Saw The Hobbit:
Those are two different trailers. I just saved you the better part of three hours.
People say nothing happened in this movie. I don’t see how they can say that. There was a song. We met particularly stupid trolls. The dwarves were chased by orcs, just like our LOTR heroes. They met a particularly conversational goblin king. And then they were chased by hordes of goblins, just like in LOTR.
There was a curiously coincidental bad weather on a LOTR mountain pass scene. Gollum in a cave seemed familiar. A hobbit had pity on a bipolar monster.
See? Stuff happened. Very familiar stuff.
I found myself thinking “If Bilbo hadn’t listened so intently to Gandalf’s advice about the courage of sparing a life then Frodo wouldn’t lose his finger 60 years later.”
Come to think of it, Gandalf had a few lines that were only barely recycled, too.
I get that it was aimed at a different audience. I didn’t mind that. I get that it was a physical comedy. I like that, and it seems the dwarves have to be that way. Shame there weren’t more women in it, though, but at least there was Cate Blanchett.
It is an incredibly bloodthirsty movie, but without a lot of blood. It had very familar and, thus, simple themes. Let us all admit that prequels (and for our purposes this is a prequel) will never be what you want them to be, but there’s plenty to work with for the movie’s needs. It also has Martin Freeman, who is wonderful, and Benedict Cumberbatch will do voice work in the next movie.
It also addressed, in part, the biggest thematic problem from the LOTR trilogy. Those hawks could be far more helpful if they really wanted to be. You could make the movie a half-hour shorter with less walking, but you want to see all those landscapes. And you hope they are real places and not just CGI. It is all visually appealing.
Those hawks, though, they could be more useful. Or they could eat you. They are predators, and the only thing they’d need to be is bigger. The middle earth version is certainly capable.
Dropped off my bike at the LBS. There is a derailleur problem and they can fix it. Things are slow, said the guy we want to like, but there’s something about his smile, and I can probably have it back in 24 to 48 hours.
Maybe it is that he says things like “24 to 48 hours.” He has been incredibly helpful, but you also get the sense that yours is a dumb question, or that you might be taking him away from some important bike shop task. That’s unfair, of course. He does a lot of good work on a lot of people’s expensive equipment, and occasionally some fine work on my much cheaper bike.
I’d hoped the owner would be there. He’ll stop everything to teach you something about your chain or silicone. And I have a lot to learn. Clearly, this one little thing yesterday and today stumped me. Maybe, in 24 to 48 hours when I can pick up my bike, he’ll be there so I can ask him questions.
And then, we ride.
