A Rant That Will Probably Make Me Unpopular

[poliphilo]

I see there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in fandom.

The movie Serenity (which I haven't seen) has divided the followers of the Firefly cult (I haven't see Firefly either.)

Oh come on guys, it's a story. It's fiction. It didn't really happen. That guy that got killed (and you're all getting so worked up about) didn't really get killed because he was never really alive. That was an actor. He got paid at the end of the day and is sitting comfortably beside his pool in the Hollywood hills waiting for his agent to ring.

It's the religion thing, isn't it? We stop believing in God, but it leaves such a huge, gaping, black hole and it hurts so much that we panic and rage and go round looking for things- any old things- to stuff into the emptiness. And so we start believing in Joss Whedon or that guy who made the LOTR films (whose name temporarily escapes me) or (heaven help us) George Lucas.

And just as true believers make themselves blind to the inconsistencies, impossibilities and stylistic infelicities in the New Testament, so fans convince themselves that their favourite TV shows and films aren't in fact a load of crap.

Look, I liked Buffy. I was sort of in love with Willow. But series #7 was garbage, you know it was.

And Lord of The Rings. I love Tolkien (not uncritically) but the movies kinda highlighted all his faults and failed to translate his real merits into filmic terms. Wake up, guys, those films are dull. As dull as the Pentateuch. And I for one never want to see another CGI battle ever again.

As for Lucas- everyone agrees that the prequels are horrible- so why do you keep going to see them again and again? Are you mad?

Wake up, think for yourselves, think critically. Stop being such sheep!

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Aw, Tony, you're so b-a-a-a-a-d.

Here's my review of Serenity:

I kept falling asleep, then being startled awake by gunfire.

I hate fight scenes and movies about renegades who are tromping around in cobbled together junk spaceships.

The psychic was fun.

The dialogue was occasionally very very dry and witty.

I sometimes got confused about the plot points, which shows I'm dumb because--hey: how deep IS Serenity?

I liked the scenery.

-------I LOVE PETER JACKSON HE CAN DO NO WRONG----------AMEN.

[ad-lumen.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

No accounting for taste, I suppose. I thought LOTR was magnificent -- enough so that I bought what my kid calls "the complete sucker version" of each on DVD, with extra footage and all kinds of behind-the-scenes stuff.

On the other hand, I'm pretty bemused by folks' admiration of Bob Dylan.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Thank you! NOt because I've even seen (or even heard of) Firefly or Serenity, they are just names suddenly appearing in various journals, but I'm always bemused by people who start to see hidden meanings in movies or books or whatever, the same as with the Kennedy and Martin Luther King conspiracy theories, Elvis and John Lennon not being really dead, whatever.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes I thought we might have a difference of opinion over Peter Jackson.

I give him credit for taking on that huge project and bringing it to realisation. I don't think he really understands Lord of the Rings (but then I'm the only person who does.) And, finally, I think he's a good director (I loved Heavenly Creatures) but I don't think he's a great one. His vision just isn't original enough.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

I'm still scouring the sky for incoming missiles.....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My vision of Lord of the Rings is sooo different from Jackson's. I'd have made it darker and grimmer and paid much more (close) attention to landscape. Also I'd have spent much less time on (yawn) the battles.

I think we differ on almost everything, Laura, and that's one reason why I love having you on my flist.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

People get tunnel vision. They get so they can only consume stuff that falls into a certain genre. They take their favourites way too seriously. OK, you found Serenity disappointing, fair enough- so go and watch one of the other hundred thousand movies that are out there. Plump for something in another genre, or outside genre altogether. Why not surprise yourself?

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

And my husband complains that the films are too dark as it is.

I thought there was plenty of attention paid to the landscape, and I thought that lots of it was wonderfully conceptualized.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I see LOTR as very, very English. Tolkien feels those landscapes on his pulses. Jackson's landscapes are spectacular, but they're not felt in the same deep way. Besides, they're New Zealand landscapes, not English ones.

For me the creepiest sequences in the Books are the Mines of Moria and the Dead Marshes. I thought Jackson wasted his opportunities with both of them. With the first he opted for spectacle rather than suspense, and with the second he opted for a below-par studio set and some generic CGI spookiness.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I see LOTR as very, very English. Tolkien feels those landscapes on his pulses. Jackson's landscapes are spectacular, but they're not felt in the same deep way. Besides, they're New Zealand landscapes, not English ones.

