Bethany House Blog Tour: The Spiritual World of the Hobbit

Author: James Stuart Bell

Genre: Christianity, faith, Hobbit (yes, it’s a genre!)

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 8

Type: Non-fiction (about a fictional book…but also about God and the Bible, so…)

Number of pages: 234

Publisher and price: Bethany House, $13.99

My overall opinion: This was definitely a good book! First thing to note? It’s not a devotional. I had to re-orient my mindset a few times, as I went into this one thinking “devotional” and that’s not really at all what it is. I was very impressed by the amount of research that Bell put into Hobbit and Lord of the Rings – he clearly knew what he was talking about. He draws valid points, without trying to dig too deep or pull in things that aren’t there, and he wasn’t too preachy. I especially liked the character profiles of Gandalf and Elrond – informative and interesting. Good background info there, I thought. All in all? This was an enjoyable book that I learned from and found interesting. Read it in conjunction with The Hobbit!

**Bethany House sent me a copy of this book in return for my honest review. I wasn’t obligated to review it positively, nor was I recompensed in any other way for this review.**

Movie: Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9.5

Genre: Fantasy, adventure

Series or set: Hobbit

Number in series: 2^nd

Primary actors: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage

Length: Two and a half hours or so

Based on: Technically, the original Hobbit book, with a bit pulled from LOTR

Time period: Fantasy

Rating: PG-13

Year it came out: 2013

My overall opinion: A good movie! At the time of writing this, I’ve seen it twice in the theater and will see it once more before it goes out. I liked it better the second time than the first, though I greatly enjoyed it both times! Now, here we go with what I thought of it and specific people/creatures/events/etc, in no particular order.

Be warned: spoilers are not in the least avoided! Indeed, they abound.

Bolg – Another primary orc dude to dislike, in addition to Azog who is making a return from the previous movie. And once again, he has quite a unique look about him – almost like there are bolts in his head, or at least, that was my first impression. While Azog was still the main immediately-visible villain, Bolg was also around quite often to do his dirty work for him. Decidedly despicable.

Gold – There was so much gold in this movie! Seriously. Either I haven’t heard, or I don’t remember how many gold coins were made for these scenes, but it was clearly a lot. The sheer vastness of the dragon’s lair was stunning…but I’ll come to that in a bit more detail later. Anyway. So there was all the gold in the dragon’s lair, and then down in the furnaces and all the gold that was supposed to bury said dragon was also an immense amount. Most impressive!

CGI – Like the vast amounts of gold, there were also vast amounts of CGI – albeit, very well done in my opinion. As my friend pointed out, however, part of the charm and enduring quality of the LOTR trilogy is the fact that so much of it is real, not digital. However, the CGI in this film was done nicely and didn’t detract from the story.

Dragon – One cannot write a review of this movie without a section for the dragon Smaug! He was impressive, and seemed quite accurate to the book, which I greatly appreciated. He seemed quite reasonable as far as dragons go. Certainly very large, very strong, but not impressively wise. So yeah, a good dragon!

Underground sets – There were two amazing locations that were underground in this movie – one being Thranduil’s palace with wood elves and the other, obviously, being within the Lonely Mountain. Let’s start with Thranduil’s. After I got used to the idea of elves living underground instead of just in trees (accurate to the book as it is!), I quite liked it. It managed to be underground, yet still spacious and truly beautiful. And light. Elegant curves, making it elvish. A lovely place to live. And then there’s the whole area under the Lonely Mountain. As you may know if you know me (or have read this blog for very long), I have rather a fascination with caves and underground scenes – the Mines of Moria is my hands-down-all-time favorite part in the LOTR trilogy. So going underground again here had me on the edge of my seat. The dragon’s lair is gigantic and awe-inspiring. And then the melting area…but that deserves it’s own section. Suffice to say that I have gained a very deep respect for the work of the dwarves and the area that they have created under there. I’d love to visit – after the dragon is gone and all is at peace.

Forge/furnace/melting place – This part was all so amazing. I was fascinated by how everything worked, and by watching the whole process. It’s quite an ingenious plan in the end, that whole thing with the statue, though how Thorin could’ve ever actually thought it would work is beyond me. Anyway, this was all definitely one of my favorite parts!

