Hobbitary Discrepancies

After all of my posts about how much I love The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thorin Oakenshield, Richard Armitage playing Thorin Oakenshield, and pretty much how the movie is better than the book, I think it is high time for my book-to-movie adaption purist side to have its say.  (Warning: heavy sarcasm ahead)

No more Mrs. Nice LynZ.

8. Issues I Have with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

As much as I love the Hobbit movie, after talking to my Pastor, I've come to the conclusion that it is time to talk about some of the problems with this first part of what will become Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Trilogy by 2014.  Sorry, Mr. Jackson.  I still think you're a great director and should be awarded for the film...it's just not accurate.

Azog

Ah, where should I begin regarding Azog?  Maybe with...he's supposed to be dead.  In fact, he died in Appendix A in the back of The Return of the King, which technically occurred way before Thorin and Company ever thought about making the insanely long, arduous, 48 fsp journey back to Erebor.  So, what is he doing in The Hobbit?

Theory: Peter Jackson didn't think The Hobbit was exciting enough as it was, so...he brought Azog out of the shadows of Appendix A to haunt our friend Thorin.  As if Thorin doesn't have enough to worry about.  After all, he's still got this dragon to deal with at the end of the road, not to mention other things like trolls, goblins, giant spiders, and angry, gold-happy elves who cross his path.  But, somehow, all of that isn't enough stress for Thorin, so Mr. Jackson felt it necessary to add the factor of being chased by Azog and his orc band (who, by the way, are intent of relieving Thorin of his shaggy head) to the mix.

Okay, I get it.  They needed the story to be more exciting, more dangerous, and more intense.  But, if that's all they needed to make the Hobbit the LOTR's prequel instead of the Hobbit itself, why bring a dead character out of the depths of Appendix A to do so?  Paraphrasing what my Pastor said, "If they wanted someone to be chasing Thorin and Company for the majority of the movie, why couldn't they have just made it the Goblin King's brother or something like that?"

Basically, it would be like bringing Darth Maul back from the dead to chase Luke and Leia while they also try to defeat Darth Sidious and Darth Vadar.  Star Wars fans would riot.

Goblin Town: Peter Jackson's Middle Earth vs. J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth

Weird as it may sound, the episode in Goblin Town is notably one of my favorite sections of the Hobbit book.  I still have no idea why.  Regardless, it was also one of the scenes I was pretty positive would not be removed, as well as one of the scenes that were likely to be butchered.

I was right and I was wrong.  Allow me to explain.

Goblin Town was really dark, freaky, and very unstable.  The perfect setting for a Goblin King with a mega-double-chin and his crazy, filthy hoard.  I loved it.

My hugest problem with the scene was that the goblins didn't tie up the dwarves and Bilbo upon their arrival in Goblin Town.  As a film major, I can kind of understand Peter Jackson's logic on this one.  Thorin's dignity not withstanding, the dwarves were not tied up by the goblins because of time restraint.  There was simply no time in the film to untie them all in an efficient manner in time for them to go tearing off through Goblin Town en route toward the Back Door (as Gollum calls it).  If Mr. Jackson filmed every single detail, then the movie would have been 12 hours long, and nobody (not even the most die-hard LOTR fans) would have sat through that.  There's way too much to do, like rereading the books or watching the trilogy again.

But, here's my other thing regarding the binding (or lack thereof) of the dwarves in Goblin Town:  In the world created by Tolkien, it would be completely realistic for the goblins to tie them up.  Even if they knew their prisoners couldn't escape, they'd still bind them just because they're goblins and that's what goblins do.  Just ask Merry and Pippin about their 3 day, 16 page experience with the Orcs.

Which brings me to my last point (in a really round-about way)...

The Added Subtext

So, we've established that Peter Jackson did not have time in the movie to tie up (and consequently untie) the captive dwarves in Goblin Town due to time restrains so as not to turn the first movie into its own personal little trilogy.  But, if time restraint was a problem...

