The Hobbit -Spoilers-

[ed]

Just saw it.

Dunno.

It owes a bit to the superhero movies that have come since LOTR. There was a weird sequence with Mountain Giants that I cannot recall from the book. The were a couple of not too subtle drug references that I found stupid and distasteful. They used the phrase "something something fools" recapitulating the line from LOTR. Problem is that it jars because of it's memorability. The dwarf sequence in Bilbo's house was way too ling and I really couldn't help thinking that the thing was padded to justify the third film. There was a sequence with Redgar the Brown (the other wizard guy) that was reminiscent of the Star Wars chase thru the forest. Once I thought that it became hard to watch. The Redgar guy lets birds nest in his hair and there is bird shit (I presume) smeared on one side of his head. Really beneath Tolkien I think.

Maybe the word I am looking for is "bloat".

Acting was fine, production values great. Not quite a Prometheus but the jury is out. Gotta think on it. Curious to hear from AC on this one.

[asthmatic camel]

I haven't seen it yet, so can't really comment with any confidence.

I assume you mean Radaghast the Brown when referring to the "Redgar guy". Did they get that wrong? He's only mentioned briefly in the books, as are the two Blue Wizards, who apparently disappeared into the East, never to be seen again. Still, it's true that Gandalf was known by many different names, so perhaps they picked up on an alternative for Radagast that I may have missed or forgotten, (I doubt it.) Saruman disdainfully refers to Radaghast as "The Bird Tamer" in The Lord of the Rings, and Gandalf also mentions his love of and friendship with all living creatures not under the dominion of Sauron. Gwaihir the Windlord, (big, fuck-off eagle), takes exception to Saruman's description when he rescues Gandalf from the heights of the tower Orthanc, where he has been imprisoned. "No man tames the eagles of the mountains, not even Radaghast." he says.

The "stone-giants" are mentioned in The Hobbit, when Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves are attempting to cross the Misty Mountains and are caught in a storm, shortly before being captured by the goblins, having taken refuge in a cave which served as their front door. The giants are reported to be enjoying themselves throwing rocks at all and sundry. Possibly some kind of troll but this is not made clear.

Exits geek mode.

[ed]

I haven't seen it yet, so can't really comment with any confidence.

I assume you mean Radagast the Brown when referring to the "Redgar guy". Did they get that wrong? He's only mentioned briefly in the books, as are the two Blue Wizards, who apparently disappeared into the East, never to be seen again. Still, it's true that Gandalf was known by many different names, so perhaps they picked up on an alternative for Radagast that I may have missed or forgotten, (I doubt it.) Saruman disdainfully refers to Radagast as "The Bird Tamer" in The Lord of the Rings, and Gandalf also mentions his love of and friendship with all living creatures not under the dominion of Sauron. Gwaihir the Windlord, (big, fuck-off eagle), takes exception to Saruman's description when he rescues Gandalf from the heights of the tower Orthanc, where he has been imprisoned. "No man tames the eagles of the mountains, not even Radagast." he says.

The "stone-giants" are mentioned in The Hobbit, when Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves are attempting to cross the Misty Mountains and are caught in a storm, shortly before being captured by the goblins, having taken refuge in a cave which served as their front door. The giants are reported to be enjoying themselves throwing rocks at all and sundry. Possibly some kind of troll but this is not made clear.

Exits geek mode.

It is Radagast, my bad. It has also been a while since I read the Hobbit though I reread LOTR over the summer. I really wish you would go see it. I am very curious about your take on it.

[ed]

Also. The orcs (or are they goblins) have gotten lighter, perhaps as a PC nod by Jackson?? In fact the head Orc (not the goblins under the mountain, were these guys in the book?) is an albino. Bothered me that he would bow to pressure, if in fact he did. Dunno. Another imponderable.

[ed]

Also Figwit finally has some lines and the intro with Ian Holm and Frodo is a nice set up.

[ed]

Also they had a 48fps 3D version also playing. I am very curious about the 48fps product. Anyone see anything in it? Might go back and rewatch it.

[asthmatic camel]

The goblins evolved during the telling of the tales, and there are different types. Black Uruks of Mordor, Saruman's bio-engineered Uruk-Hai and the good, old-fashioned, weak but nasty goblins mentioned in The Hobbit. From memory, there is one mention of Orcs in The Hobbit, but the name wasn't applied to goblins.

