Actually, I don’t have doubts. I have suspicions. Specifically, I suspect that this is some bullsh*t.
(Via Geeks Are Sexy) I know I’m gonna watch at least the first episode of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER. Sure. No question about that. But I’m gonna be in Full Suspicion Mode while I’m doing it. Because possibly – maybe even probably – this is some bullsh*t.
But I’m a fair-minded man.
This will certainly be *something.* As you wrote about Marvel a couple days ago: It’s all about managing expectations.
I now expect Marvel to suck except for those few times when there’s some market competition (aka Sony pictures for the movies that aren’t Morbius).
I got burned too many times with the Disney+ shows like Kenobi. There’s plenty of other things I’d rather see than this dreck. YMMV.
From what I heard, Kenobi at least got better as it went on.
I admit that I do not have first-hand knowledge of this thing.
Nope. It started pretty dumb, and ended pretty dumb. Specifically, a woman got stabbed by Darth Vader, then boarded some kind of starship (still wounded) flew to Tatooine, wandered around a market (still wounded) until she found out where Luky Skywalker was (still wounded) then chased him (still wounded) into the desert, then picked up his limp carcass and walked (still wounded) back through the desert back to his house. And while all that was going on, Darth Vader was chasing Kenobi, who was heading to Tatooine.
I really hate the “let’s put the name of a character the audience is interested in right in the title, and then in a TWIST, the show is about someone else entirely*”.
*That someone is always female, uninteresting, and frequently dumber than a box of rocks (while having less charisma than the same).
I think they just said, “Let’s buy the name and then do whatever in Middle Earth we want to, and people will like it.”
And people probably will. Some of them, at least.
^ This.
I rather strongly disliked portions of the movies for badly missing the point, for turning characters into comedy relief, and for using the city walls as trebuchet ammunition. (Among other things. I used to have a list.)
But I never once doubted that it was an homage and a labor of love.
This?
Is a straight-up desecration.
Everything released so far trumpets that the producers, writers, actors, and directors are acting in bad faith.
I see no reason to disbelieve that.
I will not gift them with the benefit of the doubt they are so clearly undeservent of.
Ah – if you found that offensive, I would promote to you “A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry”. I’m not sure where I got the link from, but I don’t *think* it’s here. Regardless, it’s a guy who gets way, way, way into medieval scholarship explaining (among other things) how Tolkein really grokked what was going on in interesting and subtle ways and how the movies just missed the point again and again. He also has fascinating things to say about ancient and medieval farming, GoT, Sparta, medieval mining…. really, it’s just what it says on the tin. He doesn’t mitigate his pedantry in any way.
I’ll check it out.
Me<—–Quietly eating popcorn and reading these comments which are absolutely going to better than the uber-Woke TROP