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nowandforalways · 8 months

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Today I'm thinking about how playing Frodo Baggins is a thankless job in much the same way Frodo actually carrying the Ring was.

Like, when people talk about performances in LOTR adaptations, they talk about Sam, they talk about Gollum, they talk about Gandalf and Galadriel. All these characters that have iconic lines and big flashy moments of greatness or bravery or twistedness that let the actor show off. Frodo doesn't have any of those. What Frodo does have is the arguably harder job of making something external that is almost entirely internal, and, in most adaptations, having the most to do, just from a time-on-stage/screen/microphone perspective. But this never seems to get acknowledged and that's always kinda weird/interesting to me. I suppose people just respond to the big heroic/heartwarming/menacing moments, and not so much to littler moments of the same kinds. In the musical, in one of the dialogue breaks in "Now And For Always", Frodo says to Sam "It's not me they'll remember, you know". And that's funny because even if Sam tries to fight that in-universe with the finishing of The Red Book, it consistently ends up being true in a meta sense.

Anyway I suppose what I'm saying is appreciate Christopher Guard, Sir Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, James Loye, James Byng, and Louis Maskell or die by my blade.

#lotr #lotr musical #frodo baggins #thank you and heyday #i tried to get in as many Frodos as i could think of but i know i missed some #hit me up with Frodos from non-English-language adaptations that deserve love #also can we talk about how funny it is that both actors who played Frodo in the Drury Lane production of the musical were named James?#hehehe #for frodo

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nellie-elizabeth · 1 year

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His Dark Materials: The Clouded Mountain (3x07)

Dayummmm I'm gonna cry so much when I watch the last episode, it's not even funny...

Cons:

The thing is, this show never should have tried to pull off an action movie. The special effects don't pass muster, they're forced to rely on shortcuts that just aren't all that visually interesting... angels and witches are having an epic battle but we can't really see it, human troops are valiantly dying for the cause but it's in dark snippets we can barely focus on. The Gallivespians continue to have not enough to do. It's not a matter of what's on the screen being bad, so much as it is a matter of them not being able to put stuff on the screen that should be there, if they really want it to.

Underpinning this problem with effects is a bigger one of Asriel's motivations. This whole time, his vendetta against God himself has been sort of a weak point. In the books, Asriel is more of a distant figure. By giving him so much screen-time in this final season, we sort of shine a spotlight on the fact that his whole war is a little silly and kind of useless. In the end, it's all about Lyra and the prophecy. So why is Asriel bothering with all of this? Is it just a distraction, a la the battle at the black gates in The Lord of the Rings, so Frodo can destroy the ring, or in this case, so Eve has the chance to "fall" the way she's destined to do? I don't know. When you really look at it, kinda weaksauce.

Also, Metatron ended up being kind of anticlimactic as a villain. He's just some name that we hear, then we meet him as a force of destruction, and then he's just Some Dude that our heroes of the hour can defeat by pushing off the side of a cliff. Meh.

Pros:

That stuff probably makes it sound like I didn't like this episode, but honestly for all my talk of how the finale will make me cry, this one got me weepy as well.

Starting with Will and Lyra, who took a backseat this episode. Their main role is getting reunited with their daemons. We get to see Will's daemon for the first time, and we're reintroduced to Pan who is... deeply hurt and betrayed still by Lyra's decision to leave him behind. We get this reunion moment but it's not fulfilled; it's painful and there's agony and longing on both sides, and then more plot stuff happens which means we're still unresolved with that. I loved the way Will reacted to the first sight of his daemon. Like meeting a friend he'd forgotten he once knew so well. Quietly beautiful.

I also want to mention Will and Lyra killing God. It's such a quick moment, anticlimactic, and the kids don't even know what they've just done. They set an old creature free, let him go to a merciful rest. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, here in the show and honestly in the book as well. That's just as it should be.

