Entry tags:
moviegoin'
I went to see The Hobbit yesterday! and the vast assortment of trailers that preceded it, of course. Two of them caught my eye -- Warm Bodies looks charming even though I feel pandered to, and After Earth is one I'm definitely shelling out for. The story for AE looks pretty familiar, man-vs-hostile-wilderness, but the trailer framed it as a story whose central relationship is the father-son bond between two black men, and godDAMN does that need to make money.
A zillion years later, we got to the feature presentation! So, who had paid little enough attention to not know this was part one of a trilogy? This guy. Aw yeah. That definitely left me with some feels at the end, wow.
There were parts of this movie that I really loved. Visually, as always, it was an utter delight. Such landscape porn. ♥ I loved the dwarves' songs at the beginning and wish that had carried through more; I think that's one of the things that's always stuck with me about Tolkien, the way that he loved storytelling and folk traditions and wanted to fit in all the tales and ballads that his peoples would cherish. The riddle scene was handled well, which is really important; it's such a crucial bit of the story and the tie that actually makes it part of the larger arc.
I was still pretty fatigued by the end of it. The fight scenes were exciting but there were so many of them and they went on for so long -- I'm pretty sure that "augh, they still haven't gotten out of the goblin caves?" is not a reaction you want your audience to have. Also, Thorin-on-foot charging Azog-on-hellwarg was a crowning moment of stupid. Awkward.
The only scene that I really strongly felt averse to, though, was the addition of Saruman-the-sneaky-tells-you-to-stop-questing, which just felt. urgh. Ham-handed and illogical? Stop, guys. Everyone already knows this is the same world with LotR. The existing connections in the story are enough. This is dumb and clumsy, having Saruman be already sneaky and awful sixty years before anything happens. :/
Overall: glad I saw it! And glad I saw it with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subtext, who quite helpfully provided the perspective that the film version of a book you love is the filmmaker's fanon, their chance to enthuse about the things that matter most to them in the source text; you can consume it and groove on it even if you disagree with some of their conclusions.
The end. :3
A zillion years later, we got to the feature presentation! So, who had paid little enough attention to not know this was part one of a trilogy? This guy. Aw yeah. That definitely left me with some feels at the end, wow.
There were parts of this movie that I really loved. Visually, as always, it was an utter delight. Such landscape porn. ♥ I loved the dwarves' songs at the beginning and wish that had carried through more; I think that's one of the things that's always stuck with me about Tolkien, the way that he loved storytelling and folk traditions and wanted to fit in all the tales and ballads that his peoples would cherish. The riddle scene was handled well, which is really important; it's such a crucial bit of the story and the tie that actually makes it part of the larger arc.
I was still pretty fatigued by the end of it. The fight scenes were exciting but there were so many of them and they went on for so long -- I'm pretty sure that "augh, they still haven't gotten out of the goblin caves?" is not a reaction you want your audience to have. Also, Thorin-on-foot charging Azog-on-hellwarg was a crowning moment of stupid. Awkward.
The only scene that I really strongly felt averse to, though, was the addition of Saruman-the-sneaky-tells-you-to-stop-questing, which just felt. urgh. Ham-handed and illogical? Stop, guys. Everyone already knows this is the same world with LotR. The existing connections in the story are enough. This is dumb and clumsy, having Saruman be already sneaky and awful sixty years before anything happens. :/
Overall: glad I saw it! And glad I saw it with
subtext, who quite helpfully provided the perspective that the film version of a book you love is the filmmaker's fanon, their chance to enthuse about the things that matter most to them in the source text; you can consume it and groove on it even if you disagree with some of their conclusions.The end. :3