The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

"Let us hunt some orc!"

Even after all this time, I think this is one of the best lines in a trilogy that is filled with great lines. It's funny, I only realized more than ten years had passed since these movies came out (The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in 2001! Can you believe it?!) when I went to see the Hobbit, and for some reason I saw the dates of the previous movies online.

I then decided to undertake the huge task of seeing the whole extended trilogy again, both to plunge into Middle Earth again after The Hobbit did nothing more than whet my appetite for good fantasy, and for the Golden Gentlemen Challenge at Persie's blog. 

I had forgotten how long the films were (and btw, I deserve extra points for this - these monstrosities should count double, lol) but it is a good sort of long, with character development, amazing fight scenes, and beautiful scenery. I can't deny they have aged very well - there are amazingly few cringe worthy moments (and most of them revolve around an overly emotional Frodo) and all the films are still as exciting and visually impressive as ever.

Since there isn't much of interest to be said about these films that hasn't been said before, I thought I would go over some of my favourite scenes in each movie, and indulge in some fangirl babbling.

I used to think that the first movie, Fellowship of the Ring, was my favourite. It still has the most scenes that I love, but as a whole, I think I actually preferred Return of the King this time around - there is more Aragorn in it, and Eowyn kicking ass.

There are some seminal moments in the Fellowship movie, particularly Gandalf fighting the Balrog in Moria, with those lines we will never forget: "You shall not pass!" and "Fly, you fools!" but also Boromir's death and some of the scenes with Galadriel. But I think my favourite moment might be the scene where we first meet strider, in the tavern, and his face is lit by the red glow of his pipe.

In The Two Towers, I enjoyed everything that had to do with Rohan (I might have a thing for big bad Eomer *sigh*). The scene where our three heroes meet the war party and are surrounded by horses is impressive, and I love the first view of Rohan - it might not be as sophisticated as Rivendell or Minas Tirith, but I find that Hall and that empty town has a tragic beauty as well. The films ends in a high note, with The Battle at Helm's Deep, and it also has some brilliant scenes: Gimli trying to see over the edge of the ramparts, Legolas sliding down the stairs shooting orcs, Aragorn tossing Gimli to the bridge in front of the doors, Eomer's charge as dawn breaks... But the funniest moment is certainly when Merry and Pip discover pipe weed form the shire in the pantry in Isengard.

As for the last movie, I have a harder time putting my finger on exact moments I like - there is a beautiful sequence when the signals asking Rohan for help are being lit, for example, but that is due mostly to the beauty of the landscape. There is also a wonderful scene that is hauntingly beautiful when Faramir decides to follow his father's delusional orders and go defend Osgiliath, while the old man eats his dinner in the safety of the city. But mostly, there are a lot of good guys taking charge and kicking evil's ass, which always makes for brilliant entertainment.

Points tally: 3 films with 1 actor = 6 points + 5 from before for a total of 11 points.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

As has probably become painfully obvious by now, I am something of a fantasy junky. And like most fantasy fans of my generation, I can trace the beginnings of this - let's call it fondness to avoid the (probably more accurate) word obsession - to a few very good books I read as a teen. There was the obvious Harry Potter series, Ursula K. Leguin Tales of Earthsea, some Douglas Adams and some Narnia and a lot of Philip Pullman, but also, and maybe most importantly Tolkien. 

The thing about Middle Earth is that it is a world that never seems to end - I read Lord of the Rings a couple of years before the movies came out, and then suddenly there were all those other books set up in this amazing world, and I simply had to read them all - The Silmarilion, Unfinished Tales, The Hobbit, to name a few. So, in short: I blame Tolkien.

Much of the hype was due to the success of Peter Jackson's trilogy, and it was well deserved. High Fantasy is a difficult genre, often long, with so many characters you can't keep them straight (cf- the hilarious cheat sheet for the Dwarves of Thorin's Company!) and meandering plots that take thousands of pages to get to the point, in language that is not always very straightforward. If you are an impatient reader, or have a short attention span, it can get tiring and confusing very quickly, and people just give up. So, good movies, that are faithful to the books they are based on, is a great compromise, a perfect way to delve into this new world and maybe grab the attention of people. Unlike some other die-hard fans, I am not at all opposed to movie adaptations of books I like (even if I have been disappointed before *cough* Eragon *cough*) and the Hobbit was just the same - I was there on opening night.

