Dragons in Film: the ugly and the great!

It is hard to imagine a better rendition of a dragon than what I recently watched in The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug.

Cinema has always struggled with making realistic dragons. Personally I found the Eragon dragon to be a shock when I saw feathered instead of leather wings. It just was not... threatening. More like a giant bird.

An impressive attempt was made in the movie Dragonheart. Sean Connery voiced the dragon in an effective manner. However the movie was filled with a lot of humor as well that took some of that dragon threat away... And a later attempt to create a sequel made the dragon animation feel and look like a video game.

In the Hobbit the standard is finally raised. Smaug was crafted to perfection! This movie really was fantastic and the dragon is what made it so. Not only were the special effects believable, but the characterization of the dragon was spot-on. Smaug is the epitome of a greedy, spiteful creature whose pride (amazingly) manages to fill the screen more than his tremendous length.

Let's hope this will open the door for other fantasy films on the level of The Desolation of Smaug where the dragons are true monsters with intelligent minds!

Overanalysing fiction?

With great interest I have been watching the Noah movie buzz spread through the Christian community. Much of the reaction has been negative, centered around inconsistencies between the Biblical account and the movie's interpretation.

The push against the film has made me all the more curious to see it (which is the opposite reaction the gainsayers want to see, I'm sure).

Not having seen the movie yet, I just want to say that I am looking forward to trying it but I do not anticipate it being accurate to history. This is a Hollywood project, folks! Do you really think that is their intent? I think they saw it as an opportunity to make money. And why not? It has been a long time since Hollywood has generated something on this scale that gets people talking about biblical accounts, Christianity, and all that goes with it.

Let's not over-analyze fiction. Take it for what it is: an interpretation and artistic expression inspired by circumstances and/or events, etc. I have often--and I do mean often--come across readers who are reading too deeply into my own fiction for hidden meanings and such. Often they come up with ideas that have no bearing on the author's original intent.

In closing, let me say that, having not seen the movie, I may hate it. Who knows? But I enjoy an entertaining movie and I don't have to agree with the worldviews expressed in it in order to enjoy it. If it was claiming to be a historical documentary, that would be a different scenario. (-:

Your thoughts on this?