Merit Coba

“ Wow. I actually liked that movie. Not Lord of the Rings of course, but I have seen a lot worse. Worse with a bigger budget. Like that first Dungeon and Dragon movie. Really, what do you think?” Henry said happily. His had this smiled that suggested to Kristl that he had found a new love.

“Must be the sword wielding pointy eared lassie that makes the difference? What is her name: Danielle Chuchran.  Caucasian. Blond.Twenty years old. I fear for you.” Kristl bitched.

“Fear?”

“Yeah. You have to face it. You are getting older and they are getting younger. There will be a moment that the gap is so big there is just one way to give it a name: pervert.”

Henry shrugged, “That is how nature works. Attractive people attract regardless of age. She is attractive and they did everything to make her attractive. Which is actually as it should be. She is a high elf. Elves are beautiful people. She was also dressed up as one. But, lady-that-hates-pretty-women, why not give your opinion of the movie instead of pointing out….”  Henry stopped.

“..the pointy eared one?”   Kristl said, “Ok. Like so many movies in this genre it’s a patchwork of good and bad things. Some work, some don’t work. And I find that the people who made this movie tried to go for the sensible decisions at one hand and yet the incomprehensible decisions at the other.”

“Uh?”

“Like the main actors. The fighter, the orc and the elf. They work reasonably well together, with the fighter being the serious one, the orc being more funny and the elf the hateful one. I like the way the elf changes character overtime and there is even a certain kind of humor in the direction in develops. Instead of hating orcs she ends up hating those who worship the shadow instead.”

“I like the orc and the fighter too. They each had a distinct part. Strange thing was that I got the feeling there would be a fourth character added. Either a wizard or a thief. It never happens, but I sort of expected it. Or that dwarf. But he is just a bad guy. Pity.”

“I also found it reasonably acceptable how they team up. She being cursed with the shadow and thus being driven to cooperate because she wants to get rid of the curse. The fighter fighting the shadows and promising a cure to the elf while he knows there is no cure for it.”

“I agree. The group of unlikely heroes worked well. I liked that the best of all.”

“But where it starts to go wrong is simply the story line. Instead of keeping it simple they start to develop an epic tale Lord of the Ring kind of tale that simply doesn’t fit the budget.  If the tale had been:  unlikely group of hero’s join hands to get rid of a curse, then they could have simply developed it into unlikely band of hero try to get rid of curse, but end up saving the world by accident.”

“Uhm. Well the battle was kind of cool, wasn’t it?” Henry said.

“What I simply don’t understand is why script writers think they are on par with great writers. There are so many fantasy writers that could have inspired a good fantasy story. Say: Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, Mercedes Lackey and Marion Zimmer Bradley has this series with believable female fantasy hero’s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_Sorceress_series. Instead this story is lackluster and partly steals from others: the rider on the horse is actually ringwraith from Lord of the Rings, the prophetess is Galadriel. The scene with the orc and the mermaids is from Pirates of the Caribbean and seems totally pointless. The girls being offered to the demon is stolen directly from Conan the Barbarian, they are even  dressed the same. Ultimately even the shadow curse resembles the power the ring had over people in Lord of the Rings.”

“Uhm. It was cool though.” Henry was trying to survive the flood of words.

“But besides all that, the worst part is using what is called deus ex machinima. The part where the fighter suddenly gets all powerful is simply bad plot writing. You can do that if the whole movie had been geared that way, but it wasn’t. It also was like they didn’t know how to end the movie, so they pulled a solution out of a high hat.”

“I feel sad really.  I mean I really like the movie. I enjoyed myself.” Henry said.

“Yeah. That is true. Again the actors save the day. I really start to respect actors.”

“I wished they had developed them more. The interaction between them. Their character changes overtime.”

“That perhaps is the point in Lord of the rings for instance. Or many great novels. I also like it when people do a small thing that ultimately has a great consequence. Like in Lord of the Rings Frodo tosses the ring into the mountain.. It is a simple act by an unlikely hero. We can associate with him because most of us are unlikely heroes. They could have done the same in this movie. I almost thought they would at the end when the elf was about to scatter the ashes to the wind. It would have been so fitting to go deeper into her curse. Perhaps with scenes where she is being seduced to her dark side. It would have much better fitted the budget and they could have left out that silly last combat. Almost looked like: wow we have still got money for a big monster. Let’s do it!.”
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“So in the end. Did you like it or not?”

“I favor to be positive, but it could have been better. People should cut short on their gci’s and get a good scriptwriter instead. Invest in your actors and your plot instead of graphics. I think that works better. A tad more humor. A bit more characters. More magic.”

“Well I am happy you are more positive :)”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250234/

also published here: http://meritcoba.weebly.com/1/post/2013/07/july-13th-2013.html