Book Review- The Hobbit

For the Audiobook challenge and the Hard Core Re-Reading Challenge I read (aka listened to) J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. If you read my blog you'll know I'm a huge Tolkien fan. Normally I re-read LOTR a lot but this year before re-reading LOTR I decided to read The Hobbit first. I'm so glad I did as it was a great experience and I've come to love The Hobbit as much has I do LOTR though it is quite different in many ways.

Synopsis from Goodreads: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.

This books makes me feel cozy and at home. First you meet Bilbo, the beloved homebody living in his wonderful hole in the ground. :) Then comes Gandalf to stir things up. Gandalf in The Hobbit is kind of different then he is in LOTR. He seems more silly. More lighthearted for sure. You see him utilizing his magic more often in The Hobbit but somehow he doesn't seem quite as powerful in The Hobbit as he does in LOTR. This time reading it I really came to notice how Tolkien does not stray away from flawed characters. However flawed the "good" characters are though they are still good and honorable. Take Thorin for example. A very complicated character that we love but has a lot of issues (coughdragonsicknesscough). ;)

When reading The Hobbit it feels so much smaller than the LOTR but you also feel how much potential there is with the world that Tolkien has created in it and of course that is drawn out in LOTR and Tolkien's other Middle Earth works. It all started with The Hobbit though. The Hobbit is different from Tolkien's other Middle Earth stories like LOTR and The Silmarillion in that it is a children's story (though obviously adults enjoy it too). The whole tone is much lighter though actually I noticed this time reading it that there are definitely some darker undertones.

A small note on the movies. I know I reviewed the first one when it came out and never reviewed any of the others. That's not because I didn't see them I was just too frustrated. Re-reading The Hobbit now reminds me how much they messed up in the movies and makes me even more unhappy. I liked the first one for the most part (though it certainly messed up aspects as well), as it really seemed to get the spirit of the book. After the first movie though the movies seemed to lose the feel of The Hobbit. Don't even get me started on Tauriel. Just don't.

I'm not really sure what else I can say about this book. I loved it. Simply and truly. Tolkien is always a favorite with me and re-reading this just solidified that feeling. If you want to try out some Tolkien but are intimidated by the size of LOTR definitely pick up The Hobbit. It really opens you up to the experience, drawing you into Tolkien's beautiful writing and imagery as well as delightful sense of humor.

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Movies of 2012

Plenty of new movies came out last year and some of them were decent enough that I could watch them.   These would include The Avengers, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Amazing Spiderman, Brave, John Carter and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  I was actually surprised at how many new movies I ended up watching this year.  Normally the movies are so bad that I only end up watching one or two.  There were only two I watched in theaters (The Hobbit and The Avengers) and the others I waited to watch at home.  So here are just a few thoughts on each of these movies.

A FEW SPOILERS

The Avengers

I really enjoyed this superhero movie.  I have never been much into superhero films, only having seen up to that point the three spiderman movies. However, after watching The Avengers, I went backwards and watched Thor (which was okay but not really that great), and Captain America (which I enjoyed almost as much as The Avengers).  I liked The Avengers for its action, which wasn't too gory, hilarious lines, and good story plot.  There was really little objectionable about the movie, just a few bad words and some slightly too tight clothing on Black Widow.

Mirror, Mirror

I watched the trailer for this and thought it would be funny.  After looking it up to make sure there wasn't anything too objectionable in it I asked my Dad and he said it was okay.  Unfortunately I made the error of watching it with my little sister.  I wasn't too impressed with this movie and really I could have just stuck with the trailer and the funny lines and never watched the movie.  There were too many shots of shirtless guys and too much emphasis put on them.  It presumably was suppose to be funny but I just found it annoying and in very poor taste.  The likeliness of me watching this again is slim.

Snow White and the Huntsman

I had lower expectations of this movie than I did of Mirror, Mirror going into it but I actually it enjoyed it more out of the two movies.  Yes, despite Kristen Stewart, the movie actually was good. I felt that the story line was good and it was a really rather interesting twist on the original Snow White story.  However, even if as I said despite Kristen Stewart the movie was actually good, because of her it wasn't great.  She is an entirely emotionless actress that you just really couldn't bring yourself to really care for throughout the movie.  Another thing I didn't like about it was their shots of the queen mostly undressed (though nothing really bad was shown).  All in all though I thought it was a good movie and I plan to watch it again.  My dad liked it as well, which is always a good sign. :)

