The Hobbit thread

[Kenny]

First topic message reminder :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTSoD4BBCJc

I have to admit i am looking forward to this film more then any other this year , i have loved the story ever since i read the book when i was 9 years old ( a long long time ago )

[bluestonevedder]

I am a massive LOTR's fan but I didn't like The Hobbit at all. Was very let down by it. Didn't see the need for 3 movies to begin with and don't know if I'll watch the next 2 now.

Thought it was needlessly childish and cartoon like in too many parts with some poor jokes thrown in for good measure.

Have to admit I agree. I was really let down by the Hobbit.

[Guest]

I'm really surprised. All three LOTR films had childish points, and The Hobbit was always less serious than LOTR due to it being focussed on Bilbo and dwarves adventuring, rather than on a war and a desperate quest to save the world. This is how I envisaged the film being done.

[Ent]

I'm really surprised. All three LOTR films had childish points, and The Hobbit was always less serious than LOTR due to it being focussed on Bilbo and dwarves adventuring, rather than on a war and a desperate quest to save the world. This is how I envisaged the film being done.

Yes the hobbit is very much a children's book.

[Guest]

I'm really surprised. All three LOTR films had childish points, and The Hobbit was always less serious than LOTR due to it being focussed on Bilbo and dwarves adventuring, rather than on a war and a desperate quest to save the world. This is how I envisaged the film being done.

Yes the hobbit is very much a children's book.

You're an Ent, aren't you ashamed of the way the Ents were portrayed in Two Towers? I thought it was offensive tbh.

[Ent]

I'm really surprised. All three LOTR films had childish points, and The Hobbit was always less serious than LOTR due to it being focussed on Bilbo and dwarves adventuring, rather than on a war and a desperate quest to save the world. This is how I envisaged the film being done.

Yes the hobbit is very much a children's book.

You're an Ent, aren't you ashamed of the way the Ents were portrayed in Two Towers? I thought it was offensive tbh.

The name is e n t not ent, no real issue with their portrayal in the film either!

[compelling and rich]

finally watched this on friday and really enjoyed it, they have strecthed it out abit by putting it in 3 films but for a change i watched a film that i had read the books to and didnt think it had flew through alot of things. films never compare to books because of this.

if they can make one game of thrones book into 16 episodes i dont think its to much to make the hobbit into three films especially if they are linking it more with lotr with bits like the necromancer etc

the other thing i would say was tolken wrote this book for his kids therefore its does has it dafter moments so didnt think the goblin king and radagast were too out of place, were going to have a talking dragon next so they were never going to be able to keep it to the more darker lotr style

[Guest]

Good call on Game of Thrones, which is my favourite book series / TV series of all time. I think judgement will change on The Hobbit after the 2nd and 3rd films are released - this could be as good as LOTR or as bad as the last Star Trek NG films!

The films should get darker though, with the Elves coming into play, Smaug, and the ending. It could be more epic than the Battle of Helms Deep!

[Mike Selig]

I enjoyed it. A good enjoyable 3 hours spent at the cinema.

I haven't yet read the book (no doubt I'll get round to that eventually) so couldn't be bothered about possible changes.

At times I thought it got a bit repetitive - oh, another scene of the orcs chasing dwarves - and maybe could have lost 10 or 15 minutes, but I never was really bored, or thought "gee this has to end soon doesn't it?"

I wonder whether if the LOTR films came out now they would get quite as good reception - a lot of the positives were perhaps due to the wow factor (scenery + amazing battle scenes). I don't know, I'd have to watch them again.

One thing which I liked about the Hobbit was the lighter moments actually. I think a major influence of Chris Nolan's batman films is that a lot of directors now think they have to make everything dark and moody, and very serious. No fault of Nolan's, I love his work, but a film has to be very good to carry that off, and not all films made since are. I don't mind the odd bit of fun in a film at all, and from what I gather that's staying loyal to the source material anyway in this case.

