The Hobbit

I was predisposed to like The Hobbit.

First, it was the movie part of the dinner-and-a-movie date that David and I had to celebrate our ten-year anniversary. To put this in perspective, David and I have gone to the movie theaters only thrice since we became parents eight years ago (the other two times for the first Transformers movie and Disney’s Tangled). And nobody wants the movie they see for their tenth wedding anniversary to be a dud.

Second, Thorin is played by Richard Armitage, who also plays Mr. Thornton in my favorite period drama, North & South.

And third, the song. This song. *shivers up my spine*

Er, now on to the movie itself.

Peter Jackson is obviously trying to solidify The Hobbit as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Not only did he bring back familiar sets and familiar music, but he added a lot of material foreshadowing the re-emergence of Sauron. A lot of moments–like Gandalf hitting his head on Bilbo’s chandelier, and the flight and fight on the bridges in the mountain–mirrored parts of LoTR.

I liked that dwarves get to be heroes, especially after Gimli was nothing more than comic relief in LoTR. I enjoyed Martin Freeman’s Bilbo much better than I did Elijah Woods’ Frodo. He has more range of expression, at any rate.

For the first time, I saw Elrond happy. I guess I can’t call him the Bitter Elf any longer…

Captain America

I saw this recently, after having watched The Avengers. I liked Captain America. I liked his unashamed patriotism. I liked his character arc from ninety-pound weakling to lab experiment to chorus girl and finally to super hero. The romance was handled with a light touch, very nice.

I was amused to see Hugo Weaving playing Agent Smith again.

I wish that there had been more time to develop the characters in Captain America’s elite team of Hydra-butt-kickers. As it is, aside from Captain America’s BFF, I didn’t even know–much less remember–the names of anyone on his team.

AND I am annoyed that the ending of the movie–emotionally wrenching as it was–is based on such utter terrible PLOT FAIL. If the writers had spent more than five minutes thinking about it, they could’ve come up with a better reason for WHY Captain America HAD to crash the plane into the ice (besides, yanno, as a convenient reason to get him from WW2 to the 21st century).

As it is, I heartily agree with this “How it Should Have Ended” video:

Have you seen either or both of these movies? What did you think?

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I sat down to watch Brave with few expectations. All I knew about the storyline was that there was a red-headed girl… and archery… and Scotland… mysterious standing stones… and a bear?

Ten minutes into the movie, I thought I had its number. It was obviously going to be a girl runs off to have adventures denied to her because she’s female, and saves the day movie. Maybe with a dose of …then she meets a handsome dude who’ll love her for who she is thrown in for good measure.

I was wrong (oh, you tricksy, tricksy movie!).

Merida does have adventures–and you can say she saves the day–but only after she messes up. The emotional core of the story is not a romance, but the relationship between mother and daughter. Merida’s growth as a character is not becoming the Warrior Woman Who Saves the Clans, but about recognizing her own part in her conflict with her mother.

I was delighted by this movie, which came at just the right time to dissipate some of my YA fiction fatigue. I’d gotten to the point where I’d drop a book like a hot potato when the dreaded words “but the hot new guy knows more than he’s telling” (and their variations) appeared in the blurb. I was tired of books with female protagonists surrounded by guys, with nary a meaningful relationship with another woman in sight. I didn’t like how parents disappeared off the face of the earth in most young adult fiction. And I was so over seeing martial prowess as the only type of strength worth aspiring to.

Brave tackles all of these in the best way possible. I almost cheered at the lack of hot dudes (really, most people do not meet Mr. Right in high school, or at the equivalent age). I was moved by the relationship between Merida and her mother–the clash of their strong wills, their inability to reach one other, the strength of their love underneath the hurt and guilt. I love how Merida’s mother shows her strength as queen, not with a sword in her hands, but with her words. I love how she can stop a brawl in her hall just by walking down the length of it. She shows Merida another kind of weapon to add to her arsenal (along with her archery prowess), just as Merida shows her mother that it’s okay to be a different kind of princess.

This was a refreshing addition to the coming-of-age genre. If you watched Brave, what did you think of it?

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via SurLaLune Fairy Tales

Who else is looking forward to season 2? *bounce!*

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