Swiftly Moving Time

Can you believe we're now in June?  Better yet, can you believe we're in the second week of June?  Christmas is in 28 weeks with 2021 New Years following a week after.  Time is moving crazy fast.

Last week it started feeling like Summer in Utah as we reached the 90's.  Then over the weekend it rained and poured, bringing much needed precipitation.  A couple days ago it was a very chilly 52 with snow in the Mountains.  Utah weather, right?  A whole 40 degree difference in only a few days.  It's just crazy how fast time is moving, though I'm not complaining, I just need to be a better steward with my time.

Last Monday night, after off and on rain, the sun came out to dance upon snow capped Irish green mountains with feathered clouds.  So, so beautiful. 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

My Elf on a Shelf

Elf on a Shelf.

Whenever I think of that Elf in a red onesie I roll my eyes.

And then I'm super glad that Elf didn't exist when I was a kid, because I'm better for it.  This Elf came to the scene in 2005, so heaven help the poor little souls of the next generation who's raised with that creature.  A venomous creature with no regard for privacy.  Apparently Mr. little elf hangs out spying on kids and then reporting to Santa whether or not the kids are good, and then gets into mischief while hiding and seeking.  Who's going to report the Elf for being naughty?

At the end of the book, which I haven't read for rebellions sake and learned on wikipedia, if you touch an Elf it looses its magic and can't return to Santa.  If I was a kid I would touch that elf and hide it myself so I can maintain my independence without outside judgement.

Suddenly that line from Santa Clause is Coming to Town becomes a whole lot more creepy: "He knows when you are sleeping.  He knows when you're awake.  He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."

Serious Santa, what's the deal?

And I just admitted to owning a Legolas Barbie doll . . . -_-;;

Still, sexier than that little red thing.

The Lego Movie: Movie Review

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

"Everything is awesome!

  Everything is cool when your part of a team.
Everything is awesome!

When we're living our dream."

Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't made The Lego Movie sooner.

Lego has become a staple in the video game world with titles such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings to name a few, each known for their fun game play and quirky humor.  They're fantastic.  So when I found out there was going to be a movie, and could tell through the trailers that the Lego humor was there, I knew this movie was going to be a winner.

It is a Winner.  A winner full of Awesomeness.

Emmet (Chris Pratt) is your typical go lucky guy.  He's an excellent enthusiast, but that's just about it.  No original thought in that brain of his.  Common and ordinary, only he's the key part of a prophesy given years earlier by the wizard Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman).  It's said Emmet's the great Master Builder who will overthrow Lord Business (Will Ferrell).  Now Emmet's along for the ride, eagerly ready to prove he's extraordinary.

Cameos abound in The Lego Movie.  There's the obvious D.C. super hero's, complete with hilarious inside jokes, Abe Lincoln, Shaq, etc, etc, etc . . . bounteous et ceteras, some of which I will not name for the shear fun of the surprise.  This movie finds a way to blend all these cameos together, and not once does this film fill overcrowded.  It just seems so natural seeing all these characters together.

And the animation is brilliant.  I thought it was stop motion animation, but then I read somewhere that it's computer generated.  I just don't know!  But the look it fun, clean, colorful, and full of sight gags.  I didn't want to blink once--sadly impossible--so much is onscreen.

There seems to be a political message embedded within the film.  The WALL-E of this decade?  With a villain named Lord Business/President Business it's easy to draw a few conclusions.  And there's an outside society that seems very Libertarian.  I'm not going to get into all that.  I found the message of the movie, by movie's end, to be quite inspiring.  And I theorized, could be totally wrong here, that the name "Business" could come in part from the saying: "Mind your business."  By films end you can find your own meaning.  There's so much that can be taken from this film.

Overall I found The Lego Movie to be a lot of fun.  Clever.  Family friendly.  I saw it in 2D, and I want to see it again in 3D, which could be a blast.

Now I want to play with Lego's.

MPAA: Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Movie Review

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.  Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." ~ The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Review: 2.75 Stars out of 5 Stars

The Hobbit, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, came out in 1937, the idea springing from the simple phrase, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," which he wrote on the back of an exam he was grading.  Tolkien was a philologist, an expert of languages;  he began inventing languages in his youth, but these languages expanded and grew, and there came a point when he realized that the only way these languages could continue to grow was if they belonged somewhere, someplace.  Where these languages eventually belonged was Middle-Earth.  Tolkien spun tales and poems, epic stories that filled out a broad Universe beyond The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . . . and because of that, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, begins to lose itself, getting swallowed up by Peter Jackson and the grand scope that is Middle-Earth.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is no longer a retailing of a children's classic, but a bridging of The Lord of the Rings movies and The Silmarillion, with additional tidbits added by Jackson himself: A melting pot, a smorgasbord, a movie greatly in need of editing.

The Hobbit should simply be that, "The Hobbit," as told to his children the way Tolkien first imagined.  

It was nice seeing different aspects of Middle-Earth fleshed out.  The design of the Dwarf kingdom was brilliant with interesting details, showing art deco influences.  All the design given to the dwarfs and their world would make a great concept art book.  Finally seeing Gollums cave, and the events therein, is a childhood dream come true.

But if each book in The Lord of the Rings series could brilliantly get their own movie, why then must The Hobbit get three?  Honestly the entire book could have gotten its own, singular movie, with sharp editing and more concise storytelling.  There's an art to adapting a book to the screen, but even then we're not getting a literal retailing of The Hobbit.  For instance, there is a Wizard known as Radagast the Brown who is only mentioned in The Hobbit, but plays a role in The Lord of the Rings and The Unfinished Tales.  Jackson completely removed Radagast from The Lord of the Rings, and made him a main character in The Hobbit trilogy, though he was never meant to be.  Oh, and the bunny sled, that's a Jackson creation.  Radagast's character brings plot points and events into The Hobbit that was meant for a later time, thus helping to inflate The Hobbit into three movies instead of the necessary, though less money-grossing, single film.  

A huge bright spot to this retailing of The Hobbit is the casting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.  He's fantastic in the role, and a joy to watch.

In the end The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey left me lamenting, wishing Jackson could simply tell the story without filling it out.  How is there going to be two more movies?  If he wished to create a prequel to The Lord of the Rings, he should have done a singular movie instead of dragging The Hobbit into it.  With all the extensive material Tolkien created to better flesh out his world, an interesting movie could have simply been spun, and Tolkien's works could have remained intact.   

MPAA: PG-13 for extended sequences for intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images.  Though The Hobbit is written for kids, the movie isn't created for children in mind.  If you have young children, you may wish to view the movie first and decide if the material is suitable.

(As a note, I know there is a lot of buzz about the 48 frames per second, aka high frame rate.  I choose to view the movie in 2D at 24 frames per second.  At some point I do want to view the film at 48 fps to form my own opinion, but I'm already a little biased.  I hate walking into Costco, seeing all the flat screens set to high frame rates.  It always annoys me!  So I'm pretty sure I won't like the higher frame rate.  I'll reserve judgement.)