Der Rings des Tolkien

A few months ago I read that a musical production of Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings was being produced in Toronto. Bruce and I discussed this briefly and the idea didn’t give either of us a warm fuzzy. When I mentioned it to David he snarled.

The $25 million dollar production features 55 performers, 17 elevators and 500 pieces of armor. Trying to condense the three books which compose the Lord of The Rings into one night of stage work (albeit three hours and forty five minutes worth) seems overly eager to me. Wagner broke Der Ring des Nibulengen into 4 parts totaling 14.5 hours of stage time.

So, it had its premiere last night and opened to mixed reviews. Most of them say it is “spectacular” to look at, but falls short in the score and story adaptation. Here are a few reviews from the BBC and Broadway.com

V is for Tongue Twister

“This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.” -V

This past Monday David, Shimmy and I went to see V is for Vendetta. V is the latest offering from the Wachowski Brothers - who also brought us the Matrix Trilogy. V stars Hugo Weaving (The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings Trilogies as well as The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and Natalie Portman (Star Wars Episodes I – III and Cold Mountain).

I won’t go into the story line as it has been espoused ad nauseam elsewhere.

I haven’t read the graphic novel the story was based on so I can’t say how well they followed the original, but it was an entertaining movie! The pace of the movie was good – the few times the action slowed down, the story line stepped up to the plate. V is a bit more graphic (mainly blood) and contains slightly less action than the Matrix series. However, the story with its graphic novel background is stronger and better developed. The torture scenes with Evey and subsequent letters from Valerie are great and add a humanizing element to V. The destruction scenes are quite impressive as well.

All in all, a good movie! If you need to kill a few hours one evening, I highly recommend it.

“Evey Hammond: Who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what. And what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I am not questioning your powers of observation. I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.”

Second Second Chances, or Separated At Birth

Everyone has seen those segments on SNL or other comedy shows where the announcer displays two celebrities who at some awkward moment look a bit like one another. A “trekian” spin was applied to the concept in Episode 150 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Second Chances", written by Mike Medlock and directed by LeVar Burton.

“Having already gone down the "evil twin" route (with Data and Lore) but still wishing to explore ideas of doubles and doubling, the writers of "Second Chances" involve Riker in a plot that would later be exploded into the Gwyneth Paltrow indie film Sliding Doors. Once upon a time, young Lieutenant Will Riker was the last crew member beamed off of a planet as its distortion field intensified. Eight years later he returns to the same planet as Commander Will Riker and learns that he both did and he didn't make it off the planet. The distortion field caused him to split into two, one of whom made it and one who didn't get away. Like bickering brothers, once the two Rikers meet, they don't get along. One thing that helped Lieutenant Riker get through his eight years as a castaway was thoughts of his main squeeze at the time, counselor Deanna Troi. When Lieutenant Riker finds out Commander Riker chose career over romance, he sees it as a chance to make things right. Then again, maybe it's just in his nature to choose career first. Jonathan Frakes hams it up in his dual role, while the true second chance belongs to Troi, who quickly falls back into a relationship with the Riker who didn't leave her on purpose. She's the true heart of the story, even though the twin Rikers get all the screen time.” --Andy Spletzer

When last we saw "Tom" Riker (Deep Space Nine episode 55: "The Defiant"), he was thrown into a Cardassian prison for the rest of his life - but that's apparently not the end of the story, as this recent Earth sighting shows:

Will Riker, c. 2368

Tom (Will?, Dave?, The Debil?) Riker, c. 2005

Time anomaly? Wormhole? Yet another transporter accident? The answer's sure to be revealed in a future movie or novel, but remember, you saw it here first!