The Hobbit

[Wolfie]

I'm going to the midnight premier dressed as a hobbit. BY MYSELF.

I guess most people get less nerdy as they get older. Or all my friends are lame.

 

[Totenkindly]

I'm going to the midnight premier dressed as a hobbit. BY MYSELF.
I guess most people get less nerdy as they get older. Or all my friends are lame.

heck, I'd go with you.
I'm going alone too, but to a Friday afternoon showing instead. I just don't feel like staying up until 4am to get to work on Friday, even going in late. And I figure the midnight showing might be more packed than the Friday afternoon one.

In other news, I'm thinking people ain't feeling the love no more. Jackson's apparently burned whatever capital he had, at least among the reviewers; none seem inclined to show him any mercy. The reviews just get harsher and harsher. It's almost like payback for the over-hype of LotR, even though it's been finished for how many years now? (Don't remember)

This newest Yahoo review I saw is pretty scathing and detailed. Yikes.
http://news.yahoo.com/hobbit-one-bad-video-game-173813922.html

I'm seeing the IMAX High-Res, just to see how it goes. If i hate it, kiss that goodbye on the next two.

 

[SilkRoad]

I'm feeling a bit blah about the whole thing; there's just been so much hype and I'm very very dubious about it being three 3-hour-ish films... I mean really. It could have been one 3-hour film.

I'm basically hoping to be pleasantly surprised/love it anyway. The LOTR films are among my fav films and I thought I'd become a bit tired of those too but I was really caught up when I watched Return of the King recently for the first time in ages.

Even if I end up underwhelmed overall, I can't see myself not loving Ian McKellen as Gandalf, again. And I love Martin Freeman as John Watson in the new Sherlock, and in the original Office. He should be a good Bilbo.

I don't know when I'm going to see it...I suspect it probably won't be until a week or two from now.

 

[NPcomplete]

I'm feeling a bit blah about the whole thing; there's just been so much hype and I'm very very dubious about it being three 3-hour-ish films... I mean really. It could have been one 3-hour film.

Precisely. :-/

I had plans to see it this weekend but the reviews make me wary.

 

[SilkRoad]

As I think I mentioned earlier in this thread, I have less invested in The Hobbit anyway. I consider it more just a book from my childhood which I enjoyed and still enjoyed from time to time. Whereas LOTR was incredibly important for me. So if I don't like it so much, not such a big deal. I definitely want to give it a chance anyway.

But still. THREE 3-HOUR (or close) FILMS!! Three big films made sense for LOTR considering its length and structure. Not for this one.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I still do not understand why the Hobbit has morphed into more film than LOTR. Oh, wait, yes I do... $$$$.

I am going to see it this weekend with a group of probably 20 people. They are all huge fans of Tolkien... so I am hoping to sit with my friend's snarky wife so we can mock it if we need to. (We will probably then be murdered by enraged fans including her overly zealous husband.)

 

[SilkRoad]

I still do not understand why the Hobbit has morphed into more film than LOTR. Oh, wait, yes I do... $$$$.

I am going to see it this weekend with a group of probably 20 people. They are all huge fans of Tolkien... so I am hoping to sit with my friend's snarky wife so we can mock it if we need to. (We will probably then be murdered by enraged fans including her overly zealous husband.)

More film...is the total running time actually going to be MORE than LOTR? I haven't seen the details about that...

 

[Anew Leaf]

More film...is the total running time actually going to be MORE than LOTR? I haven't seen the details about that...

Hmm, probably depends on if you compare the extended versions with the theatricals... My friends do this LOTRathon every year and it takes almost 12 hours to watch all three extended films. Ugh.

 

[SilkRoad]

Hmm, probably depends on if you compare the extended versions with the theatricals... My friends do this LOTRathon every year and it takes almost 12 hours to watch all three extended films. Ugh.

I love the extended versions too, I must say. Though these days I'm not sure I'd want to watch them all in one go.

A few years ago I went to an...all-night LOTR marathon on IMAX. LOL. I think it started at 9 PM and finished at 8 AM. Or something. I don't quite remember if they were the extended versions or not. It was quite fun, though I think I started nodding off towards the end of ROTK (which normally I wouldn't.)