The Amazing Spiderman

As I said before, I had already seen the other three Spiderman movies and enjoyed them more or less.  I went into this movie with fairly high expectations but came out disappointed.  I didn't feel like the story telling was as good as the original trilogies, I felt like Peter was far more immature than the other one and a little too full of himself as well.  Also, and this is just my opinion, but I think Spiderman took off his mask too much.  I didn't appreciate that he promises Gwen's dad as he is dying not to date her and then at the end of the movie you are given to understand that he is going to go ahead and do it anyways.  I felt that his uncle dying happened too fast for us to really get attached to him and the fact that Peter didn't stop the robber because of something so dumb as not having enough money to buy his stupid milk was just ridiculous and again, immature.  I liked that it was closer to the original comic strip story line. All in all I enjoyed it well enough and I will probably watch it again sometime.  However, I like the original trilogy better and don't see why they had to remake it, especially so soon afterwards.

Brave

This one I ended up watching by accident because a cousin was watching it over Christmas.  My brother had seen it in theaters and had given me his thoughts on it and I had decided I wasn't really interested in watching it.  As it was, I am glad that I watched it but it still was a disappointing movie.  I felt the story was pretty good but if they had just left out all of the crude things it could have been a decent movie.  For Pixar, this was a level down.

John Carter

I was looking forward to this movie and had high expectations for it due to a review I had read of it.  While I did enjoy it and certainly didn't have as negative opinions of it as some people did, it was another disappointment.  The story line wasn't strong enough and the clothing of Deja (the heroine) just wasn't modest enough.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I already reviewed this film earlier but her are a few short thoughts anyways. Being a fan of the books and the LOTR movies, I was really looking forward to this film.  Thanks to my older brother, who was geeking out about it incessantly for the last two months, I got to hear about all of the possible turns the movie could take.  Let's just say I was thankful when we finally saw the movie and that was over.  Of course though I had to hear all about his opinion of the movie now that he had FINALLY seen it.  Anyways, I did love the movie a lot.  It was far above my expectations and I was wholly impressed.  Read my full review of it here that I posted earlier.

So these are all of the new movies of 2012 that I watched and my thoughts on them.  One I haven't watched yet that I would like to is Wreck it Ralph, but that will have to be sometime in the future.  Overall there were some disappointments, a few okay ones, and a couple great ones.  Not a bad year considering normally, as I said before, I don't see but a couple new movies.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Movie Review- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

WARNING: SOME MINOR SPOILERS

I am sure you have already read one and a million views about this movie and (if you have watched it) probably have formed your own opinion as well.  However, I offer my thoughts on the movie too.

First off, I personally would have preferred a movie of The Hobbit that was the less adventurous and less epic children's story.  However, I knew that would never happen, not after The Lord of the Rings.

Secondly, I really enjoyed the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  I felt in many ways it erred closer to the book than any of the Lord of the Rings movies.  There was a good bit added in from other works of Tolkien as well as Peter Jackson adding in something that was only mentioned as happening in the book- the purging of the Necromancer from Dol Guldur.  Another aspect that Jackson added to the movie that ended up changing a lot of the feeling of the movie was the white orc.  In the appendices of the Lord of the Rings it tells how Thorin kills the white orc after it killed his father.  In the movie, they change that up a bit by making it that Thorin thinks that he killed the white orc but really it recovered from its wounds and now has sworn to have Thorin's head. Of course once Thorin discovers the white orc still lives he wants to kill him too.  This instantly makes the movie darker. However, I don't mind too much the dimension this plot change adds.  There are other little differences that I don't think really detract from the story and in some ways add.  Overall, I felt most of the changes that Jackson made were good.

Other things I liked were of course the soundtrack (which is INCREDIBLE), the acting job of all of the  actors in the movie (I felt everyone was perfect for their roles), and of course the gorgeous shots of New Zealand.

Really the only aspect of the movie I didn't like was the "kids' humor".  Enough said.

Of course, when the movie ended I felt a horrible sense of incompleteness.  I had known where it was going to break off but it still somehow caught me by surprise when it did anyways.  I don't really mind too much that Peter Jackson made it into three movies, though I would have preferred two movies and I think it would have made more sense that way.

If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies and books then I think you'll enjoy this movie as well.

Note: The facts I quoted to you from the appendices were actually information my brother quoted to me.  So no, I am not really as big as a Tolkien geek as I just made it look like I was.  I'm working my way up there. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.