Tag: Warner Brothers

Navagate the Universe of Kip Thorne: Solar system driven climate change that is inevitable

There are some who are anxious that Christopher Nolan’s new film Interstellar is another blind narrative from the Hollywood left portraying climate change as a central theme based on Al Gore’s global warming concerns. The science of that leftist position is a fiction. Nolan’s climate change is based on events well beyond the control of anything mankind can do, and dictates that earth’s inhabitants must leave the planet or face extinction. Nolan’s view and that of his brother who wrote the film is much more galactic based, and not rooted in the political scheme to increase taxation on productivity through the sale of carbon credits. It is based on legitimate science, and very real concerns which are unraveling the nerves of everyone who has so far seen the film, and will shatter the reality of all those who will see it. As stated in a previous article on this subject, Interstellar is based on a very dear book to me called Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy by Kip Thorne who is an executive producer on the new film. Needless to say it will be an incredible movie—but it will not be just another example of leftist trash and theoretical nonsense. So do not let the early concerns about such things keep you from the wonderful experience of seeing this movie. The science is beyond the scope of most, including all the climate bashers from the political left, so they will be equally displaced upon viewing the contents of Interstellar.

Even more impressive as an unforeseen byproduct of the release of Kip’s book into this screen format are the marketing opportunities that have presented themselves as the release date has approached. My wife and I have read Kip’s book so many times that the pages of our hard cover edition are literally falling out of the binding. The edges are blackened from our fingertips and the glue no longer holds the pages to the spine of the book—which is quite thick. When my children were very young, my wife used to take them to the pool in Mason, Ohio and let them play while she read that book for many, many hours contemplating the contents. It is one of the great books of science ever put to print. So it was bewildering to me to discover that the Interstellar websites shown below have released a game based on the film that is just fantastic. Paramount has just released the new Android game on Google Play based on director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming sci-fi epic Interstellar and it is a tad different from the normal movie tie-in as the player can not only create his or her own solar system but can also explore it as well as others made by fans.

This game is no space shooter but one that is supposed to simulate real physics as you pilot a ship through these solar systems. Here’s a quick bullet list of the game’s features:

  • Create your own solar system and share it with friends
  • Customize planets, stars and asteroids
  • Pilot the Endurance through friend’s and other fan’s solar systems
  • Upgrade your ship to increase durability and range
  • Earn mission patches for completing objectives
  • Based on Newtonian physics with simulated gravitational fields endorsed by the movie’s science advisor Kip Thorne
  • Slingshot between planets and return research data to Earth
  • Navigate past massive black holes

Needless to say I downloaded the app onto my iPad and I spent the entire weekend playing it—nearly nonstop. It was absolutely fascinating to traverse through Kip Thorne’s treasured book finally with a video game played on my tablet. Absolutely stunning! The most fun in the game is navigating past the black holes, which are rendered accurately and really for the first time ever. Part of the means for getting to worm holes so that you can punch through various layers of folded space-and time, is by sling-shooting passed the dreaded black holes.

http://www.interstellar-movie.com/

http://www.androidcentral.com/interstellar-movie-based-game-android-lets-you-make-and-explore-your-own-solar-system

If you have the means and scientific inquiry, this is a must have app—a real journey and best use imaginable for a few moments at the airport waiting to catch a flight. It duplicates some of the most basic concepts of Kip Thorne’s book so wonderfully. For instance, one of the ways that you collect power to stay in space is to move into orbit around a sun. It is difficult to maintain a trajectory that puts you in that sweet spot orbit, but once you do, you can load up on power to further your voyage. The trouble is, while in orbit around a sun, its imprint into the space-time continuum is much slower than the time on earth. So while you are communicating with earth on your missions, time for them is moving at a much more rapid way than it is for you during your power collection around suns. Also, the distance between planets involves many millions of miles which is passed by instantly in the game. It does calculate out the years the endeavor is taking so that it is understood how much time is passing on earth while all this effort is being undertaken.

What this does is shatter the concept of time as a liner type of thing that is currently understood. Instead, it plays with time as a force of momentum relative to where you are and what kind of mass the object you are near has on the space around it. To this effect space is divided up in the game with a grid system that shows the imprint the planet or sun involved has on the surrounding area. Within that imprint time will be affected differently than in other places within the galaxy, or galaxies involved. For a simple app, it is yet another example of a giant leap forward for human endeavor, to have such a powerful conceptual tool on a device that you can whip out in a McDonald’s over lunch and play a quick mission involving advanced physics concepts.

