EPISODE 3 Great Victory!

Hey people.  I am feeling like a scum for how late this episode is.  So I suppose I'll treat yall to a beefy blog post with it.  But first, the main attraction:

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Podomatic: http://hopelesslyoutofdate.podomatic.com/entry/2012-12-09T10_40_12-08_00

(you can stream and get the MP3 directly from Podomatic)

Ok, lets start things off with an official apology.  I have been really busy of late with finals (or at least the art school equivalent) and so I have neglected this podcast and this blog and this whole freakin' enterprise.  For that I am sorry.  I am, however, done finals and have entered into glorious winter break; as a result I hope to provide a boat load of content as well as work hard on expanding our audience.

Lets talk movies.

I am excited, we have Django Unchained coming out Les Mis, and The Hobbit.  Now I am a ravenous Tarantino fan, but I think I will save that whole explanation for a different blog post.  Today I want to talk about The Hobbit.  Specifically my fears about how it could go so horridly wrong.

Let me start off by saying that this has nothing to do with Peter Jackson.  He is a fantastic film maker and his love of the source material was part of what made the Lord of the Rings trilogy great, or even happen in the first place.  My issue is with the fundamental tone of The Hobbit itself.  I love the LotR movies, and I think one of the major reasons that they work is their tone.  My favorite film in the trilogy is Fellowship and my favorite moment in the film is the very end with Frodo and Sam walking alone into Mordor, camera slowly rises to show smoke in the sky, mostly silent (don't remember sounds) fade to black.  Movie over.  The world is fantastic and full of wounder and  whatever, but in that moment there is so little hope, there is only pressing on because the only other option is to fall over dead.  It is that sort of grizzly determination that I find so interesting in those films, I daresay that it is that tone that is my favorite part.

This brings me to my issue with The Hobbit, in a nutshell it lacks this tone that I love.  It is a different book with a different point and I get that, but at the same time I will miss it.   I suppose that I have a general problem with light hearted fantasy; and so you can take this whole discussion as one of personal taste.  Some might say, so what if the stakes aren't as high and the characters aren't desperately clinging to a grimy awful life, it will still be a fantastic effort in world building.  This is true, but what gets me is that LotR built this fantastic world but it did so while telling a somber story that was (somewhat) grounded in reality.  The Hobbits driving force of  "lets go get a dragon's treasure because treasure" seems like such a frivolous and selfish reason to play this whole game in the first place.

In conclusion, I love the source material for what it is, but I guess I have always had this criticism when comparing The Hobbit with the Lord of the Rings.  What I am afraid of is having a movie with more groan out loud, eye rolling moments than is necessary.  In any case I am sure it will be a highly entertaining film.

Oh and by the way, I just submitted the podcast to itunes, keep an eye out.