Review: The Desolation of Smaug

You know, I expected this post to be a long spew of me shouting/raving about how insanely cool the Desolation of Smaug was––instead . . . I've got decidedly mixed feelings about the latest installment of the Hobbit trilogy. It's not that I didn't like the movie. Far from it. Like all of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth movies so far, Desolation definitely ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. What I can't decide, is how it stacks up against it's predecessor, An Unexpected Journey, and how well it did at retelling Tolkien's story. Jump past the break, and I'll do my best to explain.

Oh, and I'm too tired to even care about watching what I'm saying, so BEWARE SPOILERS!

Coming Soon: A Review of the Movie

See, I was there. I promise.

Hey folks . . . just in case you were wondering, I DID go to the movie on opening night, and I DO have a review in the works. It's just that the last few days have involved a lot of travel and only a little down time––but in case you were wondering, my goal is to have it up by tomorrow.

Later!

New The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug Trailer!

It's here! Check out the newest trailer for the Desolation of Smaug. It's . . . pretty much amazing. More screenshots and comments to come later today!

The Children of Aulë: A Depressing Illustration of the Forced Migrations of the Dwarves

So I've put together geneological charts for both the elves and men of Middle-earth, and I was really looking forward to doing the same for the dwarves––they've always been my favorite anyways. However, I have to admit that after doing the work and the research to make this chart . . . I'm mostly just depressed. Those dwarfs had a crappy history. No, I'm being serious. You probably don't even want to hear about it. It was that bad.

If you don't believe me . . . well, just jump past the break and you'll see:

I Wish Thorin Looked More Like This:

This is my (unskilled) attempt to craft a Thorin that is more in keeping with the book. There are a lot of things I like about movie Thorin, but at the risk of offending a lot of Richard Armitage fans out there, I'm goint to admit that there are also a number of issues I have with him. Mainly, I just think he's too young, his beard isn't long enough, and his face doesn't look "dwarfy" enough.

So here is my own version of Thorin. What do you think?

And yes, I stole Gloin's beard to lengthen Thorin's. Big deal.

Desolation of Smaug Photos and Plot Spoilers

So after a long drought of Desolation of Smaug info, the internet seems like its been raining and pouring Hobbit-related pictures, mostly from the Hobbit Annual. Additionally, the Annual has provided some (limited) insight into the plot of the Desolation of Smaug. If you're into spoilers, click here. If you just wanna see the pics, jump past the break!

Friday at the Mathom-House: Abe Papakhian

Friday is here again folks, and this time we're enjoying the amazing illustrations of Abe Papkhian. You can check out all of Abe's work over on Deviantart.com. Continuing last week's theme of hand-drawn art, Abe's illustrations are all pencil or watercolor. Now, I'm not sure if you'll agree, but I feel like there is definitely something Brother's Hildebrandt about Abe's style. I'm a fan. Jump past the break to see even more awesome Hobbit and LOTR art.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Devin Manning

Its Friday at the Mathom-House again, and we've got some awesome Thorin concept art for you, by Devin Manning . . . check out the rest of his great artwork over at his site, and jump past the break to see some sweet renditions of everyone's favorite (until the lust for gold consumes him, at least) King Under the Mountain!

The Hobbit Reread 3: The Quest of Erebor

Gandalf and Thorin by Bentos

All right-ee, here is the third installment of the Great Hobbit Reread, and the last of the reread posts that doesn't actually come from The Hobbit. Today we'll be reviewing Tolkien's essay The Quest of Erebor, which I only recently stumbled across (as in several months ago). It's an incredibly interesting little piece that sheds light not only on Gandalf's motivations in working with Thorin and nudging Bilbo into the quest, but also reveals the dwarves' less than admiral opinions of our hobbit hero. Enjoy!

New Hobbit Pics from USA Today

A special week indeed! Here are some brand new photos courtesy of USA Today. Read on past the break to see them all.

More Pics of Dwarves and Thranduil!

Thanks to DarkJackal for alerting us to some more awesome Hobbit pics from an "activity" book available in the UK. Hands down my favorite is this shot of Thorin & Co. on their way to the Lonely Mountain. Jump past the break to get a look at the rest of them!

The Hobbit Reread 2: Durin's Folk

The Hobbit Reread 2: Durin's Folk

Ok . . . I know I took forever getting Part 2 of the reread out. In my defense, I've been out of town for over a week. Sorry. Anyways, today we'll be discussing the ROTK Appendix essay Durin's Folk. This essay will give us a quick overview of the history of the Longbeard dwarves leading up to the beginning of the Hobbit.

A Brief History of Wargs

All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them; then by another not far away to the left. It was wolves howling at the moon, wolves gathering together!

-The Hobbit; Ch. 6: Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Goblins are bad . . . nobody quibbles about that; but goblins plus wolves? That's more than most anybody can handle. Even old Gandalf scrambled up a tree to get away from a pack of these fiendish beasts. Because these aren't just any old, garden-variety wolves . . . these are Wargs, sinister wolves that live in the shadows of the Misty Mountains and have long been allies of the goblins and orcs.

But just what exactly is a warg, anyways? Where did they come from and why--unlike most animals in Middle-Earth--are they servants of the Shadow? Read on past the break to find out!