Often it is these by-products of such endeavors that films like Interstellar bring to the table of contemplation. And I am so excited that Kip’s treasured book is finally making it to formats of understanding that are so accessible. I knew when I first read the book Black Holes and Time Warps that there was something very special going on, and always thought that a fantastic movie could be made based on the concepts. But few in Hollywood really have the mind for something like that. I never fantasized that someone like Kip Thorne would be given a seat at the table to actually produce such a thing for mass audiences. And in a game app designed to bring awareness to the movie for marketing reasons, the Interstellar game does two things, it helps introduce people not familiar with Kip Thorne’s work to some of the basic ideals that have to be understood to relate to the actual movie. But for someone like me, who already loved the book, it provides the opportunity to dwell in that world in a virtual reality that has so far only been possible in a physics equation and the most active imaginations. It is just a wonderful addition to what is proving to be a very exciting time to be alive.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to navigate passed a black hole in a distant solar system so that I can get to the worm hole that takes me back to earth before everyone is dead by the time I get there. And I’ll do it while eating a Big Mac, drinking a nice cold Coca Cola, and eating some upsized French Fries. Capitalism at its finest!

Rich Hoffman

www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

‘Jersey Boys’ Review: Clint Eastwood at his absolute best

If it wasn’t such an astonishing film with some truly remarkable points to make—I would likely have just enjoyed Jersey Boys as a pleasant movie. It’s not the normal kind of film that I would go to the theater to see. I’m not really crazy about pop music, and I could care less about another mobster movie—which Jersey Boys is at its heart. But this was different—I have been a Clint Eastwood fan all of my life and continue to admire his work late in life when most people would have cashed in and checked out a long time ago. I remember well when George Burns was still living well in his 80s which defied logic—but even he looked like a burnt up old man. Eastwood still has his swagger—and his mind at 84 without any sign of slowing down. I knew during the filming of Jersey Boys Clint’s wife wanted to run off with an old friend—a much younger man, then when Eastwood was ready to give her a divorce, she decided she didn’t want it. I also knew that Eastwood’s oldest son Kyle was in the film as a musical coordinator, and that one of his newest daughters Francesca was supposed to be in the cast.  I also knew that he was in pre-production for American Sniper—and there was a lot of other subplots not even related to the difficult production of Jersey Boys which is very well documented. Heck, the main character Frankie Valli is still alive and performing, and would see everything that Eastwood put on film—which can be intimidating to get right. There were at least 1000 reasons Jersey Boys should have been a bad movie and there would be every excuse available for it—so I went to see the film to support Clint Eastwood and his tireless efforts as a brilliant film director. What I saw wasn’t just good, or even great—it was magnificent.

Jersey Boys is a movie filled with very subtle scenes of radiance.  The strength of Clint Eastwood not only as an actor, but a director is in his ability to put many emotions in a scene from moment to moment. This was never clearer than when Frankie Valli rescued his daughter who was a run-away from a vile scum bag with a mobster hit man. The moment brought laughs from the audience and was reminiscent of one of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry films but within a moment in the same scene was a level of drama seen in Mystic River. Valli had rescued his daughter then tried to tell her he was going to save her by making her dreams come true—helping her develop a singing career. As Valli spoke the words, it was clear he was making a mistake—the girl only wanted her father’s attention and her rebelliousness was clearly a response to an emptiness left in her life by a father who was always on the road. The scene was like Eastwood himself, a person who works at many levels all at the same time. The actor clearly had to know how Eastwood wanted to shoot the scene, yet the real Frankie Valli is one of the producers of the film and the decisions he had made eventually would lead to the death of that daughter and had to be painful for him. Eastwood handled all these elements like a symphony—effortlessly. Most directors would have wanted to show off how brilliant they were in such a scene—but Eastwood doesn’t even feel he needs to put a light on it. It just is—and he moves on to the next scene which is just as brilliant for the rest of the movie. It is amazing not only on how Eastwood handles things in front of the camera, but the elements behind the camera which affect what’s in front like an untouched maestro that only extreme maturity and philosophic understanding could provide. I had the feeling that the scene would cause the real Frankie Valli a lot of pain, but Eastwood didn’t care. I thought of his character from High Plains Drifter from many years prior—“people are only scared of what they know about themselves inside.” Eastwood had seen through the emotion written on the page of a screenplay to the heart of the problem and he did not hesitate to cast his opinion through film—which was gut wrenching. Moments later, Eastwood had the audience laughing again and enjoying music. It was quite phenomenal to see.

