Death and Revision

  • Reading time:3 mins read

Out of curiosity, I rented (for free!) the theatrical release of Fellowship of the Ring. Of course, the disc was scratched all to hell — so I was only able to take in about the first twenty minutes before my DVD player began to freak out.

I think I might need to clean the thing, soon; even some discs which should be fine are giving it problems.

At any rate — aside from the vapid extras (which I’m afraid I couldn’t tolerate in their entirety), my main target was a comparison of the original cut of the film to the one with which I am more familiar.

Conclusion, from what I see, and the memories it’s causing to resurface:

hot damn, was this thing improved.

The whole beginning portion seems to be edited such as to construe Gandalf as the main character of the movie. His interactions with Frodo are abbreviated, sped up, and depersonalized. Near-all of Bilbo’s characterization has been omitted, dragging him down to the level of a disposable plot device with whom Gandalf briefly interacts on his personal mission to the shire. Frodo only becomes a factor once Gandalf has been established, and even then he’s not illustrated as much.

The editing is more abrupt and disorienting. It feels hurried. Not just in comparison; I remember feeling this way in the theater.

Basically: the warmth is removed, as are character relationships. The movie isn’t set up as well. It progresses too quickly.

And then there’s the whole visual aspect. The theatrical version just isn’t edited with the care of the extended cut. There are a number of “new” or alternate shots (from my perspective, going back) which don’t sit as well in the frame, or are of questionable value. You can tell that Jackson spent an extra year on the longer edit, smoothing things over; revising and selecting exactly what was needed to tell the story as well as possible. Heck, even the colours are richer.

The result is a far more well-made film, from just about any direction.

No pun intended.

As such: given how distinctively non-plussed I was with the theatrical cut of The Two Towers, I’m now even more curious about the extended version. It’s not just that material was added to FotR; the entire thing was carefully honed. Almost every edit, shot, and overdub was reconsidered. And the result was that the entire focus of the movie was shifted in the right direction — mostly from what amounts to a handful of rather subtle revisions; partially due to the necessary added material.

You could call the theatrical cut the sloppy first draft of the film, slapped in a can to placate the studio while Jackson continued his work.

So. On that note, I’d like a similar change of focus in the second film. I’d like the editing to give me less of a headache. I’d like to see a more deliberate movie, which lurks beneath the surface of the mess that we saw rushed to the screen.

I think it’s there.

We’ll see.

Movie Time

  • Reading time:1 mins read

A few more:

  • The Secret Lives of Dentists: Sure.
  • 28 Days Later…: I concur with Tim.
  • Respiro: … Um. I suppose?
  • Northfork: No. I wouldn’t say so.

Dentists reminds me of a French film. It’s too emotionally sophisticated to seem American. It’s not an amazing film; just a good one. It’s an adult one. It’s worth seeing, just to show that we can, hypothetically, grow up over here.

Here comes another pizza! Watch out, world!

Journalism: The Videogame / Chapter 2 – Role Playing

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

Videogames are a form of human expression. You can call it art, if you like. You can deny that and call it entertainment. “Art” is merely what happens when the listener starts to apply that entertainment to his own life.

What amazes me is that, as things are now, so few do seem to be listening. We demand and we superficially memorize and cover, yet we’re not willing to put the effort in and meet the games or the people behind them halfway. When we review, we review games as product. As a channel for discussion, we’ve become a weird mix of free PR and advertising, and the latest issue of consumer reports.

Our message is that videogames are objects. The people behind them are their manufacturers, both in a literal and a figurative sense. Our major challenge, then, is to make the leap from understanding videogames as things to viewing them as ideas.

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Pugilism Screed Two

  • Reading time:2 mins read

So I’ve here my copy of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. As has been established, I obviously have no PS2. So, in attempt to get some value for my purchase, I’ve been flipping through the elaborate-if-monochrome manual.

Something I notice is that we’ve got (similarly!) elaborate profiles for all of the returning (pre-VF4) characters — and yet for all of the new characters (from both versions of VF4), many of the personal details are unknown. No age is listed for any character who’s debuted since VF3.

Curious.

I didn’t realize that Virtua Fighter had a plot. Or that Kagemaru was the “hero”, rather than Akira. I really don’t know what the hell is going on. I suppose it doesn’t much matter. This isn’t SNK.

Actually, now that it hits me: I did know this. In theory. Virtua Fighter has an incredibly complex plot. I just don’t know any of it. It’s never been illustrated in any of the actual games, to my knowledge. Not even a shred of it.

Again: curious.

Brandon wants me to do the HTML for this megarticle thing we’ve got pending. For those of you who aren’t sure to what I refer — well, be patient. It’ll be… big, if nothing else.

A partial cast list:

Ahem.

Please anticipate it!

It occurs to me that it’s been around a year since I’ve really drawn much of anything worth mentioning. I’ve got all of these keen supplies sitting here. Maybe I would do well to break this trend. Who knows what will happen!

It seems the only way I improve artistically is by not-practicing for extended periods. Expect a rebirth of Leonardo (non-turtle), any time now.

Kof, Please

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

Where is KoF’03?

I surely can’t be the only one who’s wondering; usually the roster and some hints of the gameplay mechanics are announced by mid-July. And yet, at the time that I write this, SNK Playmore has yet to even confirm that the game is in development, or for which platform it might be intended.

To add to the mystery: when I asked SNK NeoGeo USA Consumer president Ben Herman about the game at E3, he was oddly hesitant. After a few false starts, he said only that it would “make sense” if there were a King of Fighters this year (aside from the 3D one). He wasn’t willing to comment further, but he looked pretty darned unsure to me.

So. What’s going on with this series?

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