Never Ending Story: Terrence Jones

I saw the Never Ending Story this weekend at a Midnight showing in the trendy part of Louisville. Yeah, that movie that came out in 1983 and was about a kid who reads a book about flying dog dragons, rock eating men, wolves, clouds, and this thing called "Fantasia" then he becomes part of the book. Personally, a movie I loved as a kid. I remember that movie as one of the all-time greats from my childhood and had been waiting for a month to see the special showing.

However, with the weekend watching, the opening credits rolled, the Never Ending Story theme song played. The crowd sang along, and my hopes grew wider. A quick transition to Sebastian (the main character) sat at a breakfast table with one of the Simon's from Simon and Simon, stuffing his face full of toast. Then I realized there was something missing. Ok, everything was missing. There was no sound, horrible dialog, and worse acting. It was bad and only 5 minutes in. The movie ran along for another 85 minutes and my favorite movie memories ran away with every remaining minute. The movie I loved went:

--An awesome flying dog named Falcor - ok Luck Dragon (nerds) - to a perverted fluffily dog that takes advantage of kids in a dreamy cloud filled lair while they are 'unconscious.' This of course is only after he sweeps them up from a swamp of pity.

-- Atreyu the warrior to Atreyu the kid that needs a hair cut and can't act, thus they have to squirt some fake tears on his face for half the movie since he was supposed to be crying the entire time.

-- Bastian a kid that gets wrapped up in a book, to bad acting nerd/sissy - ok maybe that was the same.

Anyways, this leads me to Terrence Jones. Let's forget the fact that blogs, media, television, and every analyst has talked about him for weeks if not months now - thus the irony of the Never Ending Story analogy. But so much hype has been made of this kid and his indecisiveness that at this point he is a myth. He is that childhood memory that I blew way out of proportion. Sure he could live up to the hype, I could still love his skills, athleticism, size, etc. but the odds are that his importance has been vastly overrated, his stature on the team grossly misrepresented, and he becomes that Never Ending Story.
With news today that Kenny Payne will be at UK next year, and links between Payne and Jones abundant, the story won't stop anytime soon either - but no matter where Jones ends up, his skills will be hard pressed to live up to the expectations.