The Hobbit

A couple of weeks back Peter Jackson posted this blog video on his Facebook page.

We have been eagerly awaiting The Hobbit ever since The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was completed. Preparation for it has taken a little longer than expected – indeed under the original timescale The Hobbit: Part 1 would be hitting our cinema screens this year. However things have been pushed back by about a year, so the release date for the first installment is December 2012 and The Hobbit: Part 2 will follow in December 2013.

I must say that Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy are probably my all-time favourite films. As a huge fan of the books and all things Middle-Earth, I think that (were he still alive) Tolkien would be extremely proud of them. They capture the essence and beauty of his fictional world with perfection.

I’m pretty sure that Jackson will continue with the same excellence in the production of these two films also.

Looking at the cast list, we are in for a treat. Martin Freeman fits the role as Bilbo absolutely perfectly – in fact if you listen closely to the very end of the video, the voice-over which sounds remarkably like Ian Holm is in fact Freeman from an early read through. Many of us will be familiar with Richard Armitage from The Vicar of Dibley or the recent BBC version of Robin Hood – he is an outstanding British actor who will add his excellence to the films. The same can be said for James Nesbitt (Murphy’s Law). I am pleased that Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Christopher Lee will be returning to reprise their roles from LOTR – it’s important that that continuity between the films is in place as it will give the set of 5 films a sense of being part of the same thing, despite being separated from each other by about 10 years.

On the production side of things many familiar faces are back – in fact it’s pretty much the same team again. John Howe and Alan Lee are again involved in the artistic design (the latter can be seen giving a particularly ‘camp’ wave in the video) which is great to see.

Even from a technology point of view, Jackson isn’t cutting any corners. He is using thirty Red Epic cameras – at $58,000 a piece they capture video at unimaginable quality. In 3D.

All in all, I don’t think there’s anything that need be changed about the production and filming. We can trust that the team will truly do justice to Tolkien’s vision.

I must confess that, as someone that many might think is a little geeky at the best of times, I am the proud owner of the extended editions of the LOTR trilogy, and I have spent many hours browsing through the extensive extra content on the bonus DVDs in the box-set. Even for me it did get a little tedious but on the whole I find it fascinating. Film-making is such an art; Jackson is perhaps one of the greatest artists of our time. From the intricate designs and attention to detail on every single thing that appears on screen to the epic filming locations, The Lord of the Rings is truly breathtaking.

We are fortunate that someone has taken the time to compile all the video documentaries, interviews and galleries and preserved them on the extended edition box-set. What struck me as I was watching the video above however was that, in our time of overwhelming technical connectivity, the weight of video footage, photographs and blog posts from the sets of The Hobbit in New Zealand will be unimaginable. In some ways this is a little sad – we won’t get the privilege to have all things ‘hobbit’ in one neat set as we do with LOTR. Yet on the other hand it’s so exciting – we are privileged to be included in so many moments ‘behind-the-scenes’ as they are posted online for the world to see. Jackson’s Facebook page will be a place of beauty and fascination for at least the next two years as this fabulous story reaches its completion.

I think that that’s amazing.

Hugo Weaving (Elrond) visiting the set on Saturday.

To Save A Life

Watching the Rascal Flatts music video for Summer Nights (see my post, Waiting for the summer) reminded me of this film. I’m sure its main character features in the video! But I can’t be sure…

To Save A Life came out in 2010, and as far I know went fairly unnoticed. It stars Randy Wayne as Jake Taylor; I don’t think they could have come up with a more stereotypical generic name for the basketball player in the American high school. However, petty criticisms aside, this film is quite something.

It’s risky. Among the issues it covers are teen suicide, self-harm, teenage pregnancy and some drug abuse. That’s a whole bunch of difficult topics, but they are shown realistically (for the most part) and sensitively. Naturally, this film hits you where it hurts. It’s not a particularly easy watch, but it’s a good watch.

The story follows Jake as he has to deal with the suicide of his childhood friend, and how he tries to come to terms with what has happened. He seems content having a beautiful girlfriend, a large group of friends, being a basketball champion and being generally extremely popular. However, upon meeting Chris Vaughn, the youth minister at his local church, he notices something a bit different. Chris is unnaturally kind and supportive, and Jake can’t quite understand why he is acting like this. Jake begins to attend the youth group on a Sunday morning, however he meets with a vast opposition, comprising most of his so called ‘friends’ and most importantly, his girlfriend. The film follows Jake as he begins to discover what it is like to be a Christian, and how it will impact his life. He has to battle with setback after setback, but his new foundation in Jesus stands firm.