So, ten years after giving us the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson comes back with three new films that tell the tale of how Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle, was hired as a burglar in Thorin Oakshield's Company, and set out on a quest to reclaim Eresbor, the last great dwarf kingdom of Middle Earth, from the dragon Smaug. The story is set 60 years before the events of Lord of the Rings, and is a prequel to that story, setting the scene from some very important plot points.

As always with Peter Jackson, the cast is superb:

Martin Freeman .......... Young Bilbo Baggins

Ian McKellan .............. Gandalf the Grey

Richard Armitage ....... Thorin Oakshield

Ken Stott .................... Balin

Aidan Turner .............. Kili

Dean O'Gorman ......... Fili

Hugo Weaving .......... Lord Elrond

Cate Blanchett ........... Lady Galadriel

Christopher Lee ......... Saruman the White

Sylvester McCoy........ Radagast the Brown

Andy Serkis ............... Gollum

I don't think I have seen such a perfect fit as Armitage in the role of Thorin in a long time - the voice, the bearing,  the frown, everything fits perfectly. Kili and Fili are delightful, and really, all the company as a group have great chemistry (even if I have a soft spot for Kili and his bow). The opening scenes in Bilbo's house are truly terrific - between the comedy of the kitchen raid, and the aching melancholy of the dwarves singing Mysty Mountain  in front of the fire - they set the tone for the quest perfectly.

The rest of the film continues much as a quest would - there are amazing location shots, and very good fight scenes (the running battle against the Goblins under the mountain is particularly good). The plot advances at a brisk pace, with new enemies and old foes appearing at regular intervals. 

Don't take this the wrong way - the film was great. Even knowing what was going to happen in advance (and isn't that a bittersweet thing!) I was still bitting my nails off when Thorin jumped from his tree to confront Azog, and cheering Bilbo when he followed (on a side note, isn't Bilbo a much more engaging hero than Frodo? I certainly think so!). It was a long movie, and some scenes dragged a bit but most did not. In fact the only thing I found really longwinded was the meeting with Gollum - it is an extremely important scene, in terms of longterm plot-lines, but a couple of times I got tired of dealing with Gollum's multiple personalities and just wanted everything to move on and to go back to the characters I actually care about.

Still, to feel that only once in a movie that is nearly 3 hours long is something. All in all, it was a great film.

A few more points for the Golden Gentlemen Challenge:

- 1 film + 1 actor = 2 points + 3 points from before for a total of 5 points in the challenge so far.

Brave

I have been a fan of Pixar since their very first movie, Toy Story, came out in 1995. Indeed, much like Harry Potter, they were an integral part of my childhood and I believe the only films from them I haven't seen are Cars 1 and 2 (talking cars creep me out). 

As I grew older, I realized there was a reason for that - there was something special about Pixar movies that eluded the more traditional Disney animations: their stories were designed to please not only children, but adults as well. That is particularly visible in The Incredibles (2004), WALL-E (2008) and Up (2009) which have important plot points designed to speak to a mature audience. With that in mind, I didn't hesitate to go see Brave, their latest animation which won a Golden Globe for best animated feature film.

Brave follows the heroic journey of Merida, a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the unruly and uproarious lords of the land: surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson), massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to harness all of her skills and resources - including her clever and mischievous triplet brothers - to undo a beastly curse before it's too late, discovering the meaning of true bravery.

As always with Pixar, the animation was superbly done - the scottish highlands are beautifully drawn, and the characters are great (did you see Merida's hair? Isn't that just great?). The music as well is amazing (Mumford and Sons anyone?) and sets the tone for the story perfectly.

This was the first time Pixar ventured into the fairytale realm, and gave us a Disneylike princess. I wasn't very worried about that, being somewhat fond of the genre, but I was very glad that Brave was closer to Mulan than to Cinderella, with a strong leading female character, who isn't afraid to fight for what she wants.

