Son Of Arathorn
(11.01.2004 - 1:38 p.m.)

I suppose I should talk about it. You know, the new Lord Of The Rings movie.

To be very honest, I wasn't quite as impressed with it as I had been by the last two films. Yes, it was huge, expansive and epic. Yes, the production and acting and everything inbetween was just as competent as they all had been in previous incarnations. But, somehow, something was missing for me.

There could be a number of factors as to why I feel this way. The first being that somehow there was very little development in the characters or the situations they were facing. The leaps that the characters made between The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers were quite considerable. There was an impressive and ominous development of tone in the second film. There was also an impressive development of scale. The proportion of Frodo and Co's task became quite apparent with that change of tone. I just didn't feel like that sort of further development took place in Return Of The King.

The second, and far more obvious, reason, is the very messy ending to the adventure. For those that might not know, it is very different, and I think inferior, to the book. Now, I know very well that a film should not slavishly devote itself to it's source material, but the ending of the film of Return Of The King didn't feel at all fitting to me.

To explain: in the book, Saruman is let go by Treebeard, because Treebeard feels he is no longer a threat. It's a big mistake, as Saruman heads straight to The Shire and wrecks the place, ruining everything that the Hobbits hold dear. Thus, once Frodo has sailed to the Grey Havens, Pippin has become a Knight of Gondor and Merry has become the tallest Hobbit in Middle Earth, Sam returns to The Shire. Which is where his gift from Galadriel from the first book plays a part, as it is the seed that she gave him that allows him to rebuild The Shire. In this way, we are left with no illusion that The Shire has been unaffected by the events further afield, and under no illusion that Middle Earth will ever be the same again.

In this way, I feel that the film completely failed. When the party of Hobbits returns, we are made aware that they feel out of place back in The Shire, but The Shire itself is as it ever was; green and pleasent. For me this was a big letdown. Tolkien's book made clear that the time of Man had come to Middle Earth, that all the other races, of Elves and Orcs and Hobbits, had come to their end. It was a point that I felt was completely lost in the filmed version of the story.

Don't misunderstand me, I did enjoy watching the film. It was a feat of logistics and had some very powerful and poignant moments. I just felt that it was messed around a little too much to maintain it's complete depth. It certainly didn't feel like nearly three and a half hours though, which has to prove something. If nothing else, I was at least entertained.

* * * * *

Hands up everyone who wishes that Ryan Adams had been allowed to release Love Is Hell in one complete follow up to Demolition? I've been listening to Love Is Hell Pts 1 & 2 of late, and I have to say, they are both much better than Rock N Roll, which by all accounts Adams was forced to go away and record because the label bosses didn't like the direction he had taken.

And I thought that Lost Highway was supposed to be a label that took risks to make sure that quality music was delivered to people who wanted to listen to it? It seems that we are all touched my commercial pressures in the end.

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