Dream is complete
It is hard to find the right words. There is nothing new to see, nothin’ else to expect, to eagerly await. The dream is over, I’m awake.
For the previous two extended installments, I could not wait and kept buggin’ the local distributor for weeks, hoping to pick it up the same day it’s out.
Because of the personal tragedy, enthusiasm for the last part was missing. I did not bought it the first day it was in the store. The whole week passed, as I decided to wait for the collector’s gift set edition to appear.
The urge to watch as soon as I got home was also gone. With Two Towers, I first got it into the DVD player, hit Play and then took my shoes off and changed clothes (while the intro was running). With Return of the King, I got home, talked to my girlfriend, called my mom and sister in Pirot, had dinner…there was no rush at all.
I finished the first watching now, and despite the dark thoughts that clouds my mind in the last few weeks, Return of the King managed to transcend me into this beautiful, enchanted world - for those few hours I was…calm. Words fail me and are slow to come by. It will need more viewings. I might never get to do the actual writing of the whole trilogy. It would not matter really. These will be the movies I will replay for life.
Any disappointments maybe? Is it possible that this whole experience is perfect? Well, there is…
One disappointment
And it has nothing to do with the films. It’s the Minas Tirith poly stone replica (one that comes with gift set edition) that troubles me. The City of Kings is white, with grey shadows and green marks that long passed ages left. The replica is sadly far from that. It’s detailed and well crafted, no doubt about it. But it’s done in grayish green colour, with the White Tower of Echtelion having nothing but the few white dots. It is obvious that Weta tried to apply the white colour which resulted in brighter and darker spots and dots, like a pile of dust, nothing else.
Even though I already have regular extended edition of FotR, I bought it again (this time, the gift set), to get the Argonath replica. That one is also far from the stone colours one can see in the movie, but it’s not the problem. The awe of looking at Two Kings has nothing to do with the colour but with the magnificence of the Numenorian times, their skills and power.
Minas Tirith is a different story. Its colour is one of the most important aspects, that adds to its glory. It is not named The White City for nothing. It would be far from breath-taking if it was the rabble of pale stones, similar to many other Middle Earth cities and castles. Compare the look of Hornburg from TTT and Minas Tirith from RotK - it all speaks for it self.
Unfinished work Weta, very unfinished.