Tag Archives: The Lord of the Rings

Disappointed with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

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I’m sorry to have to state this, but…I was pretty disappointed with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Michele and I went to see it Friday night after a nice supper at The Claddagh, a fantastic Irish pub nearby. The main complaint I have about it is that its special effects were, in many instances, quite poorly done and a bit too obviously fake. Even Aslan looked rather fake. Contrast it with The Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies by Peter Jackson, and the difference is stark. Those movies also relied heavily upon computer animation. However, the CGI in LTR was so well done that in most cases it was difficult to see and certainly, even if you could tell it was fake, it didn’t stand out or detract your attention from the flow of the movie. Sadly, this can’t be said for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. There were several departures from the book but most of them didn’t bother me at all. In fact, I thought the opening scene featuring the Pevensey family scrambling for cover during a bombing raid over London, which wasn’t in the book at all, was an excellent addition. In some ways, the first part up to the children’s departure for the country was the best and most affecting of the whole movie. Of the actors, the actor who played Lucy was by far the best. The other children were unconvincing in their roles, I thought. Either that or a bit too “of type” — e.g. Peter playing the heroic warrior. I guess the best way to sum up my feelings about the movie is by using one word: unconvincing.

Invited presentation @ C.S. Lewis Society meeting

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A long time ago I was invited to give a presentation on the extended DVD for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for a meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society here at Taylor. I had given a similar presentation last January as part of a panel including Dr. Paul Michelson from Huntington College. Last night was the meeting and although I was pretty nervous and although I don’t think I did a very good job, the evening went pretty well. Not as many people showed up this year as last year but we had some good discussion, especially about Peter Jackson’s vision of LOTR vs. Tolkien’s.

It’s 2005 and I resolve to be more positive

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OK, so it is now 2005. Ho hum. One of my unspoken resolutions of the new year is to be more positive ;-) In that spirit, here are some nice, happy, positive things to write about:

One of the positive things that’s happened lately comes out of a big negative. We were told a few weeks ago that our van, a Honda Odyssey, needed a new catalytic converter. The price to fix it? A cool $1,200! (Why so expensive? We were told that it is because Honda’s catalytic converter contains precious metals like platinum.) We don’t have $120 extra to spend on anything, let alone $1,200, so this was a very big setback for us. The dealer told us that although the catalytic converter wasn’t clogged, it was very close to being clogged and we shouldn’t travel anywhere. We had to cancel our plans to visit family during the holidays because of this. At the dealer’s suggestion, we contacted American Honda to ask if they could help us out at all with the cost. I was very skeptical about this possibility, frankly. I called Honda last week and they promised to investigate the situation and give us a call back with their decision early this week. Lo and behold, we got a call on Tuesday from them, saying that they had decided to waive the entire cost of the catalytic converter!!! All we would have to pay would be the labor cost of installing it. I couldn’t believe it. Would an American car manufacturer do a thing like that? I wish I could say, YES, but I greatly doubt it. I have been a huge Honda fan for years since buying my first Honda in the mid 90s, an Accord, and I am more “sold” on Honda than ever before because of this. Anyway, I took the van in to the dealer yesterday and they installed the new part and all I had to pay was $76 for the labor. Good deal!

What other positive things can I start the new year with? Well, let’s see…I finally managed to clean out our garage. If you had ever seen how messy it was, you would be amazed at this incredible feat ;-) We can now park our van in the garage, which makes things much easier for everyone, especially in inclement weather.

Another positive thing is that after cleaning out the garage, we finally got around to unpacking a lot of our decorative items like family photos, knickknacks, paintings, and such. This, almost three years after we moved to Indiana. It was like having Christmas all over again as we rediscovered so many of the things that we hadn’t seen in years, many of the things that hold special meaning like framed photos from our wedding, as well as many of the wedding gifts that we received. The downside is that we have to figure out where on earth we are going to find space for some of the knickknacks in this house. Maybe Michele and I will finally feel at home here when we find places for all of these personal belongings and see them displayed around us.

One of the many nice presents I received for Christmas was something I had wanted for a long time: an AirPort Express base station with AirTunes. Talk about cool! I’m using it to extend the range of our AirPort Extreme base station, and I also set it up to play music on our stereo system in the living room via iTunes. I copied all of our CDs onto the PowerBook — about 1,200 songs in total — and we can now listen to all of our music or whatever combination of songs that we want, from the equivalent of a gigantic jukebox. How cool is that?

Another Christmas gift was the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I have already watched it and am generally pleased with the extra stuff in there. Now I have to figure out what I am going to say about it for my invited presentation at the upcoming C.S. Lewis Society meeting!

