Another Christmas Greeting/Indulgent Moan To The Fans/Stragglers

A Pre Note From Aaron - So I have no idea what Harvey's Christmas article is about, but I assume it'll be very down on Christmas. As such to contradict him here is my tiny black Christmas tree I dig out every year, my miniature Nature's Prophet Plushie and literally the WaC site wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for your continued support in spite of our very poor release schedule, hope you got everything you wanted <3

And so another Christmas has reared its annoying, greedy, stupid, but slightly appreciated head for another year. Outside of being forced to take part in Christmas, mostly I'm happy that our viewers continue to check in enough that I get to write a second one of these and that writing for the site remains enjoyable without going completely ignored.

But back to it. The lead up to Christmas is a lot like life. You spend the entire time being tested with repetitive conversations about what you're up to and things you've bought, listening to bad music, buying endless trash that won't bring anyone any form of joy and then at the end of it all are left with only a memory of an event that was at best, slightly above average.

The only thing that I really appreciated this year about getting older and so finding Christmas increasingly disappointing is the fact that I now seem to be over the hump of at least the disappointment being a surprise now. Having purged any expectation that I will be receiving the gifts that I so happily absorbed like the greedy present grabbing shit stain that I once was, when I was weaker willed and spoilt by the day, I can now go in expecting just a catch up with some family I haven't seen in a while and then the inevitable cocks versus cunts edition of trivial pursuit which breaks out once everyone but me is suitably drunk enough because the thought of freely driving home at the end of all this is enough to avoid the sedation of alcohol.

Finding Art In The Terrible Advertisements Of 2013

 

Adverts are supposed to deliver us striking images in order to get us to buy their things. The images they show however, for reasons that I'm sure stems from the steady self destruction of the modern attention span, are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the product that they're trying to sell. Advertising worries me even further because I imagine that the people in charge of making these have done some sort of psychological experiments and come to the conclusion that the human mind is most effectively sold the idea of going to buy meaningless household items from John Lewis by watching a short animated film about a tired bear and an overly emotional hair to a cover song by Lilly Allen.

Personally I didn't think my mind worked that way but John Lewis has given me and everyone else in England a psyche exam, of which the results prove that we are consumerist emotional wrecks.

Jewish Dwarves: The Hobbit - Desolation of Smaug Review.

Having just got back from The Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug, I feel three things.

1. A great sense of relief this film isn't bad
2. Slightly dizzy
3. A strong hope the people in charge of pacing weren't paid well.
   
   (Warning, will contain spoilers...If anyone doesn't know the plot to the Hobbit at this point)

So yeah, as you can tell, I liked it, it was good, maybe even great. Unfortunately I now need to launch into the inevitable comparison between it and the Lord of the Rings trilogy of 12 years ago, and that seems to make every reviewer look like they are backtracking on their opinions.

As I stated in my Films of the Year: 2012 awards I really dig the concept of these three Hobbit films. A 9 hour walk around one of my favourite children's books and one of the richest mythologies in Fantasy all with a really good budget off the back of what was ostensibly the 2000s Star Wars ( in place of actual Star Wars). That sounds incredible, and indulgent...Incredibly indulgent. And where that is great for the child who loves Tolkien in me, I have some trouble reconciling that with the Film Critic in me.