I do highly recommend this film, for Christians and non-Christians. It is well made, although perhaps a little cheesy in places. It deals with so many of the issues that sting our society today, and points us toward what, I believe, is the best way to live our lives – with Jesus Christ as Lord. It is not an aggressive film, and it doesn’t show Christians as anything more than the real human beings that we are.

I think that this honesty and vulnerability is what really sells this film – it is heartfelt, moving and beautiful. Not everything is glamorous or perfect. It’s real.

For Christians watching, may it be an encouragement. God doesn’t call us to any easy life, far from it, but He has promised us that He will always be with us. He tells us to come to Him, when we are weary and weak, when the cares of this life get too much, and He will give us rest. He tells us to cast off our troubles onto Him, because He is big enough and strong enough to deal with whatever comes. And He does this because He cares for us and loves us.

For non-Christians, try not to watch the film too skeptically. It has its drawbacks, but the heart of its message is pure. I hope and pray that it may begin to open your eyes as to what God is really like – unconditionally and eternally loving us, and always wanting what is best for us.

May the film be a blessing and not a hindrance if you do get the chance to watch it.

Behold, I make all things new

I’ve just got home from seeing the latest motion picture installment in The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

I had heard before I went that it wasn’t quite as good as the previous films, lacking in a decent plot and resurrecting old characters, such as the White Witch, to improve its continuity with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.On one level, I would agree with this assessment. While the first two films had deep, well rounded plots  and inspiring characters, this one seemed more of a hopeless children’s reinvention of The Pirates of the Carribbean.

Part of this came from the vast amount of plot and storyline from the book that never made its way into the film. This is strange – the final cut only reached 115 minutes – as I am sure that there was room for a little more. I was left unsatisfied with many of the subplots surrounding the various islands encountered – for example, the storyline of the one-legged ‘Dufflepuds’ was left open and unresolved. This was a shame – it is one of the main things that I remember from reading the book, however many years ago that was. Although I am willing to admit that this may be a matter of personal preference rather than true analysis.

Despite this easy criticism, I must stress that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and there were two distinct moments which left me reeling in wonder and awe. I was so excited that these aspects of the film were in there, because they really made it all worth it.

The first of these was where Eustace Scrubb (the new protagonist introduced for this chapter) is changed back from being a dragon to human form. Aslan is of course the instigator of this change. This was very similar to the part in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the Narnians who had been made into stone by the White Witch are returned to their normal states by the Lion’s great roar. For some reason, in this film I felt  a much greater sense of Aslan’s glory and power; the title of this post is exactly what it made me think of. Eustace is a beautiful metaphor for the old being made new; for me every inch of the screen was shouting, ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ This scene will stay with me from this film – goosebumps all over for a while afterwards.

Yet the second of those moments was even greater. At the very end of the film, Edmund, Lucy, Caspian, Eustace and Reepicheep make their way to the shores of Aslan’s country, where he meets them. In the book, Lewis describes Aslan as transforming into a lion from a lamb, (who, in one of the most wonderfully meaningful sentences from the whole seven chronicles, had earlier invited the four humans to, ‘Come and have breakfast,’ the very words Jesus spoke to His disciples on the shores of the lake after His resurrection), further showing him to be analogous to Jesus. The dialogue that followed was the absolute climax of the film for me – it was straight from the book, which goes as follows:

‘You are too old, children,’ said Aslan, ‘and you must begin to come close to your own world now.’
‘It isn’t Narnia, you know,’ sobbed Lucy. ‘It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?’
‘But you shall meet me, dear one,’ said Aslan.
‘Are – are you there too, Sir?’ said Edmund.
‘I am,’ said Aslan. ‘But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.‘ - C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawntreader (1952), p. 188.

I nearly jumped out of my seat! Praise God that such an amazing witness to Christ be in a multi-million pound motion picture, broadcast around the world to millions upon millions of eager viewers. Our God is amazing!

Aslan is one of the greatest literary heroes ever conceived. And what greater hero could he be based upon? For Jesus Christ is our hero, the One who saves the world from death. And we eagerly await the day when, at the end of all things, He makes all things new. (Revelation 21:5).