tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post2404774734219555225..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Hobbit Movie Review: The Battle of Oversized ArmiesDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-65064116827017419202015-01-04T02:30:46.864-05:002015-01-04T02:30:46.864-05:00Ah, yes, I thought I remembered this: The first i...Ah, yes, I thought I remembered this: The first incendiary devices to be dropped during World War I fell on coastal towns in the south west of England on the night of 18–19 January 1915. The small number of German bombs, also known as firebombs, were finned containers filled with kerosene and oil and wrapped with tar-covered rope. They were dropped from Zeppelin airships. On 8 September 1915, Zeppelin L-13 dropped a large number of firebombs, but even then the results were poor and they were generally ineffective in terms of the damage inflicted. They did, however, have a considerable effect on the morale of the civilian population of the United Kingdom.[1] [Wiki]<br /><br />Also, I imagine Tolkien consulted or recalled contemporary accounts of the Great Fire of London (Pepys et al) for fire-fighting detail in a world of thatched roofs.<br /><br />CheersOtepotihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12315317923902957130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-58249534330832624982015-01-03T16:25:36.295-05:002015-01-03T16:25:36.295-05:00Right all the way through. What's particularly...Right all the way through. What's particularly perplexing about the Hobbit movies is that while they are better taken as movie prequels than as adaptations, they really aren't all that great as prequels, either -- sometimes they are reasonably prequelish and sometimes they just are baffling as prequels. But this seems to be just an extension of the habit you note of dropping threads (the thrush, the rallying of the Laketown women) that runs through the whole thing.<br /><br />Since story confusion is common enough special effects spectaculars, it might have all been salvaged had the battles been done with any sense. I don't think anybody can come away from the movie with any clear idea of what was going on with the two orc armies -- it's a case where even just having the second army show up unexpectedly and without explanation would have made more sense, rather than pretending to explain things in such quick and piecemeal fashion that the audience doesn't really know what's going on. The elves leaping over the dwarves still gets me; it just seems to be the perfect example of neither Jackson nor any of his co-writers having even an elementary idea of how battles work.Brandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06698839146562734910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-73651700107231033692015-01-03T15:26:42.175-05:002015-01-03T15:26:42.175-05:00I almost wonder if he came to hate the material, g...I almost wonder if he came to hate the material, given the violence he has done to it. I wasn't eager to see it after the second movie - which I've taken to calling The Desolation of Tolkien - and this review pretty much has been decisive. Thorin's fall deserved just the smallest, fairest hint of subtlety, but I just don't think Jackson can do that. And as you say - this is sad, since the material can do better, and honestly - Jackson can do better. While certainly it was possible to discern (more than just) the seeds of spectacular vulgarity in the LOTR movies, and there are some ugly failures in the movies (Denethor and Faramir esp.), this goes far above and beyond those.<br /><br />And of course the supreme irony is that it was greed that brought Jackson back to Middle Earth for a Hobbit trilogy - not just greed for money but also for glory and attention, the desire to relive past triumphs.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05393376548206323979noreply@blogger.com