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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
Unlike many, I had lowered expectations going into this movie.
Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to see it! Couldn't wait! And knew it
would be good. But . . . I didn't expect it was going to be as
outstanding as everyone else was making it out to be. Why? Same
as always with my other Lord of the Rings review, I've actually
READ the book. I've read so many reviews that say "Just like the
book" . . . What the hell? Were they reading the same book as I was?
That being said however, despite Peter Jackson's apparent need to
pointlessly change things in the storyline to suit his own purposes. (
And I'm not talking about things that were changed because of
length or pacing. But rather things that were changed for marketing
reasons or "Cool factor" *cough* WargRidersInTwoTowers *cough*
), I would have to say that this one suffered the least from such
editing. Oh there were plenty of pointless changes that will anger
the avid reader of the books, you can bet on that. However, the
movie was beautifully constructed to be a perfect ending to the
other two films.
Ask me which is my favorite of the three? That would be like asking
me which page I liked the best in a book. You can't have one
without the other two and each movie represents a different section
of the overall story. So no, this is not my favorite, and it is not the
best . . . nor are any of the other two. It's the denouement, the
ending, and it is a beautiful thing.
**Spoilers**
Now if only Aragorn had the sword from the beginning, if only
Pippen didn't just "find" the palantir, if only we saw Saruman get
downcast, if only we saw the razing of the Shire, if only Eowyn's
"secret" had actually been kept for more than 1 second ( or should I
say at all?! ), if only a bigger deal had been made about Aragorn's
arrival with the dark ships . . . It would have been perfect . . .
**end Spoilers**
To put it very easily though, this is not a "sequel" and as such, if
you loved the first two, you will NOT be disappointed with this one.
PETER PAN
A new edition of Peter Pan. Not having read the original book, but
rather having always seen the Disney animated version, I'm hard
pressed to say whether or not this film represents the book any
better or worse than the latter. However, I can't imagine that
comparing this movie to the book would be a bad thing. From the
moment the movie starts, it has an almost fairy tale look to it.
Something about the atmosphere of the movie is entrancing. The
cast was perfect, even Peter Pan, which admitedly had to be hard
to cast without it being sort of goofy, was great! But none was as
great as Jason Isaacs as the infamous Captain Hook. He put lots of
evil in the character with just a few ounces of whimsical goofiness
(as is traditional ) and made the perfect "Hook" ( Sorry Mr. Hoffman).
If you have kids, or you still have some kid left in you ( Haven't fully
moved out of Neverland yet? ), go see this movie!
Stephane Morrell
Laurier CIM Group
MCSE,CCA
-Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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