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Sunday, October 03, 2004

The Return Of The Jedi King

[ Originally Posted On February 19th 2004 ]


PROLOGUE
At lassst, I have finally watched the preciousss movie. Watching the preciousss marksss the end of the Lord of The Ring trilogy, and thisss in turn, marksss the very firssst complete Trilogy I have watched in the cinemasss for my entire life.

The Matrix trilogy doesss not count becaussse I misssed the firssst Matrix film. That will be a life-long missstake that 'll never be able to forgive myssself, for the firssst Matrix movie wasss the bessst of all the three...

Enough of Gollum'sss talk, eh preciousss?

Okay, enough of that talk already. Makes my hair stand on its ends, and it reminds me of a very annoying little bratty girl named Ying Ling, who has always got nothing better to do than to come to my Blog and bombard anti-JDream slogans (Read the tagboard on your right and you'll understand why.) :p

That was just a bit of anti Ying-Ling sarcasm (*blek*), nothing much, not to be taken seriously; it was meant as half-time refreshments. Anyway, back to our topic; now the excuses that I can give you pertaining why I only watched LOTR (Lord of The Rings for those of you who have spent the last 20 years living life under a rock) is due to the fact that I like to watch movies when there're not too many people sitted around me. Call me unsociable but socializing has no place in the cinema, especially when you're trying hard to listen what Agent Smith, I mean err, Elrond has to say to Mr. Frodoson. (Matrix anyone?)

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Note from JDream: This section has got absolutely nothing to do with LOTR, just a mini entry concerning various cinema-goer characteristics.

ANNOYING TYPES OF CINEMA IDIOTS LISTED IN DETAIL
1. People who are either born with a set of iron teeth or maybe they just like to chomp down on anything. Making a bit of noise when you're eating popcorn is okay but seriously, do you have to make such a ruckus? It feels like sitting next to a nuclear explosion everytime you munch heavily on popcorn and whatnots. Before you know it, the armrest next to you has been chewed to bits, courtesy of Mr. Eat-It-All.

2. Smart-ass wannabe Ah Bengs who just have to explain every details in the movie to their Ah Lien girlfriends every 5 minutes or so in the loudest of voice decibles the human ear can pick up (dude, if your girlfriend is that stupid and deaf, I suggest you leave her behind the next time you come and watch a movie).

3. Chair and seat quakers; these breed of people take the word "earthquake" to a higher level. What they like to do is just slouch in their chairs, rest their legs against your seat, and merrily shake away like a broken motor, and expect you to thank them for that unwanted massage.

4. Cellphone idiots who keep on receiving calls every now and then, then babble away non-stop for half an hour before finally shutting his pie-hole up, only to receive another call after five minutes into the movie. Go out and wait for your stupid precious calls if they're that important!

5. Annoying Aunties (not really referring to my aunt, just a Malaysian slang for those 40-something year old loudmouthed, petty, fussy women) who sit next to you and keep on going "Ee yeerh", "Yorrrh, so many!", "Fui yoh", and "Tsk tsk" whenever Frodo steps on dirty stuff, a billion Orcs gathering outside Minas Tirith, the heroes fighting valiantly, and some tragedy occurs respectively. Once or twice is tolerable; not a billion times. Loud some more... Ai yoh, auntie, don't so loud-lah. I'm trying to watch movie one-lah. Tsk tsk.

Aah, idiotic cinema-goers; every cinema's bound to have at least one of the above listed...

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After the movie ended (3 hrs 20 minutes painfully long with a full bursting bladder), I couldn't help but wonder about the potential loopholes in the movie and the entire trilogy. The movie was great! The battle scenes of Minas Tirith was every multimedia specialist's dream come true. Breathtaking fight choreographies, excellent backdrops of New Zealand, and gut-spilling violence, what a memorable movie it made! But I still couldn't help but think of some of the flaws in the overall trilogy, so, as I was happily pissing away in the men's room, a few questions concerning "why" and "why didn't they" came into my mind...


WHY DIDN'T IT HAPPEN THIS WAY? Q'S AND A'S ABOUT LOTR
Q: Why didn't The Fellowship ride upon the big eagles all the way to Mt. Doom in the first place? It would have saved them so much trouble. - Curious
A: Hell yeah, and it wouldn't be a trilogy no more; there won't be any Gollum, no Battle of Helm's Deep, no Battle of Minas Tirith follow-up, Boromir wouldn't have to die so tragically, and Frodo wouldn't have a sword poked through him. The way I see it, it would happen this way; the whole movie would only last 45 minutes, with the entire Fellowship arriving at Mt. Doom in less than half an hour, courtesy of the eagles. It would take roughly 5 minutes for Frodo to throw the Ring into the fire, 5 more minutes for sobs and hugs, and the last 5 minutes for the journey flight home, just in time for dinner and EPL Saturday Nite Match between Manchester United and Arsenal. Ditto.

