Squee for the end of the semester
Dec. 18th, 2012 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. I got promoted at work! Associate Professor Lunabee at your service. :)
2. I finished my Yuletide story last night. Gonna let it sit for most of the day, do one last edit, and upload. Whew.
3. I have one AO3 invite to share. First come, first served.
4. We took Emma out of school a wee tad early to see the 2-D The Hobbit.
I'm about to commit some heresy here. Please step ten feet to the right to avoid being struck by Nerd Lightning.
Let's get the blasphemy out of the way first. I think Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies are far, far superior to Tolkien's books. I love many, many things about these books, but many things about them disappoint me. First of all, they're a sausage fest. Yes, I know that Eowyn gets to be a badass (which delights me to no end) and that Galadriel is creepy!awesome, but neither of them have a large role in the series. There are no women in The Hobbit at all. I like to read about ladies. Jackson's movies expand the female roles in the story which I like. I know for some people he doesn't expand enough, and for some purists To Muck About With the Lord Tolkien's Man-Fest Deserveth the Rack and Wheel. LOL I also get deeply weary of the incessant "everybody has seventeen thousand names and we will now recount their entire lineage while referencing each of those names along with obscure battles from the Paleolithic Era of Middle Earth." I get that some people geek out on that stuff (clearly LOL), but I do not. I like that Jackson's movies strip away (or show in a non-tedious way) much of that extraneous material.
So, to comment more specifically on The Hobbit--it's a good movie but not a great one, mostly because the book is a good one and not a great one. I recently re-read the book, and I was super disappointed by how flat I found it. The lack of women bothers me as does the lack of characterization. It almost reads as a travel log sometimes, "and then Bilbo did this and then Kili did this and then Balin said this," rather than a book in which dialogue and action reveal characterization. I definitely think the scene with Gollum in the cave which was added/revised later is the strongest in the book precisely because it *does* reveal characterization in this organic way. Given what Jackson had to work with, I think he made the best movie he could have made.
Stuff I was meh about:
1. All the scenes with walking. Yes, I get that it's a narrative device intended to show the passage of time. I DON'T CARE! I don't need to see them trudging through snow and countryside.
2. Needs more Balin! I liked that he was the closest to Bilbo in the books, and I hope they develop that relationship further in the subsequent films.
Stuff that rocked my world:
1. The frame device. I really like that Jackson begins this movie with Bilbo and Frodo on the eve of the birthday party where he disappears. I think that was very well done. In that same vein, I loved the scene with Galadriel and Saruman because it ties the movie even more strongly to the triology that follows. Wonderful foreshadowing of Saruman's corruption.
2. Galadriel! I loved her scenes with all my heart, and I loved her interactions with Gandalf. I could ship it. LOL
3. I liked the change in the dwarves' characterization. In the book, they're pretty cowardly. Not bad people, but not really willing to put themselves out there. I liked that this version of the dwarves are more willing to protect Bilbo and to behave heroically.
4. The emphasis on home and belonging and helping the dwarves find that as a motivation for Bilbo.
5. Everything about the Gollum scene. Gollum was funny, genuinely creepy, and that moment when Bilbo decides to give him mercy was perfect--no highhanded voice-over telling us the value of mercy, no discussion of it at all, just the perfect expression on Martin Freeman's face.
6. The changes in the elves characterization. In the book, they're presented as really silly and singing--almost dingbatty in nature. I couldn't imagine Elrond as Jackson presented him in the other movies behaving that way LOL so I'm glad that was changed to put their characterization in line with the rest of the films.
7. These movies are going to make me give a shit about Thorin's death in a way that the book did not. He is presented as caring more about reclaiming his wealth than his people's home and sense of place in the book, and I appreciate the change in the film. He's way less pompous in the movie and more driven and haunted.
Things on which I am neutral:
1. Radagast. I think his scenes were funny, I love loved all the animals (hedgehog kisses for Lorraine!), but also I would not have minded his scenes being cut either.
I am really looking forward to Mirkwood. I think that's going to be spectacular.
2. I finished my Yuletide story last night. Gonna let it sit for most of the day, do one last edit, and upload. Whew.
3. I have one AO3 invite to share. First come, first served.
4. We took Emma out of school a wee tad early to see the 2-D The Hobbit.
I'm about to commit some heresy here. Please step ten feet to the right to avoid being struck by Nerd Lightning.
