Ticket Stubs #19: The Heroic Journey Part I
It's issue 19, and you know what that means! The Hobbit films are currently in production, and due to some (hopefully welcome) liberties taken by epic-master Peter Jackson, they will follow in the footsteps of his previous foray into the Tolkeinverse (up for review today) by being fleshed out into a trilogy, featuring returning characters like Ian McKellan's Gandalf and Andy Serkis as the marvelous mocap masterpiece that is Gollum. I loved the book, and am looking forward to the film adaptations. So let's pay tribute to Jackson by doing what he has endeavored to do: move forward by looking back....
FROM June 17, 2004: The heroic journey is something that you come across a lot in life and literature, and being a mythology freak, I see a lot of it. I usually don't like the predictable stuff, but when it's wierd enough that predictability goes out the window, I can't get enough. So in this special issue, I'll review my two favorite heroic journeys of all time. Odysseus, Hercules, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and (yes) Spider-Man are all really kick-ass heroes with equally kick-ass stories, but nothing beats what JRR Tolkein and Stephen King can serve up.
I just saw Return of the King, and the trilogy curse has (for now at least) been broken. The Lord of the Rings is the coolest movie saga I have ever seen (not yet having been exposed to the Avengers)! Even though it's all computer fakery, the scenery and camera work are breathtaking, the ogres, orcs, dragons, and elephants are well done (Gollum is exceptionally created), and the battle scenes (while ludicrously long) are amazing. Even though LOTR is basically an action movie, the emotion is varied; from a comic exchange between John Rhys-Davies and Orlando Bloom (after Bloom climbs a giant elephant--one of the best stunts in the entire film--takes out all the orcs onboard--counting as he goes--cripples the elephant, and jumps off, Rhys-Davies says "that still counts as one") to the long, drawn out, dramatic conclusion.
Like The Matrix, there are too many good special effects to list. Like Yoda in Star Wars 2,
there are surprising fight scenes where Gandalf takes on ten orcs at once, and Sam seriously cripples a giant spider. Making Bilbo the author of The Hobbit and Frodo the author of the trilogy was also a nice touch. My only problem with LOTR besides the 40 minute wrap-up was the fact that Frodo was written as the main hero (he was the ring-bearer, after all) when Return of the King revealed Sam as the true hero: the only one who knew what Gollum was up to, the only one who felt the desire to give up the ring, the one who gave the last of his water to Frodo, the one who carried Frodo up Mount Doom with the last of his strength. Oh yes, let's not forget King Aragorn, who led his army on a suicide mission so they could even reach Mount Doom at all. Perhaps I gave away too much, but if you haven't seen any of the trilogy, it's worthy of the thirty or so Academy Awards it won, so buy it!
A (Most Wanted)
The Stephen King portion of our Heroic Journey has expanded to epic proportions with a series of graphic novel prequels, a recently concocted interquel, a host of eulogistic nods in King's post-Tower novels, and a possible movie in the works. But addressing all that is a task for the second issue of Cover Charge, which I'll start work on following this Critical Quickie:
Safe--Jason Statham, Robert John Burke (Person of Interest), James Hong (Bladerunner), Chris Sarandon (Fright Night), Reggie Lee (Grimm). An ex-cop at the end of his rope must protect a child prodigy from corrupt cops, Russian mobsters, and the Chinese Triad in this semi-smart actioner that's Mercury Rising meets 16 Blocks with a hint of The Transporter thrown in. It's classic Statham, but with less driving and ass-kicking (boo!), and greater quality and creativity (yaayyy!). The center of attention is newcomer Catherine Chan, who plays the prodigy in question with an air of quiet, self-sufficient bravado that makes you forget everyone else is playing it Safe.
B-
FROM June 17, 2004: The heroic journey is something that you come across a lot in life and literature, and being a mythology freak, I see a lot of it. I usually don't like the predictable stuff, but when it's wierd enough that predictability goes out the window, I can't get enough. So in this special issue, I'll review my two favorite heroic journeys of all time. Odysseus, Hercules, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and (yes) Spider-Man are all really kick-ass heroes with equally kick-ass stories, but nothing beats what JRR Tolkein and Stephen King can serve up.
Like The Matrix, there are too many good special effects to list. Like Yoda in Star Wars 2,
there are surprising fight scenes where Gandalf takes on ten orcs at once, and Sam seriously cripples a giant spider. Making Bilbo the author of The Hobbit and Frodo the author of the trilogy was also a nice touch. My only problem with LOTR besides the 40 minute wrap-up was the fact that Frodo was written as the main hero (he was the ring-bearer, after all) when Return of the King revealed Sam as the true hero: the only one who knew what Gollum was up to, the only one who felt the desire to give up the ring, the one who gave the last of his water to Frodo, the one who carried Frodo up Mount Doom with the last of his strength. Oh yes, let's not forget King Aragorn, who led his army on a suicide mission so they could even reach Mount Doom at all. Perhaps I gave away too much, but if you haven't seen any of the trilogy, it's worthy of the thirty or so Academy Awards it won, so buy it!
A (Most Wanted)
The Stephen King portion of our Heroic Journey has expanded to epic proportions with a series of graphic novel prequels, a recently concocted interquel, a host of eulogistic nods in King's post-Tower novels, and a possible movie in the works. But addressing all that is a task for the second issue of Cover Charge, which I'll start work on following this Critical Quickie:Safe--Jason Statham, Robert John Burke (Person of Interest), James Hong (Bladerunner), Chris Sarandon (Fright Night), Reggie Lee (Grimm). An ex-cop at the end of his rope must protect a child prodigy from corrupt cops, Russian mobsters, and the Chinese Triad in this semi-smart actioner that's Mercury Rising meets 16 Blocks with a hint of The Transporter thrown in. It's classic Statham, but with less driving and ass-kicking (boo!), and greater quality and creativity (yaayyy!). The center of attention is newcomer Catherine Chan, who plays the prodigy in question with an air of quiet, self-sufficient bravado that makes you forget everyone else is playing it Safe.
B-
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