Jedi 1, Bears 0

[jedibuttercup]

Finally defeated the bears at 5:00am this morning (five hours before deadline) and posted my Yuletide story! Not sure if I'll get any treats out this year, but I'll do a skim of the requests list to see if anything leaps out. If not, I'll stick my nose back to the Wishlist grindstone. RL's just been... more of a stumbling block than usual this year.

Also going to see The Hobbit: BOTFA tonight. I'd say "no spoilers please", but ha ha, the book is how old? Pretty sure I know how it's going to end, though it'll be interesting to see if there's any clueless folks in the theater. *rubbing hands together* For all its flaws, PJ's Middle Earth has been amazingly and heart-grabbingly immersive for me. It's a shame it's at an end.

Still fifteen days open on my January talk meme, if there's anything about me or my writing that you want to know!

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

It's always lovely to hear that bears have been defeated!

[draconin.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall someone telling me that PJ had made remarks about there being plenty of material in the Silmarillian. It would also have the advantage that far fewer people would be familiar with the stories.

[jedibuttercup]

That would be lovely. There is SO MUCH from those stories that I'd love to see gapfilled and put up on the big screen. However, I also hear, that Christopher Tolkien is displeased with PJ's alteration of "the message" and wants to take all his daddy's toys and go home, which would put a wrench in the works.

Congratulations on your perseverance. Have fun at the movies!

[pronker]

PJ .. if only he'd consider making The Silmarillion ... do you think he might?

And yes, the folks who go to the show thinking 'hey, it's an action film, that's for me!' and really do not know how it ends are in for a treat, I should think. I thought Jackson was masterful in depicting the various races of Middle Earth visually, because without lots of exposition, he showed Arwen bleeding from a cut on her cheek as she raced through the woods in Fellowship, and so a non-Tolkien person surmised that elves are nearhuman, and the same with wizards, too, as Gandalf and Saruman gave each other bloody noses in their fight.

Re: Congratulations on your perseverance. Have fun at the movies!

[jedibuttercup]

He did make a lot of interesting choices to condense reams of backstory and information into simple visual keys. I finally figured out the "white gems" Thranduil wanted back were supposed to be kind of an echo for the Nauglamir, for people who don't know that whole ugly backhistory of the enmity between elves and dwarves. Maybe not purist canon, but quite effective.

I hope he does make more movies. If the Tolkien estate lets him. *crossing fingers*

Re: Congratulations on your perseverance. Have fun at the movies!

[pronker]

Random thought: Silmarillion, to me, has a great underlying theme of greed *for the Silmarils* and I wonder how that theme would hold up under the visual media of film? It hasn't the easy identification of Fighting Evil, as in the other films.

Re: Congratulations on your perseverance. Have fun at the movies!

[jedibuttercup]

Actually, I thought they did a pretty good job of that with Thorin in BOTFA. I definitely think it can be done. But there would also be an even higher drama quotient involved ... Luthien's story would be fascinating adapted for the big screen, but she'd definitely get slapped with a Mary Sue label by modern audiences. :)

Re: Congratulations on your perseverance. Have fun at the movies!

[pronker]

That's good to hear and I'll look forward to seeing the film in '15. I do hope Thorin got some development such as "I'll need this much gold to rebuild my kingdom!" (which makes him greedy, but in a more practical way) to "Gold, beautiful gold, gimme more!"

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Just saw it, and I loved it,long battle scenes and all.
I'm going to miss the annual tradition of a visit to Middle Earth!

[jedibuttercup]

I loved it, too. Ugly crying (on my part) and all.

Can't wait for the final extended edition. I want to see what they cut out of this one, considering how abrupt the ending felt.

[xlade.livejournal.com]

It was a good end to the series. A couple plot holes you could have dropped an army through (literally), but otherwise good. Haven't read the book in forever. And if they were really wanting to milk this franchise, they could go thumb through the Silmarillion XD At least another five movies in there :)

[jedibuttercup]

I'm hoping some of the holes get patched a little in the Extended Edition. *crossing fingers* And it made me cry in the expected place. And wonder where the heck Tauriel was during the events of LOTR. But otherwise? A worthy conclusion, I thought.

As to the five more movies: at least five, depending on how you connect things together and whether they can get the rights from the Tolkien Estate. And, of course, whether or not the audience reacts to Luthien like the awesome character she is. I mean yes, she is Middle Earth's Mary Sue, but she is also the exception that proves the rule. :)