Sauron, orcs, and the ring – Because they all go together a lot. Sauron first. I’m not sure if he was ever named or not, but he was definitely there and a rather prominent part of this movie. He even takes on the eye form in a way. Some of that eye part was a little silly, I thought, but certainly very dramatic. Then there was the ring – already Bilbo feels often compelled to put it on and disappear, and experiences a weird world when he does. Played up a little from the book, but not an all bad change. And finally, the orcs. This was a big thing about this movie that I didn’t like – remember the scene where Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur to fight against the evil lurking there and meets Azog and co? At some point, as Gandalf is looking, he is told by the orcs that “we are legion.” There was a lot of darker content in parts of this movie, and that combined with the particular use of the word “legion” (which is pretty Biblical) felt like it was a very direct nod to satanic or demonic behavior. I’m all for a good-versus-evil battle, and think that probably some of this story does definitely correlate to the Bible. However, I really don’t like it when demonic type stuff is in the story, even when it’s clearly evil. SO I strongly disliked that.

Legolas – He’s back! Technically, it’s true, he’s not supposed to be but I think his appearance was more than worth it. It was great to see him again. He wasn’t a character who the audience got very attached to in this movie like he was in LOTR, and you never really got to know him – he spent most of his time doing awesome trick shooting. Speaking of which, I laughed when he stood on dwarf heads as they floated down the river and shot orcs – they all shot orcs. Epic. But yes! Legolas was back, up to amazing tricks once again.

Tauriel – Finally! A female elf who’s a fighter! She was a delight to watch. I did think that the whole thing with her and Kili was a little silly – I mean sure, he’s cute and awesome, but he’s a dwarf and she wouldn’t fall for him. Ever. But all in all, I thought she was awesome and her fighting skills are amazing!

Dwarves in barrels and spiders – The barrel scene was delightful, as I have suspected since the very beginning. While I didn’t absolutely fall in love with it, it was good and certainly enjoyable. And Bombur flying out of the river in his barrel, crashing down a hill, and killing many orcs? That was amazing. The spiders…definitely gross, but a good part of the movie.

Bard – We finally get to meet Bard here! He’s not bad looking, and seems like a nice enough man – I had to keep reminding myself that while he has his good points, he’s a bad guy in the final battle (although Thorin is too a little bit). But here Bard has a son and two daughters who we get quite attached to, and I’m curious to see how they paint him in the third movie.

Fire – Strange to say, the fire in this movie really stood out for me. Lol, it sounds weird – but I walked away thinking “There was so much fire!” Smaug was certainly very fond of it and used it often. Random point.

Nazgul beginnings stuff – To anyone not familiar with the Lord of the Rings movies, much of the fore-shadowing in this movie may go unnoticed and may even seem confusing. However, LOTR fans will be fascinated by the beginnings of the Nazgul. My only drawback is, of course, that this is not really in the book at all and technically shouldn’t have been included in this movie. Their burial place, where Gandalf and Radagast visited, was fascinating though!

Gandalf’s journeyings – I will be the first to admit that seeing where Gandalf went after leaving the hobbits was fascinating, and for the most part, it makes sense to have included it – time-wise, at least. Though I think much of it isn’t learned until LOTR in the books. But it was interesting, for sure, despite the made-up parts.

Peter Jackson’s cameo – Yup, there he was within the first few moments of the actual film, chomping down on another carrot in a distinct nod to Fellowship of the Ring! I was quite excited that I caught his cameo this time. :D

Book faithfulness – Well, as some other person said, about half of it is from the book and half of it is just made up and stuck in and added to make it more exciting. It was definitely exciting. And some of the improvements were indeed improvements – some I didn’t like as much.

Something missing – One thing that hit me really hard to not have was the awesome way that the dwarves are introduced to Beorn. Here they see him as a bear, and then get chased by orcs and all just kind of run into his house. Remember how in the book, they come in by twos following Gandalf’s instructions as he steadily spins a tale, except for Bombur who comes a little before he’s supposed to? It’s such a cool way to do it, and I really missed that here. I also noted that this movie entirely skipped the river with the water that they couldn’t touch (except Bombur touched it and fell asleep and they had to carry him a great distance).

So there you go – a complete run-down of my thoughts concerning Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug! Worth your time and money to see in the theater? Absolutely. I can’t wait to watch it again!

Want more Tolkien and Hobbit things? Check out my Tolkienesque Pinterest board!

Have you seen it? What did you think?

