Lots of things have happened while here in Rio and back in Barcelona during Christmas, but I will comment them only if I feel like it...
What I want to comment today is about the Hobbit, and also about Lord of the Rings movies, because we recently watched this edition of The Hobbit. I have to say we enjoyed it very much, even if some things didn't make much sense...and I'm not talking about missing things because this edit removed plenty of them, I'm talking about added things.
I have always been a fan of Lord of The Rings. And I'm not saying "always" lightly.
When I could not read on my own, my parents had talked about these books, and had read fragments to me. I remember they read Shelob's chapter, and I could not help but want to know more about what was happening, seeing how creepy but interesting it was, and seeing how there was a giant spider (I was also quite fond of big spiders). Considering I started to read when I was 4, this should have happened some time sooner than that.
I don't remember when I first read the hobbit, but I know it was in preparation for the Lord of The Rings. And I was warned: The hobbit is much lighter in comparison, and much easier to read. However I wanted to give these books a try. I believe I tried to read a more serious Tolkien book with some short stories also in preparation, but they were depressing or uninteresting and I did not finish them. I do know when I read Lord of the Rings, and I was eight. It was not an easy book, and the beginning was incredibly slow, but I finished all 3 books and I loved them. Tolkien's books have its flaws, but they are also pretty awesome, and I was completely addicted to its world and story. I actually convinced at least 2 people of my similar age to try and read it, after "selling" to them the story.
After a few years, I know I decided to read them again. And again. And one more time. I didn't really repeated The Hobbit, but I read Lord of the Rings 4 times, and every time I read the initial verses (were the rings of power are mentioned) I had goosebumps. I believe it started to be a yearly tradition. However, when I was 16, I was starting to practice and use English more and more. I started reading some small books in English. And then I decided, as a challenge, to try to read Lord of the Rings in the original language.
This was almost like reading it for the first time again. It was hard, it was slow, but it was an incredibly learning experience. Tolkien does not write in an easy way, and I remember reading a whole page and realising I had understood two things from there. Anyway, I managed to finish it. And then, in later years, I re-read it again, also in English. I believe I read it a total of 4 times too, and maybe I'm missing one....
During the general exam to determine university entrance after high school, the English section had an experimental listening part (it was the first year they did something like this) where you were supposed to listen to a conversation and answer some questions. Funny enough, the topic of the conversation was the Lord of the Rings. I answered 70% of the listening part, correctly, before hearing a single English voice in the room.
And then (well, actually after my second time of reading it in English), the first movie came out. The first one was not so bad. There were some changes, that you can understand because lack of time, and some extra things that, while annoying, didn't really detract much (some people got really angry about Arwen saving Frodo, but that's small details.I find more troubling the fact that they turned Gimli into an idiot and other such things). However, the second and third movies (although enjoyable) resulted in plenty of things that made no sense and denied huge important ideas that were in the books.
After watching extended editions and the interviews with writers and creators, I'm surprised at the stupidity of the people behind it. They did a good job, and then they screwed up huge basic principles. For example, the ring is not the ultimate evil: The ring is the ultimate temptation. Therefore, you can wear it to escape enemies and even kill them while you're invisible, and as long as you don't claim it for yourself, nothing really bad happens to you, no whispering, no fire eye. The ring acts slow and over time, but it can be beaten. Not all humans will act stupidly and demand it (Faramir gets over it from the start, not after dragging the hobbits almost to Gondor). Frodo is weak from carrying the ring, but that does not mean he's a mumbling mess without wisdom that will believe Gollum before Sam, and he's spiritually powerful. 100 Humans cannot beat 10000 orcs, a big fucking forest of living trees does that for them, killing close to 8000 of the orcs, and there were actually close to a 1000 humans in the first place. Ents are slow deciding, that's why they decide correctly on the first place, and they don't rush to action after just seeing some fires around the forest, as if they were not aware of that. Merry injured a spectre because his fucking sword was an ancient magical dagger, otherwise he would have just died. The good guys do not always need to fight, and plenty of times their victory is spiritual, without violence involved, and they respect ambassadors and Mouths of Sauron enough to not kill them when they're just discussing things. And so many other things....
Anyway, I did enjoy the movies, but plenty of these points make my blood boil, because they show such lack of basic reading comprehension, such idiocy, that it's hard to believes. Extra love stories and action scenes can be almost forgiven because it's Hollywood, but some things add nothing, mess shit up and make the story a lot worse.
So, when the hobbit movie was announced, especially after hearing they would make three of them, I was not especially thrilled, to say the truth. I saw it as a cash grab, and I didn't want to waste so many hours of my life and ticket money in that.
However, recently I saw a post mentioning this Tolkien edit. After reading what was removed, it seemed like it could be quite a nice movie, so we gave it a try.
There is still bullshit. There are moments that make no sense. There are modifications made by people who were checking their mobiles or driving while reading the original book, apparently, But the end result is a very entertaining film, long but not stretched, that manages to explain quite well what happened in the original book while keeping you interested all the way.
