The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

 The mountain smoked beneath the moon.
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled the hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I spent the last year waiting for December 13th. It sounds absurd, but not a week went by that my thoughts did not turn towards Middle Earth and the journey of a hobbit and thirteen dwarves to reclaim a treasure and homeland. Sometimes, anticipation results in failure. I remember my excitement over the 2002 film Hidalgo and my total disappointment in it after seeing it in theaters.

But, as a certain King would say, "Today is not this day." I don't care how much Peter Jackson adds to The Hobbit. I don't care if he invented a She-elf named Tauriel and a white orc named Azog. I don't care that the last 45 minutes of this 2nd movie has no basis in Tolkien's story. I don't care because Peter Jackson has done it again. All it takes is the music at the beginning, the Wingnut Films lettering on the screen, and I am transported to Middle Earth.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is stupendous. The entire audience held their breath through the last half-hour. We didn't want the chapter to end, not there, not in the agonizing uncertainty of these character's fates. The screen fell black after Bilbo utters, "What have we done." And it is black for at least two seconds. So much time is built into two seconds of blackness on a theater screen. And then the end credits rolled, and the music played, and the roaring exhalation of hundreds of held breaths sounded, followed by rounds of excited chatter.

Because now we have another year to wait, another year of trembling anticipation, of waking up a day closer to December 17th, 2014.

I have lived this exhilaration before. In 2001, between Christmas and New Years, a seventeen-year-old girl went with her father to the theater to see her first PG13 movie (I was homeschooled, okay, get over it). It was like my mind blossomed, and for the first time I understood the glorious lightness of heart that only comes from falling in love. Is it possible to fall in love with a movie franchise? Yes, it is. I know because I have done it not once, but twice now. And even more so now than before because my first experience with Tolkien's work did not start that chilly December day that I sat nervously in the theater with my father.

No, my love began three years earlier, in 1998 when I was fourteen. While browsing through library shelves, desperate for something new to read, I stumbled upon a book. On a whim I took it home, and once I picked it up to read it, I could not put it down again until I had finished it, cover to cover. That book was, as you already guessed, The Hobbit. My love was born that day in 1998, and as much as The Lord of the Rings is precious to me (pun intended), it feels as though Peter Jackson has touched upon that pure love I have held since I was fourteen-years-old. It is the love for a hobbit known as Bilbo Baggins. I have loved Bilbo for over half my life, and will continue to love him until my dying breath. And now, oh now, he is breathed to living, glorious life by Martin Freeman, a man I shall hold equally as dear until the Lord takes me from this earth. He is Bilbo for me now, there will never be another.

Every moment I sat in that dim movie theater tonight was a moment of pure delight. Those of you who love The Hobbit do so for your own reasons, and perhaps you can voice them better than I have tonight. But the poor words I have written down are as near to covering my feelings for this franchise as humanly possible. At this moment I cannot give you specific moments of pure adoration because I love The Desolation of Smaug in its entirety. One moment leads to another which then leads to another until that pure delight of each moment whips them together in a perfect froth of happiness. Peter Jackson has triumphed. Martin Freeman has triumphed. And J. R. R. Tolkien? Well, he has triumphed without my ever needing to say a word.

Once I have time to divide my thoughts, I promise you more posts on individuals and specific moments without the effervescent bubbling (naaaaaaah). But I will post more. I think Thranduil and Thorin on greed is an especially noteworthy topic to discuss.

So, did you see it? What did you think? Isn't it AWESOME!?