humor. What falls under the heading of "parody" is usually not funny at all, and I'm not saying that because I disagree with the theme. I've seen those sorts of things where the subject and point are something I totally agree with, but they just aren't freakin' funny. It's like the people writing them really want to rant and bitch, but think that being "funny" will soften the blow, or keep people from criticizing them. "Hey, I was just having fun!" Yeah, right.