There and back again
I took our eldest daughter to the cinema this afternoon to watch “The Hobbit”. Her only knowledge of the story has been through the first few chapters – listened to as I read to her younger sisters a few months ago. She's twelve years old.
In some ways it was good for her to experience the story with no preconceptions, because I could then compare her view of it with my own afterwards – tinged with the experience of having read the Hobbit many years ago, and of course having seen the Peter Jackson version of “Lord of the Rings” many times.
I'm not going to review the movie, because that would be ridiculous – there are endless movie snobs out there writing self absorbed drivel about the mythology of Middle Earth, and the sins being committed in all directions by the movie making juggernaut.
I am going to write about an exciting movie, a gripping story, an unlikely hero, and a few hours of fantastic entertainment. The pulling in of background stories from Tolkein's notes to flesh out the history of the various factions that will play a part later in the prequel trilogy was fascinating. I found myself wondering how Kate Blanchet continues to look the same as she did ten years ago, and if they really flew Christopher Lee out to New Zealand for the filming, or built a sound-stage somewhere near his home.
We had considered going to see The Hobbit as a family outing – our children are seven years old, eight years old, and twelve years old. I'm glad that we didn't – the fight scenes would have given the younger children nightmares – I even wondered about Miss Twelve at times, but she appeared to be fine this evening.
The problem now is my other half – she has not seen the movie, and will be massively disappointed if she doesn't get a chance to go. She read all the books while young, and the yearly trips to see the Lord of the Rings movies became a memorable event in the years before we had the children.
I'm wondering if I can arrange a babysitter and go again with her – or scout around our friends and find somebody who could while I look after the children.
Anyway... it's getting late, and I suddenly find myself wanting to head to bed early with a hot chocolate, and a copy of The Hobbit on the Kindle...