Peter Jackson fest

I've spent a chunk of time before sleep each of the last several nights watching the whole big batch of Peter Jackson >3-hour movies from the 2001 to present... Starting with King Kong and then going back to LOTR, the extended 4-discs-per-flick editions of which I recently bought used online. I dunno why I even have the urge to re-watch this stuff anymore; I'm sure I've seen all three movies 5 or 6 times, and at some point the persistence of the idiosyncratic writing gets very tedious, especially phrases like "Long have I..." and "Ever have you..." and the tendency of the characters to end a scene by repeating themselves with direct address in between ("Blah schmeh groh, Mr. Frodo, blah schmeh groh.") It's also bothersome what the various characters, especially Gandalf, seem to know (e.g., about Middle Earth history, or what is happening beyond their power of direct observation) and when. To facilitate the plot, for example, the same character will, within the span of 10 minutes' screen time, go from being only vaguely familiar with the existence of the one ring to knowing full well that only the fires of Mount Doom will destroy it. Gandalf and others veer crazily between "It's hopeless, Frodo's a dead hobbit" and "There's always hope"; Frodo inexplicably conjures knowledge of Gollum's history, including his original name, when in an earlier scene all he knew was that Bilbo had met Gollum and stolen his ring. The extended tale also doesn't seem to have any handle on fixed v. possible futures: Galadriel states flatly that Frodo will not return from Mordor; Gandalf tells Pippin they are about to die in the attack on Minas Tirith; and too long do Elrond and Arwen argue about her future with Aragorn (she foresees a child, yells at her dad because she somehow knows he saw the child first and didn't tell her about it, and he says, "That future is almost gone"—which, apart from being a blatant logical inanity, needs to be countered with "Well, no SHIT, Dad, since you were sending me out of Middle Earth!"); and shortly after Elrond warns her how it's going to suck living forever while her husband ages and dies, he goes to Aragorn's encampment to tell him good old immortal Arwen is dying, right now, as we speak.

But it sure is pretty. And the jabberwockies Jackson set his Nazgul atop are among the mostest awesomest movie monsters ever.