I know that this somewhat snarky Slate review of the Hobbit was probably meant to infuriate me:
…a moment when the dwarves, gathered around the fire on the eve of their departure, spontaneously burst into a ballad of longing for their lost homeland. Truth be told, I kind of enjoyed the solemn melancholy of that dwarf ballad, but did it need to contain so many stanzas?
Fortunately, I can chuckle about it. Largely because Peter Jackson made this movie for me, me, ME! – and it’s already brought in $123M domestic in eight days*; so go chew some cram, haters. Don’t worry if you don’t know what cram is; Peter will be happy to show you. And make jokes about it that will have me rolling in the aisle, at least.
Moe Lane
PS: For the record, the poem in question was drastically cut down in length for the film. And, yeah, I was disappointed by that.
*Translation: “He’s going to get away with it.”
Why did it need so many stanzas? Maybe because, in the source material, *it has that many stanzas*?
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Sheesh! I thought the “review” whining about how “this Tolkien fellow” stole everything from J.K. Rowling was bad, this is just pathetic!
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Mew
I’ve told people “if you can recite the riddles along with Gollum and Bilbo, this is your movie; if not you might be disappointed”.
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I will say that Peter Jackson turned Sylvester McCoy from my least favorite Doctor to an actor I will no longer avoid.
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And I already liked James Nesbitt.
My reaction is a horrified “They cut it down”?