Smaug the Magnificent!
So I went to the very first NZ screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug tonight (gala/charity event for a marine preserve), and I can say, without being spoilery in the least, that it is a better movie than An Unexpected Journey. (And I say this as someone who was terrified they were going to fuck up Smaug, proto-dragon of my heart. ♥) Some of the silly bits that I felt marred the first in terms of tone have been all but left behind, and the pacing is far tighter and quicker.
I have a very clear vision in my head of what Smaug is supposed to look like. He is, essentially, Tolkien's iconic black and white drawing, his Conversation with Smaug illustration that still adorns many editions of The Hobbit, and John Howe's Smaug the Golden. For all the talk of his being a worm/wyrm in the book, he is very much a full-fledged dragon in my mind's eye. So long before they even cast Cumberbatch to do his voice, Del Toro's talk about how he had "a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made," made me incredibly nervous. The idea of redesigning him so he's a creature that doesn't bear a strong resemblance to European medieval dragon tropes horrifies me. Given that Middle-earth is all about standing in for the mythic background Tolkien believed England was lacking, it seems somehow... wrong to not honour those roots.
I love GDT's non-Hobbit creatures, don't get me wrong, and they all have a level of surreality that works within his very strange, very captivating worlds, but they definitely don't belong in Tolkien's natural world. The idea of porting GDT's aesthetic into M-E and onto Smaug had me grimacing and fretting a great deal, so I was kind of relieved when he left the production to pursue his other films.
Of course, then they cast Cumberbatch, who seems to be in everything lately, and I got to fret over whether or not he'd be able to sink into the character and alter his voice enough that it wasn't basically Sherlock/Khan talking out of Smaug's mouth. He was mostly successful, most of the time. I was satisfied with that.
Anyway, in terms of how Smaug looked once he was revealed in DoS, he was amazing. There are definite alterations from those Tolkien and Howe designs, but not so much that the aesthetic progression isn't there. I was captivated. I could not keep my eyes off him -- to the exclusion of all other characters -- whenever he was in a scene. Weta outdid themselves. I cannot stress that enough. He was gorgeous and imposing and every bit as mighty and magnificent and dangerous and threatening as he should be, and the way he lit up when he was about to breathe fire was amazing. ♥
Yes, I know it's strange, but my favourite Hobbit character has always been Smaug. ^_~
Anyway, I'm going to another screening Wednesday night after the fan party, so I might leave posting more specific and detailed thoughts until then (or later, since I'm still labouring under a deadline pre-going home for the holidays).
As for the charity event, it was quite nice. I have some pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet. Basically, they had a very short red carpet outside the Embassy Theatre, which I got to walk. (Woo! ^_~) Inside and upstairs, where we were directed after claiming our tickets, it was extremely crowded and warm, but they had free wine, champagne, beer and orange juice. I grabbed one of the latter and mingled a bit, wandered over to a small display of scale double costumes -- Fili, Gandalf and Bilbo -- took a picture in front of a giant cardboard Desolation of Smaug poster featuring Legolas and Tauriel, then wandered back out to the general area, had someone compliment my dragon hairclip, talked to a German lady with a Canadian bag tag, edged my way towards the centre of the room so I could look down at the people coming into the foyer below (only a handful were costumed, mostly in generic dwarf/elf/hobbit garb), and chatted with a couple from Britain who had just arrived here on a 4 month vacation.
We were told that the screening was about to start, so I got myself a second orange juice, made my way into the theatre and was handed a fancy brown bag: free snacks! ^_^ It contained a herbed chicken and bacon stuffing finger sandwich, a pork pie, spiced almonds, and a brownie with some kind of custard on top. NOM. I'm all for fancy food at the movies. There were also black goody bags on each of the seats with 3D glasses, a bottle of water, a small poster, a commemorative stamp pack and a set of acorn pins inside.
