Post #23,773
1/10/02 1:21:01 PM
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Star Wars better than Lord of the Rings?
[link|http://salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/01/09/lotr_starwars/index.html|Only Salon would say so]
The site I love to hate for its cheeky combination of insipid shallowness and smug self-superiority has weighed in on LOTR, and found it inferior to Star Wars. Evidently LOTR hasn't got enough laughs, and it's too complicated.
There are a lot of detailed complaints, but they all tell us more about the limitations of the reviewer than the limitations of the film. The operating rule of deduction in most of them is: a given character is beyond Jean Tang's ability to comprehend, therefore that character is inconsistent, therefore unrealistic. (That last step makes we wonder what planet the reviewer is on!) The remainder are complaints that the scriptwriters didn't go for cheap laughs when they presumably should have.
An especially revealing comment:
Far simpler than Tolkien's intricately crafted Middle-earth, the universe of "Star Wars" is more similar to our own.
I say:
Speak for yourself. The universe I live in is far from simple, and I don't mean that in the traditional oh-it's-all-so-complicated cop out sense. My universe is not nearly simple enough to leave out that messy good and evil stuff, and rarely boils it down to Star Wars cartoonishness for easier digestion. (Now bin Laden is certainly a comic book villain, but most have more subtlety.) But it seems Tang lives in a comic book universe. Oh well. It's better than the blurry unhelpful grays of unfocussed relativism, let alone the uniform gray fog of nihilism. That's as simpleminded as gets: half as many shades as a black-vs-white worldview.
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
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Post #23,776
1/10/02 1:32:46 PM
1/10/02 11:29:43 PM
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Some common elements:
Star Wars Has Lord Of The Rings Has
Obi Won Kenobi Gandalf
Darth Vader Sauron
The Force The Ring
Storm Troopers Orc/Goblins
Han and Luke disguse Frodo and Samwise
themselves in disguise themselves
Stormtrooper armor in Orc Armor
The Return of The Jedi The Return of the King
Lightsabers that glow The sword "Sting" that glows
C3PO and R2D2 Mari and Pip
Mos Eastly Bar that The pub that Frodo meets Strider in.
Luke meets Han Solo in.
If I think about it more, I could find more common elements.
"In order to completely solve a problem, you must make sure that the root of the problem is completely removed! If you leave the root, the problem will come back later to get you." - Norman King
Edited by nking
Jan. 10, 2002, 11:29:43 PM EST
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Post #23,785
1/10/02 2:37:55 PM
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You might try wrapping a PRE tag around that...
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #23,790
1/10/02 3:38:45 PM
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Double that
...sure.
The <pre> tag works great.
It really does.
If . . .
. . . you don't mind
the
space
doubling
it
does.
!@#$%^&*() <cr> => <br> translations.... --
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/|http://kmself.ix.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
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Post #23,792
1/10/02 3:45:18 PM
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FFTFI
Feel Free To Fix It.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #23,793
1/10/02 3:51:52 PM
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Of course...
It's not
all that broken
now...
is it ...?
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #23,815
1/10/02 5:27:39 PM
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Awww... PRE is obviously short for PRETTY :)
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
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Post #23,867
1/11/02 5:21:44 AM
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Slight mismatch.
The most important disconnect between the two sides is "The Force" <=> "The Ring". In Middle-Earth, the Master Ring is undeniably a corrupting influence. In the books, Tolkien is at some pains to point this out and the movie is true to that.
IMHO, this point is probably one of the most vivid points that make the story "so not Hollywood". Hollywood writers would definitely have had someone take the Ring and turn it successfully on Sauron.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #23,923
1/11/02 1:02:36 PM
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Ok, a slight mismatch
But The Ring was used for good, until it turned the wearer evil. Like Bilbo was so effected by it that he was starting to turn evil, which was why Gandalf had him give it to Frodo.
The Force had a light and dark side. Anakin Skywalker used The Force, and eventually got tempted by the dark side and became Darth Vader. Then his son Luke was able to use The Force, but had to face the dark side of it, and had to fight to not become like his father.
Hollywood, actually The Ring was indestrcutable, and could only be destroyed in Mount Doom where it was made. They should have used it as a weapon, as it couldn't be broken. Put it on a chain and swing it around to hit Orcs with it or something? ;)
"In order to completely solve a problem, you must make sure that the root of the problem is completely removed! If you leave the root, the problem will come back later to get you." - Norman King
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Post #24,964
1/20/02 6:40:12 PM
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Someone at Salon gets it
[link|http://salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2002/01/18/lotr/index.html|They don't all function mentally at the level of a Seinfeld character]
Excerpt:
And in the end, it may be that lesson in responsibility that makes "The Lord of the Rings" such a great film. Both "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" are focused on the cartoon battles of good vs. evil, but "LOTR"
takes it a step further and says we all have a responsibility to do what we can in that battle.
I cried during Gandalf's speech to Frodo when he speaks of the responsibility to bear great things, and the strength required to succeed. No one seeks these burdens, but those who receive them must rise to the challenge. It's a practical message in the most absurd setting, and it's hardly a salve in the post-Sept. 11 world. There's no "it'll be OK" tacked onto the end -- and we have no way of knowing if happy endings are in store for the future. There are no similar guarantees in the real world.
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html]
Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
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Post #24,977
1/21/02 12:37:18 AM
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The Care Bears
The first Star Wars was great.
The second, less so.
The third, absolutley stupid. Those damn bears taking over the experienced storm troopers? Yah right. I don't have a gun and I could shoot better than the stormtroopers.
Have not entirely seen the last Star Wars. (Wasn't it on Fox? Didn't watch it completely.)
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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