Does he know you can move it like that?
Dec. 16th, 2013 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brilligspoonsThanks to the snow and rain we got this weekend, Boston is now a block of ice. You can imagine how exciting my walk to the bus stop and to the office was this morning. Weeeeee. :\
Anyway, things!
Yesterday I went to the MFA with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sky_was_green and barbed_whispers! Karen's a member, so we were able to get into the Sargent watercolors exhibit super early - not that the museum was at all crowded the whole time we were there (the bad weather did serve a purpose, I suppose), but it was nice to wander around and see only the guards and two or three other visitors. Strange, but nice. We also got to go through the She Who Tells a Story exhibit, which was AMAZING and possibly my favorite thing I saw yesterday. It's closing on January 12, so if you're around Boston between now and then and haven't seen it, I highly recommend you check it out.
Karen and I also went on a gallery lecture called "Expats, Immigrants, and Exiles: Geopolitics and Art" led by this really great and knowledgable grad student who I desperately want to be BFFs with. I would HAPPILY listen to her talk about art and identity and cultural context for the rest of my life. I also want to buy her a million drinks for deftly handling this one dude's inability to understand American South =\= Mexico. (Just. All the applause for this woman, holy shit.)
Other thing that happened: DESOLATION OF SMAUG.starsparkle333, paper_tzipporah, and I went to the midnight premiere and HOLY FUCK, YOU GUYS. I'll...just go ahead and put the rest of my thoughts under a cut, because there will be spoilers. Uh, I should preface this part by saying that I really do love the movie and want to see it a million more times. DON'T THROW ANYTHING AT ME.
The Atlantic posted a link to a movie review on tumblr the other day, and the title referred to it as "bad fanfiction." I didn't read the article since I was still processing my feelings, but that stuck with me because...it sort of is? But, like, not in a way that bothers me. Uh, clearly. I loved every second of it, except for the part in Mirkwood with the spiders where I had to cover my eyes and hold Joni's hand. But, you know. Giant fucking spiders.
The movie suffers from a few things, first and foremost the pacing. It was pretty uneven: too much happened, and then too little happened, and back and forth, blah blah blah. The opening in Bree came out of nowhere and did zero things for the overall plot. They went overboard with the Gandalf vs. the Necromancer bits when they should have been more subtle about Sauron's return (I feel like Gandalf knows too much now, but I guess we'll see what the third movie does to tie that up). The stop at Beorn's house felt like an afterthought; the dwarves' imprisonment in Thranduil's halls moved too quickly (will come back to this, though); and I give zero shits about Bard and his manpain. The script was all over the place, and it relied heavily on lines that were blatantly ripped from the LOTR movies and poorly reworked for characters that had no business saying them (see, for one: Balin commenting on the courage of hobbits to Bilbo).
I realize that a book like The Hobbit doesn't easily translate into movie form (it's short and all from Bilbo's POV), but the hatchet job they did on it is becoming more and more obvious. Basically I can't believe they thought they had enough material for three movies, even with them giving us a look into what Gandalf was doing while he was off fucking around at Dol Guldur with Radagast. It could have been done in one, to be perfectly honest.
That being said, there are myriad things I LOVED about the movie. Despite how unnecessary the scene at Beorn's house felt, WE GOT TO SEE BEORN. The Ring's effects on Bilbo and the beginning of his obsession/reliance! The Mirkwood elves! Thranduil's dragonfire burn (which gingerhaze talks about in this tumblr post to a much greater extent)! The halls and forge and wealth of Erebor! MOTHERFUCKING SMAUG HIMSELF. Like, holy fuck, guys. SMAUG ON THE BIG SCREEN, BOOMING CUMBERBATCH!VOICE, BREATHING FIRE ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE. And tiny Bilbo trying to outsmart him long enough to locate and snatch the Arkenstone! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! IT WAS GREAT.
I also really and truly enjoyed everything about Tauriel, though I feel like she suffered a bit under the half-assed love triangle subplot. Regardless! Kili flirting with her? and then Tauriel defending him to Legolas being all "he's tall for a dwarf!"???? ABSOLUTE BEST. And then when she heals him in Laketown and he's all out of it and saying things like, "You can't be her, she's far away from me," oh god I might have teared up a bit. Give me all the fic with this pairing, is what I'm saying. I have a mighty need (mostly because I know how it ends DON'T LOOK AT ME).
(And Legolas finding Gloin's locket with Gimli's portrait in it. I about cried laughing. ONE DAY YOU'RE GOING TO FROLICK IN THE WOODS WITH THAT DWARF AND THEN YOU'RE GONNA BUILD A BOAT AND TAKE HIM TO THE UNDYING LANDS WITH YOU, YOU JERK ELF. ONE DAY.)
(Elves and dwarves, man. I've got some feels.)
(Let's talk about how Legolas continues to be, unintentionally, the most hilarious part of these movies. LET'S.)
