Tolkien - the film (some spoilers)

I happened to catch sight of an advert for this film on the side of a bus as I was driving my youngest to his child minder last Tuesday morning. On a whim, I decided to take the littluns to the cinema to see it this afternoon/evening as it was only a 12a certificate and they know I love the books and films.

I was not sure what to expect to be honest as the Tolkien estate have not given their consent to it and the only review I have read so far panned it (and the reviewer hadn't even seen the film!); well, more like they panned the writing and directing team due to the nature of their prior works.

I watched it with an open mind in the hope that I might learn something about the life of professor Tolkien. The film mostly concentrated on his childhood, the love he had for his wife, and how he worked his way through school where he met his friends and gained a place at university. The story is mostly told as flashbacks from his time in the trenches.

Of the many things I really liked about the film was the imagery in the background. I am aware that Tolkien once said that none of his stories were allegorical, but the film writers put in many references for those who know his works. It was subtly done in most places and ramped up when required. It worked for me.

The film makers obviously thought a lot about the close friendship he had with three of his school chums; it kept coming back to what they got up to through their formative years, including stealing a bus together, until Tolkien's return from the trenches,

I recommend going to see this film if you are a Tolkien fan. It tugs at the heart strings in places and strengthens sympathies for those poor young men who lost their lives in the Great War. The film ends at the beginning of his popular literary career, with him writing the first line of The Hobbit.

To misquote a line or two from the film; it is a film about friendship... no, fellowship.

Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series

Rumours had it that the new TV series about to be produced by Amazon was to be set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and focus on a young Aragorn, but it may well be set way before then ... in the Second Age if the latest released map and stories circulating the blogosphere are anything to go by.

As can be seen from the map above, Numenor still exists. It hasn't been sunk, Atlantis style, yet. This can only mean a story set when Sauron is walking the earth in his "friendly" style and sweet talking the various races into their own enslavement of the One Ring by crafting their own sets of Rings of Power.

This could prove to be rather fortuitous for us gamers as I am sure that there will be a whole new raft of heroes and heroines to meet, as well as new races of people to greet, on our tabletops. The vista of new gaming stuff could be as boundless as those conjured up by Peter Jackson et al, New Line and Games Workshop for the Third Age trilogy of films. Let's hope we have a new Renaissance in gaming Lord of the Rings.

As it is Amazon producing this series though, will they keep Peter Jackson's continuity in the look of men and elves from the Second Age snippets we see in the main trilogy of Lord of the Rings films, or will they have their own vision? Will we get to see Elrond, Gil-Galad, Elendil, Isildur, Galadriel, Celeborn, Thranduil and Legolas to name but a few of the most well-known characters of the age? What will Sauron look like in his corporeal form? Will we get to see the arrival of the two Blue Wizards and the return from Aman of Glorfindel?

This is tantalising news and I for one am looking forward to this series immensely. I hope that a large gaming manufacturer, with us gamers in mind, gets the contract to produce the miniatures required. If it is Games Workshop again, as they seem to be the ones with the most world wide coverage and financial clout (according to their latest profits announcements), will we see a further raft of rule books and source material for the Strategy Battle Game based in the Second Age?

40 Years of Thrill Power

2000AD's 40th Anniversary celebrations

Saturday saw me attending the 2000AD festivities at the Novotel Hotel in Hammersmith, London. I bought the ticket several months back whilst I was still earning and boy am I glad I did.

I had a great day at the festival, I met many of my favourite artists and creators, as well as those involved in starting up the comic (and many of my other favourite reads when I was a kid), and saw a couple of films. After doing all the usual fanboy stuff (getting books signed etc.), I attended a few seminars where I learned many of the reasons why certain characters developed the way they did and why certain stories went in the directions they did. It was great seeing behind the scenes so to speak.

The two films were a surprise package; a fan produced film and a documentary...

The latter was a re-run of the Thrill Power Overload documentary for the 30th anniversary, but apparently this cut (according to the director who gave a brief introduction speech before it was shown) had a few extra bits put in for this showing only - the extra scenes will be on the new DVD to be released soon but as extras rather than as part of the actual documentary.

The former was a Strontium Dog tribute. It was produced by a group of fans and took them a great deal of effort to produce. It is a straight up hunt 'em down Strontium Dog yarn but it was done reasonably well considering the financial and technical contsraints involved. A few of the more professional outfits could actually learn from this group of fans.

It was a long day but it was thoroughly enjoyable - the 14 or so hours I was there seemed to pass in the blink of an eye and I did not have time to even think about getting bored. Here's to the 50th anniversary.


On the gaming front, I have managed to get a little work done on my Gondorian army but nothing worthwhile showing just yet. Hopefully things will pick up a little soon once I get my life back into gear after losing my mum to cancer only a few weeks back. Losing two parents within a year has been harsh and left me quite numb if I am honest. I have enjoyed attending events (like the one mentioned above) and meeting with friends as they take my mind off of my personal life but my gaming hobby has not been able to give me that escape yet as my mind keeps wandering back to my sadness. I am trying as much as possible to get out of the house and do things to keep myself active and my mind occupied but my lack of work (again) is making things difficult due to lack of money and then the worry that involves. I am not in a good place at the moment, but hopefully things will pick up soon.