The plot is a little more complex than we might be used to in an animation, and I've heard people who didn't enjoy the movie call it everything from "patchy" to "nonsensical" - and my response is that if you are unable to follow two or three different plotlines that come together in the end, you should try watching it again, in slow motion so you catch all the dialogue.

On the contrary, I thought that the film had surprising depth considering the audience it was intended to attract, as well as a lot of humour. It wasn't as original as Up or WALL-E, I agree, mostly because it draws very heavily from both the traditional stories of the young girl fighting an unwanted marriage and defying tradition, and the one of the girl warrior taking up arms in place of a man.

But despite all that, I absolutely loved it. Everything came together perfectly, and even if it isn't as groundbreaking as some of Pixar's previous works, it is a very pleasant movie, of the kind you can watch again and again without ever getting tired.

I watched this again for the Golden Ladies 2013 challenge, and so here are my current scores:

1 actress + 1 film = 2 point + 2 from before = 4 points 

A little snippet of what awaits you (check out the scottish accents, och!):

A Game Of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win the deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Three days, 807 pages, and I finished A Game of Thrones. It’s been quite a ride – I can’t deny that George R. R. Martin is a brilliant storyteller. He grabbed me with the simple premise of his book – the struggle of an honorable family to survive in the midst of the pitfalls of political intrigue. I got hooked because of the new HBO series (for once I started with the film and then moved on to the book) and wasn’t disappointed. Either by the book, or the adaptation – I found the photography simply beautiful, the cast is very faithful to their descriptions in the book, and from what I could glean from online chatter, the writers plan to follow the plot very closely. I couldn’t be happier.

As for the book - the characters the author creates are very compelling. One can’t help falling in love with honorable Ned Stark, Robb and Bran, little Arya who is simply a joy, and Jon Snow (my favorite, I think). I took a strong dislike from the first to Catlyn Stark (probably because I love Jon so much and she treats him so very poorly, but also because she is the cause of much grief – some of her decisions are so very, very stupid) and some of the other character we follow aren’t so easy to empathize with (I could throttle Sansa with my bare hands), but they are all extremely human – struggling with fear and duty and having to grow up in the midst of a war. It’s brilliant character development, and very good writing.

Indeed, it’s amazing how Martin manages to communicate so much with so few words – Bran, when talking about his sister says “She lost her wolf.” And that wolf was so much more than a mere puppy: it’s that, but also symbolic of a proper respect for her origins, loyalty to family, duty and honor. Sansa, in her naïve awe for the court and all its dazzling lights as well as a mindless adherence to courtly ways, ends up being the unwitting pawn for the destruction of a lot of good things. The author makes all that fit into just four words – and for us to immediately grasp what these four words mean, there is a whole lot of work involved in the creation of a universe and a code of behavior that we can understand and immerse ourselves in. By the time Sansa looses her way, the reader knows that the Dyrewolf is the symbol of House Stark, and most of all, we know what being a Stark means. When she stops acting like one, her wolf dies.

There is much tragedy and sadness in the book as well – what good fantasy series doesn’t? – and the consequence is that the villains are truly horrid. As the plot develops and more details of their characters are made clear, we end up absolutely hating them (I cannot say “I hope Jeoffrey dies a slow and painful death” enough times) – and yet also understanding their motives and behavior somehow, particularly when we see them through Tyrion’s eyes. He is a very interesting character – theoretically a villain, attached to his horrid family, and yet, despised and humiliated by them and more conscious of their shortcomings than anyone else. I can’t wait to see what will become of him!

As for the plot – it’s complex, but not convoluted – I guessed the great revelation about the royal children by page 200, and in the scene with Bran and Rykon in the crypt, I think I also guessed the great secret about Jon Snow’s birth that Eddard never got to tell him (since the answer was not in book one, I won’t know for sure until I finish reading the rest). So if you read carefully, the clues are all there, and you can glimpse how things will turn out. But there are so many parallel storylines, different geographical areas (have I mentioned how detailed is this universe? I love the different societies, different orders, different places) that one has to wonder how it will all come together. I have a few guesses, but since I am only a quarter of the way through what is published of the series, I guess I should carry on, and find out for sure.

