Dude, I seriously fell asleep during the end of Return of the King, woke up 20 minutes later, and the ending was still happening. I'm pretty sure the wrap up was like 45 minutes or something. It at least felt that way. I guess that's not really Tolkien's fault, but if the book reads anywhere as slow as the film, I can't believe so many people have gotten through it. I saw Hobbit 1, but fuck if you could get me back in the theater to see parts 2 and 3.That's my beef with Tolkien - he was all about "here are things that are cool with the scarcest of plots to tie them together."
It's a rich, enveloping environment. Arthur C Clarke is similar - he doesn't give the first fuck about his characters but he's all about where you are. An Arthur C Clarke novel is like a protracted article in Conde Nast Traveler for a place that doesn't exist. Tolkien, on the other hand, is a protracted article in National Geographic without the pictures.
Lol. This is what I love about the movies themselves. That they are so very long in unwinding. I feel like I'm watching a painting that I enjoy looking at, and the movies themselves gave me a similar feeling as when I read War and Peace in a way.Dude, I seriously fell asleep during the end of Return of the King, woke up 20 minutes later, and the ending was still happening.