Enjoyed The Desolation

Today, Sarah and I went to the theater to catch the new Hobbit movie:  “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug“.  “The Hobbit” is a relatively short children’s book (compared to “The Lord of the Rings“).  The LotR movie trilogy was a fairly grand effort as novels turned into movies go.  The current trilogy is more so.  Effort, that is.  There wasn’t enough source material in the original book to justify three LONG movies, so Peter Jackson (writer, producer and director) just kind of makes it up as he goes along in most of this movie.  I guess that’s kind of the curse of the middle movie.
Anyway, this movie, like the first doesn’t bear up well under close “thoughtful” examination.  You have to go into it looking for simple entertainment.  Some sight gags, a whole lot of carefully choreographed fight sequences and some fantastic special effects keep the movie rolling along – and interesting (to me anyway).  Both Sarah and I enjoyed the movie for what it is.  Final recommendation: (a pleasant surprise) highly recommended.
Additional comments:
There’s a bit of a strange inter-species romance thrown in between the one “attractive” dwarf and a warrior female elf.  I guess it was a way to add a female character to the movie.  In this case, it’s worth it because she is definitely a “kick-ass” warrior.  It is nice to see a female character come into a movie and not end up the damsel in distress needing to be saved by one of the male leads.  Anyway, it was “strange” because 1)  it’s not part of the book, so it’s purely invented for the movie, and 2)  it was “cute” but didn’t add anything to the movie – at least nothing obvious to me.  It was like, we’ll put this (budding romance) in so we can do this (elfin healing) later in the movie.  Possibly, there’ll be some resolution / explanation in the final movie.
Second, the theater we saw the movie at (the Brenden Theater in Concord, CA) had the promos set to a painfully high sound level.  I had to put my fingers in my ears during them.  Unprompted by me in the car ride home, Sarah offered that she “must be” getting old because the sound was so high it hurt her ears.  She corrected this to “during the trailers”, but I agreed with her.  Fortunately, the movie was nowhere near that sound level, or I would have had to leave and ask for another ticket.  I’m not sure what that was about at all…
Last, this movie is almost three hours long.  My family is convinced I have bladder / prostrate issues.  I think it’s just annoying to sit in a cold theater and have to “go”, but most of us do “tough it out” because that’s what we’ve trained ourselves to do.  I told the wife before leaving, well, I’m just accepting the fact I’m going and I’ll miss some of the movie ’cause I can’t put it (the movie) on pause for nature breaks.  In the end, I think this (acceptance of limits) made the movie more enjoyable for me.  And my daughter said I didn’t miss much during my two “intermissions”.  She added there was another “old guy” who “went” at least three times (before she stopped counting).  “Very disturbing!”  (Ah, the smugness of youth…  Your day will come!)
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On This Day In:
2021	Just Catching My Breath
	I Still Believe
2020	Sometimes It Does
	Sweet As Rain Upon My Tongue
2019	Pushing The Envelope
2018	The Price Of Justice Is (Sometimes) Security
2017	Time Too
2016	The Cornerstone Pays
2015	Would That This Be True
2014	More Likely
2013	Enjoyed The Desolation
	Watching Faux News
2012	Speaking Of Products
2011	Ready To Be Immortal?

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Watching Faux News

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold.  It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
—    Edward R. Murrow
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On This Day In:
2021	Just Catching My Breath
	I Still Believe
2020	Sometimes It Does
	Sweet As Rain Upon My Tongue
2019	Pushing The Envelope
2018	The Price Of Justice Is (Sometimes) Security
2017	Time Too
2016	The Cornerstone Pays
2015	Would That This Be True
2014	More Likely
2013	Enjoyed The Desolation
	Watching Faux News
2012	Speaking Of Products
2011	Ready To Be Immortal?

Read Full Post »