"Hobbit" thoughts

I got back from seeing "The Hobbit" today and I left with mixed feelings. Overall I'd say it was a fun romp, but there were a few things that kept me from fully enjoying it. This can be attributed to two things:

1. Jackson and co. treating the film as more of a children's story. I know Tolkien wrote "The Hobbit" for a more juvenile audience. I've read the book multiple times (still haven't touched "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, though. I want to, but I find it too intimidating of a tome, like it's so densely packed my brain would explode trying to process everything. I'll read it one day, though, one day...), and it definitely isn't stereotypical kids literature. It doesn't pander to them and deals with subjects that are mature for its intended demographic. It's smart and nothing stupid's put in there because "the kids'll like it." I felt that that was what was going throught Jackson and co.'s heads when they developed the character of Radagast the Brown and his bunny sled. I first saw the bunny sled in the trailer and for some reason thought nothing of it, then I watched the movie and wondered why I hadn't realized "Hey, this is pretty dumb" up until that point. If I ever meet Peter Jackson in person the first thing I'd say, well actually the second thing because I'd be gushing about how much I loved "King Kong" first, is "a bunny sled? Really?" If Jackson really needed to include him that badly then he could've been better written. It's not like he was being loyal to the source material, as Radagast's one mention in original novel is so slight that I forgot he even existed until I read this movie's press. Radagast the Brown just doesn't feel like he belongs in Middle Earth. Which is really my main complaint here. The juvenile stuff just doesn't belong in Middle Earth. It feels like a it comes from different world entirely. Particularly the Goblins and their king. They didn't feel like the same race as the ones in the trilogy, and I don't mean the Orcs because, though I'm no Tolkien expert, I'm aware of that distinction. They were just too comical and felt like they stepped out of another fantasy series. They were even designed differently, I think. I guess you could rationalize it by saying they're a different race of Goblins in the same way the Wargs, the giant wolves ridden by Goblins, looked different. But you shouldn't have to do that. Same with the Deacon Alien in "Prometheus," and don't get me started on that film!

2. All the scenes feebly trying to connect it with "Lord of the Rings." I know that sounds weird because I was just complaining about how this didn't feel like it was in the same universe, but in the original book all that connected the old with the new was Bilbo's magic ring, which eventually became the Ring of Power. I thought that was cool, how something so big could arise out of something so small. I don't need an entire scene of Gandalf debating with others whether Sauron's returning or not. Get back to the quest! The book didn't dwell on that. In the book when such meetings took place Gandalf just left for a while and came back and mentioned the meetings in passing. The meetings weren't the meat of the story and don't further the narrative. Tolkien knew what to focus on. It's like how the "Star Wars" prequels suffered from lack of focus. No one person was the main character. Now you've got an enitre subplot about characters separate from Bilbo, who's supposed to be the main focus, trying to prevent the rise of Sauron. Granted, it's not as bad as in the "Star Wars" prequels, but it certainly runs the risk if this is going to be the same with future films. However, I understand this problem, and it's inevitable given Jackson's tendency toward overindulgence, which I usually enjoy and is why I loved his "Kong" interpretation. He obviously loves the material, and when he loves something, he basks in it for as long as he can. As a Tolkien geek, he made this for other Tolkien geeks just like "Kong" was for Kong fans like me. But the problem is that by adding all this extra stuff from the appendix of "Lord of the Rings" (and probably from "The Silmarillion but I haven't read that, either), it's not really "The Hobbit" anymore. It's just a bloated mess. That's not to say I won't be looking forward to that, or at least parts of it. The more Orc battles, the better. But... I don't know, it's complicated.

Anyway, here are some positive things about the movie:

1. Gollum, Gollum, Gollum. Best scene by far, especially for being the first one they shot. It was like seeing an old friend again. He was my favorite character of the last three movies and he's my favorite here. I love Andy Serkis by now. First Kong, then Caesar (the ape not the emperor), and now back to his finest! Really I can't praise him more than what's already been written.