The rest of this review is just going to be about Marisa and Asriel, are you surprised? Knowing this was coming, I was anxious about how it was going to play out. I've been praising the performances from these actors from the jump, and the writing for Mrs. Coulter has been one of the most intriguing, gorgeous parts of the whole show. The writing and use of Asriel has been a little more hit and miss. McAvoy does a great job giving Asriel the presence and gravitas he needs to have, but his mission and his goals and his wishy-washy-ness about his priorities has made his build to this final moment a little less satisfying than what we've got going on with Marisa.

But that said, it all becomes so worth it to me for those moments at the very end. Mrs. Coulter, playing mind games one final time, against an adversary more formidable than any other. She uses her real feelings of pain in order to trick Metatron. Asriel is on the ground, weeping and weak, and Mrs. Coulter approaches him to "gloat." And then her daemon, left behind, deploys a weapon that turns everything on its head, and Asriel, Marisa, and Stelmaria together are able to knock Metatron into the Abyss from whence there shall be no return for any of them.

Just... the beauty of Marisa and Asriel doing this for their daughter, giving up everything so Lyra can save the day, both of them finding selflessness within them but only just in time to give their lives for a greater goal... this element of the books always gives me goosebumps and they did a properly epic job of depicting it here. The real gut-punch comes with the golden monkey, Marisa's daemon reaching out to touch Lyra in his final moments, but fading away into dust before their hands can connect. Lyra watches the moment her mother's soul ceases to be, and knows herself orphaned.

And... yeah. We're setting the stage for the finale to be the emotional center of the story, to focus on Lyra and Will where the focus should ultimately be. This episode wasn't some strong pinnacle of everything TV can be. I had my problems with it. But the stuff that worked about it was so strong that I was just happy to be there to see those elements, at the end of the day!

8/10

#review #his dark materials #his dark materials review

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thedesperatehousehusband · 3 years

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The Super Bowel

So I had committed to blogging at least once a month and here it is February 8th and this is my first post of year. But, y’all, 2021 has been like a shot out of a cannon. Motherfuckers, January was SOMETHING.ELSE. But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m going to talk about the big deal of February.

THE SUPER BOWL. Or in this instance the Super Bowel (Movement).

The game was a turd. There’s nothing left to say about it. Tom Brady is such a douche nozzle. I cannot deal with him and his mouth kissing monkey business. I was so hoping Patrick Mahomes could pull it off. Because I love Patrick Mahomes. As well as Travis Kelce. He is delish.

Let’s talk pre-game musical stuff. H.E.R did a good job. Subdued until she tore it up on her guitar. I really like her (aka H.E.R.) Now I don’t want to call anyone’s baby ugly but that national anthem was not good. Eric Church and Jasmine Sullivan really lost their way. They lost the melody pretty early on and never got it back. And, let’s be real, it’s a really recognizable melody.

Shifting gears to the halftime show, oof. I give credit to the Weeknd for singing live. We can say that much. He sang live. Unfortunately he did not sing live well or good or even mediocre. Ooooof. I really like the Weeknd and think his songs are great but he is very clearly incredibly enhanced and autotuned. I said very quickly that JLo had nothing to worry about if she was concerned. Her show remains the best in years. And I will NEVER, EVER understand the controversy surrounding that show. People are lunatics.

OK. Let’s talk advertisements. One caveat. We quit watching the game in the 4th quarter because it was so awful so we missed some commercials. My gut tells me that there weren’t amazing spots at the 2:00 minute warning but if I omit your favorite that’s why. Here we go:

· Old, the new M. Night Shyamalan movie. This looks quite interesting. And it will be available ONLY IN THEATERS so mask up, fuckers.

· M&Ms. There was Dan Levy, there was mention of “Karen”, there was mansplaining. It was clever and I appreciated it for the cleverness. Who doesn’t like M&Ms?

· Paramount+ Streaming. Snooki, Christine Baranski, Bryce DeChambeau, some level of animated programming, that judge from All Rise, Cedric the Entertainer, Star Trek: Discovery. Jesus. H. Christ. They crammed it all in there and then some. They promoted this shit FIVE times. They’re going to make this service happen or someone will be killed.

