One year, so many movies.

I already think I've seen more movies/television this year than I did in all of last year. That can't possibley be true. But I have been watching a lot of DVD and ... television recording device ... recorded television. Whatever that thing is. Oh the technology!

I saw Matrix Revolutions, finally. My striking impression was that it was not as bad as I had been lead to believe by, oh, everyone in the free world. It wasn't that bad. At least in terms of the second one. I think the two were pretty much on even ground. Neither, of course, came close to matching the power and promise of the original. Anyway, the cheese factor was increased ("So cheeseball a Smith.") and I got much use out of my new best phrase, "This scene is for women!" I have some less PG rated variants, as well. And I interpretted the final message of the movie (from what I could figure out, and quite frankly, my brain was physically unwilling to spend any energy contemplating and nitpicking over most of it) to be, "You win by selling out." No, think about it.

Last night we watched a bad movie starring Terry O'Quinn, solely for that reason. Made in the 80s, the realization was made that it is nearly twenty years old. This explained, though didn't prepare me for, why Mr. O'Quinn was so much younger and leaner, and with much more hair. Still inimitably creepy, though. Ahh, good times.

Previous evening (?): Full Metal Jacket, lest I forget.

This evening: Cool Hand Luke, various leftovers, and then we settled down to watch The Two Towers on DVD. Extended Edition, natch. It is possible that only Beth will appreciate the full import.

Anyway, why did no one tell me that this film was such utter crap? Honestly. I really didn't ... get it. Like, the first film? Good. Third film? Good. Even though most of the book material was left off, and the book I adore. Second film? Who dropped the ball?

As I have stated in times past, I am not a book adaptation purist. I do not need to see everything in the book up on the screen. I don't even need to see them in the right order or place (cougholdmanwillowcough). I am fine with the "homage" or "shout out" when I can get nothing else. When the wrong character says a minor poem, but at least it's in there? When they make subtle references to book chapter titles? When a line or passage comes straight from the book, even when it's not one of the most beloved lines/passages? When the characters do not behave exactly as they do in the books yet somehow capture the precise essence of the characters? I love that. It makes me happy. It makes me feel like the filmmakers care, and I'm on the same page, right there with them.

Of course, the only way that can work is if the story that you present is the *actual* story. The Lord of the Rings is mythic. And I know from mythic, as they say. It's not the precise details that matter, but the story. The hard facts; the source. The source needs to be the same. When you change the basic fabric of the story, I get upset. That's when my brain hurts and my soul cries out to be avenged.

The second film, at best, is "loosely based" on the book of the same name. Any similarities to any work by Tolkien, living or dead, is purely coincidental. And the other films (with some exceptions, which I could bitch about, but were nothing jarring) were not. What is up?

I found myself, in my happiest watching moments, thinking, "That was pretty awesome. Even though it never happened." That's about the best I could hope for with it. And, honestly, some of the scenes (most of which, I observed, were not in the theatrical release) were pretty damn awesome. Especially the flashback with Boromir. O Sean Bean, you are a paragon, and I do adore you. Though not nearly as much as my boyfriend does. I've never seen "Sharpe," you see. Some day when I'm famous and poweful, I will devise a movie in which Sean Bean, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, some other people that I like, are all in a film, nay, scene, together, and both of us will be satisfied that no other movie need ever be made. The opinion of others matters not.

So, there was some good, quickly done away with by the insulting bad. Insulting to me, anyway, I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't like the film. The boy informs me that the 47 minutes of extra footage really allowed the film some internal logic that it lacked in the theaters. So, good! And yet, oh yes, there's a damn there, didn't we say? Little things bug me. That whole "asking the white wizard" thing really fucked with me, because nothing after that made any sense.

Anyway. I have also discovered commentaries! So far we've listened to the cast commentaries of the second discs of both films. Yeah, I don't know either, but seriously, we started watching at about 8:30, and as I'm typing this it's almost 4AM. That's a lot of hobbit for anybody, man. Lot of hobbit. So, I'm finding these fascinating. What I find most interesting is learning who is the cast is, in fact, totally awesome (Bernard Hill), who is an enormous walking penis (Aston, Aston, Aston), who is pretty but not especially bright (Bloom, Miranda Otto -- side note: her character not fighting in battle at Helm's Deep was more true to the book than her doing so would have been. HAAAAAAAA! Oh honey.), who are entertaining and slightly deranged (Boyd and Monaghan), and who is a class act all the way (John Rhys-Davies, Ian McKellen, John Noble, most of the other fellows). And, of course, who I'd pay to see read phone books to each other (Sean Bean and Christopher Lee). I especially liked the one anecdote B&M gave where they referred to "Sean Bean" several times. No "Sean" or anything of that nature, but "Sean Bean." Some people, you just need to do that.

I am actually gad-fucking-exhausted right now. My head actually did hurt by the end of the movie, and I downed some painkillers as is my wont. So I'm feeling less pain. But I was half unconscious before the commentaries were even half over, so I'm surprising and alarming myself by staying up this late and typing all this out.

Um. I'm sure all the people I was talking smack about are potentially lovely people in real life.