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Jan. 26th, 2014 07:10 pm
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The "Hobbit" ignited all my fangirlish lovings of Tolkien for the 1789274987242th time. Even though I believe the movies in general are far inferior to the LoTR trilogy, and even though PJ and company has managed to bloat out a small, charming children's book to insane proportions ... I still kind of love it.
Why?
Let's start with the Elvenking. Thranduil I considered to be the most fascinating and badly illustrated character in the original "Hobbit". I have a copy of the "Annotated Hobbit" (of course I do) and kept obsessively looking for illustrations that would show the woodland Elves' utterly wild, beautiful, powerful, and supernatural nature. Nothing *ever* came close until ..
Yep. Peter Jackson made us an Elf, folks. Thanks to Lee Pace, whose portrayal of Thranduil creeps the hell out of me.
Oh, and then there's the HOBBIT. Then moment I heard Martin Freeman was up for the role of Bilbo, I decided I'd actually give the movie a chance. After seeing him in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I knew they'd found the perfect guy. And they totally did. He absolutely makes the movies.
I hated Tauriel less than I thought I would, which annoyed me at first. But for some reason I couldn't quite hate her, or the weird little love triangle thing with Cardboard Character Legolas and bizarrely attractive Kili. Probably because I got distracted was savoring the word "Eldar" and sighing contently over the whole "Elves love light" speech. And her Elven-magic healing. Yes, I'm a hopeless fangirl. I can't even characterize myself even more decently than that.
SMAUG was magnificent.
I don't know how many times those Dwarves should have been burned or melted to little cinders. Also, is trying to drown a creature that breathes FIRE in molten gold really going to work?
(Although this must be a really special molten gold, considering if doesn't look or behave anything like the real thing. Must be Dwarf magic)
I actually loved the characterization of Bard. Although I still can't figure out why they are hiding the Dragon-arrow and why they wouldn't want Bard to be able to shoot the dragon ... ???
Seeing Gandalf fight the Necromancer was quite awesome. The non-shape and extreme nightmarish voice was incredibly well done. I do wish they would stop CGI-ing the orcs though--it's way too obvious.
Lot's of fun and looking forward to the next! (trying hard not think about the fate for some of our heroes *sniff*)
EDIT: I don't even want to TALK about the last movie, and how they completely crucified the Elven King's character and the whole POINT of the Elves (Bilbo stood with them in the last battle, remember?) The only part of the movie worth anything was at the very, very end, with Bilbo huddled up next to Thorin, crying. That was the saddest, most genuine, most Tolkien-ish, Hobbit-ish moment in the whole sorry mishmash. I so enjoy watching Martin Freeman play Bilbo--it's really too bad his role was forcibly eclipsed by whatever CGI weirdness Peter Jackson kept insisting on stuffing into the movie.
Bard is still cool, though.
Why?
Let's start with the Elvenking. Thranduil I considered to be the most fascinating and badly illustrated character in the original "Hobbit". I have a copy of the "Annotated Hobbit" (of course I do) and kept obsessively looking for illustrations that would show the woodland Elves' utterly wild, beautiful, powerful, and supernatural nature. Nothing *ever* came close until ..
Yep. Peter Jackson made us an Elf, folks. Thanks to Lee Pace, whose portrayal of Thranduil creeps the hell out of me.
Oh, and then there's the HOBBIT. Then moment I heard Martin Freeman was up for the role of Bilbo, I decided I'd actually give the movie a chance. After seeing him in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I knew they'd found the perfect guy. And they totally did. He absolutely makes the movies.
I hated Tauriel less than I thought I would, which annoyed me at first. But for some reason I couldn't quite hate her, or the weird little love triangle thing with Cardboard Character Legolas and bizarrely attractive Kili. Probably because I got distracted was savoring the word "Eldar" and sighing contently over the whole "Elves love light" speech. And her Elven-magic healing. Yes, I'm a hopeless fangirl. I can't even characterize myself even more decently than that.
SMAUG was magnificent.
I don't know how many times those Dwarves should have been burned or melted to little cinders. Also, is trying to drown a creature that breathes FIRE in molten gold really going to work?
(Although this must be a really special molten gold, considering if doesn't look or behave anything like the real thing. Must be Dwarf magic)
I actually loved the characterization of Bard. Although I still can't figure out why they are hiding the Dragon-arrow and why they wouldn't want Bard to be able to shoot the dragon ... ???
Seeing Gandalf fight the Necromancer was quite awesome. The non-shape and extreme nightmarish voice was incredibly well done. I do wish they would stop CGI-ing the orcs though--it's way too obvious.
Lot's of fun and looking forward to the next! (trying hard not think about the fate for some of our heroes *sniff*)
EDIT: I don't even want to TALK about the last movie, and how they completely crucified the Elven King's character and the whole POINT of the Elves (Bilbo stood with them in the last battle, remember?) The only part of the movie worth anything was at the very, very end, with Bilbo huddled up next to Thorin, crying. That was the saddest, most genuine, most Tolkien-ish, Hobbit-ish moment in the whole sorry mishmash. I so enjoy watching Martin Freeman play Bilbo--it's really too bad his role was forcibly eclipsed by whatever CGI weirdness Peter Jackson kept insisting on stuffing into the movie.
Bard is still cool, though.
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