So the WordPress stat helper monkeys prepared me a 2012 stat report, and this was my first full year of blogging so it’s my first stat report. Yay! I’m excited.
In it, it lists the five top commenters and the top three countries, so if you’re any of those, give me a shout out 😀
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Hi there! It’s been ages, I know, but I’m back now. So, then, without further ado…….
The movie poster..(Well, one of them. There seem to be an awful lot of them.)
Last Friday, my grade went to the zoo’s IMAX theater to see The Hobbit, apparently because we had been studying “great battles” or “epic stories” or whatever they said, and nobody really remembered because we just wanted to see the movie. In 3-D, no less. The movie was really interesting. It was a little confusing at times, but I attributed that to not having read the book yet. Yet. I am still trying to get that book in my hands and in my brain. Apparently all of the library’s copies are checked out, last time I checked. But it was also really good. But there were still some times where I would pause and think…Wait….What?
For those of you who haven’t read the book or seen the movie, here’s a short summary of the movie:
Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit is one day unexpectedly approached by the wizard, Gandalf. Gandalf adds Bilbo as the final member of his 13-dwarf company led by the fearsome warrior, Thorin. Their journey encounters scary Orcs, giant spiders, goblins, shapeshifters and more as they set out to reclaim the lost Dwarf kingdom of Erebor from the nasty dragon Smaug who has taken over it. As they pass through the Wild in Middle Earth, they must escape the goblin tunnels, there Bilbo meets the creature named Gollum. Bilbo takes Gollum’s “precious” ring that seems innocent and helpful at the time……a simple golden ring that it tied to the fate of all Middle Earth.
I’ll start with the good.
They do look very much alike….still not the same person though.
The casting was excellent. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins was very good. He was perfect to play Bilbo, I think. Ian McKellen was also very good as Gandalf, too. The only thing that bugged me was how much he looked like Michael-Gambon-Dumbledore. He didn’t look like Richard Harris, and besides, he’s dead. Funnily enough, my schoolmates seem to regard me as the one who knows everything about Harry Potter, so at least three of them asked me, “Was that Dumbledore?” “No, no, no,” I replied to every single one, “it’s a different actor.” I only knew that because I sat in my seat and watched the credits up until they announced that Gandalf was played by Ian McKellen.
I like it better that way, as it fits better in my nerdy brain that Dumbledore and Gandalf are long-lost twin brothers or something, and how could they be twins if they were the same person? I’d also like to thank whoever made this chart.
I would also like to mention that the sets were amazing. Riverdell and the Shire were especially good, in my opinion. I was wearing my special 3-D glasses so they seemed especially intricate and big. I ended up tuning the action out a few times and looking at the sets, some of which had to be CG because otherwise it would have taken up an area the size of Russia.
There’s also strange bits of humor in the films, and they’re very well placed. Personally, I liked the part at the beginning where Balin and Dwalin greet each other in Bilbo’s house and then just bang their heads together. Strange? Yes. Funny? Yes.
Now for the not-so-good. It’s not that the movie is bad or anything, there are just some things that I think ought to be changed.
First off, they seemed to have an awful lot of problems with monsters. Orcs, goblins, trolls, and the mountain rock people. Just to name a few. The mountain rock people didn’t bug me too much and neither did the trolls, but the goblins were nasty and I’ll elaborate on them later. The Orcs are what I mostly had a problem with, as they popped up entirely too much during the movie and according to people who have actually read the book too, they don’t pop up nearly as much in the book. I suppose all Peter Jackson (the director) wanted to do was just throw in more danger. I still don’t like them very much, though. They’re UG-LEE.
Don’t even get me started on the goblins, they’re just nasty and that’s the goblin king over there. Trust me when I say you do NOT want to see the rest of him. It’s just more warts and hair and snot and more who knows what. I guess, since he’s easily the ugliest of the lot that the ugliest goblin is the king.
And as I’m seguing into the ugly, one word. Gollum/Smeagol. Gollum is one bang out of order hobbit, just to say. So apparently Gollum was once a hobbit like Bilbo, but he had the ring too long and according to J.R.R. Tolkien you go all crazy and evil if you have it too long. So Bilbo and Gollum have a riddle-contest and Bilbo steals the ring from Gollum and Gollum FREAKS OUT. It’s actually kind of funny if you’re not that scared, because he runs around going “my precious!” I don’t know. I thought it was funny from a nerdy point of view. I’m weird in the way that I like it.
Well, I think I’ve run through the good, the bad and the ugly. Overall, it was a really good movie and I liked it a lot, it was just weird like Gollum sometimes. But I’d watch it again, and you should if you haven’t already.
Rating: 4/5
*To be sung to the tune of You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch*
*The first three verses anyway*
Verse 1:
We are the Good-Sinful Alliance,
We really are a hoot,
We’re as evil as can get, we’re as awesome as can get, GSA, (hey!)
We’re made of the most evil villains in history!
Verse 2:
We’re monsters, some of us,
We’re evil as you can get,
We’re really not that bad, so come on down and join us,
Join now before there’s a MEMBERSHIP FEE!
Verse 3:
We’re really quite cool, you see,
We do lovely fun things,
NaNoDeeMo, 4-T, an annual evil conference, Miss Manners, Miraz,
We also have really cool evil-doing outfits, did we mention?
Verse 4:
*not sung to any particular tune*
WE’RE SO COOL AND AWESOME, WE GSA,
WE’RE EVIL AND WE KNOW IT!
WE LOVE GSA, WE LOVE GSA
HOORAY!
I’ve read a lot of books. I’ve read the words that make characters die. (That sounds awkward….) But really, I didn’t want them to die and I was always really depressed when that happened. So here’s a list of why I didn’t want them to die.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
You-Know-Who (Aka Voldemort)
Okay, this is an odd one to have first, but I was kind of sad when he died, because I knew it meant the end of the books and the movies. I wouldn’t have wanted him to keep living, though. He’s had too much world-domination already and he’d just be more bad news for the world. Although, I did like Ralph Fiennes playing him. That man is really scary. And he was a pretty good villain, as far as villains go.
Rue (the district 11 tribute)
I liked Rue, and since she was really young, it just made the Capitol’s Hunger Games seem so unjust and unfair. I cried when I went to see the movie and she died. (Don’t look at me funny, it was a really sad scene.)
(The one with the red hair is Alcie.)
Alcie from the Pandora Gets… series.
A lot of you don’t know about this series, but it’s a good book series about Greek myths. The only reason I was sad Alcie died is because she wasn’t even supposed to, and because I liked her the best. Plus, she was cool. I was happy when they sent her back from the underworld, seeing as she wasn’t supposed to be dead and all that.
Prim (from the Hunger Games)
This is just brutal. This was at the very end of Mockingjay, so after Finnick, Boggs, and the other people died, your heart was already crushed. Now your heart is shattered into a million pieces. Depressing….
Padfoot (Aka Sirius from Harry Potter)
This is Harry’s only family, and then he gets killed. And he was so cool too!
Finnick Odair (Hunger Games)
There aren’t any good pictures of Finnick yet, so he doesn’t get a picture, unfortunately. According to the book, he has bronze hair and sea-green eyes. I was sad when he died, because I liked him just as much as Peeta.
Dobby (Harry Potter)
House-elf who saves Harry & Co. Then gets killed. Sad.
Severus Snape (Harry Potter)
Not going to say anything. This is just the saddest thing!
I think I need to stop now. After all, I could go on and on. Plus, this post is kind of sad.
Any comments?
Inside The Junk Drawer 