Actors from Hobbit & Lord of the Rings

Sometimes you need a break from the steady run of book and movie reviews...and that's what today is getting -- a break. Without too much further ado, here is a fun collection of the actors from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. Can you identify those who don't have their character pictures by them?

I found all these randomly on the web or on Pinterest. Speaking of which...come find me there by searching for Charity U! Hope to see you there. Anyway, here we go! Feel free to click to view larger.

 

 

That one just makes me laugh. Actually, all the ones of the four of them do. And now a few from Hobbit...

 

 

I highly recommend viewing the above at a larger size! Or just go view the whole thing here, as it looks a little cut off: http://pinterest.com/pin/322851867007365504/

 

Now that you're back in the mood for a little Hobbit related stuff...read my Middle-Earth movie reviews at the links below:

 

Fellowship: http://austenitis.blogspot.com/2013/02/movie-fellowship-of-ring.html

Towers: http://austenitis.blogspot.com/2013/03/movie-two-towers.html

Return: http://austenitis.blogspot.com/2013/03/movie-return-of-king.html

Journey: http://austenitis.blogspot.com/2012/12/movie-hobbit-unexpected-journey.html

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Official Movie Guide

Author: Brian Sibley

Genre: Movie guide, companion

Series: A companion to HAUJ that came out in December

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9.5

Type: Non-fiction about a fictional movie…?

Number of pages: 168

My overall opinion: There have been a few movie guides over the years that have disappointed me, but this wasn’t one of them. It was PACKED with hundreds of full-color photos on glossy pages, and filled in with plenty of text to explain them all. There were interesting facts to be learned about everything. Each dwarf got a full spread to himself…and then there were sections about weapons and makeup and locations. Wizards and hobbits and dwarves. Clothes and casting and high definition. And, of course, Gollum and goblins and wargs. And SO much more! This is a must-have companion for any HAUJ fan. Worth buying!

Movie: Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9.5

Genre: Fantasy, classic, adventure

Series or set: The official prequel to Lord of the Rings

Primary actors: There are a lot! They include Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, and Martin Freeman along with others.

Length: About three hours -- just under.

Based on: The classic and amazing work of literature, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Time period: Fantasy

Quote(s): Go here for quotes!

Year it came out: 2012 (December 14)

My overall opinion: It lived up to all my hopes and dreams. Before you read any further: this review will have spoilers. Please do not read until you've seen the movie. It'll be so much better then!

Now that we're all clear on what you are or are not doing (and you'd better not be reading this if you haven't seen it -- I'm serious!)...let's go. This is in no order...just as it comes to mind. :) I saw it just a few hours ago, so it's not all in order yet.

Azog -- disgusting. And inaccurate. I knew he wasn't in Hobbit, but wasn't sure about the whole thing with Thorin. On coming home and looking it all up in my Complete Guide to Middle-Earth by Robert Foster, I discovered that sure enough, Thorin had nothing to do with Azog. Yes, Azog killed Thror, Thorin's ancestor. But though Thorin fought in that battle, he didn't apparently have personal contact with Azog. Azog was killed in that battle as well and most certainly did not come back. However, including him certainly added some excitement!

Soundtrack -- amazing. Beautiful. Unebelievable. Never going to stop listening. I love it SO much. Combines Lord of the Rings' music with the theme of the Lonely Mountain song in a beautiful way, blending familiar and new seamlessly. I found a copy on youtube and can't stop listening. I had included it below, but it appears to have stopped working, so I removed it again. It's awesome and I can't wait to get the CD soundtrack!

Panoramic scenes -- Again, beautiful. Simply stunning. Especially in a theater. The landscape is so beautiful! And there's a wide variety too! More on sets and stuff in a bit.

Goblin king -- Wow. That guy was super interesting, my dad's favorite character...for looks, you understand. A huge flap of flesh almost like a beard...so unbelievably disgusting and, well, fascinating! Warts everywhere. Puppy dog eyes. He's scary, he's disgustingly fat, he's...wow. Definitely a memorable part of the movie!

Sets -- There were so many amazing sets that I had no idea were coming! Or at least, I really had pictured them all wrong when I read the book, and hadn't pictured at all for the movie! For example, the whole goblin kingdom under the Misty Mountains (more on the kidnapping later). Astounding! And Rivendell -- beautiful. Even more so than in LOTR, I think. The waterfalls and all were amazing! I was pretty impressed. Also, the scenes including peeks into Moria (so familiar to me!) and Erebor (pretty cool) were exceptional.