Don't watch the three bloated movies, download this version and watch something much more close to what the hobbit was.
(And to finish this geeky post let's put some music )
I have always been a fan of Lord of The Rings. And I'm not saying "always" lightly.
When I could not read on my own, my parents had talked about these books, and had read fragments to me. I remember they read Shelob's chapter, and I could not help but want to know more about what was happening, seeing how creepy but interesting it was, and seeing how there was a giant spider (I was also quite fond of big spiders). Considering I started to read when I was 4, this should have happened some time sooner than that.
I don't remember when I first read the hobbit, but I know it was in preparation for the Lord of The Rings. And I was warned: The hobbit is much lighter in comparison, and much easier to read. However I wanted to give these books a try. I believe I tried to read a more serious Tolkien book with some short stories also in preparation, but they were depressing or uninteresting and I did not finish them. I do know when I read Lord of the Rings, and I was eight. It was not an easy book, and the beginning was incredibly slow, but I finished all 3 books and I loved them. Tolkien's books have its flaws, but they are also pretty awesome, and I was completely addicted to its world and story. I actually convinced at least 2 people of my similar age to try and read it, after "selling" to them the story.
After a few years, I know I decided to read them again. And again. And one more time. I didn't really repeated The Hobbit, but I read Lord of the Rings 4 times, and every time I read the initial verses (were the rings of power are mentioned) I had goosebumps. I believe it started to be a yearly tradition. However, when I was 16, I was starting to practice and use English more and more. I started reading some small books in English. And then I decided, as a challenge, to try to read Lord of the Rings in the original language.
This was almost like reading it for the first time again. It was hard, it was slow, but it was an incredibly learning experience. Tolkien does not write in an easy way, and I remember reading a whole page and realising I had understood two things from there. Anyway, I managed to finish it. And then, in later years, I re-read it again, also in English. I believe I read it a total of 4 times too, and maybe I'm missing one....
During the general exam to determine university entrance after high school, the English section had an experimental listening part (it was the first year they did something like this) where you were supposed to listen to a conversation and answer some questions. Funny enough, the topic of the conversation was the Lord of the Rings. I answered 70% of the listening part, correctly, before hearing a single English voice in the room.
And then (well, actually after my second time of reading it in English), the first movie came out. The first one was not so bad. There were some changes, that you can understand because lack of time, and some extra things that, while annoying, didn't really detract much (some people got really angry about Arwen saving Frodo, but that's small details.I find more troubling the fact that they turned Gimli into an idiot and other such things). However, the second and third movies (although enjoyable) resulted in plenty of things that made no sense and denied huge important ideas that were in the books.
After watching extended editions and the interviews with writers and creators, I'm surprised at the stupidity of the people behind it. They did a good job, and then they screwed up huge basic principles. For example, the ring is not the ultimate evil: The ring is the ultimate temptation. Therefore, you can wear it to escape enemies and even kill them while you're invisible, and as long as you don't claim it for yourself, nothing really bad happens to you, no whispering, no fire eye. The ring acts slow and over time, but it can be beaten. Not all humans will act stupidly and demand it (Faramir gets over it from the start, not after dragging the hobbits almost to Gondor). Frodo is weak from carrying the ring, but that does not mean he's a mumbling mess without wisdom that will believe Gollum before Sam, and he's spiritually powerful. 100 Humans cannot beat 10000 orcs, a big fucking forest of living trees does that for them, killing close to 8000 of the orcs, and there were actually close to a 1000 humans in the first place. Ents are slow deciding, that's why they decide correctly on the first place, and they don't rush to action after just seeing some fires around the forest, as if they were not aware of that. Merry injured a spectre because his fucking sword was an ancient magical dagger, otherwise he would have just died. The good guys do not always need to fight, and plenty of times their victory is spiritual, without violence involved, and they respect ambassadors and Mouths of Sauron enough to not kill them when they're just discussing things. And so many other things....
Anyway, I did enjoy the movies, but plenty of these points make my blood boil, because they show such lack of basic reading comprehension, such idiocy, that it's hard to believes. Extra love stories and action scenes can be almost forgiven because it's Hollywood, but some things add nothing, mess shit up and make the story a lot worse.
So, when the hobbit movie was announced, especially after hearing they would make three of them, I was not especially thrilled, to say the truth. I saw it as a cash grab, and I didn't want to waste so many hours of my life and ticket money in that.
However, recently I saw a post mentioning this Tolkien edit. After reading what was removed, it seemed like it could be quite a nice movie, so we gave it a try.
There is still bullshit. There are moments that make no sense. There are modifications made by people who were checking their mobiles or driving while reading the original book, apparently, But the end result is a very entertaining film, long but not stretched, that manages to explain quite well what happened in the original book while keeping you interested all the way.
Don't watch the three bloated movies, download this version and watch something much more close to what the hobbit was.
(And to finish this geeky post let's put some music )
