Saturday, April 13, 2013

Impressions of the Hobbit movie

So I finally got to see The Hobbit, and I thought I'd share my first impressions.  If you haven't seen the movie and are planning to, you might not want to read this, because it might be spoilery.

So first off, I love Martin Freeman as Bilbo.  You know how sometimes when you see the movie version of a book you've grown up with, you can't quite reconcile the actor with the character in your head?  Totally didn't happen here.  Martin Freeman nailed Bilbo Baggins -appearance, personality, everything.  The Unexpected Party was a major highlight of the movie for me, because you see so clearly that here is a genuinely nice person (hobbit) completely overwhelmed by all these strangers that he's too polite to slam the door on.  As someone who is easily overwhelmed by crowds myself, I can sympathize.  In fact, one of the flaws of the movie (in my opinion) is that we don't have enough of these wonderful character-building moments. 

I especially missed Bilbo's point of view in Rivendell.  I love the dwarves trying to cook salad, and I enjoy the council.  (Gandalf and Galadriel doing the fantasy equivalent of texting under the table when Sauruman goes into lecture mode is priceless.)  But this section is Bilbo's first look at Rivendell, the place where he returns to spends his last years in Middle-Earth, and -aside from one backward glance- we never get the sense that it makes any kind of impression on him. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I wanted to mention the troll scene which deviates from the book, with mixed results.  In the book, Thorin sends Bilbo in as a scout to see what he's made of.  In the movie, Bilbo gets pushed into going by Fili and Kili, who are panicking because some of the ponies went missing on their watch.  This was, I think, a sound decision on the part of Peter Jackson.  The movie dwarves draw on some of Tolkien's later writings which further developed the dwarf culture and their warlike nature.  The original meeting with the trolls don't fit the more serious nature of the movie.

Unfortunately, the actual capture of the dwarves broke my willing suspension of disbelief.  Jackson had Thorin surrender to the trolls because they'd captured Bilbo -but Thorin was a seasoned warrior, a dwarf prince!  He would be used to making hard decisions in battle.  I have trouble believing that he would let his entire band of loyal followers get eaten just because they threatened Bilbo.  It was like he suddenly remembered that Bilbo was the title character and he couldn't let him get killed off for plot reasons.  

Using Bilbo instead of Gandalf distract the trolls is great.  It shows that he's cunning and can think on his feet.  In the book, Bilbo doesn't come in to his own until after he meets Gullom -which is around the one-third mark in the book, but closer to the the three-third mark in the movie.   That would be way to late to have your hero just starting to do anything.

I have mixed feelings about Radagast's introduction.  My dad found his presence random and confusing, while my brother thought he added a new depth to the world-building.  I think people who are familiar with Middle Earth only through the movies might be confused by him, like my dad was.  As to the character himself, it really depends on what Peter Jackson plans to do with him in the future movies.

As for the early meeting with the orcs and wargs, I understand it from a plot standpoint.  It will make the ending feel inevitable.  I like that the lead orc has a history with Thorin.  The way they push our heroes to visit Rivendell fills a plot hole that opened up when Jackson decided to accent the dwarf/elf feud.  I get it- but I wasn't crazy about that part.  Maybe I just know the book a little too well, but that part felt like it was just an action scene, it didn't feel like a Tolkien action scene.  Let me see if I can explain... okay.  You know Tolkien is fond of the Deu ex Machina, right?  We have Gandalf's return at dawn in The Two Towers. we have Aragorn's black ships in Return of the King.  Both have a sense of divine intervention, partly because of the use of light and shadow.  Tolkien loved using weather in mood setting.  Even in the Troll scene earlier in The Hobbit you have the sudden outbreak of sunlight bringing hope (and that was masterfully filmed).  The emotional element doesn't come through with this orc raid, and I think it's because the scene isn't based on Tolkien's writing.

The scenes in the Misty Mountains were mostly awesome (especially everything involving Gullom).  I loved Bilbo's talk with (I think) Bailin.  Those quieter scenes are where Peter Jackson's directing is especially great and I only wish there were more of this sort of thing.  I did think Bilbo looked a little too comfortable with the sword in his fight with the orc, especially after he told Gandalf that he'd never drawn a sword in his life.  I also thought the dwarves should have been a little quicker on Bilbo's heels when he went after Thorin's attacker in the tree-fight scene.  But I did love Thorin's acknowledgement of Bilbo's place in their company there at the end.