[ed]

Didn't it strike you that they left stuff in to just pad it out?

[Grammatron]

I haven't seen it, but my reasons for it are obvious the more reviews I read: This would have been an excellent one movie, instead it's a shitty-ass trilogy.

[asthmatic camel]

Fuck.

Missed the H in Rhadogast.

Always pisses me off when I do that.

Third rate geek, I am, precious.

[asthmatic camel]

Just occurred to me that RADA is the foremost drama school in Britain, and ghast isn't very complimentary.

I'm slow, sometimes.

[Cloverlief]

I have to agree with Corplinx assessment. And yes, it seemed very padded. The hour eating potatoes wasn't so bad though. But I got tired of the "New Zealand is pretty" photography. I got it. I got it in LOTR. And for crying outloud, how many freaking mountains has Gandolf and his current cast of characters run out of? At least this time, Gandalf made it.

[asthmatic camel]

The more I read, the less I want to see. Sounds as though Jackson has mangled one of the world's favourite books, just as he did with The Lord of the Rings.

[Rob Lister]

Can we finally admit that director/producer Peter Jackson sucks?

Or maybe he did the best he could and the real truth is that Tolkien sucks.

[Bruce]

I have to agree with Corplinx assessment. And yes, it seemed very padded. The hour eating potatoes wasn't so bad though. But I got tired of the "New Zealand is pretty" photography. I got it. I got it in LOTR. And for crying outloud, how many freaking mountains has Gandolf and his current cast of characters run out of? At least this time, Gandalf made it.

The book reads like a long, boring camping trip. At least you get to see the forests and mountains in the movie instead of trying to image them. I grew up in a rural farming community in the Midwest and didn't actually see a mountain until I was 17. This is what I grew up with as far as landscape:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6927 ... 515f_z.jpg
What the hell is a mountain? A tree? A grove?

[asthmatic camel]

Can we finally admit that director/producer Peter Jackson sucks?

Or maybe he did the best he could and the real truth is that Tolkien sucks.

A bit of both, certainly as far as The Hobbit is concerned. It was written specifically for children, (who generally love it), but, as I predicted elsewhere, there isn't enough content to justify three very long movies.

Peter Jackson may be technically brilliant but his writing sucks.

[hammegk]

I have to agree with Corplinx assessment. And yes, it seemed very padded. The hour eating potatoes wasn't so bad though. But I got tired of the "New Zealand is pretty" photography. I got it. I got it in LOTR. And for crying outloud, how many freaking mountains has Gandolf and his current cast of characters run out of? At least this time, Gandalf made it.

The book reads like a long, boring camping trip. At least you get to see the forests and mountains in the movie instead of trying to image them. I grew up in a rural farming community in the Midwest and didn't actually see a mountain until I was 17. This is what I grew up with as far as landscape:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7180/6927 ... 515f_z.jpg
What the hell is a mountain? A tree? A grove?

Yeah, but you at least had crop circles to worry about.

[gnome]

I'll step out of line here and say I liked it. I'm not disputing any of the criticism here, in fact they make sense. But just the same I really enjoyed the film.

It took a while to get started, but apparently not too long because it held my attention. I'm used to Gandalf's inconsistency by now, and I guess I never get tired of the scenery.

I noticed a lot of the same issues, but they were mainly just blips for me. If I can easily imagine the same plot or scene without a problem I've noticed, I don't worry about it too much.

I skipped the HFR version so that I could see it in 3D IMAX (there was a 3D HFR version locally, but the closest 3D HFR IMAX was a few hours away). I had to drop something from the experience so I chose to forego the HFR. I am kind of wishing I hadn't... one problem I noticed (mostly at the beginning) is that in 3D if the backround is panning rapidly my eyes don't keep up with the 3D effect properly and I just lose the background entirely. I'm wondering if HFR would have made that better.

[Tiosylanyl]

I, for one, did not care for the changes they made to Gollum. There was no need to inject politics into the film..

Spoiler:

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j191/ ... 0d8a49.jpg

[MrMonty]

Saw it last night in 3D IMAX. I didn't think the IMAX was worth it, just a big screen. Also, I thought 3D was useless. I've seen six or seven 3D movies and the only one I remember liking the 3D was Avatar.

