Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 3D

[SmallBlueThing]

The first one and a half lord of the rings films are the most godawful, terminally dull pieces of cinematic excrement ive ever ever had the misfortune to see. My wife and i gave up in the middle of the second  one, and have never bothered to try again- nor are we likely to. I despise tolkein anyway for many of the same reasons i find cs lewis a pompous, repellent writer. But for me, tolkein is the worst of them.

Peter jackson is the man who directed the appalling Brain Dead/ Dead Alive and the astonishingly boring and ruinous King Kong remake- a version that makes dino d laurentiis look like he knows a thing or two about drama.

Everyone has something they despise- for you it might be the human centipede movies or barbara cartland. For me, it's tolkein and jackson and the explosion of brain-destroying boredom and crap that exploded forth when they came together.

SBT

[bigjobs67]

Fair comment. His King Kong is just far too long and would have been a better film if he'd shaved about 30mins off of it. I quite liked 'Brain Dead' and I've got 'Meet the Febbles' knocking about somewhere yet to be watched.'Heavenly Creatures' is a great film. Check that out.

[Gonk]

The first one and a half lord of the rings films are the most godawful, terminally dull pieces of cinematic excrement ive ever ever had the misfortune to see. My wife and i gave up in the middle of the second  one, and have never bothered to try again- nor are we likely to. I despise tolkein anyway for many of the same reasons i find cs lewis a pompous, repellent writer. But for me, tolkein is the worst of them.

Peter jackson is the man who directed the appalling Brain Dead/ Dead Alive and the astonishingly boring and ruinous King Kong remake- a version that makes dino d laurentiis look like he knows a thing or two about drama.

Everyone has something they despise- for you it might be the human centipede movies or barbara cartland. For me, it's tolkein and jackson and the explosion of brain-destroying boredom and crap that exploded forth when they came together.

SBT

Well just a simple question, why did you bother watching it in the first place?

I totally share your sentiments towards this tripe but wonder why you put yourself through it. It seems illogical. I'd worked out by the age of fifteen from the books what a pile of pants it was. So I never went to see it and saved myself a lot of bother.

You come across as an intelligent person and I cannot quite work out how you cannot glean from trailers, reviews, hype and public opinion, what films are not going to appeal to you.

The same is true of King Kong. Compared to the original I could see how rubbish it was going to be and so never bothered going. Simple.  You have a streak of masochism about you it seems, when it comes to films.

[Steve Green]

The first one and a half lord of the rings films are the most godawful, terminally dull pieces of cinematic excrement ive ever ever had the misfortune to see. My wife and i gave up in the middle of the second  one, and have never bothered to try again- nor are we likely to. I despise tolkein anyway for many of the same reasons i find cs lewis a pompous, repellent writer. But for me, tolkein is the worst of them.

Peter jackson is the man who directed the appalling Brain Dead/ Dead Alive and the astonishingly boring and ruinous King Kong remake- a version that makes dino d laurentiis look like he knows a thing or two about drama.

Everyone has something they despise- for you it might be the human centipede movies or barbara cartland. For me, it's tolkein and jackson and the explosion of brain-destroying boredom and crap that exploded forth when they came together.

SBT

Same here really...

I'm just bemused that you went to see them, considering it's someone who directed a film you find appalling, adapting an author you already hate.

I don't mind them personally, I don't think he's a great director by any means but bringing that scale of project to the screen is pretty impressive.

And I really liked the Frighteners...

[SmallBlueThing]

I think ive seen everything jackson made, up to the second rings film. I saw them when they came out, and wast impressed with bad tatste, meet the feebles or braindead, quite liked heavenly creatures, seem to remember liking the frighteners and gave up entirely after the double whammy of the rings and kong. How anyone who professes to like the original could misinterpret kong so spectacularly badly is beyond belief. There's nothing remotely good or right about it, with the possible exception of the insect pit sequence.

I just dont know how he got the reputation he has. Like i say, ive only seen the first rings film all the way through, but it was probly the most boring eighty five hours of my life!

SBT

[JOE SOAP]

I just dont know how he got the reputation he has.

Probably because he commanded a massive scale production for several years that eventually made massive amounts of money.