Rivendell -- I loved it. Like I said above, the waterfalls were so pretty. The whole place was beautiful, and apparently also caught in perpetual sunrise. Though the movie spent relatively little time there, it was clear how peaceful and calm it was...I liked it.

Elrond -- My only reason to include him in this particular part was his age. I felt like he looked significantly younger here than in LOTR. Having looked at pictures online, I may have been mistaken. I thought his hair was a bit gray in LOTR...guess not. But he has a lot of lines on his face there, and (if my memory serves me right) not so much in HAUJ. That may be just me. Now, I know it  was 60 years or so between HAUJ and LOTR, but since Elrond's thousands of years old...he shouldn't age.

Gandalf, Elrond, Saruman, Galadriel -- The whole council meeting at Elrond's was all wrong. Saruman and Galadriel never appear in the book. Gandalf does go to visit Saruman, but it's not mentioned except that he's gone...and you only learn where in LOTR (I think...maybe appendices or something?). Galadriel was beautiful, but shouldn't have been there. And Saruman...well, yeah, I talked about him.

Gollum -- Somewhere on the web I saw someone call him cute and say they kind of liked him. At the time, I admit that I laughed at them...how could anyone like Gollum? But now that I've seen him here, I see what they meant. He is pitiable! And almost cute during the riddle game! Which I loved, btw, except that they left out some riddles...very sad. Interesting to see him here.

Bilbo -- One can hardly review HAUJ without mentioning Bilbo. I've seen some reviewers that bashed him, but personally? I though Martin Freeman made a great Bilbo. His face expressions were so neat! I liked those. I think they did a good job with picking Martin for Bilbo...I never did like Elijah Wood as Frodo, so I'm glad that this one's straight on.

Fili and Kili -- Liked them a lot! Especially Kili. They're awesome little guys. :) And I am suddenly not anticipating the third movie if it follows the book. Which I generally strongly advocate, but might make an exception for here. And if you don't know what I'm talking about...go read the book. You should've read it already anyway. :) But yeah, I liked them! Oh also. By my third time through, one thing had become clear...one of my all-time favorite scenes is when Kili jumps out from by the rock and shoots an arrow and kills the warg and orc. SO MUCH AWESOMENESS there.

Thorin -- Ah, the other must-review character. Gotta admit, Richard Armitage was great! I had seen him as Mr. Thornton in North and South and knew of his roles in Sherlock Holmes and ...was it Robin Hood? Anyway, I didn't quite know what to expect. But? I loved it. Okay, fine, I loved him. Overall. But it was rather hilarious to see him looking so short by Gandalf! A guy with a personality like he has definitely shouldn't be short. But he was pretty much awesome as a short dwarf with a big sword.

Radagast -- Okay, the whole Radagast thing was weird. I knew that he'd be in here (even though he technically shouldn't be according to the book) but like that? He was just a little ditzy! I didn't like the way he was portrayed. Now, it's true that we have practically no information about Radagast the Brown. But I don't think he was quite this crazy. And that white stuff on his head...what was it, bird doo? No. All wrong. Nests in the hair are one thing, bird doo quite another.  

History -- It wasn't in the book. And I thought it was a great idea and a great addition. All that history at the beginning of the film, and sprinkled throughout? So neat! I loved it! Seeing those things on screen was amazing. Definitely worth adding, and I'm glad they did. So yup, really liked that.

In Relation to the Book -- Overall, HAUJ did a tolerably good job of following the beginning of Tolkien's original book. One difference (not including all that I've already mentioned in passing) would be the orcs and ... wargs? you know, those things who chase the dwarves and Bilbo. Very reminiscent of LOTR TT, but not a great fit here...though they definitely added intensity. Also, the part where they all fall into the goblin realm...again, that's not how it happened in the book. I always though a crack opening at the back of the cave was plenty frightening enough, and I don't know why they had to change it to the floor cracking open. The same goes for Bilbo's fight with a goblin and fall to Gollum's lair. Though there I admit that I can see why they wanted to add a little excitement. Technically, you know, Bilbo was there through the whole goblin battle! But all in all? I'm pretty satisfied.

Stone giants -- Considering that they only have a sentence or two in the book, they were much more played up here! I'd been anticipating seeing how Peter Jackson would interpret them...no disappointment. Very interesting! Again, that section was greatly drawn out (compared to the book -- by no means boring!) but good.