Finally, the most positive thing I can write about is that I am blessed in so many ways, with a wonderful wife, and four great children. Yes, there are some sacrifices and some trials here and there, but I still find it amazing that God has given me so many good things. Over and over again, He does what I think is impossible. In the midst of this world’s troubles — especially thinking about and grieving over the terrible devastation in Southeast Asia right now — I am so thankful that Jesus Christ took my sins upon Him and bore them on the cross, paying my debt for sin. I struggle all the time with accepting and enjoying what I do not deserve, and God knows I surely don’t deserve such an incredible gift. But this is exactly what He loves to do: to rescue and bless and be in relationship with those who don’t deserve it. Amazing grace!

Green eggs and lembas

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This one is for fellow Lord of the Rings and Dr. Seuss fans out there. My friend, Jane, sent this to me. I don’t know the source:

GREEN EGGS AND LEMBAS
Excerpt from a screenplay for THE LORD OF THE RINGS
by Dr. Seuss

(Scene: Bag End, after Bilbo?s party)

GANDALF:
That Samwise-Sam! That Samwise-Sam!
I do not like that Samwise-Sam!

FRODO:
Would you like some bread and jam?

GANDALF:
I do not want your bread and jam.
I?m busy being mad at Sam.
He likes to sneak. He likes to spy.
I?ll grind him up for hobbit pie!

FRODO:
Oh, do not grind him up for pie!
He is a pretty handy guy.
He mows my grass. He paints my gate.
He is my friend. We both are straight.

GANDALF:
Well, then, I will not grind up Sam!
Bring me bread, and bring me jam!
We?ll talk about another thing.
Tell me, do you have the ring?

FRODO:
I have the ring. I have it here.
But, mercy me! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
I fear the ring is very bad,
The golden ring that Bilbo had!
Tell me, will you take the ring?

GANDALF:
I will not take that evil thing!

FRODO:
Would you, could you, by the fire?
Would you, could you, in the Shire?

GANDALF:
I would not, could not, by the fire.
I would not, could not, in the Shire.

FRODO:
Would you, could you, in a tree?
Would you, on the road to Bree?
Would you, with an orc or troll?
Would you, in a hobbit-hole?

GANDALF:
I would not, could not, in a tree.
I would not, on the road to Bree.
I would not, with an orc or troll.
I would not, in a hobbit-hole.
I will not take it here or there,
I will not take it anywhere!
For it is bad. It?s as you say.
You?ll have to take that ring away
And throw it in the Cracks of Doom!

FRODO:
I?ll need a friend. But who, or whom?

(Gandalf produces Sam, who has been spying)

SAM:
Oh, Master! Master! Sam is here!
He?ll wash me down with beer, I fear!
I do not wish to be a pie!

GANDALF:
I will not eat you, little spy!
But I will send you far away.
You both will go away today.
You?ll go to Bree. A man is there.
The man looks foul. The man feels fair.
He?ll lead you both, if all goes well,
To meet the elves in Rivendell.

SAM:
Oh, Master! We will meet the elves!
We?ll get to meet the elves ourselves
And hear them sing their elven songs!
We?ll hear them bong their elven-gongs
And strum their elven loola-lutes!
They?ll hoot their elven hooty-toots!

GANDALF:
I hope you?ll hear those loola-lutes
And hear the hoots of hooty-toots!
But go with care. To be a pie
Is better than to meet the Eye!
The Eye is mean. The Eye is red.
He rules nine Riders. They are dead.
They?ll try to make you dead, as well.
But will they catch you? Time will tell!

FRODO:
Oh, dear! Oh, dear! This is a mess!
We?ll have to fix this mess, I guess.
So we will go, just Sam and me.
And what will happen? We will see!

(Fade)

Tristan the escape artist

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When Michele put Tristan down in his crib for a nap yesterday, little did we know how much our lives would change…We heard him cry for a while, then he talked to himself for a while — all normal things. After a period of silence, suddenly we heard him come downstairs! The little stinker had, on his first attempt, learned how to climb out of his crib! When I picked him up, took him back upstairs to his bedroom, put him back in his crib, and asked him to show me how he did it, he promptly hiked his leg over the railing and jumped down. Then he giggled. His action said to me as plain as anything: “See what I can do? You should be proud of me!” Michele and I looked at each other with a look of doom on our faces. How were we gonna control this kid’s sleeping habits any more? Turns out that he now wants to sleep on the “big boy’s” bed which we had already set up in his room in anticipation of training him to sleep on it sometime in the next few months. It’ll take a while but hopefully he’ll get the hang of it so that we can use the crib for the new baby. Today, we decided to go for a swim in our pool and then I went to get the mail. My mother-in-law had sent us a surprise package. I opened it and saw that she had bought us a copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings DVD. I jumped around with excitement and in the process, nearly managed to decapitate myself by means of the ceiling fan in the dining room…