Jan 12, 2017
As I was sitting by the way, I saw three hobbits walking: One was dumb with naught to say, The others were not talking.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the Shadow
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seen from China
seen from Brazil
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seen from Brazil
seen from Spain
seen from United States
As I was sitting by the way, I saw three hobbits walking: One was dumb with naught to say, The others were not talking.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the Shadow
*The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies*.
In which Peter Jackson et al take two and a quarter hours to tell approximately twenty-five minutes' worth of story.
One day they'll work out that the fight scenes and gruesome deaths and elaborate stunts weren't the point, especially not in this of all stories, but by then it will be far too late. I find it a shame that a story built around simple, iconic moments and images was - not changed, as such, but distorted in the process of adaptation until it became almost another story altogether, just in the pursuit of elaborate visuals. And I don't know about anyone else, but I was left deeply disturbed by the amount of time spend, throughout the trilogy, on the Orc 'characters' and their violence without any of them ever actually being characterised at all. Nasty.
Best & Fairest: Martin Freeman for perfect hobbitry while being underserved by the script; Lee Pace for taking his previous moments of high camp and expanding them into a vital and coherent character despite some atrocious dialogue; Richard Armitage for bringing Dragaera to Middle-Earth in a moment that was pure Tazendra; and Sir Ian McKellen for a beautifully-observed, non-verbal comedy scene at just the right moment.
"Hey, you wanna go see the Hobbit Trilogy special showing with us tomorrow?!"
"Fuck no."
"C'mon, you're the biggest Tolkien nerd we know!"
"Fuck. No."
Back in the day, this was a thing, because we did not have blu-ray and I did not own a couch this comfy. The marathon can wait six months or so.
jon snow
I AM THE BIGGEST BASTARD THE NORTH HAS EVER SEEN. (and the south of course)
Holy Shit. So I was gone over the weekend and only my queue was updating.
I just found out HelloGiggles reblogged this lovely gif set (made by hobbitry) from my blog. I'm slightly freaking out.
...but why was Thranduil riding a moose? Are moose meeses mice moose cool and I missed it, or was it just a thing?
What has it got in its pocketses?
I have finally seen The Hobbit! And it was fun and worth the investment of an afternoon's time. Wizards and hobbits and dwarves, oh my!
Some thoughts:
Peter Jackson sadly remains unable or unwilling to edit himself as ruthlessly as is necessary on this project. That said, even despite the ridiculously long sequence in the goblin caves, and way too many battles, the pacing was better than any of the LOTR films.
The ensemble is also far better than in this than in any of the LOTR films. This is what happens when you've made so much money the studio will let you cast character actors instead of stars in every role, I guess.
Richard Armitage's dour charisma was wonderful, and far removed from both Guy of Gisbourne and Lucas North. It was great to see Aidan Turner getting to do some restrained comedy again, too, as Mitchell kind of lost out on that after the Box Tunnel Massacre (Kili is also nothing like Mitchell - thankfully).
Actually, all the dwarves re fantastic.
Martin Freeman does hobbitry better than anyone except Ian Holm.
Gollum is no longer so clunky as a special effect that he fails as a character. Finally I can see what Andy Serkis was working for.
New Zealand continues stunningly beautiful.
I'm still not sure whether I actually liked the inclusion of the off-stage stuff, Dol Guldur and the White Council etc. But it did work well enough, and probably made sense of some things (especially Gandalf's ins and outs) for viewers unfamiliar with the book.
I could stand Elrond in this one. Suddenly he had a sense of humour.
Still don't think much of Cate Blanchett's Galadriel. There's nothing to connect with. Though the endless circling as she sized up both Saruman and Gandalf was interesting.
Saruman covering up evil with priggery re Radagast was hilarious. Also transparent. Seeing Gandalf as very much the junior member of this cabal was interesting, too.
RADAGAST RADAGAST RADAGAST. Sylvester McCoy is all things wonderful and brilliant. RHOSGOBEL RABBITS. I'D LIKE TO SEE THEM TRY. All snaggletoothed and scurrying and shambolic and brilliant. And he fought a shade in Dol Guldur without even looking.
Barry Humphries really is one of the best voice actors ever.
Can't want for Smaug.
That's all! :)
holy crap ignore that previous loser of an anon, your blog is beautiful! :c