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Reviews
End Day (2005)
Low quality and sensationalist. Great fun as Sci. Fi., it would have been fine as a Doctor Who or Star Trek Episode but non scientific
I gave this a 1 point for awful for the science. I'd give it an 8 perhaps for the science fiction, special effects and story line as I did thoroughly enjoy watching it, though those who find such things scary probably wouldn't. But I'm judging it as a scientific docudrama.
The only scenario that had some accuracy was the 100 meter asteroid impact, but that is very improbable, and astronomy has moved on since this film so we would have warning of weeks, probably months for a 100 meter diameter asteroid. And the chance of it hitting Berlin was very improbable as cities occupy less than 0.6% of the land area of Earth, and there were many scientific howlers in that section as well.
* The particle accelerator strangelet / black hole can't happen - they mention the report but not its conclusions or the reasons for its conclusions. Cosmic radiation particles of far higher energies hit the Earth's atmosphere and the Moon. Indeed on most of the scenarios, Earth, the Moon, and our Sun would have disappeared long ago, and neutron stars wouldn't last long even if the collisions produced neutral uncharged stable black holes.
* The megatsunami is based on a single controversial paper from 1999 which is now pretty much debunked. It is not likely in the near future and we'd have weeks of warning and plenty of time to evacuate.
* A disease outbreak can happen, after all it already has, just way over exaggerated again. That scenario was so thin on details that it's hard to know what to say about it.
I could go into a lot more detail about all the scientific howlers in the docudrama but there isn't enough space here. See my https://debunkingdoomsday.quora.com/Review-of-End-Day-2005-BBC- docudrama-Megatsunamis-Asteroid-Impacts-Particle-accelerator- strangelets-black-hol
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Action Adventure remake of the Hobbit - though with some good bits
Very minor spoilers here.
Did have some good bits. The dwarfs' song was great. It should have had many more songs - all the characters sing, just about, in the original. Martin Freeman was excellent as the hobbit. Galadriel was good also.
Wasn't much like the Hobbit in the action sequences. Instead it made me think of Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Lots of death defying stunts - which would indeed kill anyone except invulnerable computer game characters, and those action sequences seem to go on and on for minutes on end.
I ended up skipping through the longer action sequences, e.g. most of the section in the goblin's city. Was just too unlike the Hobbit.
I'm a major Tolkien geek, read just about everything he wrote including most of his son's many compilations of his drafts.
The film just departed too far from the book. Lost the philosophy and a lot of what gave it its sparkle.
I might watch it again, but this time not think of it as the Hobbit but rather as an action adventure film, like Lara Croft. Then it might be more fun to watch.
The thing is I don't think the Hobbit is an action adventure. Is partly a comedy. Also a bit of a fantasy. Also a bit like a musical because of all the songs the characters sing.
Don't know how you would put it into film, but not just pure action adventure anyway.
It might just need a bit of supervision, not sure who from, light supervision e.g. from Christopher Tolkien perhaps, similar role to a science adviser on a science fiction movie. Like the way that J.K. Rowling lightly supervised the Harry Potter movies - not exact copies of the books but preserving the essential characteristics of them.
The sets were great though especially Hobbiton. Rivendel was also quite good, the goblin city not so good in my view just stretched credibility too far to be believable as a goblin city, and the stone giants weren't at all as described in the book where they were much further away, certainly not have the dwarfs walking over them.