2. The sub-plot with the pale Orc that Thorin has a blood feud with was kind of take-it-or-leave-it for me. It wasn't crappy like Radagast or the Goblins but its addition left me scratching my head. Like Radagast there's no real point to him being there as the story would be just as riveting without him. But he is kind of cool so he gets somewhat of a pass from me.

3. Lack of Smaug. I already knew he wasn't going to fully appear until film 2, but damn it I wanna see him now! They're really hyping up his appearence, aren't they? I just hope it doesn't turn out like the American Godzilla movie where the design was a disappointment when revealed. This is probably one of cinema's only shots at an iconic movie dragon. Film history's filled with iconic dinosaurs, but no dragons in cinema have left any (scorch?) marks. They tried with "Beowulf" in 2007, but we all know how that turned out (not the design, but the movie itself. I loved the design). "Dragonslayer" may have been the exception if it hadn't opened against "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The dragon in that film takes the cake in terms of awesomeness. Can Smaug top that? We'll see. I also wonder how motion capture is going to play into this. Dragon anatomy is of course different from human anatomy, so how is that going to work? And Benedict Cumberbatch isn't only playing Smaug but also Sauron, so I wonder how they're going to differentiate his voice?

4. That fucking bunny sled! You're telling me it can out-run a gang of Wargs? I mean-- sorry. I'll stop now.

So that's just my overall impressions after my first time of seeing "The Hobbit." Just thought I'd post a review. I was actually thinking of turning this from an art blog to a more general blog. There'd still be art, there would also be reviews and observations and stuff. Part of my motivation for this change is, as you can probably tell from lack of updates, I haven't been drawing much lately. It's not enough of an excuse to say college burned me out, since it ended about 8 months ago. It's more complex than that., but now's not the time to talk about it. All I can really say is hopefully I'll update more because I just realized that a few people in my family actually read this (hey, guys!) and I wouldn't want to disappoint them with lack of content. If they still read it.

"The Thing" Sketches

Howard Hawk's "The Thing from Another World" (1951) was on Turner Classic Movies last week and even though I've already seen it three times I decided to record it anyway. It got me thinking again about all things "Thing." The last time I got really into it was as a sophomore in college two years ago, where I decided I wanted to illustrate the original short story upon which the movies were based, John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" along with Harry Bates's "Farewell to the Master," which inspired "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Since both movies were made in 1951 and showed opposing depictions of alien beings in film, one benevolent and one hostile, I thought they'd make a great subject for an essay/ art series. Sadly, I think it may have been too ambitious at the time, what with school and all. But that doesn't mean I can't post any sketches from that ill-fated project! So here it is, two years late, ladies and gentlemen, the Thing from Another World!

I tried to be as faithful to the original short story as possible while trying to put my own stamp on the design. While in Hawks's 1951 film it looks a bit like the Frankenstein Monster and has no form in John Carpenter's 1982 remake, Campbell's story depicts the Thing as a blue two-armed, three-eyed Medusa-like being. I also tried to incorporate cats in the design, because cats can have pretty peircing eyes. Giger's Alien was also a bit of an inspiration, although I don't know if that really shows.

Even though I didn't finish anything, I really like what little I produced. I may post a finished Thing piece if I come up with something I really like. Only time will tell.

Kaibutsu changes

I've been gone on vacation for two weeks, and I got some time to sketch (something I really need to do more often, I'm starting to get rusty) Anyway I ended up coming up with a lot more new ideas for "Kaibutsu," which I'll post once I get some finished artwork. I'm redesigning Luctandor (now named Fulgurah), giving him a sidekick, scrapping Arunah for a much cooler monster, and tweaking Fragorsidus's origin and design. I actually really like where it's headed now. All the parts are starting to balance. I still don't have a design for the aliens, though, but I was thinking of giving them mecha based off of pillbugs that roll around like Anguiras and shoot lasers out of their antennae. On the one hand I still think it needs more kaiju, but on the other I feel that it's enough characters for a good narrative flow.