WHY ADD THE WHOLE THING ABOUT GETTING CHASED BY AZOG IN THE FIRST PLACE????!!!!

Are they aware of how much time might have been saved if they'd just stuck to the Hobbit book and resisted the urge to add the Azog subtext to the movies?  The trilogy might have been two movies, or at the very least the trilogy could have been a little flushed out.  Or, perhaps, the movies could have been shorter than three hours each (dun dun dun).  Then, more people might have gone to see it in the theatre instead of waiting until the DVD release in March, because let's just admit it, three hours is a little taxing on the human body.  I don't think I need to say more than that.

I think those are the only problems I had with An Unexpected Journey.  If I missed something, please do not hesitate to comment and let me know.

Adventures in Screen Acting - Janis (Mean Girls)

Being a film major means I get to take all kinds of fun film related classes.  One of my instructors said that anyone who wanted to be a director should consider taking a screen acting class, so I decided to take the one and only screen acting class at the college I attend.

Our first assignment for this screen acting class was to come up with a scene to act out (in front of the camera) with our acting partners.  My partner suggested comedy, but since my favorite movies ever are action movies, I was no help in the comedy field (a few came to mind after the fact, but it was too late by then).  Strangely enough, the only "comedy" my partner could think of at that moment was Mean Girls.  So, I set out on a quest to find the screenplay.  But, since I've never seen it, and my partner didn't know exactly where in the film the scene she thought we could act out was, I did the most logical thing I could think of: start on page one.  

Fast forward 117 pages: it's 8 pm, my dinner's getting cold, my math homework remains undone, and my brain is fried.  So, I immediately go turn on my audio book of The Return of the King, and listen to that while I eat, do the dishes, and do my math homework.  But, the whole time, a nagging question kept bugging me: Why did I read the whole script?

Turns out I wasn't the only person with this thought.  My screen acting class partner as like, "Why did you do that?  You didn't have to do that!"  But, I did.  There's no going back now.

So, we met in class, and we tried to decide who should play who.  She wanted to play Cady (the main character).  I was okay with that, since I didn't want to be associated with Lindsay Lohan for the rest of the semester.  But, that left me playing the part of Janis, the not-too-scary gothic person.

Let it be known, I'm not gothic, emo, or anything like that.  So, then came the task of trying to "own" a character I had never "met" before.  So, I turned to Google and found images of Janis.  Not exactly the way I pictured her.  After watching several Mean Girls clips (none of which were the scene my partner and I were acting out), I kinda had an idea of what I was getting myself into.  So, come Friday morning (12am to be precise), I was in the process of switching into borderline-goth high school teenager mode.  

For my Janis impersonation, I picked out an outfit I thought Janis would wear if she were me: Dark grey v-neck shirt with Snoopy on a camouflage doghouse over a long-sleeved dark olive-green shirt, and a pair of darker wash jeans, and topped off with dark blue Old Navy flip flops.  Just before midnight, I had the sudden thought that Janis might be the kind of girl to paint her nails, something I rarely do, due to time restrains and other reasons.  So, I went digging through my house for nail polish.  My only options were red or metallic blue.  I thought the metallic blue would fit the character better.

Four hours of sleep later, I was getting ready to leave for class.  Has anyone seen those huge, frilly wigs that Irish dancers wear at feises?  Well, my hair is naturally like that, so occasionally there are mornings where I just don't have time (or energy) to deal with it.  This day was no exception.  So, I grabbed a hat I thought Janis would wear, and ran out the door to get to class.

We were split into groups, with about two or three partners in each group.  Our instructions were simple: take three master shots and three shots of the two-shot and the close-ups (as needed).  We dragged a table in from the hall, and thus began two hours of quoting the same seven lines from Mean Girls.  Over.  And over.  And over.

