don't be dull, be fannish

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - I still like the movie a lot but I'm not as smitten with it as I used to be. I guess I really am most interested in Legolas when it comes to this whole franchise. Legolas and Thranduil. These two and their relationship fascinate me to no end. So, this movie didn't really grab me as much on re-watch. The Song of the Lonely Mountain is still breathtaking, though, especially the one sung by the dwarves themselves!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - what a funny movie. I really liked the way it was done, that the women were considered warriors, too. A great alternate history. I might check out the book to see how different it is from the film.

Keeping Up with the Joneses - I bought this movie solely for Gal Gadot. And the Joneses were amazing. I was less enamored with Gaffneys. For me, as a Czech, their whole neighborhood, their lives, were pretty much a nightmare. I can't even imagine living like that. I guess that's the cultural difference, huh?

"" (Watch on YouTube)

\o/ Legolas! Oh God, Orlando Bloom's fighting style makes me all hot and bothered, seriously. Watching him swing his knives... MAN! *_*

I live in Central Europe and there's a storm front raging outside, the Germans gave it the name Xaver. I hate storms. I hate strong winds. I hate pouring rain. I'll have to use earplugs tonight again or I won't sleep at all. Luckily my doctor gave me pills to keep my heart-rate down, perfect for an occasion like this.

And I used another thing to calm down: Ed Sheeran's wonderful song "I See Fire", The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug's theme song. It's beautiful and haunting, and I have had it on repeat for hours now. Truly wonderful. Listen to it with headphones on!

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Ed Sheeran "I See Fire" [HD]" (Watch on YouTube)

( The lyrics are also amazing... )

"The Hobbit Trilogy - Production Video #12 [HD]" (Watch on YouTube)

And it's glorious! \o/ Only a month to go now!!!

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Sneak Peek [HD]" (Watch on YouTube)

Wow! OH, WOW, PEOPLE! Amazing! Fantastic! Beautiful! CHILLING!

Also, an hour-long vid from the live event: link

"Song of the Lonely Mountain - The Hobbit 2012 - Official Soundtrack - End Credit Song" (Watch on YouTube)

A strange thing happened. When I first listened to The Hobbit OST, I liked it but except for the Misty Mountains song, I didn't find it all that memorable. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved the OST in general and The Song of the Lonely Mountain in particular. Especially once I really started listening, following the lyrics. I especially love this part:

Some folk we never forget
Some kind we never forgive
Haven’t seen the back of us yet
We’ll fight as long as we live
All eyes on the hidden door
To the Lonely Mountain borne
We’ll ride in the gathering storm
Until we get our long-forgotten gold

And this, this very sentiment is why I like The Hobbit much more than The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In LotR, the halflings and the dwarves just didn't speak to me. Frodo and Sam were sweet but Merry and Pippin? Gimli? Mostly comic relief. Or painfully idiotic. With some great development, true, but it didn't change my first impression of them. But in The Hobbit...

For the first time, I saw the halflings and dwarves as, well, people with ambitions, daily struggles, with friends and enemies, people who felt betrayal as deeply as anyone else. The movie made the dwarves three-dimensional, fighting for their right, heroic people but also vain and short-tempered.

And Bilbo... I guess I didn't like the halflings in LotR much because the actors didn't do much for me. Good actors, don't get me wrong, but I didn't know them before - only Sean Astin did I see in something else - nor did I feel like following their career after. But Martin Freeman... He's one of my favorite actors and his Bilbo is... never too earnest, never too much of a comic relief, never too much of a chicken. He's a normal person and he plays the part beautifully.

So yeah, in LotR, there were places that felt... empty to me - Faramir and his daddy issues, come to my mind - but The Hobbit I adored as a whole, the story and all the characters, whether we followed Bilbo, Thorin and his gang or Gandalf, everyone's arc was fascinating and captivating.

And basically this song, The Song of the Lonely Mountain, with its melody and lyrics, embodies my love for the movie!

With every re-watch, I love the movie more and more. Not just because of its epic scale, the visuals. Not even because of the incredible camaraderie between the dwarves. But because of the amazing acting skills of Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage.

Martin Freeman's expressions, his body language... I really can't imagine anyone else playing this part. I know that actors like James McAvoy were considered when it looked like Martin Freeman wouldn't be able to take the part, and I'm not saying they would've done a bad job, not at all. But Martin... Martin is just the right amount of cuddly, yet you believe him when he picks up a sword. Beautiful. And Richard Armitage - so surly and yet... the last scene, when he hugs Bilbo... Amazing. The last movie, the Battle of Five Armies, will really hurt :(

And the music! The dwarves' song! And then the ballad at the very end, the main theme, Song of the Lonely Mountain by Neil Finn... Gorgeous! Especially when you follow the lyrics, it really grips your heart!

I'm glad I decided to re-watch it tonight. This movie gives me warm, fuzzy feelings!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOOOOOOOOOOMG! LEGOLAS! THRANDUIL! BILBO! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

This weekend, The Hobbit crossed $1 billion worldwide at the box office! Source. Take that and choke on it, haters! *dances*