Trailer Tuesdays: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Less than two weeks till The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug premieres in theaters, so the time is as good as any to talk about this trailer. If I sound a little less than enthusiastic, it’s because I wasn’t the biggest fan of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The new filming technology was fine, it was just… well, it was boring. And the book was emphatically not boring. The film was so boring I actually fell asleep in the last ten minutes and only woke up when Thorin was thanking Bilbo for saving him from the Orcs.

Thing is, The Hobbit was just one book—a relatively short book, at that. There’s no real reason the adaptation has to be three movies long. But since it is, it would help if Peter Jackson decided to flesh out the Hobbit world with interesting things. In the first movie we got an extended look at Radagast the Brown and cameos from Galadriel and Saruman, who were not in the book at all. In this movie Jackson’s going to add a side plot with Tauriel, a Sylvan Elf. None of these things are inherently bad, but they’re not related to the main plot of the Hobbit at all, and as long as they come off as detours from the plot rather than additions to the plot, they’re always going to feel extraneous. Is it fun to see Saruman and Galadriel again? Yes, but unless they add to the plot I’d just as soon rewatch all three Lord of the Rings movies, thanks.

Still, I am excited about Tauriel. She’s not a canon character, but Lord of the Rings is notoriously bad at women, and adding another woman to an almost-womanless cast can only be a good thing. From a storytelling perspective, it shouldn’t be hard to fold her seamlessly into the narrative, as the gang is going to be stuck in Mirkwood for quite some time. Having said that, I hope that Tauriel’s entire plotline won’t revolve around Legolas and his possible feelings for her, as the trailer implies. It would be a shame to finally have a female character in the Hobbit-verse, only to have her defined by Legolas’s interest in her.

So in Desolation of Smaug, I would love to see more of King Thranduil and the Wood Elves, and we should, since we’re getting to that part of the book. Lee Pace brings amazing sass to this role, and I was beyond disappointed when he only got a couple minutes of screentime in the first movie. Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug is going to be incredible, and I look forward to the explosion of Cumberdragon art after the movie premieres. I would also, obviously, love to see that possible cameo by Stephen Colbert that he’s been hinting at for ages.

On that note, I’ll leave you with Stephen Colbert asking Peter Jackson the nerdiest Hobbit question of all time. (For those of you who don’t want to reread the book, this is an excellent way to brush up on your Mirkwood history before seeing the movie!)

Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: Positive Portrayals of Catholics

So not too long ago, I was watching The Colbert Report and was treated to something awesome: an interview with Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is the current head of the United States Catholic Council of Bishops (USCCB). Colbert and Dolan seem to actually be pretty good friends and did a talk at Fordham University called The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life. This has nothing to do with anything geeky, so why am I bringing it up? Stephen Colbert hasn’t hidden the fact that he’s a devout and proud Catholic. And, in my opinion, he is one of the most positive examples of a Catholic on TV today.

So watching Colbert got me thinking: are there any Catholic characters, particularly in geek culture, that show a positive portrayal of Catholics?

Colbert and Back Again: “Hobbit Week” with Stephen Colbert

Saika and Bacula already know this about me, as does anyone who has ever seen me in person, but I am a massive fan of The Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert. The word “fan” can’t even begin to encapsulate the incredible amount of admiration I have for this man. So I think I can be excused this reaction when Saika helpfully tried to inform me that Stephen had a cameo in Peter Jackson’s forthcoming “Hobbit” series:

Saika: Hey, Colbert has a cameo in The Hobbit, red alert!

Luce: I SAW THE NEWS EARLIER TODAY AND FREAKED OUT LIKE I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING I’M SO HAPPY FOR HIM IT CHANGED HIS WHOLE LIFE AND HE LOVES IT SO MUCH THAT’S THE DREAM

Saika: Hahaha, Luce, I’m like crying at your reaction. Did you weep, Agent Romanov?!

Spoiler: I did.

But what’s important here is that Stephen is a massive, massive geek who loves Lord of the Rings more than is entirely healthy. His favorite character (and mine) is Faramir, Aragorn once showed up at his studio to tell him to run for president, and he’s probably the only person in the world to ever be gifted both the Captain America shield and one of the original replicas of Sting. And so I was particularly excited to see that Stephen was going to be hosting a week of Hobbit-themed shows in preparation for the release of The Hobbit.