Contrary to popular belief, it actually takes a really, really long time to shoot a scene.  I heard somewhere a statistic of about 2 or 3 scenes per day on a good day (7 or 8 scenes per day for hour long television show episodes).  Our Mean Girls scene was no exception.  We filmed that scene for about two hours straight.  

I started by giving Janis a snotty-teenager edge, which - I guess - wasn't quite right.  The instructor walked by and suggested I build up some emotion.  We're talking about ruining Regina's life.  Regina's hurt "me", so "I'm" using Cady to get back at Regina.  Okay.  So, after literally yelling at my partner for about an hour (If you can get that close to Regina George, you have a responsibility to mess with her!!!!!), the instructor came by again and suggested I try a different (much calmer) approach.  "Try saying the lines as if explaining things to a little kid."  So, I spent the next hour explaining, "There are two kinds of evil people in this world, Cady: People who do evil stuff.  And people who see evil stuff being done and don’t do anything to stop it.  If you can get that close to Regina George, you have a responsibility to mess with her" to my partner as if she were a two-year old (a real feat since she's my age and my height).  Now, people weren't cringing whenever I talk.  Now, I was getting people saying, "That was really good."

So, I came away from that experience with Screen Acting Rule #1: Be Flexible.

If you're dream in life is to be an actor or actress in movies, memorize the above rule.  It's important.  You may think you have a clear idea of who the character is or how the character should act, but you should also always, always, always be open to suggestions.  The director or someone else may see a potential for the character you hadn't thought of, and that version of the character might work better in the long run.  

I still haven't seen Mean Girls.  But, I can say that I have read the original Mean Girls script by Tina Fey in all of its 117 page glory.  

Hobbitary Commentary (continued once again)

As I said in a previous post, I have a lot of thoughts about Thorin Oakenshield.  This post is no exception...

7. Thorin's Timeline (Tolkien vs. Jackson)

After seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey three times and rereading The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, I actually noticed a little difference.  Thorin's life story and history was changed dramatically.

But, before I go off on my tangent, I'll give you both timelines next to each other so you can see the differences.

Timeline                                                                 Timeline

          (according to Tolkien)                              (according to LynZ, based on Jackson)

                  1. Erebor attacked by Smaug                           1. Thrain captured by Sauron,

                                                                                              and taken to Dol Guldor

                  2. Dwarves go to reclaim Moria

                                                                                            2. Ring taken from Thrain

                  3. Thror killed by Azog

                                                                                            3. Thror "adopts" Thorin

                  4. Azog killed by Dain                                                                               

                                                                                           4. Thrain rescued by Gandalf, 

                  5. Thrain heads for Erebor                                  Gandalf receives key and map                         

                                           

                  6. Thrain captured by Sauron                      5. Thrain returns to Erebor

                      and taken to Dol Guldor

                                                                                            6. Erebor attacked by Smaug

                  7. Ring taken from Thrain

                                                                                            7. Dwarves go to reclaim Moria

                  8. Gandalf finds Thrain in Dol Guldor,

                      Thrain gives key and map to Gandalf      8. Thror killed by Azog

                  9. Thorin receives key and map                   9. Thrain goes insane,

                                                                                            disappears

                 10. Thorin and Co. & Bilbo head for    

                        Erebor                                                         10. Azog injured by Thorin

                                                                                            11. Thorin receives key and map

          

                                                                                            12. Thorin and Co. & Bilbo head
                                                                                                  for Erebor                                                                  

You will probably notice that the movie's timeline is a little longer than the book's timeline.  

My wonderful Pastor has a theory as to why these timelines look so different: "[Peter Jackson] wasn't making The Hobbit.  He was making a prequel to Lord of the Rings."

Maybe this is true.  The LOTR trilogy were a big industry when they were released to the world between 2001 and 2003.  They still are a big industry today (with the lego sets, and the movies, and the swords, etc.).  So, why wouldn't Mr. Jackson do his utmost to link The Hobbit to the already existing and popular Lord of the Rings?

