Tolkienish Tuesday: Desolation of Smaug trailer and fan film The Hunt for Gollum

[huinare]

If anyone hasn't yet seen the trailer, which premiered via the Hobbit films' official FB page earlier today, behold:

My thoughts on the trailer.

- You know what I totally fangirled over?  The shot of Bilbo in the treetops with the butterflies.  I absolutely love that scene in the book.  Hell, I love that scene in the Rankin-Bass film.  I love that scene in this film as well.

- I fangirled more over Gandalf and Radagast on principle, although Gandalf needs to fricking enunciate, as this short tumblr post aptly demonstrates for me.  [Just googled it: "It's undoubtedly a trap."]

- EREBOR.

- I'm not -too- irked at PJ for turning everybloodything into an action scene.  That's what the man does and he's set in his ways.  No one's interpretation will bear out my own in all ways, so I'll just use one of those pointless action sequences as an opportunity to visit the restroom like I did during the first Hobbit film.

- Surprisingly enough, I like Legolas here.  I also like Tauriel.  I like them because they BOTH serve a useful purpose: they give us a glimpse into how Thranduil's folk may have viewed the growing darkness around them, into the sort of dialogue that may have taken place around those issues.  Also, this might be a chance to show Legolas grow into somebody more concerned for people outside his own realm, and i think I'd like him a bit more with a backstory like that.

- LAKETOWN.

- B a r r e l s

- Smaug, however, was a let-down.  He looked like a pretty generic dragon to me.  After all the clever not-quite-showing-Smaug-directly business in the first film, I was expecting that A) they would not ruin that anticipatory buildup by showing us Smaug in the freaking trailer and B) Smaug would look cooler.

_______*_______

Right after viewing the trailer, I ran into the fan film The Hunt for Gollum on youtube, so I went ahead and watched that.  I can't recall if I watched it before--I must really not have been in the mood for it, if I did, apparently--although I knew of its existence.  While I was bored for the first ten minutes or so, I ended up quite liking it.  For regular shmucks on a budget, it's quite a decent piece of work.  I actually really loved their orcs, they still looked orcish but not monstrous (I realize this is probably just a function of not having a massive makeup and wardrobe budget, but I liked it).  My biggest complaint is that these folks, who are clearly talented, could have made it their own thing instead of trying to pretend they're making Peter Jackson's films.  It does suffer a lot from that "oh, cheap copy of Peter Jackson's work," which I find jarring as a viewer.  If you've seen it, what are your thoughts?

Comments

[ladybrooke]

I watched the trailer earlier too. I like it, not because it looks like I'll love the movie (though battle scenes, because I have a love affair with those)(but Thranduil seemed better than I had hoped after the disaster that was Celeborn. Still reserving final judgement, but he's about the only thing I truly care about in the movie), but because it seems like my little bro will like it. And if I do anything, minion is turning into somewhat of a Tolkien fan.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I didn't really care for Thranduil's diction myself.. Yes, convert them all to Tolkien, bwahaha.

[ladybrooke]

It's not how I personally imagine him, but I gave up on that - I'm just glad that he doesn't sound like Celeborn did. I will! My little bro is already half way there, though he still gets bored with the books.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I can see that Thranduil might well be a tad pompous and prone to contorted grammar, but the decision to lead with the sentence 'you seek that which would bestow upon you the right to rule' is a tad odd.

I'm reserving judgement on Smaug - after all, we only get a quick shot of the side of his head. But I had been hoping for a more Tolkienish Smaug - after all, Smaug is one of the few things where we don't have to rely on illustrators, Tolkien drew him in some detail. But perhaps the Tolkien version would not be scary enough for modern cinema audiences.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Yeah that did seem not the best way to lead off.

Hmm, I'm sure with the level of talent and creativity coming from Howe and Lee, they could've managed to make a Smaug more after the Professor's design but scarier-looking (now I want to try this myself, since they apparently didn't).

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

Bilbo and the butterflies! Yes! I was thrilled to see that, too. It was one of my favorite bits in the novel, and it is pitch perfect here. Martin Freeman redeemed a multitude of sins in the first movie. I expect he will here, too. Btw, how's Tumblr Savior working for you? I clicked through (stupidly) to a rant about the movie in which the poster snarked about the butterflies in the aforementioned scene not being velvet black, re: "I expect they were a kind of 'purple emperor,' a butterfly that loves the tops of oak-woods, but these were not purple at all, they were a dark dark velvety black without any markings to be seen." <= ETA: that's the quote from The Hobbit, not from the complaining Tumblrite.

