A Great Success or a Great Disaster?
Much to my surprise, it is reported that “The Lord of the Rings III” almost swept the board in Oscar. I have seen its first and second episodes, and they hardly left me any good impression. History repeats itself. Like the formerly much ballyhooed movie Harry Port, The Lord of the Rings I, II, didn’t tell anything other than computerized scenes. Thinking of the fact that the third part of it, The Return of the King, has become the biggest winner of the Oscar, I guess it might have turned up and have something different. So when the other day one of my friends brought me a DVD of it, I thankfully inserted it into my DVD player and spent the subsequent over two hours with him watching the blockbuster, which seems to me that cannot be hotter lately.
It was a far cry from our expectations. The time watching it, like its previous acts, was all not worthwhile. The same ridiculous storyline; the same pale and superficial characters and their childish performance; the same lengthy and tedious plot; the same beautifully but apparently man-made wonderful scenes; the same, no, it’s better, computer skills…but besides all this, what is there left for us? Nothing but computer-made characters, computer-made scenes.
I have no idea how much Westerners enjoy their time sitting in the theatre watching this “masterpiece”. Is it also a part of cultural differences? My friend and I began to get ants in our pants after watching it for about one hour, only to find it boring and pointless. Can the fascinating computer technique make up for its dullness and emptiness? It is probably the case for Oscar, I suppose, but not for us.
The movie reminds me of the well-known fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Suit. Lies can speak louder than truth in a given surroundings. How ironic! All people except a real innocent boy became as blind as bats when the suit wearer was the King of the empire. Given that HollyWood were the empire of movie industry and The Lord of the Rings were the new emperor, I was ready to play the role of the innocent boy!
Computerization could be art? Computerization can be art? Computerization is art? I wonder. If it is the case, then it is far from a progress for movie industry but little more than a disastrous setback.
Panpanpan.
