{"id":18160,"date":"2012-12-14T00:01:44","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=18160"},"modified":"2012-12-14T00:02:14","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T05:02:14","slug":"a-landscape-so-breathtaking-its-as-if-new-zealand-and-photoshop-had-a-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/12\/14\/a-landscape-so-breathtaking-its-as-if-new-zealand-and-photoshop-had-a-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"“… a landscape so breathtaking, it\u2019s as if New Zealand and Photoshop had a baby”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Knight<\/a> carefully puts on Snarkya, the ring of criticism, and reports on The Hobbit<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Their leader is Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. (These are the kind of spittle-producing introductions that will nicely boost a film\u2019s running time, especially if you travel with 12 other dwarves, each with his own proud lineage, which is exactly what Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, does.) Played by Richard Armitage, he\u2019s a redoubtable dwarf, 5-foot-2 if he\u2019s an inch.<\/p>\n

The company arrives on the doorstep of Bilbo Baggins, perfectly embodied by Martin Freeman. He\u2019s become known of late at Dr. Watson on TV\u2019s modern-set Sherlock Holmes<\/em> series, but his quintessential (or at least most relevant) role is probably that of Arthur Dent, Englishman and homebody, from The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em>. Middle-earth and middle-Essex are each home to a certain kind of reticent hero, and Freeman plays both with ease.<\/p>\n

Gandalf and the rest of the dwarves \u2014 whose names, if you must know, are Balin and Dwalin, Bifor, Bofur and Bombur, Fili and Kili, Oin and Gloin, Nori, Dori and Ori \u2014 convince Bilbo that a spot of adventure would be just the thing to write home about, and they set off across a landscape so breathtaking, it\u2019s as if New Zealand and Photoshop had a baby.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also got a host of excellent performances from the likes of Ian McKellen as Gandalf; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; and Cate Blanchett as token female, also known as Galadriel, whose flowing white robes are so artfully composed that she must have been sky-craned into her every scene.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Knight carefully puts on Snarkya, the ring of criticism, and reports on The Hobbit: Their leader is Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror. (These are the kind of spittle-producing introductions that will nicely boost a film\u2019s running time, especially if you travel with 12 other dwarves, each with his own proud lineage, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,28],"tags":[86,122],"class_list":["post-18160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour","category-media","tag-criticism","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4IU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18162,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18160\/revisions\/18162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}