Hobbitses!!

[yakalskovich]

Because movies open on Thursdays and sometimes Wednesdays in Germany, the Nazgul and I went and saw 'The Hobbit' today.

• We saw it in 3D. It works, better than (say) the last HP movie, but it's not as essential as it's for 'Hugo Cabret', for example.
• At first,it was mainly eye candy and revisiting familiar happy-making people and places. They 'had' me when the dwarves actually did the songs -- my favourite song from way, way back, the washing up one! From then on, I beamed at the screen like a seven-year-old at Christmas, and was just happy.
• PJ brought back the acronym elf played by that singer/comedian, and he's got a name now -- he's Lindir, an elf mentioned in the LotR book version! And he has even some words of dialogue.
• Anvilicious moment of 'Bilbo consciously decides to not kill Gollum and thus makes the entire future possible' is anvilicious.
• I predict slash fans will ship Bilbo with Thorin. I do not. I still find shipping with hobbits rather squicky. But they get a great emotional hugging scene which slashers will grab and run with.
• Now I go and buy the OST for the sake of the songs. The other dwarf song (the serious one) was the end title song as well, and it's simply lovely.
• Also, it's great to see more of Tolkienian dwarf culture. Thorin, Kili and Fili are very handsome and noble -- the rest are funny and gruff and over-the-top the way Gimli is in LotR.
• I still wonder how the Arkenstone is not Maedhros' Silmaril. PJ seems to think so as well (at least a bit), because it seems to slightly smoke in Thror's hand when he takes it to safety -- the narration had supplied that the greed for treasure had somehow marred his heart, so he probably is no longer worthy of touching a Silmaril? We will see where it goes in the next two movies.
• Also, seeing the way he expands that world, I do want him to go on making these movies for a while. There's oodles of them in The Silmarillion. We have no hobbits to identify with, but we do have humans. Having nothing but elves is a bit strenuous and high-falutin and a level of tone not easily held up for long. Even the White Council was a bit much after five minutes.
• Can it be December 2013 now?
  

Also, I can has iPhone! Which means tweeting from anywhere, from now on.

Comments

[ask_the_right_questions]

Yeah, it's not necessarily wrong for the films, coming as they are in the 2010s, but I agree, there's a twist to the lyrics, and the rhythm, that I don't think Tolkien would have written in any decade. Not for dwarves, at any rate.


Incidentally, because I just remembered this:
Necromancer == Slenderman?

Y/Y?

[yakalskovich]

He looks very much like the Slenderman, yes. A tall, shadowy figure seen only as a silhouette in passing. Well, we probably shouldn't see more of him as it is. After all, it is known who the Necromancer really is.

[ask_the_right_questions]

This is true. There was just that blurred shot, with him in 'that' pose, and all I could think of, was "that's slenderman image fodder"

[yakalskovich]

Now, how well is PJ wired into popular culture? Depending on that, it might be intentional or accidental. If it was Joss Whedon, not Peter Jackson, I'd be positive it was intentional...

On the other hand, he knows fandom well enough to bring back the acronym elf and give him something to do.

[ask_the_right_questions]

This, I don't know, and ah ha ha, yes, that Elf. (And he's brought him back twice, now)

[yakalskovich]

This time, he had dialogue and a name and things to do, even!