December 2014

Are Tolkien’s Orcs Really THAT Evil?

In the moral universe Tolkien created, good and evil, at least on the surface, appear fairly…
Christmas Classics: “The Muppet Christmas Carol”

As most of you no doubt already know, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has been, to…
The Hobbit as a Living Text: The Battle of 5 Blogs

Originally posted on A Pilgrim in Narnia: This post is part of the Battle of the…
Why I’m Not a Tolkien Purist

We Tolkien fans are, not surprisingly, a very diverse group. There are those of us, for…
Nightcrawler: Not the Satire You Think It Is (20 Dec)

Originally posted on Metathesis: On its most basic level, Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014) is a heavy-handed…
Review: “Exodus: Gods and Kings”

Enjoyable epic fare, but not as compelling as it could have been. This was supposed to…
In Defense of Peter Jackson, Tolkien Fans, and Nerds Everywhere

Peter Jackson has taken a lot of flack for the alleged butchering of The Hobbit, variously described as…
Review: “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”

The final installment of Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy hits many of the high, operatic moments of The Lord of the…
What Tolkien Taught Me About Writing

Once upon a time, I thought that productivity was all that mattered when it came to…
Re-Considering Rankin/Bass

It’s hard now to remember a day when Peter Jackson’s films (whatever one may think of…