I binged over the holidays. I don’t mean so much with food and drink, though there was some of that as well. No, actually, I binged on one genre movie series and one non-genre tv series. The movie series was The Lord of the Rings. A cable station was airing a marathon on one day. I taped it and played it back over three days, which was marathon enough for me. The movies were all long, especially the last one, The Return of the King.
I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings. I had not seen a full movie in the series for many years, and I’m not sure I had ever seen the third one. The thing about trilogies is that if you don’t like the second, unless you really, really, really like the first, you may never watch the third. That may be what happened in my case. I liked the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, though it too was long, and the first time I watched it was not enough to get all that happened in the film. I had had to see it a second time just to get a real sense of the story.
I did not like the second one nearly as much, The Two Towers. Having just seen it again, I’m trying to remember how I felt about the book, but it was way too long ago for me to remember. The problem I experienced with the movie was that there was too much about the Race of Men, and not nearly enough about Hobbits. I especially didn’t like that there was so much time devoted to fight scenes. While the director Peter Jackson must have thought fight scenes were important, I don’t believe they are nearly important as he wanted us to believe. All the books are about the quest and friendship and going beyond yourself to achieve something.
The Return of the King also had a lot of fight scenes and a lot on the Race of Men, but not nearly as much as the second film. There was a lot more with Frodo and Sam and the other hobbits, so I found the movie much more enjoyable. I could doze through the fight scenes and wait for the good stuff. I’m sure there are people out there who would disagree with me, but the scenes with Frodo and Sam were especially poignant and strong. I’m glad I had a chance to see these movies all together, so I could follow the story line and get a good sense of what the books were about.
IF you haven’t seen them in a while, it’s a good time to watch then again. You might find something new.