The Hobbit!
Dec. 20th, 2012 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
opusculasedfera I saw the Hobbit movie! It was just so ridiculous and amped up, I have a hard time taking any of the changes particularly seriously. All movie adaptations are like fanfic to some degree, but this seemed like more so than most.
A lot of the changes were very much for the sake of making it three movies so I'm on the fence about them. Because yes, Bilbo suddenly learning to be more of a warrior and joining the dwarves for less sullen reasons than because they doubted him is completely antithetical to the books (as an aside: is this something Martin Freeman just does to movies? because that was the problem with his Hitchhiker's Guide as well), but the movie really wouldn't have had an arc at all without that.
I mock Thorin Oakenshield a lot for his role in the first 2/3rds of the movie, which was entirely to look nobly into the distance while his eyes sparkled, but he was actually very good. All the dwarves were excellent, really, even if there obviously wasn't enough time to give them all completely fleshed out roles, the hints of that stuff was generally pretty good. I especially enjoyed the variety of accents.
The opening was a pretty good way of setting up the backstory, and I really liked how we haven't actually seen Smaug yet. Also dwarf ladies! I adore Pratchett dwarves with their complete androgyny, but I enjoyed the character design work that went into creating adorable dwarf women with amazing facial hair.
The Rivendell bits were interesting and I enjoyed Gandalf being super sullen at the council, though I could have done without Galadriel being ~*~too sparkly mystical~*~ to sit down and participate. FFS, she can't have the Ring because she would fucking RULE THE WORLD, she's not too ethereal to speak aloud. It just seemed like a weird choice that was primarily based on making her draperies flutter dramatically. I liked her and Gandalf being friends, but the circling just made her seem peculiar for no reason.
The million and one fight scenes were mad, but entertaining. Radagast escaping with the chariots of rabbits! Fighting wargs! Burning trees! People falling off the edges of cliffs CONSTANTLY! Though I did appreciate that they kept the general sense that these were all people who were not going to be too dumb to run if that seemed like the most sensible solution. My favourite thing about the Hobbit is 100% the pragmatism so that's always fun.
And it was genuinely fun to watch, if you have any tolerance for an overblown fight scene and/or people having unsubtle feelings in your face. It probably didn't help that I was slightly tipsy, I'll grant you, but I enjoyed Bofur being terribly, terribly kind to Bilbo and that sort of thing, even if what I really wanted was someone to teach him ANYTHING about fighting because it's not like it wasn't going to come up. I was having weird Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Father Christmas flashbacks when people kept being like "oh, well, fighting is so icky" because that's not helpful if there's going to be fighting anyway. Also I wanted people to stop trying to attack mounted opponents with a single shortsword because that is generally a recipe for bad times.
tl;dr: It was not a brilliant movie, but it was one that played me like a fucking harp, so I enjoyed the experience! (Particularly the Wednesday night cheap theatre experience where most of the audience was the kind of fans who made excited noises at every mention of book details. <3) People should come talk to me about all of this ridiculousness because it was a "...what the FUCK?" kind of experience, but I came out of the theatre pretty damn gleeful, which is about as much as you can ask.
Also I was totally sad that the fake trailer beforehand for a movie in which Megan Fox does science with dolphins, and doesn't have to take off her shirt ONCE turned out to be a computer ad. I don't think she's a great actress, and I don't actually want to see that movie, but I think it should exist because her current typecasting has all been really shitty for her, and also women doing science!
A lot of the changes were very much for the sake of making it three movies so I'm on the fence about them. Because yes, Bilbo suddenly learning to be more of a warrior and joining the dwarves for less sullen reasons than because they doubted him is completely antithetical to the books (as an aside: is this something Martin Freeman just does to movies? because that was the problem with his Hitchhiker's Guide as well), but the movie really wouldn't have had an arc at all without that.
I mock Thorin Oakenshield a lot for his role in the first 2/3rds of the movie, which was entirely to look nobly into the distance while his eyes sparkled, but he was actually very good. All the dwarves were excellent, really, even if there obviously wasn't enough time to give them all completely fleshed out roles, the hints of that stuff was generally pretty good. I especially enjoyed the variety of accents.
The opening was a pretty good way of setting up the backstory, and I really liked how we haven't actually seen Smaug yet. Also dwarf ladies! I adore Pratchett dwarves with their complete androgyny, but I enjoyed the character design work that went into creating adorable dwarf women with amazing facial hair.
The Rivendell bits were interesting and I enjoyed Gandalf being super sullen at the council, though I could have done without Galadriel being ~*~too sparkly mystical~*~ to sit down and participate. FFS, she can't have the Ring because she would fucking RULE THE WORLD, she's not too ethereal to speak aloud. It just seemed like a weird choice that was primarily based on making her draperies flutter dramatically. I liked her and Gandalf being friends, but the circling just made her seem peculiar for no reason.
The million and one fight scenes were mad, but entertaining. Radagast escaping with the chariots of rabbits! Fighting wargs! Burning trees! People falling off the edges of cliffs CONSTANTLY! Though I did appreciate that they kept the general sense that these were all people who were not going to be too dumb to run if that seemed like the most sensible solution. My favourite thing about the Hobbit is 100% the pragmatism so that's always fun.
And it was genuinely fun to watch, if you have any tolerance for an overblown fight scene and/or people having unsubtle feelings in your face. It probably didn't help that I was slightly tipsy, I'll grant you, but I enjoyed Bofur being terribly, terribly kind to Bilbo and that sort of thing, even if what I really wanted was someone to teach him ANYTHING about fighting because it's not like it wasn't going to come up. I was having weird Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Father Christmas flashbacks when people kept being like "oh, well, fighting is so icky" because that's not helpful if there's going to be fighting anyway. Also I wanted people to stop trying to attack mounted opponents with a single shortsword because that is generally a recipe for bad times.
tl;dr: It was not a brilliant movie, but it was one that played me like a fucking harp, so I enjoyed the experience! (Particularly the Wednesday night cheap theatre experience where most of the audience was the kind of fans who made excited noises at every mention of book details. <3) People should come talk to me about all of this ridiculousness because it was a "...what the FUCK?" kind of experience, but I came out of the theatre pretty damn gleeful, which is about as much as you can ask.
Also I was totally sad that the fake trailer beforehand for a movie in which Megan Fox does science with dolphins, and doesn't have to take off her shirt ONCE turned out to be a computer ad. I don't think she's a great actress, and I don't actually want to see that movie, but I think it should exist because her current typecasting has all been really shitty for her, and also women doing science!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-21 06:16 am (UTC)I mean let's face it Galadriel and Gandalf were basically just stoned kids passing notes in class there.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-21 12:07 pm (UTC)