The Hobbit!

Aaaaah, so 'The Hobbit' is FINALLY greenlit, and yesterday the first round of casting was announced. We now know who our Bilbo, Thorin, Fili, Kili, Dwalin, Gloin, Ori, and Bombur are. I, being a devoted Tolkien fan and scholar, am absolutely thrilled. I read 'The Hobbit' for the first time when I was five, so it's been a dear friend of mine for a long time. Can't wait to see what the films are going to be like! My only difficulty now is not going onto spoiler-y sites to look up set photos, clips, interviews, etc; I want to see the two movies relatively unspoiled, but I also have zilch patience. I guess I'll just see what happens and how much I can resist the siren call of theonering.net. I'm even debating with myself about whether I want to look up the rest of the casting announcements when they arrive or whether I want to remain blind about the rest of the cast. I don't know!

Anyway, Martin Freeman is Bilbo. I was, originally, rooting for James McAvoy to have the role, but then he got cast in a X-Men movie of some sort so I figured that was out of the question now . . . And I also watched the new BBC miniseries 'Sherlock' over the summer. In 'Sherlock', Freeman plays John Watson, and it was my first time watching him act. Basically, based on his performance in the miniseries, I'm absolutely happy with him as Bilbo, and think he will do a great job. If you haven't watched the series, maybe check it out (I think it premieres in America soon) so you can craft your own opinion.

Also, Richard Armitage is Thorin. Something I'm loving about the casting so far is how varied all the actors look, not only physically but also age-wise. The thirteen dwarves will really be an ensemble of thirteen characters who will hopefully be all distinct and nuanced persons we can really connect with, and not just thirteen Gimli-clones, which I'm very pleased about. I liked Rhys-Davies as Gimli in LotR, but he mostly left the emotional weight of the story to other characters like Aragorn or Sam, and so dwarves based solely around his character just wouldn't work in 'The Hobbit'. Armitage is actually a tall, stately-looking fellow, but I love that he'll be Thorin. He's a great actor. If you like period costume dramas in the tradition of 'Pride and Prejudice' or 'Jane Eyre', do yourself a favor and check out the 2004 BBC production 'North and South'. It's a beautifully done miniseries, and the male lead is played by Armitage. Although the performance is a little old now, it'll still give you an idea of his capabilities.

I made a pact with some friends that when 'The Hobbit' comes out I'm going in costume, dressed as the Lonely Mountain, so now I can actually look forward to that, hahaha. Not sure how I'll pull it off yet, but I'll do it! It's a little sad that my most-anticipated film is still two years away, but at least it's finally getting made now after so many years of stagnancy. It'll be twelve years since FotR first opened in theatres, can you believe it? Wow.

Speaking of movies I'm looking forward to, there's a few left this year that I'm eagerly anticipating:

• Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I love the Narnia books, and have liked both Narnia films pretty well so far, so I really want to see this. I've heard rumors about plot changes that are a bit weird though, and I doubt it can beat the awesomeness of the original BBC miniseries from years ago. Still, I want to watch it, partially because I hope it'll be good anyway, and partly because I just want to support the Narnia franchise so that later books in the series--most notably The Horse and his Boy and my favorite, The Silver Chair--will also get the film treatment. I really like the Edmund and Lucy actors, and Eustace looks like he'll be great, so hopefully it'll be a fun film!
  
• Tron: Legacy. I like the original 'Tron', and so I'm stoked about this. I'm not usually one to put visuals over story, but--The effects look amazing in this movie! That's all I'm going on at the moment because I don't know much about the plot, but hopefully with Pixar helping out it'll be worth watching. Anyway: Cool music, cool visuals, fun actors, sequel to a film I already like--Yeah, I wanna see this one.
• Tangled. This is a later addition to the 'I want to watch this' party, but I'm actually more excited for it now than I am for the other two. The reason? I have chosen to believe the directors, numerous early reviewers, and the evidence of my own eyes from reading an already released junior novelization of the film that this movie is going to be a humorous fairytale musical but in the tradition of classic Disney, instead of choosing to believe it will be the kind of Shrek-esque movie that the trailers apparently want viewers to think it is. I am so in love with the movie I hope this movie to ultimately be, I'm worried I'll be disappointed even if it's good. But anyway. Do I wish it was animated in traditional 2d? Well, yeah. Am I going to hold that against it? Not at all. I'm hoping they managed to get an artistic look from their 3d animation, since art is of course not limited to one dimension specifically. I linked to a trailer even though I think the trailers are doing an atrocious job of teasing what the film will actually be like (I mean, pop music? What??), but I'm also going to link to some interviews and reviews (here, here, and here) so you can get an idea of why I'm actually excited for this film. Also, Alan Menken's score is apparently a fusion of medieval style and 1960's folk rock. YES.

What do you think of 'The Hobbit' casting? And are there any films you're excited to see in the last few months of this year, or does nothing look appealing? Leave a comment! ^_^

Daytime Thunderstorm!

There's thunder. Really, really loud thunder. And lightning. Very bright lightning. And rain. Lots of torrential rain. All happening outside my window right now.

I'm not sure yet whether to be scared or excited about this, to be honest.

. . . Okay, I'm excited :D

Just watched 'The Constant' with my brother. He'd never seen it before, and I've seen it many times because it's one of my favorite episodes of television or even moving picture in general ever, and I still got all emotional and happy at the end. It's so cool to watch the scene with Faraday and Desmond in the hallway at 'Oxford' and know that I stood right there while in Hawaii, hehe. Anyway . . .

