acid reflects reviews

Just came from seeing the special anniversary cinema release of The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King Extended Edition here in the Philippines, the culmination of several weeks of releasing the entire trilogy again in cinemas that began last February.

I actualy have the Extended Edition DVDs with the multiple Appendices, so this was a special treat to see the Extended Editions onscreen. I’ve seen the trilogy countless times, but not in a cinema since the original threatrical release back in 2002-2004 (released January here, and not at Christmas time like in the US.)

Looking back, the trilogy still stands as a monumental feat of filmmaking, storytelling and craftsmanship to this day, more than twenty years since. A few notes that come with age, as the technology of visual effects have changed: Gollum would have looked even more realistic and embedded (or blended) within the frame better today than he did then. The speed of the movement of the Army of the Dead as they charged into Gondor could have felt more natural today. Two Two Towers had choppy editing, TBH. But the color grading of ROTK remains magical, especially when the colors start popping out in the end montages, in contrast to the bleakness of Sam and Frodo’s journey across Mordor. And the music – Howard Shore’s magnum opus is just glorious to hear in the cinema.

The series was one of the earliest titles that I reviewed during this long hobby of writing about films.

Back in the day, I wrote my reviews for our tabloid version of the Metro in Filipino, as the primary readership were workers and students about to begin their day. I had to simplify film language and discuss the review into concepts that could easily be digested by ages 10 to 70 in less than ten minutes of travel time. Sometimes I would be fortunate to have an entire page for the review, a few times only a fourth of a page.

For ROTK in particular, a colleague had already submitted an English review for our regular broadsheet, which automatically had to appear in our tabloid. Which meant that I had to write something different not just in language but also in form, to break the duplicity in purpose.

What a journey it has been. And I’m here, still doing the same.