An example of such brilliance was the way the main characters provided narration throughout the film looking directly into the camera like it was a live stage play. Typically, it is a big error for an actor to look directly into the camera and speak to an audience—yet Eastwood pulls it off without being distracting. I can’t ever recall seeing such a narrative that does not interrupt the flow of the film and it wasn’t just one character—but several. It is a difficult concept to conceive, and even harder to pull off—yet Clint Eastwood effortlessly pulled it off knowing very well that he was shooting a period piece that most of the audience was alive to confirm—and playing music that many in the audience knew by heart. For any other film director—the task would be daunting—but for 84-year-old Clint Eastwood who is a master of his craft and at the top of his game—it was just the result of a life fully lived by a man who had seen and done everything and lived to tell the stories.

Jersey Boys could have been a PG film—there was no sex in it, or nudity. It was done very stylishly—except that the F-bomb was used extensively. But it was never distracting—it felt natural—like part of the culture we were witnessing. Warner Brothers would have reigned in any director except Clint Eastwood. They would have cut the language to get the PG rating for ticket sales, but because of whom the director was—they left Jersey Boys alone which tremendously elevated the authenticity of the subject matter.

Jersey Boys is a musical, but it didn’t go out of its way to be elaborately flowery in that category—the way Chicago, or even Walk The Line did—it again was an effortless exchange between a master filmmaker who happens to be old and uniquely able to convey wisdom that only elderly people can achieve—without being stuffy. Jersey Boys is really amazingly efficient in its delivery of complicated subject matter, well-known songs, and the telling of a story backed by actual history. In one scene the music is interrupted while one of the band members turns to the camera and speaks directly to the audience. It was a strangely satisfying way to tell the story that might only make sense on a printed page as a dream sequence. Most filmmakers would struggle to tell the crew in a meeting what their vision for such a scene would be—yet again Eastwood pulls it off as if everyone does it in every film ever made.

I found myself identifying with the young Frankie Valli and his unique relationship to a mob boss in Christopher Walken. I had a similar background—and understand how complex those types of relationships can be—how the morality between right and wrong can easily be colored gray. Eastwood in telling this kind of story never loses sight of right and wrong while at the same time covering every shade of gray that there is with humor, horror, pity, and honor. There hasn’t been a mob film done this well since The Godfather or Goodfellas. Christopher Walken played his part with all the confidence one would expect—and entered the storyline reminiscent of Pulp Fiction. Again there is typically a tendency to overplay the Walken type of mob boss in films because his performance was so incredibly strong. Yet Eastwood backs off the thrusters just enough to hit the right speed with the entire mob portion of the story seemingly taking a back seat to the music—which of course it was actually the support structure without naming it.

Yet my favorite character in the story was Bob Gaudio who at the end of the film proudly proclaimed to the camera—that without him, none of the events of the story would have happened—and he’s right. Gaudio wrote the songs that made Frankie Valli famous and carried the Four Seasons to heights they wouldn’t otherwise achieve. It wasn’t a teamwork exercise—it was because of Bob Gaudio that the Four Seasons produced so many hits. Frankie Valli had the unique voice, and everyone in the band did the hard work on the road—but it was because of Gaudio that there was anything to sing. I think only Clint Eastwood could have had a character deliver a line like that without sounding pretentious. It was a uniquely Clint Eastwood line delivered authentically.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jersey-boys-premiere-clint-eastwood-713739

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/16/clint-eastwood-reflects-on-age-america-and-acting/

If you go back to Eastwood films like Play Misty for Me the fabulous cinematography seen in Jersey Boys is not there. But the substance of subject matter was. Eastwood films are always intelligent, even in his comedies like Every Which Way But Loose. But Eastwood never let technical limits stop him from making a film. He doesn’t seem to worry about making something that will be criticized by someone who might think they can do it better. He just makes things—and really doesn’t seem to care how it’s judged. In this fashion he has made a lot of movies over a very long career. But starting with the movies he has made since his late 60s, the subject matter and quality of the films has become much better culminating in Jersey Boys. If this isn’t the Best Picture at the 2014 Academy Awards—I don’t know what would be. It is filmmaking at its best by a director who is the best. It was a pleasure to watch, and a real treasure to come from Clint Eastwood who once again has not disappointed me at the movie theater. I got more out of Jersey Boys than I thought I would—and that is always a good thing. And for me to feel that way about a film—it has to have some unique texture that speaks at many levels—and Jersey Boys does—just like the guy who made it.