I would argue (gently, of course) that your Englishness may leave you less than perfectly sensitive to Jackson's deep feeling for his own landscape. I am not at all convinced that Tolkien's LOTR landscape remains English once the scene leaves the Shire (and possibly Bree). I agree that it would have been nice of the Shire had had a larger nod toward England.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Have you noticed? Most people don't seem to like surprises.

[jenny_evergreen]

I still don't understand that religion thing; I don't believe in God or George Lucas, and I am remarkably gap-less. The only gap in my life (which religion fills for many) is a community of like-minded people. But I'm working on that.
(Boy, do the prequels suck.) (I'm not as critical as you of the LOTR movies, although I'm not all that thrilled with them, either.) (When I watched the first episodes of Buffy and they were nothing like the movie, I stopped. Maybe I'll watch the series someday, though, as it apparently got very good. :) (And, yeah, I never watched Firefly or Serenity.)

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

[Nods along in agreement]

I love fandom. But I hate some of the more sheep-like aspects of it, the 'gotta get it now!' mentality of the latest Big Cool Thing, and then the sectarian nuttiness of various factions squabbling over its interpretations.

I never watched "Firefly", so I cannot comment on "Serenity". I don't own a Harry Potter book, and probably never will. I read (and was terribly bored by) Tolkein, and only saw the first two films because all the battles were so damn tiresome. The majority of SF & F is aimed at adolescent boys, and all the overhyped battles in many of the media is aimed straight at this 'precious' demographic. (I never understood why young males are more 'valuable' than all the rest of us, but it seems that a lot of what we see, hear, and endure 'out in the world' is aimed at them, poor taste and all. But that's another rant...)

I used to be a True Believer™, and my religion of choice was Star Trek. I ate, slept and breathed the show, and no one could convince me otherwise that anything about it or its characters, books, movies, conventions, etc was foolish or slightly nutty. When Next Generation ended, so did my interest in the series. I quit buying the books, going to the conventions, writing the fanfic, and being a fangirl. I still like it, but the thought of forking over $500 to own the original and Next Generation series on DVD has kept me from returning to it, even in a nostalgic way.

I now see both sides of the issue. I understand the passion of the True Believer ™ in the series/story of their dreams, and I understand the "Guys, it's just a TV show, book, movie, etc." point of view. I dwell somewhere in the middle. I've been drawn into the Battlestar Galactica universe, but only enough to enjoy the show. I haven't joined any chat boards, or written any fic, or gone to any conventions featuring the show and its characters. I am aware of the schism in the fandom over the 'old' versus 'new' storyline, and understand both sides.

I see where you're coming from, but I can also understand the 'incoming missiles' of the True Believers ™ that might be launched at you for daring to tell them that their Fanboy Emperors are buck nekkid, and have pimples on their asses. They'll understand someday... maybe.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think Lothlorien is English- and Rivendell- and most of the landscape that Frodo and Sam traverse
until they come to Mordor- which is Birmingham crossed with the Western Front.

I guess the land of the horse lords (who bore me fearfully- even in the Books) is probably Norway.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, we all like to keep within a comfort zone. I'm no better than anyone else. But I think it's our duty (to ourselves and to Life) to try and push out our boundaries every once in a while.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

The magic of Tolkien is that we each make him our own, see ourselves and our lands in his writing. Though, being a freak, I never saw any of "America" but rather other countries: England, Scotland, France, Japan (Lonely Mountain!!)...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Buffy was one of the (few) recent TV series I fell in love with. Like most successful shows it carried on a season (or maybe two seasons) too long.

I'm being hard on the LOTR movies simply because so many people treat them like they're the Second Coming. As big, empty, effects-laden movies go they're not bad- they're better than Troy for example- but in the total scheme of things they're just average. If people went out and watched more movies/rented more DVDs they'd realise this.

[karenetaylor.livejournal.com]

I've never understood the fandom scene. I probably never will.

I did end up watching Firefly (on DVD) just recently and found that I enjoyed it a lot (unlike Buffy and Wheadon's other shows, whatever they may be) so we saw the movie yesterday. I was upset when the character in question died, but I'm writer enough to know -why- he did. Someone had to. I sort of felt that more should've died.