Newest baby in the family has been born! She's healthy and cute, so everything's going well. I'm holding down the fort at home right now with more or less success while mummy and baby recover and my dad stays at hospital with them. Tomorrow will be a major cleaning day.

7 Days

In one week at the most I will have another little sibling to cuddle! I had lots of fun today spending time with other siblings. We played outside: A challenging game they invented called 'Hen, Chickens, and Fox' which was basically a complicated, crazy game of tag and surprisingly fun; hide-and-go-seek; a game they invented based on 'How to Train Your Dragon', and a few others. I then took the two youngest on a walk, which was so relaxing and pleasant . . . I should go on a walk every day. Everything just seemed to mellow down, become peaceful and calm . . . I made lemonade for them as a treat when we got back to the house, and then we all made cupcakes together! I had never tried this particular recipe before, but it was delicious and chocolate-y. I had such a wonderful day today, and the little ones were talking and talking about how much fun they had. I hope to make my newest sibling as happy once she is born.

Now I'm going to grab a half-hour or so of writing time before bed, and then will probably read more of my Revolutionary War history book before actually turning off the light. That's another luxury I've been starving myself of lately, in addition to taking leisurely walks: Reading in bed.

I just finished watching the latest episode of "Fringe", which is why I'm up so late. Seriously, "Fringe" has been amaaaazing this season. I'm so glad I decided to stick with this show after the lacklustre opening episodes of the first season, because it's incredibly good now. Especially Torv; I really disliked her character in the beginning of the show and thought her acting was horrid, and now I both love BOTH versions of Olivia and am consistently wowed by Torv's acting. So good.

All right, back to my book now!

Book Reviews for September

Ha! You thought I'd never get back to doing these, didn't you?

I did my research on my library's online catalog before visiting it a couple weeks ago, so I actually got a good amount of books, as mentioned in an earlier post. That's the way you have to do it on the mainland, apparently. Otherwise you'll never find anything you want, grr.

So I managed to squeeze a few new reads in this September. It'll be a short list, but a little is better than nothing!

HMS Surprise, by Patrick O'Brian
This is definitely my favorite of the Aubrey-Maturin novels I have read so far. It's very exciting, and almost unbelievably well-written. Although written in the 1970's, I think, you could easily be fooled into believing it's a bona-fide 1800's novel. Mind-blowing. What makes it more than merely a really well-done period novel, however, are the wonderfully three-dimensional characters (especially Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin themselves, but also the infuriating and yet pitiable Diana and a few others) and the extremely wry and unexpected darts of humor that O'Brian weaves into the story when you least expect them. This novel has the added plus of moments of genuine pathos, particularly the Diana/Maturin subplot and one moment during the crew's stay in India that I'll not describe further in case you care to read the book for yourself. To sum up: I'd recommend this it, and I have now added 'Use the phrase "You have debauched my sloth!" in conversation' to my bucket list. The whole Maturin and the sloth side-plot (there's lots of subplots and side-plots in this book!) had me crying with laughter. The only negatives in the book are the fact that the very stylized writing could certainly be wearisome to some readers, there's some hard old sailor swearing, and the story is more set up as a chronicle of a certain amount of time in the main characters' lives, which means it's not really tidily plotted with loose ends tied up and all. This can be seen as a strength or a weakness of the story, depending.

Nathan Hale, by M. William Phelps
I on occasion enjoy a good biography, and this is a good biography. I've long been interested in Nathan Hale, so I was delighted to find a biography that looked good at the library. I like learning about history from the original contemporary sources, eg. reading Thucydides and Xenophon to learn about Greek history instead of just reading modern history books. So I always appreciate it when historians quote letters and things like that in biographies. There's a good scattering of quotes like that in this biography, as well as a lot of stories about Hale as told by his friends and family, along with excerpts from his diary and stuff. The book seems well-researched, and is engagingly written. Phelps doesn't try to glorify Hale, but he doesn't try to tear him apart to 'reveal the man behind the legend' either, like so many biographies do to their subjects. Instead, he does his best to give the reader a basic understanding of the contemporary events and issues, and to let Hale speak for himself, which I really liked. The book sometimes get a bit circuitous though, because of all the information the author tries to cram in.

This leaves The Dreamer (Vol. 1) by Lora Innes as the Book of the Month!
I won't say too much about it now, since I already raved about this webcomic earlier. But basically it's a time-traveling romance/adventure story, with a heavy emphasis on wallowing in American Revolutionary War history. The characters are wonderful in both times/realities(?), the script is extremely solid, and the usage of history here? Simply fun. Innes' devotion to detail in both her script and her art is that of a real history fiend, which is lovely. There are plenty of historical characters in the story as well as original chararacters, though: Thomas Knowlton, Alexander Hamilton, William Howe . . . Nathan Hale himself actually features as a very prominent character, which is just another bonus. I found the printed collection of the first few books of this webcomic at the library and snapped it up to peruse it in hard copy form for the first time, which is why I decided to include it on this list. The colors are much brighter in book form than on the internet, details are easier to see, and there's a cute little sketch summary of the American revolution on the front pages which serves as a run-down on what you need to know in order to fully appreciate the historical setting of "The Dreamer". I'm not usually a webcomic person, but this book is both entertaining and informative, with all the historical cameos a history geek could wish for. Definitely give it a look!