· The Falcon & the Winter Soldier on Disney+. I’m here for it. I’m into it. Bring it on.

· Doordash. Combing Sesame Street and Daveed Diggs is a wonderful idea. In my opinion, this was the best spot of the Super Bowl. An appropriate nod to the situation that most restaurants are facing with relevant tie ins to their actual business.

· The Equalizer. Here comes the Queen. This got four promos. If this fails, someone will lose their job at CBS.

· Doritos 3D. With Matthew McConaughey in 2D. It was pretty fun for about 10 seconds but it lasted much longer than that. Then it got weird. #flatmatthew. C’mon, part of looking at Matthew is seeing him in 3D.

· GM Engines? I don’t know what it was truly for? Carbon neutral cars? Engines? That’s the sad thing. The good thing it was really funny. Will Ferrell. You just can’t go wrong. Then you throw in Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina and you basically have gold. But I still don’t know what the hell the spot was for.

· Pringles and astronauts. I didn’t get it.

· Bud Light. Legends and then also Post Malone. Silly.

· Chipotle. For Real. So stupid and heavy handed. No one needs that kind of message from fast casual burritos.

· Clarice. CBS wants this to happen but not as much as they want The Equalizer to happen. Who is the actress impersonating Jodie Foster?

· Mountain Dew with John Cena. I don’t know what the flavor was. I don’t what the spot was about. I don’t care. Mountain Dew is diabetes in a bottle.

· Which plays nicely into Dexcom. Now that’s how you use a celebrity. Nick Jonas is a Type 1 diabetic. He’s credible. He’s appropriately aspirational. Smart.

· Indeed. This had something to do with jobs. Getting a job? Job postings? I don’t know. It was too much and I hated it.

· State Farm. Oooh. This was funny. “Stand ins don’t talk”. That’s what Jake said to Drake. Paul Rudd as Patrick Mahomes? Yes, please. More of this. I love that Drake was even willing to do this. I suppose he got a million bucks. That’ll do it.

· Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade. Lemon of the year. Making lemons with lemonade. Or lemonade seltzer. How can there be that many hard seltzers?

· Scot’s Lawn Care. It was bad.

· Skechers with Tony Romo. Enough said. Tony Romo, while looking real good, is just kind of grating.

· WeatherTech. My goodness. This was intense. It was a Benetton ad for all-weather car mats. We get it. Diversity.

· Rocket Mortgage. This was very close to my favorite. Both executions were very funny. You don’t want to be “pretty sure” about your mortgage. Tracy Morgan was the right person for this. It wasn’t smarmy at all. It could have been. It was just the right tone and the other actors were very funny.

· Oatly. Wow, no cow. Wow, hot mess.

· Toyota with Jessica Long. Now THAT’S how you do an Olympic spot. Love, love, love.

· eTrade. You are NOT the best around despite the throwback soundtrack. Terrible.

· Hellmann’s with Amy Schumer. This was very clever. Use up the stuff in your fridge by sprucing it up with mayo.

· TurboTax. So awful.

· Mercari. What is this? I still don’t know and I even Googled it. I’m unclear. I think it’s an online market of some kind. But for what? Angel dust? Pastries? Tires? It could be anything.

· Tide. It’s dirtier than it looks but also with Jason Alexander. That tween doesn’t know who Jason Alexander is, does he? I dunno. It was fine.

· Dr. Squatch. What the fuck is this brand or product?

· Vroom.com. Why?

· Jimmy John’s. Does Jimmy John’s have Super Bowl money and enough to pay for Brad Garrett? I guess they think they do.

· T Mobile with Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine. This was likely a little meta and you have to understand the history to think it’s funny but I enjoyed it. There was also a LOT of mention of 5G or similar during this particular Super Bowl.

· Because the next spot was AT&T Fiber with Frodo and a bunch of LOTR superfans. Meh.

· Fiverr. What in the ever loving fuck?

· Coming 2 America. Yaaaas. I’m here for this movie.

