Movies...

Quite a few months ago, I watched the Star Wars trilogy. Not the prequel trilogy (I saw the first one of those shortly after the VHS release, and did not care for it at all), the original trilogy. I rented them through Netflix, and, for any of the dorks out there who care about these things, I managed to see the original versions.

I thought the first one was an all right movie, good story, plenty of adventure and action, a fun movie, but the next two get so wrapped up in this universe, I lost interest. Not really fun to watch at all. Am I a Star Wars fan people have asked? Before I saw them, no. And now that I have, no.

This happen to you? When you were a kid, you saw a movie, you loved it, you thought it was great, so you scrape up enough money somehow to buy a video tape version of it, which you watch several times, then the tape gets misplaced or put away, and you've seen the movie so many times, you just don't worry about it.

Then, years later, you find the movie on DVD, and think, "Oh, I loved that movie!" So you buy it. Eventually, you pop it in and watch it for the first time in a few years, and think... "What did I see in this movie?" That for me, is The Indian In The Cupboard. Good books, though.

A very different case was the Back to the Future series. When I was a kid, my oldest brother had the first movie and we watched it quite a few times, then one day, my parents rented the other two and we watched all three in succession. (Yes...) And that was about the only time I'd seen them all... For years! Until I rented the first one from Netflix earlier this year, and discovered just how good they were.

And there's also the case of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I probably haven't seen The Return of the King since 2005. About 2 months ago, I did see The Fellowship of the Ring, but was rather overwhelmed with how much it reminded me of old friends of mine who were also Rings fans that I've lost contact with. Last night, I did watch the first half of The Two Towers. (I have the original Theatrical Edition DVDs, widescreen of course, the Extended Editions, and the Limited Editions, and all of the discs that came with the gift editions of the Extended Editions. That's twenty-seven discs I rarely watch but don't want to get rid of.)

There's some movies and franchises I think need remade or re-booted. Here you go...

The Indian In The Cupboard series: they only made a movie of the first one, but the other four books in the series had some very cinematic moments. Though, considering how book 3 only has a light plot, and book 4 is mainly exposition, I think they should be combined into the other three stories.

Anne of Green Gables should get a new shot at the big screen. There was a silent flick, a movie in 1934, a BBC mini-series, an anime series, the famous Megan Follows mini-series/movie with it's sequels, and an animated television series. The Megan Follows version has been the best adaptation that still exists, but the sequels to it really strayed from the books. The deal is, after the first two, director/writer of the series got sued by L.M. Montgomery's estate for not paying them royalties, so he lost adaptation rights to the books. So, his third mini-series, and his fourth (premiering next week in Canada), as well as his animated series, were based on his own adaptations, which is rather sad, since the books have some really good stories. Only problem with a feature-length theatrical movie is how much of the book will be onscreen, and how memorable virtually every part of the books are. (Maybe extended home video versions could help there...)

And of course, I'm always up for more of L. Frank Baum's works as film versions...