barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Just to nail this thread hijack completely, I do think that PJ created something extraordinary with these films. I think his mobile camera (not the "hand-held" but the "drifting, swooping, flying-by" camera) is at times flabbergasting -- something you notice especially in FotR -- check the Moria battle for what I'm talking about, or the Weathertop battle -- the camera movements are like nothing I've ever seen before, and yet they work beautifully.
I don't think the series ever manages to get back to the level of FotR, and I think it's because the technique he perfects in that film is excellent for small groups (the camera darts past them, giving you their reaction on the way in and a look at what they're reacting to on the way out (or vice versa)), it doesn't work for the larger scenes, and he just never manages to come up with a consistent technique that gives us the big-canvas view we need.
Plus, he DROPS that technique in Eowyn's confrontation (which maybe explains why that one falls so flat) and goes with a much more static camera, jumping in and out on cuts rather than moving.
There are a couple of awe-inspiring big-canvas moments, to be sure -- the lining-up of the Rohirrim at Pelennor and their exodus from Dunharrow, the approach of the orcs to Helm's Deep, the explosion on the Deeping Wall (is it just me or is that the best explosion ever?) -- but if I had to pin-point a general failure in the films, it's that one.
I don't think the series ever manages to get back to the level of FotR, and I think it's because the technique he perfects in that film is excellent for small groups (the camera darts past them, giving you their reaction on the way in and a look at what they're reacting to on the way out (or vice versa)), it doesn't work for the larger scenes, and he just never manages to come up with a consistent technique that gives us the big-canvas view we need.
Plus, he DROPS that technique in Eowyn's confrontation (which maybe explains why that one falls so flat) and goes with a much more static camera, jumping in and out on cuts rather than moving.
There are a couple of awe-inspiring big-canvas moments, to be sure -- the lining-up of the Rohirrim at Pelennor and their exodus from Dunharrow, the approach of the orcs to Helm's Deep, the explosion on the Deeping Wall (is it just me or is that the best explosion ever?) -- but if I had to pin-point a general failure in the films, it's that one.