The screening started with some quick speeches from the marine reserve people, all very nice and standard, and then they had the actors who had attended -- Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher and Stephen Hunter, IIRC -- stand and be recognized. Then they told us that Benedict had wanted to be there but couldn't, so he insisted on recording a message for us all, which was quite nice of him. They played it, and while it was very short, it was basically him introducing himself as the actor who played Smaug and "the character he couldn't say the name of" and saying how much he enjoyed playing those parts. He also said how he was sorry he couldn't be at the screening, that he'd very much wanted to, and that he wanted to thank us all for supporting the marine preserve. I think he ended by hoping we'd enjoy the movie, and then we were off to the races. (Btw, the 3D and sound were fantastic.)
A nice woman from Detroit (graphic designer whose real passion is photography, almost finished her 3 month visit to NZ) was sitting beside me, and like me, she was alone. We had a good chat before and after the movie, and she whispered a couple things to me during the film, and I was going to ask her to swap contact info, but as we walked out into the foyer, we got separated, and then she was gone. Couldn't find her again. Damn. That's pretty disappointing, since I'm all about jumping on the chance to make a friend given the scarcity of them down here.
When I realized she was gone, I went over to John Callen and had him sign a copy of The Hobbit I had with me, erroneously thinking he was the only dwarf I still hadn't had sign something. (Nope. That'd be Ken Stott, goddammit.) He was very charming and lovely, complimented my name, was very pleased that I had him sign the novel, and then... my gold pen crapped out halfway through his signature. So the guy behind me offered his, and now his inscription is half gold, half black. *facepalm*
After that, I took a picture of two of Callen with my cell phone (because my camera had slipped to the bottom of my bag), and then I decided to take my leave, since it was all winding down.
In the end, the gala was definitely worth it, and I'm really glad I went. It was reasonably relaxed, I got to see the movie early, and even with a few kinks in the works, I came out of it happy.
So, yeah. Non-spoilery review of DoS: Better than AUJ, definitely good, parts of it will upset purists (especially those who aren't aware of how they're also cribbing from the Appendices), but most changes make sense on a filmic level. *nod*
...I'm very tired now, but holy crap, that is more posting on LJ than I've done in a while. I have no graceful segue out, so, um, g'night, then. *crashes*
I have a very clear vision in my head of what Smaug is supposed to look like. He is, essentially, Tolkien's iconic black and white drawing, his Conversation with Smaug illustration that still adorns many editions of The Hobbit, and John Howe's Smaug the Golden. For all the talk of his being a worm/wyrm in the book, he is very much a full-fledged dragon in my mind's eye. So long before they even cast Cumberbatch to do his voice, Del Toro's talk about how he had "a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made," made me incredibly nervous. The idea of redesigning him so he's a creature that doesn't bear a strong resemblance to European medieval dragon tropes horrifies me. Given that Middle-earth is all about standing in for the mythic background Tolkien believed England was lacking, it seems somehow... wrong to not honour those roots.
I love GDT's non-Hobbit creatures, don't get me wrong, and they all have a level of surreality that works within his very strange, very captivating worlds, but they definitely don't belong in Tolkien's natural world. The idea of porting GDT's aesthetic into M-E and onto Smaug had me grimacing and fretting a great deal, so I was kind of relieved when he left the production to pursue his other films.
Of course, then they cast Cumberbatch, who seems to be in everything lately, and I got to fret over whether or not he'd be able to sink into the character and alter his voice enough that it wasn't basically Sherlock/Khan talking out of Smaug's mouth. He was mostly successful, most of the time. I was satisfied with that.
Anyway, in terms of how Smaug looked once he was revealed in DoS, he was amazing. There are definite alterations from those Tolkien and Howe designs, but not so much that the aesthetic progression isn't there. I was captivated. I could not keep my eyes off him -- to the exclusion of all other characters -- whenever he was in a scene. Weta outdid themselves. I cannot stress that enough. He was gorgeous and imposing and every bit as mighty and magnificent and dangerous and threatening as he should be, and the way he lit up when he was about to breathe fire was amazing. ♥
Yes, I know it's strange, but my favourite Hobbit character has always been Smaug. ^_~
Anyway, I'm going to another screening Wednesday night after the fan party, so I might leave posting more specific and detailed thoughts until then (or later, since I'm still labouring under a deadline pre-going home for the holidays).