I do expect to go see the High Frame Rate version in a week or two. The film wasn't spectacular but I'm really interested in experiencing the difference and seeing whether I like it or not.

I liked the movie. I liked the extra stuff he threw in that seemed like a nod to Tolkien fans. Gandalf mentions the Blue Wizards. The White Council talks a bit about The Witch King of Angmar. There's Thrain, Thror, and Thorin historical background. I believe the albino is Azog? I'm pretty sure his character was never that extensive in the books. I have not read all the History of Middle Earth books though.

Yes, there's campy stuff with the Dwarves, stupid things happen with the goblins... really stupid things. The Rhadagast chase scenes are ridiculous, but I understand he needs to throw action in there and he believes he needs that light-heartedness as well. That's his style for these movies and he's sticking to it.

[Evolver]

I saw it today in 3D non-HFR.

It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it. But I've always hated the books (The Hobbit and LOTR).
I noticed most of the flaws pointed out here by others, but the effects were good enough to keep me entertained.

[asthmatic camel]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6953 ... a92c_m.jpg
Is ‘The Hobbit’ a ‘Christian’ film? Yes and no.

Interesting. Tolkien was indeed deeply religious and it shows in the books, especially in The Silmarillion, which begins with his own version of Genesis. Elsewhere, he describes Gandalf as an angel, and there are obvious similarities between Melkor, Sauron and Satan. The Return of the King smacks of resurrection, as does Gandalf's return after his fall in Moria. Peter Jackson picks up on this in the third episode of The Lord of the Rings, where he has Gandalf explain to Pippin that death is not the end, something not included in the book.

[no one in particular]

I saw it yesterday in regular-ass 2D at a regular-ass frame rate, but it was on a huge fauxMax screen. I thought it look spectacular.

I went in with low expectations. And my wife, a life long Tolkien fan, went in with high expectations. But I never was a Tolkien fan. Back when I was into D&D, I loved the DragonLance books (I know, they're knock-offs), even the shitty spin-offs. And maybe that's why I couldn't get into Tolkien's language. I think by the time I got around to cracking the Tolkien books open, I was already convinced about what I figured a "wizard" should mean, or what a "halfling" or a "troll" was, and on and on. I mean, trolls aren't massive and fat. They DO regenerate and are afraid of fire. They certainly don't turn to stone in sunlight. I never really gave the Tolkien books an honest effort.

But that didn't keep me from seeing each LotR movie on opening weekend. I thought they were beautiful, and a fun throwback for me to when I was into all this shit, but mostly, I just thought they were all very boring. And each time we've watched them on Blu-Ray, with my wife cheering along, I've thought they were boring.

So I have no idea why I enjoyed this Hobbit movie so fucking much. Like I said, low expectations. I just wasn't at all bored. The LotRs movies turned 3 books into 3 long ass movies. So when I heard that this movie was turning one book into 3 movies, I expected the worse.

Hell, according to it's RT score, and most of the reviews I've seen, this movie is a good 30% worse than the LotR series. All of those movies rated in the low to mid 90s. And this thing is rating mid 60s. Every review I read, leaves me wondering about how those criticisms don't apply to the LotR series.

I think I could have done without maybe 10 minutes or so. Get them all on the road a little sooner, and maybe cut the rock giant fight out altogether.

But I think Jackson is a spectacular epic director. He avoids all the traps that Lucas falls in to. There is one scene in particular which display how much better a director Jackson is than Lucas. Can you imagine the scene with the Bilbo sneaking up on the trolls if this were a Lucas movie? At one point, Bilbo was directly behind a toll's ass. During that scene, Lucas would have given us no fewer than 3 troll farts. And one of those troll farts would have been into the camp fire, creating a troll fart flame thrower.

I'd say that this is Jackson's second best movie behind King Kong, which I fucking loved.

[ed]

I think that he did an excellent job on LOTR. I reread the three volumes this summer then rewatched the films and I think that the changes that he made were good. There are parts of LOTR (books) that are unnecessarily opaque and he made changes that helped comprehension. You can't just read the dbooks and call it a movie, after all.

I'll probably go back and see the Hobbit in the HFR version for a hoot. or not.

