This Is Giving Me Hope

Mark Millar - who now oversees all X-Men movies and other comic book stuff for Fox - talked about X-Men: Days of Future Past a bit - link - and this part really gave me hope:

"If we are bringing in a character then it shouldn’t just be for a trailer or to get a picture up online, get people excited, it should actually have a point in the story. The trick with that is to try and keep the cast relatively small so that you actually care about them."

Yes, please! Please? I know that everybody has a favorite character they would like to see in the movie but some of them are so obscure that the general public has never even heard of them. Besides, XMFC set the board - keep it that way. X3 was a hot mess because of the huge number of characters (among other things, that is). What worked and what even the haters and naysayers praised was the relationship between Charles and Erik, possibly Charles, Erik and Raven. When you have actors as praised and lauded as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart an Ian McKellen - use them and use them well! Do not let them disappear in a sea of useless, unnecessary stuff and too broad, unfocused storytelling.

Gosh, I can't wait for the filming to start, to see first spoilers and BTS pics pop up! I'm thrilled! \o/

The Return of the King, part 2

The last part :( And now I'm depressed. I felt the same way when I finished the Matrix trilogy. With LotR, there's at least The Hobbit and still two more movies to go and a whole world to explore in the books... Still. I get that when one thing ends, another begins but... *clutches the characters*

All those years back, when I first saw it, I didn't like the ending much. Frodo leaving, that is. But now that I'm older, I understand why he did it and I love the ending. Both he and Bilbo just weren't for this world anymore. They couldn't have just gone back to being "simple" hobbits. Not that they've ever been "simple" hobbits. Still. What's the saying about not stepping into the same river twice? So yeah, I really, really love the ending. Though if it were up to me, I would've ended it with the ship leaving the port, I wouldn't have gone back to the Shire. That was a bit too much.

Legolas and Gimli and their game again. Legolas killing the oliphant - single-handedly, too - and Gimli being all "Still counts as one!" LOL! Or when Gimli said that he couldn't believe he would die side by side with an elf - and Legolas responded, "What about side by side with a friend?" That was lovely. And even lovelier when you know that they will leave together and go on many more adventures in the next 50 years or so before leaving together for the Undying Lands.

And Merry and Pippin. For the first time, I can honestly say that I loved Merry and Pippin. When Pippin found Merry on the battlefield and promised to take care of him or when he saved Gandalf and then later on Faramir, when Merry saved Éowyn... They have grown so much.

I was glad that Éowyn got together with Faramir and Aragorn with Arwen. Both Aragorn and Arwen were too... otherworldly, you could say, Aragorn wouldn't have fit with a normal human. Éowyn needed a human being, but someone who would let her grow and be herself. And let's face it, if there ever was a submissive in the whole world of Middle-Earth, it was Faramir, endlessly needing to please. Éowyn was definitely the one wearing pants in their relationship.

I loved the song that Pippin sang to Denethor and then later on Aragorn's song during his coronation. The music was an experience in itself.

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Now that I finished this trilogy, I will take a break for a few days - probably watch Fringe since it's ending tonight, so I will be able to marathon S5! - and then I will go back and watch the films with the audio commentaries and also the extras. There are still hours and hours of stuff to enjoy. At this speed, I won't be finished with it before The Hobbit will be out on DVD - so far, it's rumored to happen in April.