Wow.  That's a long overview.  I'm sure I missed things.  Like how much I appreciate that this movie explores dwarf culture.  It gives The Hobbit a unique feel, while still keeping a sense that we are in Middle Earth.  Also, I know why most people like to see movies in theater: telephones.  We got three calls during the prologue.  And that's it.  I'd love to hear what you all thought, if you've seen the movie. 

11 comments:

  1. Intersting. My parents and I can't really go to the theater anymore, but we just got this on DVD. I don't think any of us have gotten around to watching it. Yes, I read this anyway; spoilers are more likely to get me excited about a story than anything else. {GRIN}

    I'm looking forward to it, especially now that you've mentioned that they developed dwarven culture more. Dwarves are one of my favorite fantasy races. Gnomes and hobbits/halflings are pretty neat, too, but I'm particularly fond of dwarves. So I'm definitely getting more interested. {BIG SMILE}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  2. I'm the same way about spoilers. :) It's hard for me to get excited about watching or reading a story if I have no clue what it's about.

    The lack of dwarves was actually one of the things that bothered me about the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I first read it. You go from them being really central in The Hobbit to being really sidelined. I was so miffed that I always resented Tolkien's elves just a little bit for taking so much of his attention.

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  3. Exactly. I only remember one time when spoilers actually decreased my enjoyment of a story. (I didn't enjoy knowing ahead of time who dies in the Serenity movie.) The rest of the time, knowing what happens gets me interested in a story. I want to see how it happens, and I want to see how it fits withthe rest of the story. So I read and enjoy spoilers a LOT. {SMILE}

    I missed the dwarves the The Lord of the Rings, butI was prepared for it. I'd tried to read it when I was a teenager, but barely got to where Frodo, Sam, and Pippin meet the elves while walking thru the Shire. However, The Lord of the Rings is one of Dad's favorite books, and one of his favorite books to use to illustrate points. So I got a fair idea of the story over the years. Then I actually managed to read the books after the movies came out. I found The Fellowship of the Ring to be a pretty good guide for the first book and the first chapter of the next, so I read that far pretty happily after the first movie. The second movie wasn't quite as good a guide, but it got me thru Shelob and the aftermath of Helm's Deep. The thrid movie wasn't too good a guide. I finally had to push myself to barrel thru to the end. {smile}

    {pause] This sounds like I didn't like the books. No; I do like the story a lot. {Smile} I just needed a little more help than I got from Dad and the movies to get thru it the first time. The second time went so muchmore easily, it's amazing! {BIG SMILE, wink}

    All this gets pretty far off the dwarves. I did love them in The Hobbit. If Tolkien had had more dwarves in Lord of the Rings, or at least given Gimli a bigger role, I might have had a much easier time getting thru it. {Smile}

    The truth is, i love all the short, round fantasy races. Dwarves, gnomes, halfings/hobbits... I love them almost as much as the menehune of Hawaiian legend. Those are another short, round, industrious folk who are inclined to be helpful as long as they're reasonably well-paid. I can't help suspecting they're part of why I love the others: they feel enough like menehune to be familiar. Tall, slender, magical folk in Hawaiian legends are not nearly as nice as the short, round menehune. {SMILE}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  4. Oh that's interesting about the menehune! We don't really have anything in the way of legends around here. (Well, ghost stories, but they don't count and I didn't really grow up with them anyway.)

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    1. {Chuckle} That's hard for me to imagine. Oh, I believe you, but I still have trouble imagining it. Here in Hawai'i, legends and folktales are as much a part of the literature of childhood as fairytales. {Smile}

      No, I'm not exaggerating. Go to a library for story hour, or a performance by a puppet or acting troupe that performs for children, and you're as likely to meet up with the Japanese tales of Issunboshi and Momontaro, or the Hawaiian legends of How Maui Caught the Sun or Hine, the Woman in the Moon as you are the fairytales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel. {Smile}

      Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  5. I want to ask all sorts of questions about the menehune, but I haven't any idea where to start. Were the legends written, or told as folk tradition, or both? And if told, by whom (family members? Just people around?) Were they influenced by the Japanese myths and other cultures, or are they pretty close to original Hawaiian culture? Am I being offensive by asking? (I hope not!)