I first ran into the music of Frankie Valli when I saw Grease as a kid, the movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Even back then, Valli was already considered an elderly music legend. At that same time, Clint Eastwood was an aging actor playing parts in films that were nearing retirement. It is then ironic that these two entertainment professionals are still around and kicking in 2014 and that they united to make the film Jersey Boys. For me the most haunting portion of the film was the first time the daughter who would die later  in the story sat at the top of the steps of their home angry at her daddy, Frankie Valli for not being home more. For both Eastwood and Valli this had to be a hard scene to film, because their entertainment lives had taken a toll on their personal lives. For Eastwood it was happening again and again, and during the filming of Jersey Boys his wife wanted to run off with a another man. But who could blame her Eastwood hadn’t been a saint. Eastwood has had so many girlfriends and children by them over his long life that he had to have many similar discussions with them as shown in Jersey Boys. The pain is that Valli did not listen to his daughter even though it was obvious that he loved her. There has been several times where I have had the same talk with my daughters and I chose to stay home—and to this day my kids appreciate it. I never had to deal with the kind of things Valli or Eastwood did—but these are the kinds of decisions that must be made by people who want to play the entertainment game at that level. Eastwood handled the scene with haunting coolness given the fact that several of his own children were on the set of Jersey Boys and undoubtedly the real Frankie Valli had to watch the dailies and it had to hurt him. There was real pain in those scenes—and they were handled with care without being too mushy.

If you dear reader were thinking of seeing Jersey Boys, you should take a moment over the upcoming weekend to see it at the theater. The end of the film transposes into a large musical number that is reminiscent of the stage play. It was just another example of the expert care Eastwood’s direction of the film exhibited. It was stylish without being campy—and unusually potent for a bookend to the entire film. Jersey Boys is one of those unique films, and it is a treat for everyone who sees it. It embodied all the elements of living life the way only an 84-year-old man who has always pushed the limit can tall it—making it a real American treasure that will never be forgotten. It is quite simply an amazing film.

Rich Hoffman   www.OVERMANWARRIOR.com

 

Hans Zimmer’s ‘Man of Steel’ Soundtrack: A love for America that only musical notes can render

If you offer yourself as a social commentator of not just how things are, but how things will be, it is important to always report information that is ahead of the curve, well before the mainstream has caught on to the changing circumstances.  In that regard articles like the one I’m about to write might seem trivial as it does not deal with any of the major scandals coming out of Washington, the tragedies of education, or the generally demoralization of America by forces of collective remedy, but it is important in a way that hidden behind chaos.  The other day my kids gave me for Father’s Day the deluxe soundtrack to Man of Steel, the new Superman movie by Hans Zimmer, CLICK HERE TO REVIEW.  This gift was more than just a metaphor for how my children view me, but is one of severe substance for my personal musical tastes.  Currently on my iPod I do not have a single lyrical music piece—not a single one that is not associated with a motion picture.  I have stated many times that mythology is the most important thing in my life and I study mythology incessantly, especially contemporary mythology.  Movies are the biggest contributors to modern mythology so my musical tastes center on enjoying the music that helps tell such stories through sound.  So I listen to a lot of movie soundtracks.

To fit the Man of Steel soundtrack which is two disks of music on my iPod I had to take off the last of my favorite lyrical music like the work by Muse and a few classic rock songs.  My iPod is an 8 gig type which is plenty for me, but it is currently 99% full and consists entirely of movie soundtracks—everything ranging from The Sound of Music, to Dark Knight Rises.  I seldom listen to pop music because they are often songs about small ideas, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl wants a new boy—that kind of garbage that is just tripe. In my music I want to feel from it that I can conceptualize the largest ideas and still have room to spare.  For me, it takes symphony orchestra music, and more specifically movie soundtracks.  With those qualifiers, the new Man of Steel soundtrack done in a deluxe DTS format is the best of the best.  For soundtrack lovers, it is simply the best of its kind to date.  It is so good that surprisingly, the soundtrack was sold out all over the city of Cincinnati which I didn’t expect.  Only two stores had a copy of Man of Steel, one was the Barnes and Noble at the Streets of West Chester, and the Barnes and Noble in Kenwood.  The one in West Chester was a copy that was pre-ordered, and was on hold till the claimant stopped by to pick it up.

