I did call this, you know

Remember that one time when I talked about Sherlock? If you recall, I included this statement in my remarks:

I love Martin Freeman as Watson. He was great as Tim in The Office, is great in this, and he is going to be great in The Hobbit, along with my friend Richard Armitage who I feel certain will push previously understood limits of dwarf attractiveness (my prediction, you saw it here).

So. I did see The Hobbit last weekend and . . . yeah. They are totally pushing the "Richard Armitage Thorin Oakenshield is the next Viggo Mortensen Aragorn with the tragic backstory and the broody face and the heroic future of destiny and probably he will end up pushing open some big ol' double doors in the rain in slow motion and it will be awesome" angle.

I can dig it.

I wonder if they've even toned down some of the makeup (I can just imagine the makeup artists being all, "You want me to do WHAT to this bone structure and pair of piercing blue eyes?") because the early photos of him in costume looked a bit too Klingon for my tastes.

So instead of this:

Klingon Dwarf, yikes.

We get this:

Aw yeah

And also this:

Bam

In one scene (hint: trees + fire) the slow-motion, sweeping-score heroics was so dramatic that I burst into giggles, even as I was maybe kind of dying inside from the hotness. I may have even let a "how YOU doin'" slip. But since I was sitting behind this massive line of crazy nerd men who kept screaming like tweens every time Ian McKellen came onscreen, I'm not too worried about how I may have been perceived.

Other notes about The Hobbit: It was too long at times, way too scary & gory for kids (seriously, please do not bring little kids), and there was only one female character. Humph.

I noted that they snagged one of the dwarves from a boy band or similar:

Somebody forgot his dwarf nose

And another from Waking Ned Devine. It's Pig Finn, everybody! Now go watch that movie because it is wonderful.

I've been usin' some fruity soaps!

Be sure to keep an eye out for Flight of the Conchords' (and Academy Award-winning) Bret McKenzie to show up as an elf. Then spend a few minutes giggling and whispering, "Brit. Brit." to yourself.

I'm also looking forward to the showdown between Bilbo and Smaug. Because Smaug is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, it will be like a little Sherlock reunion. And now we've come full circle!