The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Seeing blockbusters in movie theaters is a very recent addition to my life. It’s almost like not watching a movie but going to a circus or to an opera performance, and blogging about them always feels a little strange. Going to a movie theater is almost a ritual: we always use the same theater, almost always go on a Sunday matinee and get a large popcorn and large Diet Coke to share between the three of us. We even typically get one exactly refill during the movie. This experience is what makes going to the movies so special to me, and so very different from my youth when we never got popcorn and the likes. (On a side note, we saw The Hobbit in 2D because we rather dislike 3D. I am still interested in the HFR business, if only it wasn’t so expensive. But the 2D screening of the film had some crazy motion blur, and I wonder if it is better in the HFR version.)
Recently I told Shii that I tend to watch many more TV series rather than movies these days, and one of the reasons is that TV series are much more entertaining and “easy” to watch. I find it hard to motivate myself to see a movie, but with TV series that almost never happens. However, while I enjoy discussing TV series afterwards, I typically find myself having nothing to say after a very short while. Even though I spend much more time watching and enjoying TV series, I don’t really think about them much afterwards. Somehow most movies seem to have a greater impact on me. I found myself contemplating and researching various aspects of the Hobbit adaptation throughout the entire day, both before and after seeing the film. This is where movies really make a difference, and I predict this posting will subsequently become very, very long.
So, onto the actual movie. First of all, I love the Hobbit. Everything I will say about the film will be in relation to the books (which I have re-reading recently), and seen from the clouded eyes of a Middle-Earth fangirl. I fell in love with Tolkien’s universe like everybody else in my environment, but I probably took it to another level. I read the Silmarillion and other related works, I spent hours and hours on the internet and after realizing how much I enjoyed deciphering the inscription of the One Ring, I even started learning some Quenya. (The choice of Quenya over Sindarin is a stupid one, but at the time it made sense – the grammar is actually a bit easier and there was a much better “textbook” for Quenya out there.)
Tolkien’s universe has many weaknesses and I absolutely understand anyone who does not like the books whatsoever, but I couldn’t care less. I am mesmerized by the beauty and the richness of this world, it is akin to my fascination for Greek and Nordic mythology.
However, my love for the universe seems to be displayed in a different way than what I read on the internet. Those who watch the Hobbit will most likely have seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well, but not all will have read the books. Amongst those who have read the books, only a fraction will have read them back when they came out, and everybody else is probably delving in their youthful memories of it, with a certain refusal to accept that Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth might look different from what they imagined. As for me, I grew up with the books and the movie at the same time, and I have always found them to be quite complimentary. When I read the Hobbit years ago, I never had a specific image in mind when it came to the dwarves. None of them really stood out, and they could have all looked the same for all I care. This is where Peter Jackson’s images come in. I find it perfectly alright to give the dwarves more distinguishing features, and it contributes to my enjoyment of the film that each one of them appears to have even more individual character than the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings series. I like that Balin acts as an old consulter to Thorin, and that the role of the silly youngest one is fulfilled by someone else than Kili and Fili, who are being portrayed as the young dynamic hot dudes. And Thorin – he is probably the most different amongst all of them. In the book, Thorin clearly had more privileges than the others (being the one who grabs the Orcrist etc.) but he never really appears as a leader throughout the book – it is implied at best. In the movies, his role is much more heroic, having confronted the Pale Orc when he was younger and inspiring others to follow him out of loyalty. He goes out of his way to protect his people and even save them at the expense of his own life, a character trait you don’t see in the books. I am not sure how I like this new Thorin, and I wonder how they will deal with Thorin’s much less heroic character traits later concerning the Arkenstone.
Besides being more individual, more funny and generally more likable, the biggest philosophical changes of the film are related to the dwarves. I don’t think it’s the addition of Radagast, or the Pale Orc, or the completely unnecessary inclusion of Galadriel which make the movie different from the books. Instead, the dwarves are driven by a desire to go home, as opposed to wanting to find gold and jewels. (In fact, not only are they less greedy, they are also honorable and loyal!) I suppose greed is just not a great motive nowadays anymore. Back in the day people set out to make a fortune and were not ashamed of desiring to do so. Nowadays money stinks and your reasons have to be a little more meaningful. But what a reason! The book does talk about reconquering Erebor, but it never makes a huge deal about how that was considered their home. In the book, the dwarves sit around the fire and talk about getting rich, not about going back home. I made some jokes yesterday about how Jewish conspiracies in Hollywood and that the film’s attitude is strangely reminiscing of the Jews (who have no home) who are now “taking back” Jerusalem (certainly a very desirable home from a long, long time ago). Maybe the bad joke had a little more truth to it after all when looking at politics in Israel. From what I can see in human history, territorial entitlement really is just as bad as greed, but much less obviously so. I was deeply touched by the scene in which Bilbo declares that he wants to help them find their home, but my mind kept telling me “Damn, this is also rather questionable”.
All in all, though, the story in the film is more consistent than in the books. It was to be expected that the film will be a grown-up version of the books, and so many things are better explained. Everybody has a consistent motive and there is an explicit reason why everybody is there: Thorin wants to reclaim his home, the other dwarves are loyally following Thorin, Gandalf is looking for the unknown evil and Bilbo wants to help his friends. It’s all quite understandable, and I am glad that these adultifying changes are not too substantial apart from the aspect I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Even the Pale Orc, Saruman and the Necromancer are thankfully playing a small role so far, although of course there is some evil foreshadowing the events in Lord of the Rings. Maybe the changes will be greater in the next films, but so far, I like most changes I have seen here.
One aspect I don’t really get about Peter Jackson is that he has to dumb down the animals. Sure, speaking animals belong to children’s books rather than an “adult” movie but is that really how it should be? Is it so hard for adults to accept anthropomorphized animals who can speak and think for themselves? Animals in the movies are all either servants (like Radagast’s animals, the orcs’ wolves etc.) or they are helpless little creatures which must be protected. It goes well with our adult impression of animals, but I think that is looking down on them too much. Also, I was amused to note how the goblins eat the troupe’s ponies in the book – but in the film they didn’t have any ponies at that time in the first place. I figured that it is acceptable to show gory deaths of humans and orcs, but certainly you can’t show how poor little ponies get eaten.
Finally, I really enjoyed Gollum as I always have. That sad creature is just so fascinating somehow? I know of several people who find him cute (must be the big blue eyes, huh?) and while I do not do so, I am impressed by how unusual a villain Gollum is. They only changed a minor aspect in the encounter with Gollum (Gollum loses the ring and Bilbo takes it consciously, as opposed to Bilbo randomly finding it) so everything in that scene pretty much went exactly as I imagined. Good job.
If you have followed me until here, you must either have an impressive determination to read my blog postings, or you are a fanatic just like I am. In any case though, this film is a must and I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.