Q: So it didn't happen that way, so then if Gandalf's a wizard, why didn't he ever use his magical wizardry powers in the Battle of Minas Tirith? I have never seen him use his powers before.- Hairy Pouter & The Sorcerer's Kidney Stone
A: Like I said, if that happened, the Battle of Minas Tirith would only last 5 minutes, with Gandalf appearing briefly for 2 minutes, and then proceed to mumble inanities for a minute or so, and the remaining time would be used to hurl lightning bolts from his staff and rain brimstones onto the helpless Orcs down below. Human footsoldier casualties would drop to less than 0.1% and the only things destroyed are the Orcs and their equipment. Mr. Jackson would have saved a lot of movie production costs and Mr. Gandalf would have saved a lot of human asses.

Q: Why did the boat landings at Osgiliath where the Orcs poured out onto the city when the ramps were dropped look like a scene from Saving Private Ryan's D-Day Omaha Beach landings? - Capt. Miller
A: I dunno, probably Mr. Tolkien himself got inspired by the actual events (remember that this book was written some 9 years after WWII, and some certain events might have given him some inspiration for his novel). But instead of the good guys invading the besieged bad guys as it was in WWII, Mr. Tolkien had probably turned it the other way around, with the good guys being sieged. The only things missing / different were the MG-42s used by the German Wehrmachts to mow down the invading US soldiers on the beach. Add those machineguns in "Return of the King" and you'll have Faramir et al mowing down Orcs by the hundreds in a one-sided, unchallenged melee.

Q: Okay, fine. Now explain why at the Battle of Minas Tirith the scene where the Olliphaunts appear out of the dust is almost similar to the Battle of Hoth scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back where a few Imperial AT-ATs materialised out from the fog. - Luke Warmwater & Dork Vader
A: Well, I'm not sure if this is true, but some people say that Mr. George Lucas did Star Wars after reading this novel, and the Battle of Hoth is kinda similar to what you see in "Return of the King". Hint: What is the name of the sixth episode in the Star Wars trilogy (Star Wars Episode VI)? If you can guess it, then you would say that the name is not much different from Return of The King too. And in the movie (ROTK), notice the way how one of the Olliphaunts (no prizes for guessing from which non-fictional land animal this name was inspired from) fall down when it dies; doesn't it resemble the Imperial AT-AT's fall after getting its 4 legs harpooned and tied? Go figure.

Q: Why is it that any bad Orcs fighting a standard human footsoldier will most likely have a 70% winning ratio over the human, but if 10 of them Orcs gang up together to fight a hero, they always lose no matter what? - Ogre Hunter
A: Dude, are you new to movies and stuff like that? The hero always wins, no matter what. It doesn't make a difference if 10 Orcs or a 100 Orcs do battle with him. It all boils down to the "good-will-prevail-over-evil" mindset and the director. It's all part and parcel of movie tradition. Even if on the set you're a better swordsman than Gimli, if the director says you lose to Gimli, you lose. Do I make myself clear? So if you're an Orc, here's a piece of advice; if whenever in battle a hero challenges you to fight him, politely decline, because you know that if you fight a melee with him, you lose 100% altogether. Tell the hero that you'd rather take your chances with a normal footsoldier where the chances are even. This goes to show too how badly humans fight against hordes of Orcs, whereas the heroes can kill an entire platoon without breaking a fingernail.

Q: How come Sauron didn't make himself a back-up Ring in case the unimaginable happens? If he did, this whole mess wouldn't have happened and he wouldn't have to search so frantically all over for the one Ring. - Einstein
A: Yep, and no one would be able to defeat him again. Darkness shall rule forever, and those who dare to oppose him using the original Ring will eventually perish, since no one but him can harness the evil powers of the Ring. Humans will fall, as will dwarves and elves. At that time, staying alive will be a full-time job for time to come, even for the heroes themselves. In time, everything on Earth that resembles a ring or has a hole in the middle of it will be evil; things such as wedding rings, donuts, tyres and tyre tubes, hula hoops etc. Even eating onion rings will turn you into Smeagol.