The town of Dale

The super-sleuths at the German Lord of the Rings movies fan-site Herr Der Ringe Film have released the first ever photos of the town of Dale! For those of you who might not remember, Dale is the town of Men that was nestled at the foot of the Lonely Mountain. Thorin describes it to Bilbo near the start of the Hobbit:

Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my grandfather was King under the Mountain again and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who lived to the South, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley overshadowed by the Mountain. They built the merry town of Dale there in those days.

––The Hobbit; Ch. 1: An Unexpected Party

 Sadly, Dale was destroyed by Smaug . . . and by the time Bilbo and his crew reach the Lonely Mountain, nothing remains of the once merry town but ruins.

HDRF asked that their images not be posted on other sites (sorry . . .) so I'll just give you the link to the pictures. As a quick note: the buildings all look to be in good condition, so I wonder if what we're seeing is Dale before the arrival of Smaug . . . and that just makes me wonder what the place will look like when Bilbo and the dwarves finally arrive.

For those of you who don't read German, here are the translated photo captions (courtesy of theonering.net):

• Structure of the set of Dale.
• The red roof tiles seem almost mediterranean.
• Archways, doors and arched windows in Romanesque style.
• Dale extends over several levels.
• The set is supported by shipping containers.
• Is this perhaps one of the bell towers of the town?
• The unfinished battlements of Dale.
• Plywood is the preferred building material on set.
• A set bridge or access way is built.
• A finished piece of wall with round battlements.
• The set of Dale.
• In this view one can clearly see the different levels.
• Back view of Dale and the bridge.
• A Dale building and a staircase in the building.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Joona Kujanen

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

A little late, but always better than never, it's Friday (almost) at the Mathom-House. Luckily, Blogger let's me set the date and time automatically, so I can cheat and still make this a Friday post.

This week we're be featuring the artwork of Joona Kujanen, better known as  Tulikoura, who maintains a great gallery of his work at deviantART.com. The artist has a great sub-gallery dedicated to some fantastic LOTR and Hobbit images.

Just like the artist we featured last week, Tulikoura's work caught my eye for its use of traditional mediums instead of the ever-more-common digital stuff we're seeing all over online. Some of of these images look like the lithographic prints you'd find in an old Dicken's novel or something . . . really good stuff. So, get ready to enjoy a whole lot of good art right after the break:

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Anke Eissmann

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Seven days done and now it's time for a batch of amazing Tolkien art. Yes, good reader, it's that time again: Fridays at the Mathom-house. This week we'll be showcasing the art of Anke Eissmann, who's website has an awesome section dedicated to her Tolkien art. Anke's art caught my eye because of her use of traditional mediums like watercolor and pen-and-ink, instead of the digital art you see everywhere nowadays. In fact, her watercolor paintings remind a lot of Tolkien's own watercolors. So, limber up your scroller-finger and sit back to enjoy some great Hobbit art:

Durin's Day

History of the Dwarves: Update

So, thanks to my tech-savvy wife, I've fixed the issue with the dwarf infographic. You can now access it by clicking on the image below, which has a link to the full-resolution image. Enjoy!

A bit of dwarf-ishness: Bilbo's Contract

So, I'm  a little late getting this posted (it's been up on theonering.net for a while now) but it's pretty cool, so I thought I'd better put it up anyways.

Using some high-res images of Bilbo holding the contract from Thorin & Co, DarkJackal managed to decipher some of the test of the contract. You can read more about the process over on his blog, Heirs of Durin. And even if you don't want to read the whole process, you should head over anyway 'cause there's some cool content over there.

To keep this post shorter, I'll just put down the finished "translation" that DarkJackal came up with. Note that he's divided the contract up into lettered sections that correspond to the pictures you can see to the right.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Justin Gerard

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

After too long a break, it's Mathom-time again! Friday is here, freedom is near . . . and I've stumbled upon what might just be my favorite Tolkien artist of all time. Here for your enjoyment is the fantastic work of Justin Gerard. He maintains several great websites, all of which can be found through the previous link; but, his blog is a particular treat, since the artist goes into detail explaining the process behind his artwork. Enjoy:

A History of the Dwarves (in color!)

So, a big apology for being so derelict in my blogging. School finally caught up with me and started kicking me in the butt, so I've been focusing on that for the past few weeks. Luckily, my responsible side took over during a time when not too much was going on on the Hobbit Movie front . . . now, I know some people who are more interested in casting and actors might disagree, but as I have next to no interest in that aspect of the movies, I don't feel too bad.

Anyways, even though I haven't been posting, I have been busy working on a little something . . . a map! I've always loved maps, and I am also a huge fan of infographics, so I thought I'd try my hand at combining the two.

So, here for your enjoyment is an infographic detailing the history and travels of the dwarves from the beginning of the First Age down to Mr. Baggin's adventures with Thorin & Co. I'm pleased with how the map turned out, but keep in mind this is my first shot at this sort of thing . . . hopefully I'll improve as time goes on.

The image below is just a crop from the whole map, which can be found and downloaded by clicking on the image:

P.S. The map is pretty detailed, so you'll have to zoom in and scroll around to get the full effect.

Later!