I enjoyed the LOTR movies, but tended to phase out during the fight scenes, much as I would while reading the books (which I do, once a year, whether I need to or not...) None of the scenery (lovely though it was) matched up to what I thought it should be. But that's the way it is.

My biggest pet peeve these days is the lack of character motiviation. This, plus the creation of false conflicts, dulls my interest completely. (See LOST for numerous examples of this...)

Haven't seen a Star Wars movie since the third one came out. No, not the one that came out recently. You know, the third one. The real third one. Return of the Jedi. Lucas can insist until his dying day that he actually planned to do all of these movies exactly the way he has from the get-go, but I'll never believe it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true.

For me his realization of Middle Earth is the greatest thing in Tolkien. I get the feeling that he knew every pebble and blade of grass along the routes his heroes take.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I got introduced to Tolkien when I was a kid (and before he became a cult) by an elightened English teacher who used to reward us at the week's end by reading us LOTR, so he'll always have a place in my heart, but I can understand why you (or anyone else) might find him boring. He's not a great writer.

I totally agree about young males. Their tastes are tiresome and I don't want them inflicted on me. For this reason I give most of what Hollywood produces a miss. I hate the way Jackson pumped Tolkien up with all that fighting. It's not even as if those CGI battles of his were all that spectacular. The Chinese do sword fights much better than us.

I love Trek. I stuck with the franchise longer than you- up until the point where- towards the end of DS9 (a lovely show)- ideas finally got replaced by lots of cool explosions.

But I've done all that and I don't want to hang on. I don't need to own all those shows on DVD. There's new stuff out there to be explored.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I mean to watch Firefly. I think it's probably the sort of thing I'd like. And I was very fond of Buffy.

I watched a couple of episodes of Lost. I may watch more, because it's light and fluffy and passes the time of day, but I'm not going to get hooked. The writing's just not good enough.

I can faintly remember a time when I liked Star Wars, but now the blight of the sequels reaches back into the original trilogy and blasts my enjoyment of them.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

You nailed it: replacing ideas with 'cool explosions'. That's the essence of the Young Male bias in most media- ideas are boring, so let's have a fight, or a car chase, or a battle, or a sex scene because they're more interesting.

Odd... to me, all explosions, fights, battles, etc. look alike to me, and scream that the writer9s) have either run out of ideas or have been assimilated by the Pop Culture Borg Collective and must mooch for that Almighty Currency.

Feh. I prefer ideas. I like the 'what if?' aspect of SF, and one of the things I love about the SF channel is their 'what if' logo.

Tolkein was a writer of his time, elaborate, but also rather tediously plodding and very enmeshed in details. While his loving descriptions of the Hobbits homes are interesting, (and I'd love to live in such a house), my 'are we there yet? where's the story?' mental naggers start kicking in at around the 30th page of detailed waffle about second breakfasts and such. He needed a good editor.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

It's the religion thing, isn't it? We stop believing in God, but it leaves such a huge, gaping, black hole and it hurts so much that we panic and rage and go round looking for things- any old things- to stuff into the emptiness.

I forget the name of the theologian who stated that modern man carries with him a God-shaped hole. Is religion a "survival", a holdover from our evolutionary childhood, and like a child clinging to a pacifier no longer needed we refuse to give it up? Or are we inherently, intuitively drawn to something Inexpressible, something that our assorted dogmas and cultures only give the barest glimpse of? I think in America anyway, most people gave up on God (not organized religion, but the Divine) because He/She/It requires self-denial, the ultimate taboo in a culture predicated on individualism and self-love.

On another topic - haven't (and probably won't) see Serenity, liked Tolkien and Jackson's interpretation of him, and am utterly floored people don't see the Star Wars prequels (and Return of the Jedi, for that matter) for the sticky-sweet, badly acted, pop psychology kiddie-fodder they are.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a limit to how big and loud an explosion can be. Or how fast a chase sequence. And yeah, when you've seen one you've seen them all.

OK, I like a bit of spectacle (I've just watched the Chinese movie Hero- huge armies, elaborately choreographed fight sequences- and enjoyed it) but ideas are what really excite me.

And don't get me started on sex scenes. Sex is so dull to watch. And artistic sex- tasteful angles, golden lighting- wake me up please when it's over.

I read Tolkien when I was a kid and I re-read him a few years back, but that's it; I'm done with him. I very much doubt that I'll read him again.