Q: How come Eowen could kill The Nazgul King in ROTK? I thought they said that no living man could ever kill him? Is this some kind of a rip-off? - Bewildered
A: Nope. This ain't some rip-off; it just goes to show how courageous and important girls are in battle. Without her, no one could have tackled The Nazgul King. Poor wimp died under the sword bore by a woman. It also serves as a reminder that girls make excellent fighters with a trick or two under their sleeves. It wasn't meant to be a sexist issue. You go, girls! That Nazgul guy should have realised his flaw in his genes before going to battle; he's female intolerant! When they said no living man could kill him, they didn't say no living females could finish the job off either!

Q: Whatever became of Saruman? The last we heard of him in ROTK was we know that he locked himself up in the tower of Isengard, guarded by Treebeard the Ent. - LOTR Fanatic
A: Sorry, I don't have a complete answer for this one. Judging by what I know, he might spend the rest of his life locked away in his pitiful tower, eating rats and gruel, and felt very sorry he was ever cruel (hey, that rhymes!) to everybody, growing older by the day (he's already old! How much more older can he get?) and just disappearing into the shadows. So don't be surprised if you see him in your local neighbourhood one day, doing community work. He's probably making up for all his past evil deeds. Or maybe he just got a job over at the Dark Side in Star Wars : Episode III as Count Saruman, I mean err, Dooku.

Q: If the Undead (in ROTK) sought by Aragorn to aid him in battle cannot be killed, then why the heck didn't they enlist their services earlier and save their human counterparts from unnecessary death? - Zombie Nation
A: Well, in order to keep up with tradition, there must be people dying and such so that the circle is complete. It's like yin and yang, if you get what I mean. There must be an equal amount of good guys dying in order to balance the whole movie. If there's a fight and it drags on and on and the only people getting killed are the bad ones, something is seriously wrong here. Either the evil villain has enlisted thousands of worthless minions that just stand there and take the beating, or it's something in the food that the good guys eat to make them fight so well. Therefore as you can see, invincible undeads can only finish up the job; mortal humans have the pleasure of being in the first wave when the attack commences, and along the way, a few hundred die in order to make the losses on both sides even.

Q: Agent Smith cloned many people into his likeness in The Matrix : Reloaded. How come I don't see more Agent Smiths and why isn't Frodo and Sam cloned into an agent too? And where are the bullet-time scenes that The Matrix offers as its trademark? I didn't see any bullet-time scenes so far yet. - Mr. Anderson
A: You're in the wrong cinema. This is The Lord of The Rings : The Return of The King. Hugo Weaving plays Elrond here, not Agent Smith. He's Smith in The Matrix, not Lord of the Rings. LOTR does not, I repeat, does not have bullet-time special-effect scenes. Only Matrix movies have this kind of original SFX. The Matrix : Revolutions is in Cinema 15. This is Cinema 16. Go next door.

Q: There was a girl with very long, jet-black hair coming out of the television in the first movie. How come in this movie there's only fighting, fighting, and more fighting? I don't see any girl with extremely long hair covering her face coming out of the TV, why's that? - Horror Fanatic
A: You're referring to The Ring, this is Lord of The Ring, not The Ring 2 movie that you want. That movie ended its run a long time ago in the cinemas, so go buy yourself a pirated DVD and shut up! Besides, there are no TVs during Frodo and Sam's era. Stop being so stupid! That's it, I'm ending the Q and A session now...

END OF LOTR Q AND A SESSION


EPILOGUE
So, there you have it... Finally finished the Trilogy on the 17th February 2K4 itself, but was too lazy to write about it until today, Thursday, 4 days after the fever died down. Now as I write this, I still can't help but laugh over Annoying Auntie's antics (please refer to "Annoying Types of Cinema Idiots Listed In Detail, No.5" for the full story.

I'm amazed that Return of The King can hold its own against so many others for a total of ten weeks strong (as per 17th Feb 2K4). Peter Jackson has certainly given us something to be proud of for generations to come; how many of us can actually claim to be there in cinematic history when Aragon drew out the sword Anduril in ROTK? Or when Neo fulfilled his destiny at the Machine City in The Matrix Revolutions? Or even as Tobey Maguire swung from skyscraper to skyscraper as Spiderman? Nothing beats being in the generation where 2 great trilogies hit the silver screen...

Thank you Mr. Jackson for the visual entertainment that will last for eons to come.

Official LOTR site

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