This is not so much a review of the much-loved and oft-read tale by J.R.R. Tolkien, but a criticism of the horrendously bad movie The Hobbit: The D
This is not so much a review of the much-loved and oft-read tale by J.R.R. Tolkien, but a criticism of the horrendously bad movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Now, I'm not a purist who can't stand to see anything but the most faithful of cinematic adaptations. I loved (and own) Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series (except for the ridiculous elven surfers). I enjoyed his previous Hobbit—The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, though it was not as good as LOTR. But Jackson and his script writers are completely out of control with this one!
I understand the addition of the Arwen/Aragorn romance in the LOTR movies: the background to their union as shown in the books just doesn't work cinematically. I can even tolerate the completely un-canonical Lauriel/Kili romance in Desolation, but why, oh why, do they have Lauriel spouting pure gibberish when Tolkien created a whole language (two actually, but we can probably presume she doesn't speak Quenya) for elves to speak?
In The Hobbit, "hobbits can move quietly in woods, absolutely quietly. They take a pride in it…", so why can't Bilbo move silently in the movies?
What was that stupidity with the keyhole to the secret door into the Lonely Mountain? "…and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole." So, why go to the trouble of changing it to be moonlight rather than sunlight? In fact, astronomically, it simply can't work that way. And, while we're on the doorstep, why no thrush? "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks." The thrush is integral. If you don't think this scene provides enough suspense, why would you ruin the whole story of the thrush telling Bard how Smaug is vulnerable, by making Bard remember it from his father's stories?
And then, of course, there's the outrageous Elvish fighting. How on Earth are there killer spiders and goblins left in Middle Earth if Elves are such incredible killing machines? Ugh.
I must confess, Jock was the father of a close friend, so my review is highly biased.
Jock was a scientist by profession, and while I imagine he wrote I must confess, Jock was the father of a close friend, so my review is highly biased.
Jock was a scientist by profession, and while I imagine he wrote for journals, he wasn't a writer for the popular press, nevertheless he was a story teller, and Tangled Tongue is his story of living with a stutter, and how he overcame it - and didn't. It's a fascinating story of what was known at the time about stuttering, and the many techniques — some successful, some not — that Jock and others have used to surmount their handicap....more