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Thoughts After a Triple Movie Marathon
I wrote the following just now, for a "Stop What You're Doing and Write Something Now" challenge for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
getyourwordsout community I'm a part of at DW. I found myself writing about a triple movie marathon viewing I just completed.
So I just finished a marathon viewing of all three of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films (the extended versions) as well as their accompanying appendices and special features. I have some thoughts which seem to want to be set down, so I'm going to try to manage that!
Those who know me know that I am a Tolkien fan from way, way back (close to 50 years, now, yikes!). Reading The Hobbit was always enjoyable for me, but I was more of a Lord of the Rings fan, myself. Perhaps because I was less invested in The Hobbit book, I did not have much issue with the way Peter Jackson portrayed the story in his films, even when it introduced changes to the story line or added new characters. I enjoyed very much seeing each of the films in the theater, and rewatching them when the DVDs came out, but this is the first time I've watched the extended versions (and the extra material).
For the first two films in my marathon viewing, I watched the film itself, and then the accompanying extra features. These give a ton of amazing background to the making of the films, what the intentions of the director and the actors were, and just really added to the enjoyment of what was finally produced. For the third film, I decided to watch all the background special features before seeing the final installment of the movies. I'm really glad I did it this way! It gave me an understanding of why they made the changes they made, how much pressure they were under in making the films due to time constraints, and what the actors thought about some of their different scenes, especially the ones they were very fond of. I think I enjoyed watching the third film more for having had that background coming into it.
My main quibbles with the films the first time I saw them were a couple of lines in the films that seem to indicate a misunderstanding of the timeline of the books -- people were referred to who should not actually been around or were not old enough to be significant at that time. I am first and foremost a fan of the books, but I am not necessarily a purist, because I understand and allow for the changes made in the films. However, these comments bothered me a bit, so I did some research. I discovered quite quickly that there is a different timeline in Peter Jackson's Tolkien films, and this is fairly consistent across all six films. I did not realize this before, so this was an amazing discovery for me! Even when the dates and ages of people do not match with the book, they fit with the timeline of the films. After learning this, I realized that I no longer have an issue with these bits that previously bothered me. I am okay with these discrepancies with the books! This makes the Hobbit films even more enjoyable.
I intend to continue my marathon viewing and move into watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended editions. It has been some years since I last watched them, so I am looking forward to seeing them again -- the films that brought Tolkien's world back to me afresh after reading about it for many years. I think I will watch the extended features and appendices first, like I did for the last Hobbit film, and see if it changes my watching of the movies themselves at all.
I am very much looking forward to traveling to Middle-earth again soon!
getyourwordsout community I'm a part of at DW. I found myself writing about a triple movie marathon viewing I just completed.So I just finished a marathon viewing of all three of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films (the extended versions) as well as their accompanying appendices and special features. I have some thoughts which seem to want to be set down, so I'm going to try to manage that!
Those who know me know that I am a Tolkien fan from way, way back (close to 50 years, now, yikes!). Reading The Hobbit was always enjoyable for me, but I was more of a Lord of the Rings fan, myself. Perhaps because I was less invested in The Hobbit book, I did not have much issue with the way Peter Jackson portrayed the story in his films, even when it introduced changes to the story line or added new characters. I enjoyed very much seeing each of the films in the theater, and rewatching them when the DVDs came out, but this is the first time I've watched the extended versions (and the extra material).
For the first two films in my marathon viewing, I watched the film itself, and then the accompanying extra features. These give a ton of amazing background to the making of the films, what the intentions of the director and the actors were, and just really added to the enjoyment of what was finally produced. For the third film, I decided to watch all the background special features before seeing the final installment of the movies. I'm really glad I did it this way! It gave me an understanding of why they made the changes they made, how much pressure they were under in making the films due to time constraints, and what the actors thought about some of their different scenes, especially the ones they were very fond of. I think I enjoyed watching the third film more for having had that background coming into it.
My main quibbles with the films the first time I saw them were a couple of lines in the films that seem to indicate a misunderstanding of the timeline of the books -- people were referred to who should not actually been around or were not old enough to be significant at that time. I am first and foremost a fan of the books, but I am not necessarily a purist, because I understand and allow for the changes made in the films. However, these comments bothered me a bit, so I did some research. I discovered quite quickly that there is a different timeline in Peter Jackson's Tolkien films, and this is fairly consistent across all six films. I did not realize this before, so this was an amazing discovery for me! Even when the dates and ages of people do not match with the book, they fit with the timeline of the films. After learning this, I realized that I no longer have an issue with these bits that previously bothered me. I am okay with these discrepancies with the books! This makes the Hobbit films even more enjoyable.
I intend to continue my marathon viewing and move into watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended editions. It has been some years since I last watched them, so I am looking forward to seeing them again -- the films that brought Tolkien's world back to me afresh after reading about it for many years. I think I will watch the extended features and appendices first, like I did for the last Hobbit film, and see if it changes my watching of the movies themselves at all.
I am very much looking forward to traveling to Middle-earth again soon!