As for the charity event, it was quite nice. I have some pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet. Basically, they had a very short red carpet outside the Embassy Theatre, which I got to walk. (Woo! ^_~) Inside and upstairs, where we were directed after claiming our tickets, it was extremely crowded and warm, but they had free wine, champagne, beer and orange juice. I grabbed one of the latter and mingled a bit, wandered over to a small display of scale double costumes -- Fili, Gandalf and Bilbo -- took a picture in front of a giant cardboard Desolation of Smaug poster featuring Legolas and Tauriel, then wandered back out to the general area, had someone compliment my dragon hairclip, talked to a German lady with a Canadian bag tag, edged my way towards the centre of the room so I could look down at the people coming into the foyer below (only a handful were costumed, mostly in generic dwarf/elf/hobbit garb), and chatted with a couple from Britain who had just arrived here on a 4 month vacation.
We were told that the screening was about to start, so I got myself a second orange juice, made my way into the theatre and was handed a fancy brown bag: free snacks! ^_^ It contained a herbed chicken and bacon stuffing finger sandwich, a pork pie, spiced almonds, and a brownie with some kind of custard on top. NOM. I'm all for fancy food at the movies. There were also black goody bags on each of the seats with 3D glasses, a bottle of water, a small poster, a commemorative stamp pack and a set of acorn pins inside.
The screening started with some quick speeches from the marine reserve people, all very nice and standard, and then they had the actors who had attended -- Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher and Stephen Hunter, IIRC -- stand and be recognized. Then they told us that Benedict had wanted to be there but couldn't, so he insisted on recording a message for us all, which was quite nice of him. They played it, and while it was very short, it was basically him introducing himself as the actor who played Smaug and "the character he couldn't say the name of" and saying how much he enjoyed playing those parts. He also said how he was sorry he couldn't be at the screening, that he'd very much wanted to, and that he wanted to thank us all for supporting the marine preserve. I think he ended by hoping we'd enjoy the movie, and then we were off to the races. (Btw, the 3D and sound were fantastic.)
A nice woman from Detroit (graphic designer whose real passion is photography, almost finished her 3 month visit to NZ) was sitting beside me, and like me, she was alone. We had a good chat before and after the movie, and she whispered a couple things to me during the film, and I was going to ask her to swap contact info, but as we walked out into the foyer, we got separated, and then she was gone. Couldn't find her again. Damn. That's pretty disappointing, since I'm all about jumping on the chance to make a friend given the scarcity of them down here.
When I realized she was gone, I went over to John Callen and had him sign a copy of The Hobbit I had with me, erroneously thinking he was the only dwarf I still hadn't had sign something. (Nope. That'd be Ken Stott, goddammit.) He was very charming and lovely, complimented my name, was very pleased that I had him sign the novel, and then... my gold pen crapped out halfway through his signature. So the guy behind me offered his, and now his inscription is half gold, half black. *facepalm*
After that, I took a picture of two of Callen with my cell phone (because my camera had slipped to the bottom of my bag), and then I decided to take my leave, since it was all winding down.
In the end, the gala was definitely worth it, and I'm really glad I went. It was reasonably relaxed, I got to see the movie early, and even with a few kinks in the works, I came out of it happy.
So, yeah. Non-spoilery review of DoS: Better than AUJ, definitely good, parts of it will upset purists (especially those who aren't aware of how they're also cribbing from the Appendices), but most changes make sense on a filmic level. *nod*
...I'm very tired now, but holy crap, that is more posting on LJ than I've done in a while. I have no graceful segue out, so, um, g'night, then. *crashes*