This sent my son-in-law on quite an adventure to locate the soundtrack so that he and my daughter could give it to me on Father’s Day.  On Saturday June 15th just a few hours after we had seen the movie the night before he stopped by the West Chester location to see if the clerk would cut loose of the one copy they had.  Because a sufficient amount of time had transpired the clerk allowed my son-in-law to buy the reserved copy, which then allowed him to give it to me the next day prior to our Father’s Day festivities.

The soundtrack itself has a cover made of metal, which surprised me as the cost of production would have been much higher.  Also, the soundtrack contained two disks, one of the actual music used in the film, and another that is experimental music created by Hans Zimmer while he worked out the themes of the film’s characters. It was this second one that had some of the most unusual music I have heard in years.  But the more I dug into the soundtrack to the film I noticed there was quite a bit more to it than just musical compositions designed to help tell a story.  There was an extra “umpf” to this collection of music that was difficult to put my finger on.

I spent all of Father’s Day listening to the two hours of music when I could, over and over again, and still there was a nagging concept that I couldn’t quite articulate.  The music by German born Hans Zimmer created for a movie that had a global market in mind, had written a score that seemed extremely patriotic to American ideas.  Zimmer for the track had brought together twelve of the best drummers in the world, names like Shelia E., Junkie XL, Josh Freeze, and many others who worked with a full symphonic orchestra on a score that hit a wide range of themes and emotional arcs.  Musically, it is simply fantastic.  But there was more to it than just goodness……

As I read through the book that came as an insert in the two CD case, I found a quote by Peter Asher who co-produced the soundtrack with Hans Zimmer.  He stated in writing:

For this Superman, Man of Steel, Hans has managed to create a supremely American score.  Perhaps we Europeans fall in love with “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” with all the extra enthusiasm of a long-distance romance – maybe with a higher level of commitment than those born into the relationship.  While avoiding the specific and lubricious emotionality of rock and roll on the one hand and the corn fields of Aaron Copland on the other, this is the score for an America both modern and timeless, both realistic and optimistic.  An ideal and a reality.  And for a Superman we can greet as a true hero and in whom we can believe with all our hearts.

Reading this statement from Asher coming from a group of Europeans who worked as producers of not just the soundtrack to Man of Steel but also for the film with Christopher Nolan, there was extra effort by them to pay tribute to the uniquely American ideas that built the mythology behind Superman, particularly in this latest rendition.  CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW.  Hans Zimmer as an immigrant to America himself knows that he would have no place else in the world besides Hollywood, U.S.A. which would allow him to use his unique gift of music to produce the kind of work he currently does for some of the most popular films in the world.  Germany does not make films like Man of Steel.  For that matter France, Spain, Italy, Russia, China, nobody makes films like what America does, because such ideas are produced under the context of freedom, and no other method.  It takes a freely focused society to make a film like Man of Steel where even the music soundtrack is desired with intense demand.  For a change, here was a group of very creative people who got together to honor that freedom behind the character of Superman.

I have been collecting movie soundtracks my entire life.  I have read the insert to every single one of those soundtracks and I can’t think of a single time that a producer like Peter Asher ever admitted to “loving” America and taking pains to articulate that love through music.  The closest to an honest admission to such Americana that I can remember was the score to Far and Away by John Williams.  But even that was very subdued by him for obvious political reasons.  John Williams was very careful not to show Hollywood any overtly patriotic reverence to America in that movie about the American frontier from the perspective of Irish Americans settling the vast expanses of the Wild West.  Williams like all creative people and members of intelligentsia know that to declare patriotism to America is to turn away from the progressive “cause” which has taken over Hollywood, politics, and even American business.  So they are careful to keep their opinions neutral and let their art speak where their mouths would otherwise be chastised.

