Geek Out Sunday: In a Hole in the Ground There Lived a Hobbit
Friends, I love Tolkien. I blame it on the fact that I got a copy of The Hobbit at age seven. I have never seen the Rankin/Bass films, as I don’t think I knew they existed until High School, where there were a few comments about watching them instead of reading the series for a class. The poor soul did not understand that I was reading The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings again. Yes the very first time I started Fellowship, I was displeased that the main character wasn’t Bilbo and stopped reading. I got over it.
And of course I’m glad I did. I still remember being a senior in high school and trying to get my friends to come see Fellowship with me. None of them could understand my damn near explosive enthusiasm for the movie (By the time TTT came out they were out fanning me so clearly they figured it out). The first time I saw Fellowship I was alone, and I didn’t care. Because, Strider was on my screen, Gandalf was falling, Balrogs were not passing. One did not simply walk into Mordor, except that’s exactly what they did.
So almost a decade later when the The Hobbit was out in theaters? I was lining up for a midnight release, with a friend who had been doing it with me long ago, and my sister. And then I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and I was sad. I had already been side eyeing the concept of making three movies out of 200 pages of a children’s book.
I have read the appendices, the unfinished tales, and the histories of Middle Earth and even with all the extra data you get unless there was an interlude called The Similarion, I didn’t really seen the need for three movies. I felt like two would be pushing it. Seeing the first movie I pretty much went, sigh, at least I still have my extended editions.
So when time came to see the Desolation of Smaug, I was ambivalent. I still wanted to give it a chance but should I bother seeing it? Especially at midnight again? Not only did I my friend and sister talked me into a double feature starting at 8:30 that night.
I’m really glad I did. I actually quite enjoyed the Desolation of Smaug much much more than I did an unexpected Journey. I even reviewed it for Pink Raygun. I liked that they gave character to Bard who was pretty flat in the books. As my friend once described him. “Hi I’m Bard, I have a hereditary arrow. ” *kills dragon* “Peace out.”
I even liked Tauriel. I liked all but one part of her character. Can you guess which? Did you say love triangle? I knew you could. That bit felt unnecessary and a bit weird, since it’s never actually clear if she actually DOES have that kind of interest in Legolas, despite the chat from dad. And Legolas and Gimli become boyfri- bros for life in about 80 years. Tauriel could have decided as Captain of the Guard she was not leaving an Orc alive, and could have decided that as a decent elf, the sassy dwarf deserved to live. And maybe dwarves were worth something.
With Bard in prison and the dwarves split up, the battle with Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies is going to be interesting.