[TordelBack]

I actually like the Jackson King Kong, and the extended DVD version more so.  Granted it isn't a patch on the original, which is one of my favourite films of all time, but there's an awful lot there to like.  I find these Jackson epics work a lot better if you treat them as TV mini-series and watch them in several sittings accordingly.  You can get a very pleasant week's entertainment out of his LotR, but as individual films they can be a bit of a drag.

That said, I completely understand Steev's point of view here. Jackson's LotR teeters on the very cusp between 'overblown over-reverent crap' and 'brilliant respectful spectacle' - much as I like it, even being in the wrong humour can make it unwatchable. 

[Mardroid]

I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings books, although I found some of the Frodo-Samwise in Mordor stuff in the last book a bit of a chore and [spoiler]hoped for a direct showdown with Sauron. That being said, I appreciate the fact they didn't do that now as it's a bit obvious.[/spoiler]

As for the films, I thoroughly enjoyed the first one in the cinema. I found myself getting a bit bored in the cinema watching the second and third though, although I still enjoyed them overall.

That didn't stop me getting the extended editions of all the film though, and strangely, despite having more footage (and not just a bit more either) I'm don't think I've ever been bored watching them in my home. I'm not sure if it's the way the extended versions gel together or if it's because I know what will happen, so it seems to go quicker, or if it's because I'll often take a break when I need to slot in the DVD containing the second half of the film.

I probably re-watch them each year.

Now I think they're probably among my favourite films of all time. And I'm very much looking forward to The Hobbit.

[bigjobs67]

I think Martin Freeman will do a stand up job on Bilbo.

[Tiplodocus]

I like Kong as well but I really wanted to LOVE it.

I agree with the mini-series thing for Kong - best as four one hour episodes but I genuinely never get bored watching Rings and can happily sit with bottle of wine and an extended edition when I get the chance.

I like the insect pit, I think that's one of the bits where it strays from the original (I know about the lost sequence) into the realm of nightmare and thus didn't belong in the film (in my head anyway).

But there was absolutely no excuse to go over 100 minutes with Kong.

Meanwhile, back at Phantom Menace, does anybody know what the release schedule for the others is?  I actively detest the next two but strangely can never pass up the chance to see Star Wars at the cinema so, given a pleasant experience with TPM, I might give them a go.

[TordelBack]

Last I heard it was all going to be depend on how well TPM did as to whether they did the others at all (although I had also heard Star Wars itself was largely done some time ago), but next year's Hasbro packaging has already leaked and it features a battlin' Episode 2 Yoda to compliment this year's Darth Maul theme - so that means at least a year's wait (or is that respite?) until Attack of the Clones.  I know it allows the toy marketing to be discretely packaged up, but a year is crazy in terms of sustaining interest - it's not like there'll be a DVD release to keep things moving.  Even every six months would give the project momentum, personally I'd have preferred every 3 months, giving us a Prequel year and a Trilogy year.  Will there even be 3D in cinemas by the time of Jedi's putative release in 2017?

[bigjobs67]

I'm onna misson to Search and Desroy LukKKas. I'm gonna travel back in time with my mate Don 'Biggo' Biggs (Biggo is his street name) and fuckin kill that cunt before he starts fuckin with the originals and initiating the filth that is TPM . Therefore ending his greed quest. We'll snap his fingers before he starts fuckin with THX 1138 just to be sure. I'll give him Howard the Duck for novelty value.

[Roger Godpleton]

You're the worst character ever, Towelie.

[bigjobs67]

"My Time Is Yours".Robert Duvall.Awsom.

[Beaky Smoochies]

I'm onna misson to Search and Desroy LukKKas. I'm gonna travel back in time with my mate Don 'Biggo' Biggs (Biggo is his street name) and fuckin kill that cunt before he starts fuckin with the originals and initiating the filth that is TPM . Therefore ending his greed quest. We'll snap his fingers before he starts fuckin with THX 1138 just to be sure. I'll give him Howard the Duck for novelty value.

Uh, I dunno how to break this to ya, bigjobs dude, but Luca$ () has already fricked around with the excellent THX-1138, he released a new 'director's cut' in 2004 (which is strange, considering his preferred cut had been widely available for three decades on VHS), featuring new CGI visual effect shots - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIfTT8EGj3A - and true to form, he refused to also release the aforementioned unaltered version alongside it, sorry bigjobs dude, I'll duck for cover now...