In conclusion: I may have reached the perfect balance of critical and batshit-in-love fangirl on this one. /shrug
Anyway, things!
Yesterday I went to the MFA with
sky_was_green and barbed_whispers! Karen's a member, so we were able to get into the Sargent watercolors exhibit super early - not that the museum was at all crowded the whole time we were there (the bad weather did serve a purpose, I suppose), but it was nice to wander around and see only the guards and two or three other visitors. Strange, but nice. We also got to go through the She Who Tells a Story exhibit, which was AMAZING and possibly my favorite thing I saw yesterday. It's closing on January 12, so if you're around Boston between now and then and haven't seen it, I highly recommend you check it out.Karen and I also went on a gallery lecture called "Expats, Immigrants, and Exiles: Geopolitics and Art" led by this really great and knowledgable grad student who I desperately want to be BFFs with. I would HAPPILY listen to her talk about art and identity and cultural context for the rest of my life. I also want to buy her a million drinks for deftly handling this one dude's inability to understand American South =\= Mexico. (Just. All the applause for this woman, holy shit.)
Other thing that happened: DESOLATION OF SMAUG.
starsparkle333, paper_tzipporah, and I went to the midnight premiere and HOLY FUCK, YOU GUYS. I'll...just go ahead and put the rest of my thoughts under a cut, because there will be spoilers. Uh, I should preface this part by saying that I really do love the movie and want to see it a million more times. DON'T THROW ANYTHING AT ME.The Atlantic posted a link to a movie review on tumblr the other day, and the title referred to it as "bad fanfiction." I didn't read the article since I was still processing my feelings, but that stuck with me because...it sort of is? But, like, not in a way that bothers me. Uh, clearly. I loved every second of it, except for the part in Mirkwood with the spiders where I had to cover my eyes and hold Joni's hand. But, you know. Giant fucking spiders.
The movie suffers from a few things, first and foremost the pacing. It was pretty uneven: too much happened, and then too little happened, and back and forth, blah blah blah. The opening in Bree came out of nowhere and did zero things for the overall plot. They went overboard with the Gandalf vs. the Necromancer bits when they should have been more subtle about Sauron's return (I feel like Gandalf knows too much now, but I guess we'll see what the third movie does to tie that up). The stop at Beorn's house felt like an afterthought; the dwarves' imprisonment in Thranduil's halls moved too quickly (will come back to this, though); and I give zero shits about Bard and his manpain. The script was all over the place, and it relied heavily on lines that were blatantly ripped from the LOTR movies and poorly reworked for characters that had no business saying them (see, for one: Balin commenting on the courage of hobbits to Bilbo).
I realize that a book like The Hobbit doesn't easily translate into movie form (it's short and all from Bilbo's POV), but the hatchet job they did on it is becoming more and more obvious. Basically I can't believe they thought they had enough material for three movies, even with them giving us a look into what Gandalf was doing while he was off fucking around at Dol Guldur with Radagast. It could have been done in one, to be perfectly honest.
That being said, there are myriad things I LOVED about the movie. Despite how unnecessary the scene at Beorn's house felt, WE GOT TO SEE BEORN. The Ring's effects on Bilbo and the beginning of his obsession/reliance! The Mirkwood elves! Thranduil's dragonfire burn (which gingerhaze talks about in this tumblr post to a much greater extent)! The halls and forge and wealth of Erebor! MOTHERFUCKING SMAUG HIMSELF. Like, holy fuck, guys. SMAUG ON THE BIG SCREEN, BOOMING CUMBERBATCH!VOICE, BREATHING FIRE ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE. And tiny Bilbo trying to outsmart him long enough to locate and snatch the Arkenstone! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! IT WAS GREAT.
I also really and truly enjoyed everything about Tauriel, though I feel like she suffered a bit under the half-assed love triangle subplot. Regardless! Kili flirting with her? and then Tauriel defending him to Legolas being all "he's tall for a dwarf!"???? ABSOLUTE BEST. And then when she heals him in Laketown and he's all out of it and saying things like, "You can't be her, she's far away from me," oh god I might have teared up a bit. Give me all the fic with this pairing, is what I'm saying. I have a mighty need (mostly because I know how it ends DON'T LOOK AT ME).
(And Legolas finding Gloin's locket with Gimli's portrait in it. I about cried laughing. ONE DAY YOU'RE GOING TO FROLICK IN THE WOODS WITH THAT DWARF AND THEN YOU'RE GONNA BUILD A BOAT AND TAKE HIM TO THE UNDYING LANDS WITH YOU, YOU JERK ELF. ONE DAY.)
(Elves and dwarves, man. I've got some feels.)
(Let's talk about how Legolas continues to be, unintentionally, the most hilarious part of these movies. LET'S.)
In conclusion: I may have reached the perfect balance of critical and batshit-in-love fangirl on this one. /shrug