Film Review - The Desolation of Smaug

I took my eldest two to the local cinema to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug yesterday afternoon. We all really enjoyed it and had lots to talk about on the car journey on the way home. I won't give away any spoilers here, but this is a brief review of the latest epic in the Lord of the Rings cycle...

I am not usually one for new fangled technology and watching a film at the cinema in anything other than vanilla 2d is something of a departure for me. I have seen other films in 3d but have not yet been impressed. Due to ticket availability yesterday (all the other showings were sold out for groupings larger than two) I could not get to see the film in 2d and had to settle for the super high def 3d version (and the extra entrance fee that entails). The 3d effect really popped, especially when titles and subtitles apeared on the screen. Most scenes were well rendered, but fast action scenes and scenes with lots of foreground clutter were quite blurry. That said, wearing the special glasses aside, I was actually quite engrossed by the film without the effects grating on me - a plus for the new 3d stuff in my eyes (no pun intended). Maybe I am a convert to 3d now? This was the special super high-def version though, so maybe the normal 3d version would be pants in comparison?

Onto the film. I am quite a Tolkien afficionado and like my Tolkien pure (like my RE Howard etc too) but I have made exceptions for this series of films. There are several breaks from the original storyline, but by and large they seem to work. There were only a couple of scenes that grated a bit (sexual inuendo in Tolkien - No, not or me) but the story on-the-whole seemed to gel well. The introduction of the non-canon female elf ranger Tauriel actually enhanced some things, but did take away a bit of the awesomeness of Legolas in my opinion - if all elves are this good then why was Legolas so special? My daughter really liked the new character though, so I think it is one for the womenfolk - Tolkien's works can be rather spartan when it comes to strong female characters.

The baddies also get a good showing, with another great orc hero involved in the plot, and the Gundabad orcs are very well done. The fight scenes involving the orcs had just the right amount of comedic lightness to make them fantasy violence rather than being too real and gruesome (which is better for the kids). We also get to see more of the Necromancer and of course the mighty Smaug. All done very well.

We were all disappointed (in a good way) with the ending, but that is only because we were left on a bit of a cliff-hanger and all wanted to know what happens next.

I thoroughly recommend the film. We all found it better than the previous outing, which was a good film too, and are now all looking forward to the final installment.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Well, I finally got around to seeing this film yesterday afternoon with a couple of the kids, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised despite some fairly negative comments I have seen on the net.

Picture courtesy of Google Images

I felt it stuck to the book reasonably well, with a few diversions that fit into the canon (welcomed) and a few that did not (mostly they worked well). I especially liked the ways in which PJ got around the fact that in The Hobbit some of the animals are able to talk, but in the film he has made it that they do not - thus the (re-)introduction of a couple of deus ex machina to resolve the issues.

Many critics have said that the intro and meeting at Bilbo's hobbit hole dragged, but I found I enjoyed the slow build up without it dragging at all. There is a fair bit of light heartedness and the singing was actually good for the film - I am also happy to know the tune that was set to the songs in the books, so I can sing along with them (in my head) the next time I read them. They did not detract from the film IMHO - the Hobbit was a kids' book afterall and should be light hearted and full of song and cheer; plenty of time for it to get darker and match the tone of LotR later.

There have been a few new characters introduced, but none too obscure to detract from the film, and a few removed. I feel that Azog is going to be a recurring baddie (as opposed to, IIRC, his son Bolg in the book) - hopefully more use will be made of him than was Lurtz in the LotR films. Azog reminded me very much of the lead "zombie" in I Am Legend. Perhaps PJ changed the amount of characters to make things flow a bit better so as not to confuse the audience who have not read the books with too many adversarises that would otherwise just blend into one another anyway.

A few scenes from the book have been amended slightly for the film but the outcomes were still the same. There are a few new scenes too, but without going into too much detail only one didn't work for me - a chase involving Radagast the Brown - but the rest of his role as the bearer of ill tidings fit in nicely. There are glimpses of what is still to come in the next two films too.

My favourite aspects of the film, other than a reasonably good rendering of the book, are the mounted elves (awesome), the hunter orcs and dire wargs (brutal), and the fact that the animals do not speak (although I suspect Smaug will be a speaker - but maybe/hopefully by some form of telepathy?)

As we walked out of the cinema both of the kids said they couldn't wait for the Blu-Ray version, and have since said they want to go to see it again. I am more than happy to oblige them.

My wife, who is not at all into fantasy or sci-fi stuff, has said she will take a trip to see it on the feedback she has had from us all. Previously, she has fallen asleep during LotR and a variety of other sci-fi films I have taken her to see, but I think she may just stay awake for this one. She may have started to see the light when it comes to sci-fant films after being subjected to the first of the Alien and Predator films during the Christmas break, and saying that she actually enjoyed them!

From a gaming perspective, there are a few battle scenes that can easily be recreated on the tabletop, and seeing the miniatures released by GW, the whole film will be easy to recreate - although where I am going to get several hundred goblins on the cheap I do not know :-)

Overall, I would give this film about 8.5 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was, and it was actually better than I anticipated. Now to get on and paint those figures I bought just before Christmas so I can plan an Escape from Goblin Town.