· Cheeto’s with Shaggy, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher. We get it. Cheeto’s make your fingers orange. I’m over it.

· Squarespace. Working 5 to 9. I don’t get it. Were you working 9 to 5 and then a side hustle from 5 to 9. Areyou working 5:00 AM to 9:0 PM?

· Cadillac Lyriq. I wanted to like this but it just got so stupid.

· Anheuser-Busch. This was overwrought.

· Jeep. But THIS was really overwrought. I’m in the minority on this one. I think lots of people were very moved by this. I thought it was too much and, dammit, if I’m going to watch Bruce for 60 seconds, he had best to sing.

· Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer. I can’t with all these fucking seltzers.

· Klarna. What in the ever loving fuck is this product or service? I still don’t know.

· Bass Pro Shop/Cabela’s. Calm down.

· Robinhood. What is this company? What do they sell? Terrible.

· Alexa as Michael B. Jordan. The joke ran out of steam. This would be better as a :30 as opposed to a :60.

· Guaranteed Rate Mortgage. Believe you will or some shit? Whatever.

Hey, at least there was a Super Bowl. That’s the win. May Tom Brady get quinoa stuck in his colon and be unable to poop it out next year. That’s my fervent hope.

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violent-optimism · 4 years

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Revisit)

Long post below!

Hey everyone!

Because this semester is starting to really take a toll on me and I need some good escapism, I figured it would be a great time to revisit Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy (2012-2014).

Now, some of you might not know this, but when I first joined Tumblr I was SUPER into these movies since they were just coming out around that time. It was probably one of the first (if not the first) things I ever blogged about, which feels like forever ago!

I’m not going to pretend that everyone is crazy about these movies. I recognize they have issues. I recognize that not everyone enjoyed them. But as per usual these reviews are going to contain MY personal opinion and mine alone. I actually think that, for the most part, these films hit the mark pretty well, are pleasantly entertaining and have great re-watch value much like their LOTR counterparts.

I think enough time has passed since the trilogy’s release that we can talk about these movies more objectively and with more critical thinking, which is exactly what I intend to do!

Let’s start appropriately with the first film in the trilogy: “An Unexpected Journey” which came out in 2012, just a little more than 7 years ago.

So the main question that I want to answer with this film (and the other films in the trilogy) is this: Does the film still hold up today? Why or why not?

First things first, let’s look at what “An Unexpected Journey” does not do well. These are things that could have definitely been improved upon or should have been omitted altogether.

One major gripe I hear about a lot with this film is the pacing. Unlike some of the other complaints, I have to completely agree with this one. While I will do my best to not compare this trilogy to its LOTR predecessor (because I don’t see how that helps my review and it’s also downright unfair), I will say that for all the lengthy run-times that Frodo’s journey gave us, the pacing always felt consistent and smooth. Yes, the movies would go on for a long time, but the sequencing of scenes and fast paced movement at least gave the illusion that the story was moving along at a decent rate.

With “An Unexpected Journey”, this is unfortunately not the case. For a story that is built around the thrill of an exciting adventure, the film pauses at many moments to explain backstory, give exposition and slow the pace down in many other ways. With this being the case, the film feels very “stop and go” with fast and slow scenes spliced together which ultimately ruins the pace of the story, especially in the first half. For example, the White Council scene is fascinating and gives us a rare look at seeing the most powerful figures of Middle Earth in one scene together; however it’s ultimately nothing but exposition and does not drive the adventure forward whatsoever. Thorin’s Company leaving Gandalf behind could be a metaphor for how desperately the film needed to move along at this point.

Luckily, the last half of this movie (Overhill and Underhill onward) is rescued from this sluggish pace and actually manages to pick up quite a bit in the last act. It is also fortunate that this pacing demon does not chase after the other subsequent films and seems to only terrorize the first hour and a half of “An Unexpected Journey”.

