Hobbitseseses

I just saw “The Hobbit”. Third one. Final one. Final? For now. Sure. Maybe it's a dubious sort of finality.

Anyway.

It’s the second one I’ve seen at that advanced frame rate. That was never particularly irksome, though it didn’t do much to earn my favour either. When I saw it in “Desolation of Smaug”, it was slightly reminiscent of a soap opera. The experience was slightly better in “Five Armies”. It was more like a play. The kind of play people would make if they didn’t have to worry about certain things . . . Things like . . . Well. You know. Reality. Reality would probably be one of the things about which these people would not have to worry in order to make such plays. That’s how they get made. Budgetary concerns might also be dispensed with, though one may suppose that those could fall under the broader category of reality anyway. In any case, I’d imagine that most plays are put on at a cost below that of the elven king’s cloak. It’s the type of thing that does a decent job of rising to the hyperbolic praise that modern fantasy authors often reserve for the raiment of the race.

The fact that the feel of the stage crept through in parts was somewhat resonant to me, for my elementary school’s drama department decided to base its annual production on “The Hobbit” when “Fellowship of the Ring” was first coming to theatres. My part was pretty small, but my friend gave a performance in the Gollum role that was splendid and entirely separate from that of the films. That’s probably most of what I remember.

I do appreciate the splitting of the book. I cherish some of these annual releases. Perhaps these Tolkien ones top that list. It builds in a kind of tradition. If I had to think of a salient point of excitement about the new “Star Wars” plan, that might be it. A new cinematic entry per year? I could slip into that quite easily. And it’s being moved to winter from the old spring schedule. Fill up that empty Tolkien slot.

Will that slot remain empty? Who can say? If the question of a “Silmarillion” adaptation had been posed two decades ago, all sorts of objections could have been effortlessly raised against it. Now, the most obvious one would probably point to the fact that Peter Jackson basically did a fair bit of the job within this trilogy already.

Well, there are rights issues too. Whatever. The silver screen shall bear more orcs eventually. It’ll be great.

Bonus Question!

Best cloak? Levitation.