Let's get the blasphemy out of the way first. I think Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies are far, far superior to Tolkien's books. I love many, many things about these books, but many things about them disappoint me. First of all, they're a sausage fest. Yes, I know that Eowyn gets to be a badass (which delights me to no end) and that Galadriel is creepy!awesome, but neither of them have a large role in the series. There are no women in The Hobbit at all. I like to read about ladies. Jackson's movies expand the female roles in the story which I like. I know for some people he doesn't expand enough, and for some purists To Muck About With the Lord Tolkien's Man-Fest Deserveth the Rack and Wheel. LOL I also get deeply weary of the incessant "everybody has seventeen thousand names and we will now recount their entire lineage while referencing each of those names along with obscure battles from the Paleolithic Era of Middle Earth." I get that some people geek out on that stuff (clearly LOL), but I do not. I like that Jackson's movies strip away (or show in a non-tedious way) much of that extraneous material.
So, to comment more specifically on The Hobbit--it's a good movie but not a great one, mostly because the book is a good one and not a great one. I recently re-read the book, and I was super disappointed by how flat I found it. The lack of women bothers me as does the lack of characterization. It almost reads as a travel log sometimes, "and then Bilbo did this and then Kili did this and then Balin said this," rather than a book in which dialogue and action reveal characterization. I definitely think the scene with Gollum in the cave which was added/revised later is the strongest in the book precisely because it *does* reveal characterization in this organic way. Given what Jackson had to work with, I think he made the best movie he could have made.
Stuff I was meh about:
1. All the scenes with walking. Yes, I get that it's a narrative device intended to show the passage of time. I DON'T CARE! I don't need to see them trudging through snow and countryside.
2. Needs more Balin! I liked that he was the closest to Bilbo in the books, and I hope they develop that relationship further in the subsequent films.
Stuff that rocked my world:
1. The frame device. I really like that Jackson begins this movie with Bilbo and Frodo on the eve of the birthday party where he disappears. I think that was very well done. In that same vein, I loved the scene with Galadriel and Saruman because it ties the movie even more strongly to the triology that follows. Wonderful foreshadowing of Saruman's corruption.
2. Galadriel! I loved her scenes with all my heart, and I loved her interactions with Gandalf. I could ship it. LOL
3. I liked the change in the dwarves' characterization. In the book, they're pretty cowardly. Not bad people, but not really willing to put themselves out there. I liked that this version of the dwarves are more willing to protect Bilbo and to behave heroically.
4. The emphasis on home and belonging and helping the dwarves find that as a motivation for Bilbo.
5. Everything about the Gollum scene. Gollum was funny, genuinely creepy, and that moment when Bilbo decides to give him mercy was perfect--no highhanded voice-over telling us the value of mercy, no discussion of it at all, just the perfect expression on Martin Freeman's face.
6. The changes in the elves characterization. In the book, they're presented as really silly and singing--almost dingbatty in nature. I couldn't imagine Elrond as Jackson presented him in the other movies behaving that way LOL so I'm glad that was changed to put their characterization in line with the rest of the films.
7. These movies are going to make me give a shit about Thorin's death in a way that the book did not. He is presented as caring more about reclaiming his wealth than his people's home and sense of place in the book, and I appreciate the change in the film. He's way less pompous in the movie and more driven and haunted.
Things on which I am neutral:
1. Radagast. I think his scenes were funny, I love loved all the animals (hedgehog kisses for Lorraine!), but also I would not have minded his scenes being cut either.
I am really looking forward to Mirkwood. I think that's going to be spectacular.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 06:24 pm (UTC)I haven't seen The Hobbit yet, though it's interesting to see more nuanced opinions start to come in. The immediate reactions I saw were either, "I hate this it's awful!" or "Best thing ever, will see it another dozen times."
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 07:15 pm (UTC)I think I'm the first person to post about it on my flist, so I'll be interested to see what other people think about it. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 09:10 pm (UTC)Congratulations on finishing your yuletide, too!!
*twirls you twice*
I enjoyed your thoughts on The Hobbit. :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-19 04:17 pm (UTC)*twirls away*
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 09:47 pm (UTC)Errr, I *have* your Christmas present. Your Christmas present exists. But your Christmas present has not been *mailed* and I keep having to do more Jersey City Sandy Recovery stuff at times when I might otherwise be packing boxes or standing on line in the PO fuming.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-19 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-19 04:17 pm (UTC)I am in no rush, sweetie; you are a doll to think of me at all.