So it is quite extraordinary that Hans Zimmer and the team that put together the soundtrack to Man of Steel have openly declared their love of America, and that Zimmer put together a score that professes a love for everything that is built around the American idea—which is epitomized by Superman.  The current trend as I’ve spoken about before, in film is to turn away from socialism and progressive causes.  The art produced by Americans are beginning to reflect a shift in values that is first seen in entertainment, which will be followed by the culture at large.  I have been thinking such a thing for a long time.  The work of Glenn Beck, Doc Thompson, and even Judge Napolitano has opened a dialogue in American entertainment that has not been present since the decline of the western in film.   I have listened intently to the music of Hans Zimmer for a long time, from the fantastic soundtrack of Gladiator to the Pirates of the Caribbean and have been convinced that Zimmer has a tremendous love of freedom which emerges from the notes he paints on a page for orchestras to bring to life.  In the film Dark Knight Rises Hans Zimmer’s score was dark, brooding, but strangely patriotic.  I’ve listened to it hundreds of times over the last year, and there is no mistaking it.  But my suspicion has been confirmed with the Man of Steel soundtrack.  The music is unquestionably patriotic, even holy, and it doesn’t apologize for it– not once.  If the meaning of the music wasn’t clear enough then the words of Peter Asher spells it out.

I expect that an American Renaissance is well underway.  With the scandals of the current day in full bloom, many cannot see this renaissance for what it truly is as the effects have not yet hit popular music, television shows, or even politics.  But the music of Man of Steel makes clear that a new hope is on the horizon as creative geniuses like Hans Zimmer is honestly scoring music that is reshaping American culture from the jealous minds of the typical European and embracing the value which has long been ignored, and abused.  I am deeply grateful that my son-in-law went to the extra trouble to find this fabulous soundtrack for me as a Father’s Day gift.  It is one of the best works of music I have ever heard and will remain that way for many, many years.  The musical geniuses of old like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven had their day to export the values of Europe to the entire world through their classical music which held in it the values of Victorian society.  The new geniuses of symphony, like John Williams and Hans Zimmer are American, and their mark has been made, and our world culture is shaping around it.  To get a hint of what that world looks like and feels, just listen to the new soundtrack to Man of Steel, and the notes provided there by Hans Zimmer will give you a glimpse.  That glimpse fills me with overwhelming hope that a day where justice and value will once again be prized components of a society that is not afraid of its own shadow.   Remember where you read my words when ten years from now the evidence begins to emerge.

To understand the magnitude of the progressive left media influence and its hatred of goodness read this article for proof:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10128539/Man-of-Steel-gets-box-office-boost-from-Supermans-God-fearing-fans.html

The Man of Steel soundtrack is so much about goodness that it is simply angelical in every meaning of the word.  Thank you Hans Zimmer!

Rich Hoffman

“If they attack first………..blast em’!”

www.tailofthedragonbook.com

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ an unexpected TRIUMPH

I have been writing about The Hobbit movie and its December release for over a year now and I have been very excited for its long-awaited arrival in theaters.  My wife and I took my large family and some of their friends to see it during a prime time showing over the weekend, and before I get into any kind of review I need to provide some context.  Our society is changing rapidly, and not all of it is bad.  When religion was very strong in our society, it taught young and old alike about the nature of good and evil—which I spend a lot of time writing and thinking about.  But in 2012 in a quest that really started in 1977 with the first Star Wars film, it is clear that mythological values in our society has moved from books into many other visual formats that explore more deeply than ever the nature of evil, and the necessity of good.  I did not expect The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey to be over-the-top excellent.  I just expected it to be good and an enjoyable tribute to stories I have loved my entire lifetime.  As stated in previous articles here at the OW I have allowed myself to enjoy on many nights the words of J.R.R. Tokens’ many works by candlelight, or on a backyard porch under swift moving nighttime clouds next to a lantern.  So I have a passion already present for the material offered in The Hobbit.  Aside from that, I also followed closely the development of the film through the legal hurdles it had to pass in order to arrive in theaters under Peter Jackson’s direction, which for a long time I never thought would happen—because of the stunning success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy a decade ago.  So it was with some pent-up reverence that I took my family to the movies on December 15, 2012 and let me declare that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an unexpected delight.  The Hobbit as a film is jaw-dropping great and filled to the absolute brim with passion, rich storytelling, and a fully flushed out journey into Middle-Earth that will change the lives of many people who see it for the better.  It is a stunningly fantastic movie—a cut from the tapestry of cinema that will set new heights of expectation from audiences permanently.  I did not think it was possible to make a movie version of The Hobbit that exceeded, or even matched the effort of Lord of the Rings—but Peter Jackson has been successful in that daunting task and then some.