My problem is that Mr. Jackson over did it a little.  No, actually a lot.  The Lord of the Rings was already heavily linked to The Hobbit long before Peter Jackson ever got his fingers on the copyrights.

First of all, the Ring is an instant link between Bilbo and Frodo's adventures.  Bilbo found the Ring while journeying with Thorin and Company.  Frodo goes on a journey to destroy the Ring.  That should be enough to satisfy the audience.

Second, Gollum's back.  When Bilbo takes the Ring, Gollum goes on a mission to find (and kill) Bilbo to get "the Precious" back.  In the Lord of the Rings, Gollum shows up for the majority of The Two Towers, and part of The Return of the King, still on his mission to get "the Precious" back.

Third, in the Hobbit book and the Fellowship of the Ring book, we (as the reader) get a fully detailed account of how Thrain was imprisoned in Dol Guldor, and how Gandalf found him there (for more on this, see More Hobbitary Commentary, #5. Seven Rings for the Dwarf Lords).

Fourth, in the Fellowship of the Ring book, after Frodo is stabbed by the Black Rider's blade on Weathertop, he, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Aragorn are journeying and begin talking about, "Hey, I think we're pretty close to the same road Bilbo and the Dwarves took all those years ago.  Wouldn't it be cool if we found one of the places where his adventures took place?"  And then, Pippin and Merry find the stone Trolls, who are obviously William, Bert, and Tom, the Trolls who were turned to stone while arguing over how to cook thirteen dwarves and a "burrahobbit".  And, because Frodo isn't quite as sick and dying at that moment as Peter Jackson would have you believe in the movie, they sit around with the stone Trolls and eat, and tell stories, and take a look around the place before continuing their journey toward Rivendell.

Fifth, everyone remembers Sting, right?  It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the little "letter opener" sword Gandalf gives Bilbo is the same Sting that Bilbo will give to Frodo in The Fellowship, and the same Sting that will fight many Orcs and other baddies all the way from Rivendell to Mount Doom.

Finally, Thorin (although he doesn't show up himself) is mentioned multiple times in The Lord of the Rings.  Gandalf seems to enjoy recounting Thorin's life, and Bilbo's adventures, especially in the Fellowship.  In fact, if you were to search the index at the back of The Return of the King, you would find that Thorin Oakenshield is mentioned several times between pages 10 and 261.  In fact, there's a whole appendix devoted to the line of Durin, to which Thorin belongs (anyone remember the real reason Azog wants Thorin's head so badly?).

All that aside, even if Peter Jackson was trying to make the prequel to his trilogy instead of The Hobbit, he kind of overdid it.  We don't need to whole subtext about how all the orcs, goblins, and who knows what else is out to get Thorin's head in order to destroy the line of Durin.  We don't even really need to see the whole Battle of Moria.  I think those were added for drama, and for Peter Jackson's subtext, and to introduce us to Azog, so that Azog could then spend the rest of the trilogy chasing down Thorin, because - for some reason - the story wasn't exciting enough as it was.  I understand that some things must be taken out due to time restrains, but that does not excuse adding an entire subtext to the story.  The subtext takes up time too.

But, my Pastor can be more of an LOTR nerd than I am.  He's actually read the appendixes at the back of The Return of the King, so he's got a huge problem with how Azog could be chasing Thorin's company if Azog was killed years ago by Thorin's relative, Dain (who will show up later).

The last thing I have to point out is that in the book, Gandalf leaves no room for assumption.  He flat out tells us Thrain was captured by Sauron after the Battle of Moria.  But, in the movie, Balin tells Bilbo and the rest of the Company that Thrain went mad with grief and disappeared after Thror was murdered by Azog.  This isn't the hugest deal in the world, unless you're me and you pay attention to details like this.

Personally, I like the concept (however vague) that Thrain was emotionally unstable and that Thorin was raised by his grandfather (as this would explain why he seems so close to his grandfather in the movie).  But, sadly, it just isn't accurate to the book.