In any case, it sounds like these "Hobbit" films should actually be called "The Hobbit Plus A Bunch of Other Tolkien Bits and Pieces, With Overly Long Battle Scenes."

 

[Totenkindly]

In any case, it sounds like these "Hobbit" films should actually be called "The Hobbit Plus A Bunch of Other Tolkien Bits and Pieces, With Overly Long Battle Scenes."

From the reviewers' complaints of "The Hobbit" movie, it should probably be called "The Dwarves."

 

[Totenkindly]

Hmm, probably depends on if you compare the extended versions with the theatricals... My friends do this LOTRathon every year and it takes almost 12 hours to watch all three extended films. Ugh.

I just can't watch the second two movies. Maybe i can skim and watch select clips, but not the whole things. It's too painful.

For some reason, the first one was much more palatable. I felt like it captured the essence overall of what I liked in the books, although there were issues that I didn't like (the video-game depictions of archetypical baddies like the Watcher in the Water and the Balrog or the crazy rendering of Galadriel with lightning coming out of her eyeballs and a voice filter slapped over her larnyx.) So I still watch that one.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

From the reviewers' complaints of "The Hobbit" movie, it should probably be called "The Dwarves."

From what I've read it should just be called a pile of garbage.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I just can't watch the second two movies. Maybe i can skim and watch select clips, but not the whole things. It's too painful.

For some reason, the first one was much more palatable. I felt like it captured the essence overall of what I liked in the books, although there were issues that I didn't like (the video-game depictions of archetypical baddies like the Watcher in the Water and the Balrog or the crazy rendering of Galadriel with lightning coming out of her eyeballs and a voice filter slapped over her larnyx.) So I still watch that one.

I loved the first movie. It just works so well. (The Galadriel part always makes me feel uncomfortable because of how cheesy it is.) Also, Sean Bean is Alive and Attractive, and Aragorn is Alive and Dirty and Therefore Attractive. The Sam-Frodo romance hasn't completely bloomed yet, and there aren't insane swaths of time devoted to Charlie Pace Merry and Pippin. A lot of win-win-win.

The second movie only works because I have a love-hate battle to the death with Eomer's eyebrows (they get second billing after all). The inspidness of that chick who's name I forget because she's so ridiculously forgettable makes me want to hurl myself on an orc. And the third movie breaks my heart because someone encouraged Aragorn to Take A Bath and Put Clean Clothing On. Legolas is too pretty and too "A diverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsion" for attraction.

/Random

 

[SilkRoad]

I love all three LOTR films but the first one is still my favourite. Although I'm never going to love what they did with Lothlorien and the elves in general. Too weird and spooky, instead of radiantly beautiful, calming and serene.

I love the other two films as well though not in all details. Overall I think I just decided to embrace the fact that there were lots of changes. Or if I didn't like the changes, I just put up with them.

I kind of agree about Aragorn's clean hair just not being the same. But...the bit at his coronation where he sings the song and there are all those white whirling flowers completely dissolves me. I become a blubbery mess. It's just too beautiful. Plus when he meets Arwen again, and then with the hobbits "you bow to no one."

*is practically blubbering just thinking about it*

 

[Totenkindly]

I loved the first movie. It just works so well. (The Galadriel part always makes me feel uncomfortable because of how cheesy it is.) Also, Sean Bean is Alive and Attractive, and Aragorn is Alive and Dirty and Therefore Attractive. The Sam-Frodo romance hasn't completely bloomed yet, and there aren't insane swaths of time devoted to Charlie Pace Merry and Pippin. A lot of win-win-win.

Aside from the things I just bitched about (where Jackson kind of "trivialized" essences that Tolkien deeply perceived, the same problem existed in expressions of power among the Istari), I think the first movie is an example of how to modify a book for the screen. The replacement of Glorfindel (a glorified elven extra) with Arwen worked because Arwen was meaningful and relevant to the story; Boromir actually came off deeper in the movie than in the book (he was VERY extroverted and un-self-aware in the book, a "surface" kind of guy, and I think Bean's portrayal had more core to it); and Aragorn went from an impenetrable plot device (he's just the foretold king, and he never really changes in the novel or fears or grows) to a living breathing human in the movie. Some things were done very right.

