An unexpected pleasure!

Story takes many forms and guises and can be a firsthand telling, a book, a movie, or a song, but just because you partake of one of these formats does not necessarily mean you have experienced a story, or at least a good story.  I have not been drawn to the movies in nearly a decade, at least not since Return of the King debuted.  I have seen movies now and again, but nothing worth mentioning.  As anyone who has attended a movie in the last decade undoubtedly knows, there has been a dearth of good movies of late.  Remakes and bad sequels are all that have dominated the silver screen for some time.  Turning lead into gold might perhaps be easier than finding a good movie.  I saw The Hobbit last night and now have high hopes of succeeding in alchemy as well.

As a book, I don't mind The Hobbit but I enjoy Lord of the Rings far more.  I also was a little wary when I discovered it to be a trilogy, for it seemed they were more interested in profit than quality.  I was happy to be wrong.  The feel of the movie was different than what we came to expect with the previous trilogy but this is a good thing as the feel of The Hobbit is also very different than the sequels.  The best word I can find to describe the experience was frenetic.  It was filmed using a technique that made the characters appear to move faster than normal, this combined with the constant action made the whole experience somewhat dizzying.  I woke up with something akin to a hangover!  But barring this, it was a great romp through Middle Earth and I heartily look forward to the next installment.

But this is not the only movie to which I have looked forward this year.  I have not looked forward to a movie in a very long time, and this month there were two.  Les Miserables comes out Christmas Day and I am waiting even more eagerly than I did for Return of the King.  I must be getting old!  I love it when a great book is brought to wondrous life on the big screen but there is little worse than a poor adaptation to film.  The Chronicles of Narnia is one example of such.  The first movie was well done, the second was poorly executed, and while I enjoy the third movie it was not very faithful to the book.  Les Mis will be the musical brought to life and the musical is excellent so I have no fears for its success.