Yeah. Like dark black (what? isn't black inherently dark?) would show up against the russet colors used for the foliage of the trees. There is such a thing as artistic license, and it was used effectively here. It was tempting to point this out, but...well, it's an instance with Savior might have been useful.

so I'll just use one of those pointless action sequences as an opportunity to visit the restroom like I did during the first Hobbit film.

A good action sequence will raise my heartbeat and engage me. A bad one will have me looking at my watch, wondering when the director will move on to something more interesting. That is exactly what happened during The Hobbit: AUJ. I have no objection to action scenes, but lordy. PJ is indulgent, and it's impossible for me NOT to compare his approach to those of directors who handle action sequences more effectively. To me, the ham-handed approach of excessive CGI-action takes what could have been an excellent movie and shoves it down into mediocrity.

I liked The Hunt for Gollum a lot. As you aptly note, it would have been improved by less obvious homage to PJ, but I really liked the more understated quality of the film. The landscapes play a huge role (not unlike Tolkien's novels), and the soundtrack is far more subtle. Actually, birds serve as the soundtrack! The orcs are an improvement, that's for sure, although IIRC, the orcs in Born of Hope are even better: considerably less monstrous, and more human. That rings truer for me.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I'm liking tumblr savior. One can use it to blacklist certain words or phrases (I tend to go for short phrases, otherwise it'll blacklist anything that has the single word anywhere in the post...text, tags). Settings can be altered to tell you when something has been blocked, if so desired. As a hypothetical situation, if you blacklisted 'velvety black moth' or whatnot, you could get dashboard notifications along the lines of "a post by so-and-so containing 'velvety black moth' has been blocked. click to view post." Or you can just set it to do all of its blocking silently.
My only grievance is that the settings apply to all blacklisted terms. Whereas with some things I'd prefer to know they're being blocked, and other things not so much).

Really now, I'd have -preferred- some nice close-up shots of actual velvety black moths, but you're right, they wouldn't show up well. That was one instance where I didn't care much about artistic license because I was just glad they'd included the scene at all! My learning curve with the first Hobbit film installment was pretty steep, in terms of choosing what I wanted to bother with being irked at. If I was irked at every single thing that wasn't quite how I wanted it to be, well, that way lies madness.

Re: action sequences. There's one point in the preview where the Dwarves are popping out of their barrels with swords or something, and at that point I kind of just wanted to laugh because it screamed PETER JACKSON WAS HERE.

The Hunt for Gollum - yes, the more understated tone, it's quite nice. I think I most enjoyed the scenes where Aragorn is just walking along.

(Edit for totally failing to take due advantage of my new icon.)

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Barrels! So wonderful, so rolling, so absolutely perfect. And butterflies! I must admit that I barely remembered the butterfly sequence in the book, but when I saw it I was once again transported.

Agree 100% about Gandalf's enunciation issues. So happy you looked it up for me. Two viewings and I still hadn't understood the words.

Legolas might grow up to be a worth heir to Thranduil after all of this. I am pleased that he is pulled into the battles this early. Lovely bow work by both he and Tauriel. She has more possibilities than I was first willing to grant her, so I guess I won't immediately cringe when I see her on screen.

Smaug - as one who adores dragons, this small view left me rather cold. Of course there's a lot of dragon yet to come....

I vaguely remember The Hunt for Gollum and Born of Hope. For amateur productions with very limited budgets they were both quite good.

- Erulisse (one L)
edited for spelling error

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I'd seen the preview three times and could not for the life of me understand Gandalf. Of course, after looking it up, it sounded clear as a bell to me upon a fourth viewing. =P

My main concern with Tauriel was giving too big of a role to an OC when there are so many already-existing characters to explore, but I'm already convinced from this preview that she fills a very necessary void in terms of exploring the woodelves as a society and as people.

Hopefully Smaug will be more impressive when he's flying around in his rage!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Piece of total trivia - one of my LJ friends, who I've also met off-line, has her name in the credits for The Hunt for Gollum...

I agree with you, though - not looking as if they were desperately trying to imitate PJ's stuff as much as possible would probably have made it even better!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! Yes, it seemed like there was a lot of talent involved in the production, and it's a tad unfortunate they felt the need to emulate another director.

[independence1776]

It looks like it'll be a fun romp. Beyond that, I'm not expecting much.

My favorite part was Thranduil's cavern. I keep calling it "Menegroth" in my head… And what you said about Legolas and Tauriel, though I've always liked book!Legolas (I'm less fond of the movie version).

I remember watching "Hunt for Gollum." I can't say more than that; it didn't really stick in my memory.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Legolas isn't a favorite of mine, but yes, book!him is way better.

Menegroth! I'll have to look more closely at that next time I view the trailer.