I think the plot most resembles the movie "Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster" since it's all about a threat from the cosmos that unites the kaiju against it, but then again that's like a lot of Godzilla movies.

Who knows when it will all be finished, though. It's almost fall so that means job searching time. Which means job. Which means less time on my hands.

Kaiju Manga Reviews

While most G-Fans like to collect toys, and I have quite a few, my passion has to be aquiring rare kaiju books featuring unseen artwork. In that spirit I just recieved three kaiju manga, two Gameras and one Godzilla. I'm pretty sure people are already familiar with the Godzilla one, but the Gameras were news to me. Some of the only info I could find on them was in French!

The Gamera on the left is pretty cool. It's "Gamera vs. Barugon" but set in the Kaneko trilogy between Gamera 2 and 3, hence the little logo at the bottom left hand corner christening it Gmaera 2.5. It begins with Gamera killing Legion then cuts to an expedition to an island where they discover a jewel within a giant skull, which of course hatches into Barugon. The art is pretty good, if a little sketchy. Barugon's redesign is really good, he kind of reminds me of a giant thorny devil lizard. He still has his tongue power though, but he wouldn't be Barugon without it, I guess. We even get a short Gyaos battle as a bonus. Then in the back there's a short interview with Shinji Higuchi, but like the rest of the book it's in Japanese

The Gamera on the right is a spinoff of "Gamera: The Brave," taking place between the scenes of the movie when Toto has been captured by the government. As a consequence there's no kaiju action except for when the characters watch secret government footage of the old Gamera's battle with the Gyaos from the beginning of the movie. There's also a cool scene where we find out that the government has recovered a severed Gyaos head from the battle, which is really well-drawn. The art is typical modern manga style, as are the characters. There's even one of those anime girls with an awkward love interest typical of most manga. Not that that's a bad thing, in fact it's cool to see kaiju and manga merged like this. Whatever shots there are of kaiju look great, too, and only strengthen the fact that there needs to be a Godzilla or Gamera anime pronto.

Speaking of Godzilla, man "The Godzilla Comic" is an interesting book. It's an anthology of different artists doing their own spins on the King of the Monsters. And boy do they bring some interesting things to the table! The best story is without a doubt the one where all the kaiju are samurai. Not only does it have Samurai Godzilla in space, but a gun-weilding Mechanikong and Jet Jaguar on a motorcycle! And at the end Godzilla ascends to heaven to be with Biollante, who seems to have turned into a woman wreathed in flowers, at least I think that's Biollante since she came out of a rose. The story itself was drawn by Hurricane Ryu, the suit actor for King Ghidorah in the 1991 film (which he also did storyboards for) as well as Battra and other roles. He's also a manga artist and draws a mean Godzilla. My favorite, though, probably has to be one where a ship looking for Godzilla's undersea breeding grounds gets more than they bargained for when a whole herd of Godzillas comes after them in their lifeboat in an eerie shot. Add to that a story about Godzilla in ancient Japan, chibi Xians and some chick in a bunny outfit (?), and you've got one hell of a book. This has to be one of the most interesting Godzilla-related things in existance.

And that's just a fraction of the fascinating world of kaiju manga, which I've only begun to scratch the surface of. If I could read Japanese and had the patience I would make scanlations of all three of these, but I can't so I'm sorry. Ja mata!

Gamera is really neat. He is made of turtle meat.

Just sime pics I did based off of my favorite giant turtle.

Gamera and Master Roshi from Dragon Ball. This actually happened: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Baby_Gamera

and a little meme I created using pics and dialogue from "Gamera vs. Barugon." 

100th Issue of G-Fan

My little tribute to G-Fan Magazine, which is reaching its 100th issue very soon. Here's hoping it goes on for 100 more!

RIP Maurice Sendak

A moment of silence please.