So – taking a deep breath and diving into the next volume, A Clash of Kings.

And another clip, because the series is SO awesome:

The Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin - Rowena Cory Daniells

Only seven minutes younger than Rolencia’s heir, Byren has never hungered for the throne. He laughs when a seer predicts that he will kill his twin. But the royal heir resents Byren’s growing popularity. Across the land the untamed magic of the gods wells up out of the earth’s heart. It sends exotic creatures to stalk the wintry nights and it twists men’s minds, granting them terrible visions. Those so touched are sent to the Abbey to control their gift, or die. At King Rolen’s court, enemies plot to take the throne, even as secrets within his own household threaten to tear his family apart.

High Fantasy is a complicated genre – I find it incredibly appealing (all that magic, political intrigue, warriors, quests – it’s just about irresistible) but at the same time very easy to spoil. A little too much gore, a plot that is too complex to follow, too many characters to try to like, writing that starts to turn stale, and I might lose interest (I’ve had it happen with Robin Hobb and Terry Goodkind, for example).

My latest foray into the genre was with Rowena Cory Daniells’ The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin and it was not a disappointment. I had never heard about her before I saw the beautiful cover art in the bookstore (I find the second tome particularly pretty), and as a complete bookaholic, I had to have them.

The main story revolves around a battle for succession in the kingdom of Rolencia – it is a tale of political intrigue and complicated familial relations (a newly acknowledged bastard, some healthy sibling rivalry, a few dangerous secrets, and the scene is set). I love political mayhem and I found that the plot of this book had the perfect balance of complexity and just plain misinformation (innocent situations that turn into something else, to our despair as readers actively engaged in the fate of our favourite characters). This balance is the key to a plot that keeps us immersed in the story (I must have read the three tomes in four or five days) but never confuses the reader with too many fiddly details.

The universe where the action takes place is also very well developed – the author pays attention to small details that give it life in our eyes – my favourite was the favourite transportation method – skating the frozen canals during the winter (I found that so refreshingly original!). The system of magic – called Affinity here – is well construed, and well thought out – I loved all the ‘Affinity beasts’ that can cause problems but also be favoured companions and have an important role to play in the novels.

The magic is also the source of many of the problems in the world – not only because it attracts dangerous animals, but also because it is extremely restricted in its use – a person with affinity has two choices, either devote his or her life to the abbeys and learn to use it ‘for the greater good’ or risk death as a Renegade Practitioner. So there is not much freedom to chose, as the King rules with a heavy hand. The price one pays to live with secrets is an interesting leitmotiv in the series – particularly with Piro, the young princess who is actively trying to hide her powers. But with the other characters as well, in smaller measures, and this makes them vulnerable, but also extremely engaging.

The second volumes is basically a follow-up to the first – a continual building of tension that picks up after the near destruction of the kingdom and the escape or capture of most of the characters. The relief from tension arrives with the third volume, that resolves most of the previous volumes story-arcs, while also opening up to the rest of the universe imagined – particularly the rival kingdom of Merofynia, from whence most of the villains come.

As for the denouement – I am almost afraid to say. My reaction was something like: “What??? No, no, no, no, no, no – I want mooooooore!!! There has to be mooooore!!! Where is the fourth volume???”

Because the truth is, while much has been resolved (most of the political intrigue, for example, is completely settled), much is also left in suspense – particularly relating to personal relationships and romantic entanglements, but also the reclaiming of a whole occupied kingdom. I found the ending abrupt – there really is no other word. It does not take away from all that came before – it is a very good series – but it is the major problem in my opinion: I don’t much like to be left hanging after becoming so very enmeshed in a story. So I certainly recommend the books – but beware the sudden fall that comes right after the end of the action. No awkward epilogues here!

Addendum: I was very happy to learn that there will be three more books, sometime in the distant, distant future. Apparently the author has one more trilogy planned, but wants to finish a new series she is working on before tackling the project.