The Hobbit is essentially a treasure hunt that is triggered when a dragon pushes a society of dwarves from their home in the Lonely Mountain.  Bilbo Baggins is recruited as a burglar/thief to penetrate the mountain and help remove the terrible dragon Smoug who is now residing there bathing his massive body in mountains of gold stolen from the dwarves.  I will admit that reviewers did discourage me a bit when they reported that Warner Brothers had pushed Jackson into stretching the 300-page book of The Hobbit which is a kid’s book into three—three hour films, and that the first half of An Unexpected Journey was boring.  For such reviewers, I can only say that they have become spoiled brats, and the action of The Hobbit was very intense at the end making the rather story driven beginning seem like a very different movie.  But the beauty is that Jackson was able to make The Hobbit into a better story then the actual book was—which is almost never the case—without violating the literary material of Tolkien at all.    Only under Peter Jackson’s direction could this have been done with such a close association with Lord of the Rings as The Hobbit takes place 60 years before the Rings films.  The beginning is only boring compared to a very intense ending—more intense than any movie I can remember seeing—and I’ve seen most of them.

For me personally, I found the deep secrets and constant references to an evil that is slowly seething up into Middle-Earth to be fascinating in reference to the events of Lord of the Rings.  The Hobbit takes the time to show how the seeds of evil are actually planted and how slowly over time they can emerge right under the noses of some of the wisest minds.  In The Hobbit it is the wizard Gandalf who looks like a crazed fool in comparison to his mentor Sauruman the White Wizard, Elrond the Lord of Rivendell, and Galadriel co-ruler of Lothlórien.  Gandalf in a scene that was one of my favorites attempts to tell these leaders of Middle-Earth of his devious plot to rid the Lonely Mountain of the dragon, but also to combat a seething evil that is emerging slowly in the cracks of society.  It was my favorite scene in the film because I feel a lot like Gandalf in real life uttering the same kinds of warnings, schemes and mechanisms that I have involved myself in only to have a White Wizard type politician declare—“show me the proof of these allegations.”  Evil does not grow within the honesty of critical assessment, and nobody but Gandalf and Galadriel can even remotely see it.  Of course, we know that Gandalf was right and that 60 years later that evil will have arrived fully in Middle-Earth in the events of Lord of the Rings.  In An Unexpected Journey Gandalf sees the evil before everyone else, and must face that realization alone—which is realistically, often the case.

In many ways Peter Jackson has done with The Hobbit what George Lucas did with the prequels of Star Wars and that is to pull back wide on Middle-Earth to tell of the events that led up to the Academy Award winning movies that were previously done.  But Jackson has not violated the original Tolkien material to perform the task, he’s only added to it with previously unrelated Tolkien material about Middle-Earth which led to controversy with some critics.  Usually in novel translations things get left out of a movie version of a great book.  It is not often—if ever that things that were not specifically in the source novel find their way into the film version without deviating away from the source, but following it sincerely.  This is what Jackson has done, and he did an absolutely marvelous job of it.  Literally breath-taking in just how spectacular of a job he did—if viewers thought that Middle-Earth had been adequately flushed out in the Lord of the Rings films, The Hobbit will prove that there is much more to explore, and it is an exciting adventure all its own.

I am an old fan of these types of stories, and it is hard to impress me.  But—The Hobbit impressed me in every category, music, visual effects, character development, mythological significance, plot validation; The Hobbit is successful in every single category of filmmaking splendor.  And the characters go through one cliffhanger after another in some of the most astonishing conflicts that have ever taken place between characters on a movie screen.  There is nothing like The Hobbit that has ever been done in any film to date.  Many of the sequences step up and over Lord of the Rings in sheer brutality, and cinematic effectiveness.  If the Academy Awards snub this film because of internal Hollywood politics, it will be a shame—because The Unexpected Journey deserves the same kind of respect that Return of the King garnered.  This first Hobbit film is simply that good.

I could write on about this movie for thousands of pages, and still not get out everything I want to say—so do yourself a favor and go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and enjoy the adventure of a lifetime.   As Gandalf tells Bilbo in the film, “if you take this adventure you will never be the same again”—so to, will audience members never be quiet the same after seeing the first movie of a three-part Hobbit series.  I am riveted now waiting for the second addition to this excellent film series titled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug which will be entirely about the slaying of the terrible dragon that is guarding the gold in the Lonely Mountain.  In the meantime, I think my wife and I will go see The Unexpected Journey about 19,000 more times.  Enjoy! 

Rich Hoffman

www.tailofthedragonbook.com