Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kosak Grabovsky on December 19, 2012 at 1:54pm

Saw it on sunday. Was excellent. Love the inclusion of Radagast and the White Council scenes, really adds depth and connection to LoTR. Loved the beginning where Bilbo does the explanation of the back story. Also great how they put it right before the start of LoTR.

I'm kinda glad they are splitting it, gives them more opportunity to keep as much of the book as possible. Like when they made the Eragon movie, they gutted the book, and what they left in was mostly crap.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on December 19, 2012 at 4:05pm

Last month Peter Jackson announced that the movie would be shown in three installments rather than two, thanks to the addition of some material from The Silmarillion. This was added to flesh out the story.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on December 26, 2012 at 3:18am

Film critic Stephen Whitty reviews The Hobbit in The Newark Star-Ledger:

 

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/12/the_hobbit_review...

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on December 26, 2012 at 11:38am

I loved the movie. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I liked the action and the plot. Just a very wonderful movie.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on December 26, 2012 at 8:07pm

Nice portrait of Gandalf. Thank you, Steph.

Permalink Reply by Timothy Allman on December 26, 2012 at 2:51pm

The visually stunning Rivendell scenes were the best part of the movie imo. Something about the Dwarves in this picture was more Disney, or perhaps Keystone Cops, than Tolkien. The Mountain Giants and Goblins had a video game feel that was not to my taste. Gollum was spot on and creepy though. Overall it was a good movie to watch, if you are not expecting greatness. When reading the books and in the LOTR movies there was a feeling of transport and an empathy with the characters that was not quite there with this one. Looking forward to the next installment.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on December 26, 2012 at 8:04pm

Your observation of the Dwarves being somewhat Disneyesque is consistent with some of the reviews I've been seeing in the local papers. I'm planning to see the movie next week, weather permitting.

Permalink Reply by Gwaithmir on February 8, 2013 at 11:11am

I went to see The Hobbit last month. Despite the negative comments of a few critics, I enjoyed it very much. The movie was as much of a work of art as Lord of the Rings. Elijah Woods looked very much like a younger Frodo. Ian McKellen still looked like Gandalf the Grey. Cate Blanchette appeared slightly older and less serene as Galadriel, but still quite beautiful. Thorin Oakenshield looked more like a Klingon than a Dwarf and even seemed to behave that way in a few scenes.

 

I was a bit disappointed that Arwen (Liv Tyler) didn’t make at least a cameo appearance in the Rivendell scenes. The same could be said of her brothers Elladan and Elrohir, who also did not appear in the Lord of the Rings films (except for a 10-second cameo), even though they played a major role in the books.

 

Most of The Hobbit kept with the LotR tradition. The scenery in the outdoor shots was magnificent! The digital imagery was excellent in spite of some critics’ claim that it looked cartoonish. While the distant views of Rivendell may have looked a bit ethereal, I think the effect was intentional. Imladris was, after all, a magical Elvish realm.

 

A couple of the action scenes in the last 20 minutes of the film were a bit too silly for my taste and seemed more fitting for an Indiana Jones film. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the next installment in December.

Permalink Reply by EJN on March 14, 2013 at 7:37pm

I liked The Hobbit movie. I didn't like some of the changes that they made -- adding some characters, changing little details in the story. A lot of people criticize it for being sorta childish, but that's how the book is written, and that is exactly what I expected. This is coming from someone who has read and listened to an unabridged version of The Hobbit many many times. So I may have taken it a little to seriously, but for a booked turned into a movie -- it was excellent. Beat the hell out of Sahara, for example.