Humor -- The humor was not something I was expecting...and I loved it! Gandalf had a funny comment or two, and there were a few characters who made you laugh too! It was great. :)

Battles -- Like in LOTR, they were amazing. Big scale, lots of people, and a fast camera. Great battles, for being battles!

All around -- A great movie! I can't wait to see it again.

Hobbit Posters

One of my favorite things right now is Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Have you seen it? I'll be publishing a review before the end of the year, probably! Anyway, there's a real wealth of posters for it out there...and since I felt like doing SOMETHING Hobbit related...here you go! I'll look forward to discussing it at length with you in a few days. :)

{{Some of the scenes in the above poster weren't in HAUJ...so I assume that they are from the second, despite the release date this year.}}

Tyndale Blog Tour: Walking with Frodo

Author: Sarah Arthur

Genre: Devotional

Series: Sarah has also written Walking with Frodo but it’s not a series.

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 8

Type: Non-fiction

Number of pages: 194

My overall opinion: I think I liked Ed Strauss’ Hobbit Devotional better, but this one was also an excellent read and very enjoyable. Each chapter will take you 5-15 minutes to read (depending on how fast of a reader you are), and includes a bit of Hobbit story in (naturally) chronological order. After the story part, it goes on to an application, some questions to consider, and five or more Bible passages related to the topic. There are a total of 22 chapters. The questions are amazing (they WILL leave you thinking!). Chapter titles include (among others) Plans Go Astray, Help Un-Looked For, Stick to the Path, True Identity, and Where Your Treasure Is. The book is full of excellent writing, and I would certainly recommend it for Hobbit fans!

**Tyndale sent me this book for free as part of the blog tour that I signed up for. I was not required to review it positively. All opinions are my own.**

Hobbit: Unexpected Journey -- Books

So y'all ought to know that the first Hobbit movie is coming out in just a few months...just less than two, now. There will be three movies total, coming in December 2012, December 2013, and June 2014. There are a number of Hobbit related products coming out soon that are very exciting! Some are related to the book, several to the movie. Please note: the list below is in absolutely no order -- utterly according to how I spaced the links when I first put them in. So! Ready for this? Here's my Hobbit wishlist/love-list. ;)

An A-Z of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit": an Unendorsed, Colorful, and Critical Guide Celebrating the Movies by Sarah Oliver

Sounds like a fun and interesting movie handbook, full of strange and random facts! Can't wait to read it...hoping it's good!

Tolkien: the Hobbit: Official Calendar 2013

I need a Hobbit calendar for the year, and this may be the one I end up going to...we'll see. :) The pictures look like they'd be beautiful -- I know Alan Lee is an excellent artist from his drawings in Children of Hurin and concept art for Lord of the Rings movies. The Amazon reviews are mixed...but also mixed up. They seem to be about many different calendars, instead of just this one, so I'm not really sure how nice this one is.

The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide by Brian Sibley

Gotta admit, this is what I'm most excited about! Hopefully this book will be as beautiful as the guides to Narnia, as opposed to the Brian Sibley guide to Lord of the Rings -- a disappointment. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but if this book is anything like its cover, it'll be wonderful! So excited about this one.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion by Jude Fisher

If this book is full of pictures from the movie, along with just a few words, I'll be happy. Hope it lives up to my expectations!

2013 the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Wall Calendar

There. I changed my mind. THIS is the calendar I want. Or can I have two? Cause I think I want two...anyway. This one looks amazing and I'm looking forward to it!

The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey -- the World of Hobbits by Paddy Kempshall

While this isn't really a book that I'm considering buying, I think it looks like a book for someone who knows nothing about hobbits and is writing a paper about them. Though why someone would do that is beyond me. ANYWAY. Moving on.

The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey Chronicles: Art and Design by Weta

Looks like a beautiful book! I'm sure it will be very interesting. 

The Art of the Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien by Tolkien, Wayne G. Hammond, and Christina Scull

I think this would be a delightful resource book, just for Tolkien fans! I would love to spend some time in it. 

Exploring J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit by Corey Olsen

Looks like a good book -- I'll read it someday. :)

This isn't all the books, though it's a fairly good sampling. I encourage you to poke around on Amazon and find some more! :) And if you find any exceptionally good ones, give me a holler -- I'd like to see them too!