What else doesn’t work in this film? Well…the humour is a bit strange for one thing. Despite having a PG-13 rating, the film can’t seem to decide whether or not it wants to make little kids laugh or older adults. There’s gross-out humour, toilet humour (there are Dwarves and Trolls after all) and there is even a ball joke. That’s right, a BALL joke in a film adapted from Professor Tolkien’s work (who I’m sure is rolling in his grave right about now). To be fair the ball joke is actually kind of funny, but that’s neither here nor there. I might have found most of the jokes in this film funny when I first saw it, but now I can only chuckle at a few things, one of them being the many hilarious facial expressions that Martin Freeman makes in almost every scene he’s in. The film does have some decent jokes, but for the most part they’re only the kind that 3 year olds or people with a gross sense of humour would genuinely laugh at.

Slow pacing and toilet humour aside, the film is actually quite successful in many other areas. Finally we get to the good stuff, the more positive stuff. Here is what “An Unexpected Journey” excels in.

Two words right out the gate: Martin F*cking Freeman (okay that’s three but you know he would approve of the swear word). Even after all this time, even after watching his performance again and again, I am still so amazed at how effortlessly and inexplicably Martin Freeman transforms into Bilbo Baggins. I wish I could explain this any better but he truly becomes the character of Bilbo. His body language, his mannerisms, the way he delivers certain lines, the authentic stutters and stammers, his FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. I could go on and on, and I am clearly a bit biased, but I think you would be very challenged to find anyone who has a problem with his acting. The casting for both LOTR and The Hobbit are completely perfect, but I think the team really deserves a pat on the back for getting the protagonist so freakin’ RIGHT; especially when you look at who they were also considering for the part *shudder*.

Speaking of other actors, I also believe that every single Dwarf was cast perfectly. Richard Armitage is absolutely fantastic as Thorin Oakenshield and contrasts beautifully with Freeman’s less rugged character. His best acting is yet to come but he still stands out quite a lot in this first installment. I’m pretty sure this is the role that put him on the map and rightfully so.

I’m not going to review every Dwarf actor performance (this review is already long enough!) but I will say that in a nutshell, they all play their role exactly as you would imagine. With 13 characters you can’t expect the character development to be all there, but Jackson and co do somehow manage to show every Dwarf’s unique personality in some small way, which I think is really amazing and could not have been an easy task.

Other aspects that might seem “lesser” such as make-up, costumes, production design and so forth are done extremely well in this movie. I will be forever bitter that “Les Mis” won the Oscar for best hair and make-up back in 2013 and “An Unexpected Journey” did not, when it was abundantly clear which film was more deserving of the award. I digress, this film looks amazing. Every actor, creature, set and animated pixel looks exactly the way it should. From Gollum’s eyes to Bilbo’s detailed buttons, the film shines from an aesthetic and visual perspective. It would also be a major disservice to write this review without mentioning the brilliant and soul-touching soundtrack composed once again by Howard Shore, a true genius of his craft. The “Misty Mountains” theme is unique to this film and serves very well as an ode to the adventure.

What I believe to be the most compelling and heartwarming aspect of this film is the relationship that develops between Bilbo and Thorin. It is the best story gem of the movie if not the entire trilogy as a whole. While at first disapproving and avoidant of the Hobbit, Thorin comes to accept and even care for Bilbo after having his life saved by the unlikely hero. The scene where he tells Bilbo he was wrong about him and gives him a heartfelt hug never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Well folks, what more can I say? It’s certainly not a perfect film; indeed it has flaws that can make the viewing a little more than uncomfortable. On the other hand, I really do believe there are several things “An Unexpected Journey” gets very right. While the slow pace and odd humour is hard to ignore, it is equally hard not to fall in love with the film’s acting, visuals and a story full of heart.

I must say I am very glad that I revisited this film. It has always been my least favourite of the trilogy although now it seems like an unfair title to bestow. It is a charming tale and an inoffensive film. These days, that is a welcome find.

Upon revisiting this film, I am going to give “An Unexpected Journey” 7.5 out of 10.

#The Hobbit #An Unexpected Journey #My Review #Revisit

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