The second movie only works because I have a love-hate battle to the death with Eomer's eyebrows (they get second billing after all). The inspidness of that chick who's name I forget because she's so ridiculously forgettable makes me want to hurl myself on an orc. And the third movie breaks my heart because someone encouraged Aragorn to Take A Bath and Put Clean Clothing On. Legolas is too pretty and too "A diverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsion" for attraction.

Well apparently we'll get all that in spades. Along with a nice CGI flying dragon. Alas. If i have to watch yet another embodiment of darkness or at least selfishness just being some brainless mindless video-game dragon, I'll smash the Arkenstone myself.

I love all three LOTR films but the first one is still my favourite. Although I'm never going to love what they did with Lothlorien and the elves in general. Too weird and spooky, instead of radiantly beautiful, calming and serene.

I like my elves to be a little unsettling, although I think you're right... it was a little too cold.

I kind of agree about Aragorn's clean hair just not being the same. But...the bit at his coronation where he sings the song and there are all those white whirling flowers completely dissolves me. I become a blubbery mess. It's just too beautiful. Plus when he meets Arwen again, and then with the hobbits "you bow to no one."

Lol. I don't even REMEMBER that scene. That's how little engrossed I was. It doesn't sound too bad the way you described it. The only scene meaningful enough to stick with me is when Denethor sent Faramir off to die, he's ripping into his meal like an animal, and Pippin's singing this beautiful aria overtop the cut scenes. Don't ask me how a director who could hit a scene of such power completely miss some of the easier scenes to film. Oh well. (The other scenes I remember are the stupid ones -- a flaming Denethor falling off the top of Minas Tirith, Saruman falling out of Orthanc and getting impailed, etc.)

There is still nothing like the old Rankin/Bass cartoon though. it is goofy in some ways, but I'll never forget it, it was burned into my mind during that impressionable time and I won't be able to excise it. Even the music sticks in my head (with the words ripped right out of the story):

Fifteen birds
in five fur trees
the feathers were fanned
in the fiery breeze
what funny little birds
they had no wings
oh what shall we do
with the funny little things
oh what shall we do
with the funny little things

And that thing the cartoon added when he says he's dumping the dwarves at Mirkwood, and they grumble, and he's like, "now now, I'm already late from bothering with you people." It's starting to veer into Gene Wilder's "Willy Wonka" persona, with that kind of underlying sarcasm.

 

[Cellmold]

Im going to just wait until I see the movie myself. Ive been entertained by many a movie and enjoyed many a video game with the most awful reviews.

But of course taste is subjective and maybe I just have bad taste compared to the majority. Besides I might dislike it myself.

 

[Beorn]

I'm heading to a midnight showing that won't be IMAX (sold out 3 weeks early and I bought my tickets 2 weeks early) but is in 48fps, I think. I'm glad my expectations are down. Maybe I can just enjoy it for what it is.

 

[Beorn]

Btw, even though I hang out here dressed like a Tolkien character I'm not dressing up tonight, but I am sporting a longer beard than usual.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I love all three LOTR films but the first one is still my favourite. Although I'm never going to love what they did with Lothlorien and the elves in general. Too weird and spooky, instead of radiantly beautiful, calming and serene.

I love the other two films as well though not in all details. Overall I think I just decided to embrace the fact that there were lots of changes. Or if I didn't like the changes, I just put up with them.

I kind of agree about Aragorn's clean hair just not being the same. But...the bit at his coronation where he sings the song and there are all those white whirling flowers completely dissolves me. I become a blubbery mess. It's just too beautiful. Plus when he meets Arwen again, and then with the hobbits "you bow to no one."

*is practically blubbering just thinking about it*

Oh god... I always mock that part because it's just so absurdly over the top emotions. (Clearly we should never sit next to each other during ROTK.) I also usually make an alter boy joke somewhere along the moment when everyone kneels to the hobbits.

 

[Totenkindly]

I also usually make an alter boy joke somewhere along the moment when everyone kneels to the hobbits.

Altar boy jokes are a bad hobbit to get into.