Re: Monthly chat October 2016
@tjt, ah good to know, though i really don't like reading with a synth and I don't have a braille display.
Well last night we finished our watch of audio described Lotr, since my lady has never seen them with description. Annoyingly i thought I had the extended versions but it turns out the audio described copies I have are just the theatrical ones, then again since I got them from blindmice mart I shouldn't really complain too much (I have the extended editions on dvd but those don't come with description unfortunately, and my lady specifically wanted them descrigbed).
it's been quite some time since I last watched them, and one thing I now found odd is that the films for most part felt a bit flat. The battles were huge and dramatic, even silly bits like the shield surfing, indeed it amused me that my lady started talking in roleplay terms about the battles (that when she wasn't upset at the deaths of so many redshirts), and the landsca pe is awesome (the description did a great job with both), but in general I just found my enthusiasm waning throughout much of things.
I think I do now see the problem. When i first watched the films, I pretty much concentrated on the bits that are my favourite from the books or the bits that Jackson had altered and liked and hated accordingly (A topic we've run through before so I won't repeat).
The problem now is I'm familiar with the films, I know what to expect and I know what they've done to Tolkien, and I was just watching for emotional content, ---- and the emotional content has the subtlety of a battering ram on the head!
Everyone! emphasises! all! the! Words! (That when they're not whispering in an attempt to be romantic, ---- really Arwen is dreadful for this.
Most of the characters who are likable in the books, Faramir, Elrond, Theoden, Aragorn, heck even Sam have been made edgy! and actually come across as total gits.
This isn't to say there was nothing I liked, it just surprised me how often I just sat there thinking "get over yourself!" for most of it or just "oh yes another big speech and more enspired yelling!"
Don't get me wrong, I love epic, but for something to feel truly epic I have to actually identify with the characters, see them as real, and increasingly in watching the three films I just didn't get that, they just yelled speeches and talked in a pressured way and went through horribly flashy action sequences.
Is this to say I disliked the films this time through? No, not at all, heck there will always be a good bit of nostalgia, but it did rather scare me that without concentrating on them as adaptations of tolkien's works, just how little there was left.
What scared me even more, is that this was a total contrast to when my lady and I did the original starwars trilogy, (My lady got quite teerful at the redempti on of Darth Vader in Jedi).
We're probably going to wait a bit before doing the hobbit films described, (though I do remember long expected journey being fun at least).
_______________________________________________ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
