Monday, November 5, 2012

Star Wars (A New Fear) and The Hobbit (There and Even Farther Back Again)

Hello, internet.  Perhaps I should introduce myself.  I'm Cat, and as my blog title suggests, I am indeed an absurd curvy nerd.  The purpose of this blog is to share my love of all things nerdy, geeky, and often a little crazy, as well as my enthusiasm for promoting positive body image by using the tools I know best- literature, movies and music.  Some posts will focus on or even be wholly about one of those, but my hope is that both will get a lot of time.  I thought the best way to get the ball rolling would be to jump right in with a post about two of my favorite nerdy things: Star Wars and The Hobbit.  So enjoy!

I was tentatively excited about The Hobbit movie.  Words cannot describe how pleased I was when the trailer indicated that all thirteen Dwarves would be included in the film.  It also appears that Peter Jackson might not be solely using them as comic relief characters-- something I very much disliked about his portrayal of Gimli in Lord of the Rings.  However, upon finding out that The Hobbit will be divided into three entire films, I began to worry.  When it came out that Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom would be reprising their respective roles as Galadriel and Legolas, I started to worry even more.  When I saw that Benedict Cumberbatch was set to be "The Voice of the Necromancer," I said, "What the hell?!" and decided to boycott Hollywood forever.  Ok, so perhaps I didn't go that far.  I understand that movies can't always include everything in a book, and even sometimes have to make tweaks that will keep an audience hooked on the on-screen drama.  What I don't understand is when additions are made to screen adaptations of books that already have a great deal of action in the plot and don't actually need much more.  Yes, yes, I've heard that Jackson is "pulling from the indexes," but unless he's going back to LOTR or The Silmarillion, there just isn't that much in the index of The Hobbit.  There's certainly no Galadriel or Legolas, and the Necromancer is only briefly mentioned throughout the novel as someone to be avoided at all costs, and, well, they avoid him.  Yet... I still find myself still tentatively excited.  Perhaps it's because I love the novel so much.  Perhaps it's because I'm subconsciously masochistic.  Please, Peter Jackson, just don't disappoint me too much.

My first reaction hearing about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm and the other new nerd films coming out- the new Star Wars trilogy set to begin in 2015- was less positive and probably that of thousands of people world-(internet-)wide: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.  Why Disney?  Why do you want to trample our childhood memories?  Why? Whhhhyyyy?  Upon waking from my blackout holding a light saber, with tiny fragments of a mouse-eared cap strewn around me, I sat down to think calmly about the issue and see what others were saying about it.  What I found was... surprisingly optimistic.  As my mind was busy rebelling at the thought of "Mesa Bing-Bing" cartoons and a kitschy happily-married Han and Leia, it turns out that others were seeing possibilities: unique perspectives on the aftermath of the Rebellion, new characters from other planets in the Star Wars universe, and actors who can (gasp!) actually act.  I've never been all that interested in detailed fan fiction for... well, anything... but it turns out that among the gazillions (I think it is literally gazillions) of Star Wars novels, there are actually some that people who know about this kind of thing think are pretty good and might be adapted into decent films.  Also, as many pointed out, Disney has made some, um, fairly good movies recently (e.g. The Avengers).  While I dread the inevitable Star Wars: Space Adventures! animated series, I'm no longer all that terrified by the prospect of a new trilogy (as long as they don't mess with the originals and possibly forget Episodes I, II and III).  Just remember, if Disney's new Star Wars is any good, that *&#*'s going in "The Vault" at some point and NEVER coming out of copyright.  Ever.

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