300: Rise of an Empire Trailer

Hobbit Critics Have It All Wrong!

Seth Abramson Article from Huffington Post

This is a link to an article written by Seth Abramson from The Huffington Post. I agree wholeheartedly with his opinions. I believe that people who dislike The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have either A) Not read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (or at least The Hobbit) or B) Do not have the right frame of mind about the movie's purpose. It is NOT specifically a direct movie adaptation of the book. It is partially that, but it is also a venue to give important back-story to the history of Middle Earth as well as a bridge to connect the gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which I believe we will see more of in movies #2 and 3. I think it will help one's enjoyment immensely if they don't see this film as just a movie adaptation, but really as one complete story that they have made out of chronological order.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

*SPOILER ALERT- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*

While this movie was not what I was expecting, and certainly not what I would call "perfect", it was still an amazing movie, that I already want to see again. It is definitely worth your time whether you've read the book or not! Let me get the not-so-good out of the way and then I'll talk about the good stuff. I also want to preface this by saying that I have read The Hobbit more than once, but it has been a long time since I re-read it last, so please don't jump down my throat if I don't remember something exactly how it happened. Okay... here we go!

The one thing that was bugging me almost the entire movie, is that Gandalf tells Bilbo that since his blade was of Elvish make from Gondolin, it will glow when orcs are about. The problem with that is that it only started glowing when goblins were around. That, and why didn't Orcrist and Glamdring glow? They were made from the same Elves from the same city! It's not a big deal, but it was really bothering me.

Okay... I like the fact that they added Radagast the Brown to the movie, but did they have to make his wig have bird poop all over it? He's supposed to be weird- not freaking insane! And the rabbit/hare sled? I'm not sure that's Tolkien kosher, but I could be wrong...

To me, there was too much comedy in the film. Most of the time it was welcome, but it made the balance of epicness, suspense, drama, and funny bits off-kilter. I think it would have been better if they had made the jokes less frequent. That would make them more memorable and special. I think this was just another case of "Gimli-fying" the movie. By that I mean that they made characters that were pretty serious in the book the comedic relief. Don't get me wrong- it doesn't usually take away from the movie, but I feel like it was taken a bit too far in The Hobbit.

Alright Peter Jackson... if you're going to put pictures of Beorn in the posters, pictures, and ads for The Hobbit #1, then PUT HIM IN THE FREAKING MOVIE! I know that he's going to be in #2 (especially since the rock/outcrop/thing that the Dwaves, Bilbo, & Gandalf gets dropped off of at the end by the eagles strongly resembles a bear's head), but why put him in posters, and then not have him in the movie your advertising partially using him. I just don't get it.

I'm just gonna come out and say it... Nori's hair is freaking ridiculous and I hate it! His beard and moustache are cool, but his hair is stinking dumb. Ugh! Honestly, at first, when I first saw the character design for the Dwarves, I wasn't really all that impressed, but most of them kind of grew on me. Nori did not.

This one isn't really a bad thing or a complaint, but I found it very strange that Bombur said absolutely NOTHING the whole movie... it was kinda weird. Not bad, just weird. Also- he uses a huge spoon/ladle thing as a weapon... not sure how I feel about that yet.

...And now to the good stuff :)

OH MY GOSH, THE MUSIC!! I freaking love Howard Shore, and he did an amazing job with An Unexpected Journey. Also, the Misty Mountains Cold song/theme is my favorite part of the movie- don't ask why because it just is. I love it! Totally going to buy the soundtrack!

Without seeing the movie, I was really nervous about the characters themselves, specifically the Dwarves. After seeing the movie, I have no problems with any of the characters, personality-wise. My favorites are Balin and Bofur. I actually was surprised myself, but I actually like Kili and Fili as well (explanation of this in the next paragraph)! The characters I'm still nervous about- at least in personality and/or execution- are the ones entering in the later movies. Those characters being Tauriel, Bard, Thranduil, and Legolas.

I love the explanations to things I read and understood in the book, but never really thought about how it might have come about, like when Gandalf brought the sunlight about to turn the trolls to stone. I also like the reasoning behind why Kili and Fili don't have beards (which really bothered me before- I thought that the reason why they did that was to create a man-candy character for girls to drool over like they did in Lord of the Rings *cough*Legolas*cough*), but I like the idea that they haven't grown their beards out yet due to the fact that they are at least 50 years younger than all of the other Dwarves in the party (and that's a fact from the book!). That and they played well off of each other in the movie. I also dug all of the Lord of the Rings, appendices, and Silmarillion references throughout the movie.

The 3D is great, and this is seriously how it should be done from now on. No more crappy, post-production afterthought, wallet fattener 3D, but good, intentional 3D. This is coming from a person that is not a fan of 3D at all, and has said that it's just a money-mongering gimmick. The only movies that I've seen that have had good 3D effects in so far have been Avatar and The Hobbit. That's it, and that's a crying shame. More movie makers should be following Peter Jackson and James Cameron's lead- at least in the realm of 3D movies.

I will be seeing this movie again, so I may come back to this review and explain things further, change my mind, etc. Also keep in mind that while I did gripe and nitpick about a few things, they certainly did not detract from the movie as a whole, I'm just a huge nerd who loves J.R.R. Tolkien's books!

Overall, it was a great movie, and a good film adaptation to the book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars! GO SEE IT ALREADY!!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer #2

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer

This movie is going to be so epic! Super excited!!

Foreign Films, Part 2

For the next set of films, I'll list the German movies I would like to see, plus the ones I have seen. I'm really looking forward to these since I took German for my college language requirements and I would like to keep what I've learned fresh and to learn some new vocabulary. I'd like to get the original German versions and use subtitles as little as possible.


Have Not Seen


Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes

Der Amerikanische Freund

Der Blaue Engel

Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens

Nach fünf im Urwald

Der Üntergang

Männer

Her Lehmann

Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei

Have Seen

Metropolis

Sophie Scholl: Die Letzten Tage

Vision: Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen




Jenseits der Stille

Keep Calm

War Horse Review

So if you don't know of what I'm talking about, here is the War Horse trailer:

So overall, I would say that this is a good movie. It's definitely more of a family film than a blockbuster or date movie (unless your significant other really likes horses- like my girlfriend). Directed by Steven Spielberg and soundtrack by John Williams (definitely a good reason to go see it!).

The character stories in this movie were amazing- you really cared about the people. Unfortunately, at least for me, is where the problem lies. The movie makes you care about the people, and not so much about the horse...and it's a movie about a horse. I'm not totally uncaring though, as there's definitely one scene that made me cringe and feel bad for Joey (won't spoil the details for those of you who have not seen it yet), but I feel like I cared more about Emilie, the German brothers (Gunther and Friedrich were their names, I believe), or the Narracott family, but not Joey.

I feel like in a way, this movie is like Pearl Harbor (the 2001 movie with Ben Affleck). By that I mean that they tried to combine two movie genres that don't usually work well together (not all the time, there are some that did work out). Pearl Harbor was a war movie that had a romance plot shoved in, and War Horse is a war movie that had what I call a "horse movie" plot shoved in.

Even though the entire experience wasn't all that enjoyable (an older lady tripped and fell on top of me walking up the steps of the theater, spilling a full soda onto my brand new argyle sweater I had just gotten for Christmas earlier that day), it was still a good movie despite my personal preferences. I would  definitely recommend you go see it.

I would rate it 4 stars out of 5

And if you want to read a real movie review blog, check out a blog written by a friend of mine here: Puzzle Noggin Paradoxes

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer

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