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    1. If we call them legends or folkstales, they were passed on orally long before they were written down. In the case of Hawaiian legends, many were first written down in the 1800's. Not that writing them down stopped people from telling them orally. {Smile}

      We're pretty good at keeping legends and many folktales true to the original culture. Our common literature includes Japanese, Hawaiian, European, and some Chinese and Filippino tales, but they're usually pretty good at keeping to the original culture. The exception would be modern legends, including urban legends and ghost stories. If it started post cfontact, you can usually tell by the local setting and the mixing of cultures. {Smile}

      No, you aren't being offensive in asking. I certainly don't mind, and most folks in Hawai'i wouldn't as long as you're neither disrespectful or unfriendly about it. Treat it like a serious interview where you want the answers to your questions and no time wasted on chit-chat, and you'll get a lot of backs up. Take the time to turn it intoa friendly chat with digressions, and we don't even mind if you've brought a tape recorder. {SMILE, wink}

      Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  6. I'm glad you don't mind. It's funny, isn't it, how much tone has to do with a conversation. I'd think a person would learn a lot more if they didn't mind digressions. At least, when my grandmother talks about growing up she hops around from when she was first married to life as a kid to what someone she grew up with is doing now. One thing reminds her of another. If you didn't let her follow the thoughts, they'd be lost.

    And now that I've gone on a long digression myself, you mentioned that some Hawaiian folktales were collected in the 1800s. Who by? Was it something like when the Grimms collected German folktales (ie mostly one person or group) or was it a lot of different scattered people?

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  7. I know what you mean about thoughts getting lost if you don't allow digressions. Both of my grandmothers tend to veer off-topic. So does Dad, and you'll miss some of his best stories about growing up or being a young man if you herd him back onto topic too soon. {SMILE}

    Well, they weren't all collected by one person, that I'm sure of. {pause} If you want the oldest recorded versions of the tales, you have to dig into Hawaiian Language Newspapers. They often published tales in one or more segments, from very early. The first book collection was commissioned by King David Kalaukaua, the first monarch fo the last dydnasty of the Hawaiian Kingdom. I have no idea who his ghost wreiter was; his name is on the cover of the book. Other early collectors were William Westervelt, Eric Knudsen, Mary Kawena Puku'i and Caroline Curtis. The two women sometimes wrote together. I think that most of their books are still in print, except for one of Westervelt's five books, and possibly the Knudsen.

    Puku'i and Curtis did a book labelled menehune tales. In spite of what Amazon thingks, it is currently in print. I think only the first four or so legends actually feature menehune, but Menehune Tales is still the best place to look for storeis about them. {Smile}

    I do have to mention that my first non-family writing mentor, Vivian L. Thompson, also wrote five books based on Hawaiian legends. They're closer to fairy tale retellings than the original fairy tales, since she actually tries to give the characters a little personality, instead of ignoring them to speed along the plot like oral storytellers do. (This is not criticizing oral storytellers; they knew what they had to do to keep their audiences' attentions long enough to tell the story. It's just that Vi Thompson wrote specifically for readers, not listeners, so she could do other things.) {Smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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  8. Thanks! Mmmm, that's a delicious feast of information. I remember you mentioned Vivian Thompson before once, and I meant to look her up, but never did. (I hate to admit that. My to-read list is rather long so sometimes I'm slow to get to things.)

    That's true about oral verses written story-telling being different mediums, and therefor taking a different tact with how they're related. :)

    I'm sorry I haven't commented sooner. My dad had some health issues these last two weeks, so I've been pretty inactive on the net.

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  9. No need to apologize. My own to-read collection would fill two floor-to-ceiling bookcases if I arranged them the right way, and had another bookscase the right size. That does not include the books on Mom's shelves, Dad's shelves, the library's shelves, etc. that I would like to borrow, or the ones on one or antoher wishlist... only the ones on my own shelves. So I totally understand not getting around to recommended books, even when I mean to. I do that all the time myself. {SMILE}

    I've heard tales told orally, and it's a lot easier to get bored during the "talky parts" and such, even if conversations allow more character development. {Smile}

    I understand. Real Life sometimes impinges on my net-use, too. {Sympathetic Smile}

    I hope your Dad is feeling better. Mine is trying to get some energy back so he can do more, himself. He's better, but he wishes recovery was quicker. {resigned smile}

    Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

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