- The Hobbit's gory battles don't just pad out its run-time. They contradict the story's message about mercy.
Completely ignores the fact that all of the times Bilbo saves the dwarves come later in the story than the first movie reached. Other than that it's a decent article. Slightly misses the point, perhaps. I am an avid Lord of the Rings fan; in fact I just spent about 30 dollars on nice copies of History of Middle Earth volumes 7-9 today. I loved Jackson's film. Going in, I thought it would be nigh impossible for Jackson to fit the silliness of The Hobbit into the gritty realism of his previous trilogy. (Tolkien regretted, later, the extent to which The Hobbit approaches ridiculousness at times.) But Jackson killed it. There are a few slapdash-style scenes (the article mentioned the goblin chase), but those are outweighed by scenes of a gravity never actually approached in the first half of Tolkien's book (Thorin's song, the White Council). If anything, Jackson lent The Hobbit a gravitas badly needed (for a film adaptation), and I think Tolkien would have appreciated that.In the novel, of course, Bilbo saves the dwarves many times—not only through his cleverness and his magic ring, but through his greater nerve. In Jackson's story, though, the dwarves are utterly fearless and possessed of sufficient battle prowess that Bilbo's cleverness, or lack thereof, is largely beside the point.
My wife has been out of town and she made me vow not to see the Hobbit without her so I've been anxiously waiting. What did you make of the faster frames per second that it was filmed in? Did it inhibit your enjoyment of the film at all? Did you notice? Thanks for weighing in, your comment gives me renewed hope as I've heard some mixed reviews thus far. I remain extremely excited to see it.
The fps brouhaha was overwrought. It seemed to make some of Jackson's patented sweeping shots a bit ... brighter, and I've read some complaints that this made them seem fake. Or maybe they just seem more real than we've ever been able to deal with on screen? Avatar looked "fake" when I saw it in 3D. Also beautiful. If you're a die-hard fan but also liked the trilogy movies, you'll dig this beyond belief. It's the perfect mix of solemnity and levity.
I heard that Tom Bambadil is making an appearance in the 3rd movie. Do you know anything about this?If you're a die-hard fan but also liked the trilogy movies, you'll dig this beyond belief. It's the perfect mix of solemnity and levity.
Thanks man, I'm really excited to see it and I'd be really shocked if I didn't love it. I was at a holiday party last night and there was much talk of the movie, all of which was positive.
Hey, just wanted to let you know that I saw the movie yesterday and it was un-fucking-believeable! I absolutely loved it. When Gandalf and Galadriel spoke to one another my wife looked over and said, "are you crying"? "um, no just... no.. shhhh". was my response. Great film that is in perfect alignment with the others and remains true enough to the book.
Interesting take on it. Just saw the film with my wife who has been a huge LotR fan since she was a child. She told me that she doesn't know if she can even sit through (or at least pay to sit through, sober) the next movies. I hope when all the movies are out someone puts together a version which cuts out all the fluff and appendix stuff and makes it into what The Hobbit should have been.
Honestly I felt like the battles were a bit overdone. I mean, I get that this is fantasy, but honestly, if the dwarves can be COVERED in goblins and still fight through and escape, I think they could probably figure out a way to get rid of Smaug on their own. I liked a lot of things about the movie, but some stuff was just too unbelievable.
That's a fair criticism, for sure. When they're in the mine and basically just sweeping goblins away ten at a time it's a bit much. It's been a while since I've seen it but I recall that the battle scenes at Helms Deep weren't much less exaggerated. -or am I wrong there?