Another thing which worked well IMO was the 3D, particularly in the overhead shots and the stone giants scene. Some of the best usage of 3D I've seen yet - in some films (and indeed some scenes here) it seems like an unnecessary gimmick, but here it really worked.

[Guest]

I wish I'd seen it in 3D, the cinema I go to is so rubbish it doesn't even have 3D screens

In 2D that stone giants scene is boring, not necessary and a bit ostentatious.

[Derbyblue]

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug trailer is out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idp6wjqG674

If I hadn't gotten my girlfriend to like the book, 1st film and LOTR films may not have bothered with this one, but I expect I'll be seeing it at the cinema.

[Galted]

Watched An Unexpected Journey a couple of nights back, was very disappointed, pretty much a Middle-Earth version of Indiana Jones stuffed full of cliches.  I don't really think much of Peter Jackson as a director with the LOTR trilogy &, now, this.  He's had 2 great stories to work with & a huge budget & just comes up with twee, sentimental rubbish, predictable lines, weak, unnatural characters, contrived attempts at comedy, confused plotting - the only parts of the LOTR that stand up to repeat viewings are courtesy of the CGI team (the battle of Helm's Deep & the fight for Gondor for example).  I'd love to see what Guillermo del Toro or even Tim Burton could have done with the material.

[Guest]

Okay the new trailer makes me cry with shame. Why have they brought Legolas in, and made up an entirely new character as his love interest

The barrels scene looked cool though.

I can see me going to see this film on my own at the cinema though, the film itself looks rubbish.

[Enforcer]

They have added a lot of content from the appendices of LOTR (which there are plenty of!) in order to have enough content to make it a trilogy. It could be that the Legolas section is taken from those.

[Guest]

It's dreadful really, when I imagined The Hobbit on screen I imagined one film, possibly two, where it gets progressively darker and darker throughout leading to the crescendo at the end. So far it's been all farting in the bath and 'where's the chips' and no sense of foreboding apart from Thorin's mood swings. Film 2 doesn't appear to get the tone right either

[Derbyblue]

They have added a lot of content from the appendices of LOTR (which there are plenty of!) in order to have enough content to make it a trilogy. It could be that the Legolas section is taken from those.

I'm sorry Enforcer but I don't believe things like the Dwarfs being threatened at bow point by Legolas (or any Elf) would be taken out of the Hobbit. The barrel bit sort looks cool but also makes a mockery of the idea they're sneaking out while the Elves are partying and considering the.shots elves pull off in LOTR it's stupid to suggest they'd miss a dwarf stuck in a barrel.

[Enforcer]

My memory is usually shocking, but I'm sure there is a part where they reach the Elven forest that an elf guard stops them at bow point. Dwarves and Elves don't trust each other (even worse prior to LOTR) so it is not out of character.

[Derbyblue]

My memory is usually shocking, but I'm sure there is a part where they reach the Elven forest that an elf guard stops them at bow point. Dwarves and Elves don't trust each other (even worse prior to LOTR) so it is not out of character.

I'm not suggesting it's out of character, I'm suggesting it would have worked perfectly well being kept in the book and with the Elf King mentioning it when he's speaking with Thorin, which makes me doubt it happened. Also if there were pretty regular Elven patrols I don't think I would believe the idea that there is a goblin problem in part of Mirkwood or that the necromancer has gone unnoticed.

[Crimey]

I trust Peter Jackson to do well as he made the Lord of the Rings into three excellent films, probably the best fantasy films ever, despite the books in general being unbearable to read.

[Derbyblue]

I trust Peter Jackson to do well as he made the Lord of the Rings into three excellent films, probably the best fantasy films ever, despite the books in general being unbearable to read.

I think the issue with this would be that I absolutely love the Hobbit as a book and the LOTR films so he has an incredibly high standard to live up too. The annoying thing is that I know you couldn't directly translate the book to film and would have to make changes I just don't like the changes made so far .

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