Hello everyone!
So I'm a Tolkien fan. As in, big time Tolkien fan. My cousin introduced me to the Lord of the Rings books about ... wow, it must already be fifteen years now! Gosh, time flies. Anyway, yes, she introduced me to it, and there have been a lot of interesting LOTR versus Harry Potter discussions in our family since then.
When the news spread that they were making movies from the book, I was beyond thrilled. By that point, my hardcore obsession was starting (like, covering my whole four walls in LOTR posters obsession), and since I was a teenager, there were crushes too (just not Orlando Bloom, sorry).
And then the news hit that they would be making The Hobbit into a movie, too!
As anyone who has followed updates on this, you'll know that the development process went from one movie, to two, and then to three, making the thing a trilogy. Now, I disagree with the length of it - despite some fantastic sequences, I might add - but generally speaking it really could have been done in much less time. Still, I enjoyed the first one, and after a very kind friend of mine gifted me with the extended version, I couldn't wait to watch it.
"Oh no. No. There's nobody home! Go away, and bother somebody else! There're far to many dwarves in my dining room as it is. If this is some clothead's idea of a joke, I can only say, it is in VERY poor taste!"
I won't go in detail about what we see in the movie, because frankly put, it's been three years now and those who have seen it know what was in there, and those who haven't until now probably won't ever. I'll just skim through the plot.
We meet a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (okay, he tells the story from the prologue, during which we are basically planted right before The Fellowship of the Ring begins), who is selected by the wizard Gandalf to go on an adventure with Thorin Oakenshield and his company of dwarves (Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Ori, Nori, Oin, Gloin, Balin, Dwalin, Fili and Kili *whew*). They are on a quest to retake the ancient homeland of the line of Durin, the Lonely Mountain, which had been wrested from them by the dragon Smaug years before. They run into trolls (who turn into stone while arguing with Bilbo about the best way of cooking Dwarf), goblins (who look like they really, really need a good plastic surgeon), Bilbo meets Gollum, then Radagast the Brown (very fond of mushrooms), and they are all pursued throughout the movie by Azog the Defiler, the Pale Orc, who has set a price on Thorin's head. The movie ends with the great eagles of Middle Earth rescuing the lot and depositing them in clear view of the Mountain, a long way off.
Well, technically, it ends with old Smaug waking up, but that's beside the point.
The extended edition gives us some extra material in the prologue of the movie already, which I didn't quite understand, seeing as that did NOT happen back in the original trilogy. Why add things that the general public won't see? There's an adorable little Bilbo swatting at Gandald with a toy sword, and then a scene that made me huff, where Thranduil is presented with white jewels by King Thror, and the prologue states that THAT failed bargain started the enmity between the races of Elves and Dwarves.
Let's correct the misconception: there WAS a necklace involved in that particular feud. But it goes back a long, LONG way, out of the Third Age, and back to when Doriath still stood, in the First Age of Middle Earth. The necklace was called Nauglamir. And it was responsible for some of the bloodiest conflicts between Elves and Dwarves since then (although to be honest, movie Thranduil certainly would get along rather famously with the prudish Elves back then). We also get some more view on the Hobbits and the Shire, which is always nice, and some additional dialogue between the Dwarves and Bilbo in Bag End.
"He's got ... an injury." "... You mean the axe in his head?"
"Dead? No, only between his ears! His legs work fine." "..."
The next slightly extended bit is some more fight sequences during the battle in front of the gates of Moria, but it's not as noticable given we go into the troll sequence right after that (it still makes me laugh how ridiculous Fili and Kili are with the pony situation).
The biggest extended chunk is actually in the Rivendell scenes, where we are pretty much taken through a whole lot more than what we got to see in the theatrical version. There is much more dialogue between the Dwarves during the dinner scene (and Kili flirts with Elves), before Bofur gets to sing a lovely, LOVELY song that Frodo originally sings at the Prancing Pony, but it fits the whole thing beautifully. Not to mention, Bofur stands where the One Ring will be placed during the Council years later, and the Elves look scandalized. This continues as we see the Dwarves bathing in one of the large fountains; Bilbo and Elrond actually converse; Bilbo overhears Gandald and Elrond speaking about the madness that runs in Thorin's family. And then there are some added snippets during the White Council scene, specifically about the Dwarf Rings of Power (seven of them, if you all recall).
And last but certainly not least, we have some very nice snippets added to the Goblin town scenes, among them the original song from the books. Might I also add, the whole time they were down there, I kept thinking about the part after the archery tournament.
There, that's everything out of the bag now! And really, I enjoyed the EE much more than the theatrical version. I always seem to. I hope DoS will also be much better in EE than it was, though really, not much to help fix that there ...
There were still some things I disagreed with, or was confused by though, and as someone who reads LOTR once every summer, you have to imagine this doesn't happen to me often.
The White Council meeting in Rivendell is a bit of a stretch in facts, given that they DID, in fact, meet, during which time Gandalf had gone to Dol Guldur and back and informed them about Sauron's return. So that one out of place I can understand, I suppose.
BUT.
Angmar and the men of Rhudaur.
In the movie, Gandalf presents the Council with the Morgul Blade Radagast had uncovered, and Galadriel says that after Angmar's fall (not sure if she means the Witch-king specifically or the kingdom itself), the men of Rhudaur took the body and buried him in a tomb. Etc. Etc. on that information.
Considering this can only be the time when a coalition of Men and Elves marched against him in the first half of the Third Age, there are some major issues there. First off, Angmar the kingdom fell, yes. Angmar as in Witch-king of Angmar not in the slightest. He had, in previous years, destroyed the kingdoms of Cardolan and Rhudaur (this one actually came under his influence and the sorcerers fought FOR him, not against him), and lay siege to Arthedain as the last bastion of the North. The fate was decided at the battle of Fornost, where a joint force of Men and Elves did in fact subdue him, but the Witch-king himself fled into the night, never to be seen again in the north. From here, we actually get the famous line which connects directly to Eowyn, who actually slays him during the Battle of Pelennor: "He will not return to this land. Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man will he fall." This is spoken by the Elf-lord Glorfindel. What actually happened to the Witch-king? He fled south to Mordor, and won Minas Ithil for Sauron, renaming it to Minas Morgul. From there, he hunted for the One Ring for his master, and eventually entered the known world again as chief of the Nine Black Riders.
So the idea that there was a body to bury is as preposterous as it is sad that Peter Jackson would disregard something so vitally important, and something that is also stated in the Appendices of the Lord of the Rings.
A minor comment of mine is a question mark about whether or not Thorin understands Black Speech. He seems to, and I'm curious when and where he had the time to learn. You'd think for someone who hates Orcs with a passion, he wouldn't care? Who knows.
Last one is about the Elves swords. I don't quite understand this concept. I need to go back to LOTR to double check, but considering Sting comes from the same forges as Glamdring and Orcrist, you'd think that they would ALL glow blue when Orcs are close. They're all made by the Elves, after all, and the consensus seems to be this: made by Elves = glows blue in that case. It's just confusing.
Side-note: the Goblin King apparently finding a sticker on the bottom of a Rivendell candlestick saying 'Made in Rivendell, Second Age' made me die of laughter.
I do also have to mention the menu for the two dvds that hold the movie: it has an actual walkabout around Bag End, with voice-over quotes from the movie. How m agic is that?!
xx
*images and videos not mine, quotes from the movie
No comments:
Post a Comment