[Cloverlief]

I have to say, I think LOTR was the best movie series I have ever seen. On the other hand, the books sucked - long winded, bad poetry, hurry up and wait, unnecessary and ridiculous characters such as Bombadil. Tolkein was in desperate need of an editor, and what was done in the movies pretty much gave that editing.

And to clarify, I enjoyed the Hobbit. I will go and see the sequels; I just think that it was a bit draggy in places and I noticed some similarities in LOTR, which makes sense since quite honestly the Hobbit was written to stand alone, and LOTR came later as an expansion. I will admit that I have not read the Hobbit.

[Nyarlathotep]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking and, well, it didn't suck. It was mostly kind of meh. A few moments of really good cinema combined with WAAAAAAAY too much padding. There were a lot of times I could hear the voice of Crow T. Robot saying "No one will be seated during the thrilling dwarves serving soup scene!" in my head.

[no one in particular]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking...

At 0:34:

[youtube]AOIi9SjJvgU[/youtube]

[Tiosylanyl]

...unnecessary and ridiculous characters such as Bombadil.

Speaking of him, I came across this blog post about him a couple months back...an interesting take on the character.

http://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

[Rob Lister]

:clap:

[ed]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking and, well, it didn't suck. It was mostly kind of meh. A few moments of really good cinema combined with WAAAAAAAY too much padding. There were a lot of times I could hear the voice of Crow T. Robot saying "No one will be seated during the thrilling dwarves serving soup scene!" in my head.

That scene just conjured up images of the soup scene in the uber creepy Polar Express. Anybody else?

[Nyarlathotep]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking and, well, it didn't suck. It was mostly kind of meh. A few moments of really good cinema combined with WAAAAAAAY too much padding. There were a lot of times I could hear the voice of Crow T. Robot saying "No one will be seated during the thrilling dwarves serving soup scene!" in my head.

That scene just conjured up images of the soup scene in the uber creepy Polar Express. Anybody else?

Never watched Polar Express. Not really my kind of movie.

[Bruce]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking...

At 0:34:

[youtube]AOIi9SjJvgU[/youtube]

"The One Ring......which does absolutely nothing accept turn you into an invisible crack addict."

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Even in the books, the ring does nothing. Supposedly, it makes Sauron invincible, but Isildur simply cut off Sauron's finger and poof. So much for invincibility.

[Bruce]

http://www.robarnieanddawn.com/newsite/ ... gollum.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_hM3iz69aqu8/SbDyn ... imgmax=800

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/20 ... ecious.jpg

:shock:

[ed]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking and, well, it didn't suck. It was mostly kind of meh. A few moments of really good cinema combined with WAAAAAAAY too much padding. There were a lot of times I could hear the voice of Crow T. Robot saying "No one will be seated during the thrilling dwarves serving soup scene!" in my head.

That scene just conjured up images of the soup scene in the uber creepy Polar Express. Anybody else?

Never watched Polar Express. Not really my kind of movie.

[youtube]wtv2WVz4Cj8[/youtube]

Just picture dwarves instead of faggy waiters

[Nyarlathotep]

That movie should have been called Last Train to the Uncanny Valley.

[asthmatic camel]

Just came back from The Hobbit: Three Hours of Walking...

At 0:34:

[youtube]AOIi9SjJvgU[/youtube]

"The One Ring......which does absolutely nothing accept turn you into an invisible crack addict."

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Even in the books, the ring does nothing. Supposedly, it makes Sauron invincible, but Isildur simply cut off Sauron's finger and poof. So much for invincibility.

Heh. Not really true, though. The ring allows Sauron to dominate the wraiths, betrays Isildur to his death, leads Smeagol to murder Deagol and ruins his life, drives Boromir, (and to some extent his father), mad with desire and gets him killed, Saruman is another victim. Its destruction means the departure of the elves from Middle-Earth as the power of the three elvish rings fades.The great fear to use it, and those of lesser abilities can't, as Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf explain to Frodo, yet it gives Gandalf the ability to telepathically communicate with Frodo when he's wearing it.

One aspect of the book is that the power of elves and men to resist the might of Sauron was considerably greater in Isildur's time than in Frodo's day.

Want more?

:mrgreen:

[Doctor X]

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/912425_o.gif

--J.D.

[grayman]

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 1456_n.jpg

[asthmatic camel]

Now that did make me chuckle.

[Rob Lister]

Now that did make me chuckle.

ditto