Every year, I have the privilege/horror of watching the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings with my family in a marathon session. I used to do it on New Year’s Eve, but this year we put it off until January 2.
The result was still the same, though: These are some of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and they hold up, despite the multiple viewings. Sure, there are things that bother me (for example, I wish Legolas wasn’t a walking Silmarillion expository machine, and I fervently wish Aragorn would never utter the line “Legolas! What do your elf eyes see?”), but as a whole–as a complete film–the three movies are spectacular.
Hence my excitement over the news that Warner Bros. is going to be distributing The Hobbit movies.
For starters, I like the book of The Hobbit even more than I like Lord of the Rings. More importantly, though: I want my marathon to last all day, and not just a mere 13 or 14 hours.
Now I just have to wait until December 2012 for the first movie to come out–and probably December 2014 until I can realize this Tolkien-overload dream.
I guess I’ll have to read novel until then…
There’s no reason the Hobbit needs to be two movies. It’s a children’s book and isn’t very long, plus most of the worldbuilding has already been established by the LotR trilogy.
Only two moments in the films actually make me cringe:
Gimli in the Paths of the Dead. Blowing away mist spectres and making squick faces as he steps on skulls. Are we watching the three stooges?
“You and whose army?”
“This army.”
Nothing says drama like dialogue lifted straight from the Simpsons.