Frogboy Frogboy

The Hobbit movie thread

▼

The Hobbit movie thread

from JoeUser Forums

We closed down shop last Friday and migrated to our local movie theater to see “The Hobbit”.

I’m very interested in hearing what others thought.  Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

  • I did not enjoy 3D 48fps viewing. It’s distracting
  • The movie could be best described as giving unlimited budget and control to the ultimate Tolkien fan and letting him indulge in that.
  • As a border-line obsessive Tolkien lore guy, I loved every single minute of the movie and would have easily sat through another 3 hours of it without blinking. There was not a minute I wish I hadn’t seen.
  • Non Tolkien fans or simply those who aren’t into indulging in Tolkien lore for the sake of indulging it will find the lack of editing off-putting
  • Radagast the Brown will become a meme, particularly with his “sleigh”.
  • I plan to see it again as soon as possible at 2D.

Update: Saw it in 2D

I actually preferred it in 2D as I felt like I was more free to watch the movie how I wanted to watch it rather than the 3D jarring my attention on whatever the directory wanted.

112,868 views 48 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I saw it last week in 3D HFR....... loved it!!! I think 3D is brilliant!

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

Finally saw the movie too. 

The beginning is nice enough, but once the story leaves the Shire with Bilbo, it takes a sharp turn downhill. Erebor was beautiful. The piles of gold did not look real at all. 

Mr. Jackson shows a disturbing trend of "Tolkien did not know how to write a good story, but don't worry, I will fix it."

Almost all his "fixes" are bad.

Radagast adaptation is a criminal act alone. Galadriel offering psychoanalysis and "maybe something more" to Gandalf is ridiculous. Stone giants depicted as whole mountains moving are silly.

All the action scenes are over-the top, opulent, and frankly distracting - all the silly Disney-esque jumping, swinging and falling to bottomless pits seriously break the immersion.

Arbitrary mini-bossfight at the end of the movie (because every Hollywood action movie needs a bossfight, right?) with Bilbo charging to battle with his little sword is absurd.

The acting is mostly OK, with Gandalf, Galadriel and many of the dwarves being very good. Ian McKellen has aged quite visibly, poor guy, but is still strong in the role. The guy playing Bilbo, on the other hand, seemed to be quite poor, I don't like the overly expressive, wooden, neurotic style of acting full of forced grimaces that are supposed to be funny.  

Similar to LOTR, I expect the trend to worsen in the next two movies.

Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting BoXXi, reply 26
I saw it last week in 3D HFR....... loved it!!! I think 3D is brilliant!
End of BoXXi's quote

Oh come on, Bryan....since when could you even count to 3?....;)

 

Terry and I saw it today....in 'glorious' 2D .... was fun.  It's been about 40 years since I last read The Hobbit .... but it all came flooding back...;)

 

Reply #29 from JoeUser Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 28
It's been about 40 years since I last read The Hobbit .... but it all came flooding back...
End of Jafo's quote

Might not be that long (but then it might as it has been a long time).  I think I am going to read it again just so I know how much junk they put in the movie.

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

Um.... The hobbit doesn't have anywhere near the coherence of LotR. It's really quite a different tale as others have said. More of a children's fairy-tale is right on the money. I thought the escape from the goblin mountain scene was so far over the top that it broke suspension of disbelief as it veered into the ridiculous. Also I thought the level of violence was creepy combined with the near complete lack of blood and gore like when Gandalf opens up the Goblin king's belly and nothing comes out. Not that I'm into gore it just was creepy like they're cutting up claymation characters  (I'm sure this was in an effort to preserve their PG-13 rating) Overall the movie was fun and the CG was incredible but it doesn't seem to have the magic of the originals.

Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting BoXXi, reply 26
I saw it last week in 3D HFR....... loved it!!! I think 3D is brilliant!
End of BoXXi's quote

I saw it in 3D too, have not idea what this HFR means, i suppose its connected to that 48FPS gimmick everyone and his mother is talking about? Not sure if saw that one or not, but most probably not...and its safe to say, the only single time in the entire movie, when i actually had that "3D feeling" was when Gandalf dispatched the butterfly and it was flying away from him toward the audience, that single time it felt its actually coming out of the screen... otherwise. i just cant see it. What i see is just blurred background/foreground and that does not make things 3D itself...actually i can do better 3D than that out of static photo with Adobe After Effects myself  :D

 

 

Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top

I saw it the day it came out in 3D high speed def or whatever it's called. I never read the hobbit so I had no idea what the story was about.

 

I loved it. Three hours passed by fast. There was a few things that were out of place. The goblin battle and the rock golems were terrific visually but way to much in my opinion. Can't wait to see the other two movies...

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top


The Hobbit was such a disappointment.  It started well, but the "ending" was not so good.  "Ending" in quotes because, of course, they're milking this puppy with a sequel.  It was long on cinematics, but short on plot.   Besides, the movie I saw was not the Hobbit.  it was some other made up story--with a few paragraphs from the novel thrown in.   I guess it was nice just to see some new LOTR film--I mean, seeing The Hobbit for the first time was better than seeing Fellowship of the Ring for the 18th time, I suppose.

One problem they just set themselves up for:   the goblins were major pushovers.   The dwarves just completely had their way with them at the end.   Later in the sequel when they do the Battle of the Five Armies, the goblins are going to be tough:  four armies against the goblins.  Oops.

Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Kamamura_CZ, reply 22
The main problem is that when Tolkien wrote hobbit, it was just a plain fairy tale. In a fairy tale, there is no centuries-spanning background for the characters, no uberscheme of eternal good fighting eternal evil.

The trolls are not twisted servants of Darkness, attracted by the whispering of the One Ring, but just a bunch of stupid monsters that crave human flesh, and that turn into stone when touched by sunlight - and that's that, end of scene, cheap little thrill, and let's move on. Gandalf is not an incarnation of a demigod, but rather an old-fashioned wizard with a few spells under the hat, an aging fellow who enjoys a good laugh. And when he is done providing hints and help during the tutorial, he "suddenly remembers he has something important to do elsewhere", because the author has realized he is stealing all the EXP and robbing the story of the sense of danger ("Gendolf will save us, right?"). And the ring is just a magical trinket, like the purse of eternal gold, or a horse that can speak - they are found in every old fashioned fairy tale.

The whole X-files style epos of the struggle of good versus evil with complete mythology including gods, demons and history spanning thousands of years was written later, to seamlessly wrap around the simple tale the Hobbit originally was. 

 

The problem with Jackson's (and every Tolkien nerd) approach is that by constantly showing "look, this simple detail have far reaching context, and I am clever enough to know it", and inserting those references into the story, you are destroying what the Hobbit originally was - a simple tale for children, similar to those of Grimm brothers. 
End of Kamamura_CZ's quote

 

Not true...Tolkien was writing the Simarillion before he did the Hobbit. It was supposed to be pseudo-independent...bu it never really was.

Reply #36 from JoeUser Forums Top

Watched the movie at home and felt regret that there was no end of the story... So I took the book and started to read Hobbit from the very beginning and what surprised me was the scenes and other descriptions were different from those in the movie... the whole idea doesn't go out of my mind even while realizing all the issues with my free annual credit report .. Embarrassed...

Reply #37 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

 

 

  The Hobbit is an 'historical' view of the Lord of Rings world as told to a child.  Imagine telling the story of Easy company (in Band of Brothers) to a 5 year old.  It would be a simpler, more linear story....with obvious good guys and bad guys. And there would be much embellishment. 

 

That is why the movie is much better then the book. 

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Not on par with the previous ones, but worth the ticket just for the dwarves-centered intro.

The dwarven halls are just spectacular and majestic. 

Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Saw it on a friends 3D HD. I remember reading the book but on a visual scale I'd give it a ten. I enjoyed it.

Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top

All I can say is that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We watched it at home on Blu-Ray. Granted, the mountain giants were a bit much ... though we were able to find for most things in the movie that they correlated to notes, side stories, appendices, and lost tales that Tolkien had written down but were not released until much later both before and after his death.

 

For those who have not read much of the additional notes, mini-tales, etc that Tolkien wrote to further bring the story of the Hobbit and the surrounding tales together, it can seem like a huge multitude of liberties were taken. In reality, much fewer liberties were granted than those who just may have read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy realize. Many things were stuffed into, around, and between each portion of The Hobbit by Tolkien himself after it was initially written.

 

We give it 4 out of 5 stars overall and are excited about the second movie as well as the third which will begin to dive into the 60+ years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes, I really did enjoy the movie as well.  Although it's been long since I read The Hobbit and so I can't recall how true it is to the original.

Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top

3D will be out of the question when I get to see it... vertigo!  It may be the latest craze but I'll stick to the standard 2D format.

Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting MartialDoc, reply 41
Yes, I really did enjoy the movie as well. Although it's been long since I read The Hobbit and so I can't recall how true it is to the original.
End of MartialDoc's quote

Close enough to be recognized.....though it's about 45 years for me...;)

Reply #44 from Sins Forums Top

I still haven't seen it, but I definitely want to, even though the LotR trilogy bugged me with all of the changes from the book, I still appreciated the LotR trilogy as films.

Reply #45 from Stardock Forums Top

Last part of The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey was too cool & awesome & I've also read the whole story of this movie in books....

Reply #46 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Watched it at home with my wife on iTunes this week.

 

Movies are always a completely different experience to books and this was no exception but I was glad to find it was close enough to not frustrate. It did bring back some childhood memories though.

 

One criticism though. The section with Radagast fleeing the Orcs on his sleigh was flawed by terrible CGI - made me shudder with its awfulness.

Reply #47 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting TwoWolves, reply 46
Watched it at home with my wife on iTunes this week.

One criticism though. The section with Radagast fleeing the Orcs on his sleigh was flawed by terrible CGI - made me shudder with its awfulness.
End of TwoWolves's quote

There-in lies your problem.

iTunes would be one of the LAST ways to watch such a movie.

Before you 'can' something.....it's always wise to actually watch it via the medium intended....;)

Reply #48 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 47


Quoting TwoWolves, reply 46Watched it at home with my wife on iTunes this week.

One criticism though. The section with Radagast fleeing the Orcs on his sleigh was flawed by terrible CGI - made me shudder with its awfulness.

There-in lies your problem.

iTunes would be one of the LAST ways to watch such a movie.

Before you 'can' something.....it's always wise to actually watch it via the medium intended....
End of Jafo's quote

 

I know what you mean but they had it to rent in HD, our local Blockbusters has gone into administration and we have a sleeping toddler to watch over (so volume set low). We hardly ever have the strength to even watch TV these days. sigh!