Hobbit movie

[dmaz]

Meh, haters gonna hate
I expected that it would be different from the book, so I just accepted that and enjoyed it from an entertaining standpoint. I liked it a lot, though I would have liked to see Beorn a little more

[thetimewarptrio]

Speaking of this ^ MORE BEORN HULK CHANGING IN MIDAIR. Loved that.

[bibfortuna25]

I'll definitely get on board with everything you guys are saying. The one moment I wish was in LoTR was Gandalf denying the Witch King entrance to Minas Tirith..........THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO BOSS.

That moment was in the EE, just not exactly how it was in the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TTB5t_4Nlc

[thetimewarptrio]

I'll definitely get on board with everything you guys are saying. The one moment I wish was in LoTR was Gandalf denying the Witch King entrance to Minas Tirith..........THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO BOSS.

That moment was in the EE, just not exactly how it was in the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TTB5t_4Nlc

Right, I know. That's my whole issue with it haha. Gandalf vs. Witch King and Gandalf wins.....not his staff exploding. I want the old man on top of the unmoving horse, fully denying him entrance. Oh well.

[bibfortuna25]

Then you might enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-ybJUz-rk

[dmaz]

Then you might enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-ybJUz-rk

Ah these are classics

For me, RotK will always bring to mind "Frodoooo of the niiiine fingers, and the ring of doooom", and "Where there's a whip, there's a way" before the Peter Jackson version

[Mortalsword]

Hey gang!

New to the group, so I guess a movie thread is a good place to jump in.

While watching this trilogy, I repeatedly found myself slipping into a bit of a funk. The unnecessary changes, the completely absurd action sequences, and complete betrayal of the actual source material really got to me.

With LotR, Jackson had a slavish devotion to making the those films the best he possibly could, while remaining loyal to the source material. For the most part, things were omitted, not changed completely. Certainly not bastardized to such a degree it is hardly akin to the source.

The parallel to the new Star Wars films is astounding. The big take away from the prequels for Star Wars for me was that Lucas had created this monster that was beyond his ability to control. Greed, of both the personal and corporate kind reigned supreme, and the heart and soul of the project was thrown out for cash grabs. The Pod Racing still resonates to me as the perfect example of toy marketing somehow taking over the entire second act of a film, and the second Hobbit film was no different. The barrel riding scenes were completely ridiculous, unbelievable and depressing for me. I felt the same about a lot of this third film, because it became impossible to continue to suspend my disbelief. I don't know if I could have watched another scene where Legolas did increasingly more impossible things. Then of course there is Bard's wagon ride which is sure to show up in a themepark soon. The battle had elements of greatness, but felt nothing like the epic battles in LotR. The goats....by the Gods, the goats. I love the idea of dwarves riding mountain goats, but I don't love the idea of fully barded goats carrying fully armoured dwarves bounding up icy cliff faces like it's no big deal. That could have been represented in a much more realistic fashion, and it would have been even more exciting that way.

I dunno, maybe I'm just a grumpy gus at this point. Seeing LotR come to life was one of the greatest joys of my life, and watching The Hobbit get dragged trough the mud to sell toys just broke my heart.

[thetimewarptrio]

Hey gang!

New to the group, so I guess a movie thread is a good place to jump in.

While watching this trilogy, I repeatedly found myself slipping into a bit of a funk. The unnecessary changes, the completely absurd action sequences, and complete betrayal of the actual source material really got to me.

With LotR, Jackson had a slavish devotion to making the those films the best he possibly could, while remaining loyal to the source material. For the most part, things were omitted, not changed completely. Certainly not bastardized to such a degree it is hardly akin to the source.

The parallel to the new Star Wars films is astounding. The big take away from the prequels for Star Wars for me was that Lucas had created this monster that was beyond his ability to control. Greed, of both the personal and corporate kind reigned supreme, and the heart and soul of the project was thrown out for cash grabs. The Pod Racing still resonates to me as the perfect example of toy marketing somehow taking over the entire second act of a film, and the second Hobbit film was no different. The barrel riding scenes were completely ridiculous, unbelievable and depressing for me. I felt the same about a lot of this third film, because it became impossible to continue to suspend my disbelief. I don't know if I could have watched another scene where Legolas did increasingly more impossible things. Then of course there is Bard's wagon ride which is sure to show up in a themepark soon. The battle had elements of greatness, but felt nothing like the epic battles in LotR. The goats....by the Gods, the goats. I love the idea of dwarves riding mountain goats, but I don't love the idea of fully barded goats carrying fully armoured dwarves bounding up icy cliff faces like it's no big deal. That could have been represented in a much more realistic fashion, and it would have been even more exciting that way.

I dunno, maybe I'm just a grumpy gus at this point. Seeing LotR come to life was one of the greatest joys of my life, and watching The Hobbit get dragged trough the mud to sell toys just broke my heart.

First off, welcome!

Secondly, yeah I gotta say I agree. It truly is a shame that it turned out that way, but there was so much potential in this series. A great cast, great source material. I think 2 films would've been sufficient, but three is obviously overkill. Unless you're trying to make money of course.

[Linarfin]

Someone will have to do the "purist edit", like with LOTR movies, but this time to make just one watchable movie from all this mess..

[BigRedMF]

Oh man, I just remembered Legolas running up stones that were literally falling...

[Legion]

I really wanted to enjoy the 3 films, and to honestly believe that there could realistically be 3 films, and I suppose I did at least do the former... just.  What I found most disappointing was that almost all of the additions to spin it out another 2.5 hours were all so lame.  I could just about tolerate Tauriel, and I did actually quite like Radagast, but I really hated the Dol Guldur scenes from both the second and third films (except for when Elrond arrived-he's still cool).  There was just no need, and it makes the Nazgul look so different to in LotR.  Also, what was with Thorin running off like that with Dwalin, Kili and Fili at the end?  Their leader had gone into hiding, so get back to the battle and make yourself visible!  And what was Dwalin doing when Thorin was in trouble?  Azog was meant to be dead by this stage, right (didn't Dain kill him at the battle outside Moria?).  Remove Bolg and replace every Azog with the name Bolg and you have the villain of the book.  No need for Alfred, or really much from Bard's famiily,  Cut all that and you have 2 films.  Also if Thorin had kept to the book and fought with everyone else, you'd have given Beorn and the Eagles a decent showing.  Apart from the way the book just said essentially "Kili and Fili died-oh well" everything the book did was better (in my opinion).

On the subject of Dain, though, he was my absolute favourite character.  Whoever decided that all dwarves should be grumpy Scotsmen absolutely made the entire series for me.  Something about the line "Do you hear that, lads?  We're on!" when totally outnumbered against Elves and Men was just brilliant to the extent that headbutting orcs wearing helmets whilst not wearing one yourself just seemed in keeping with Dain's gung-ho attitude and obvious sense of invincibility.  Plus he rides a pig into battle-absolute hero (though it is not as cool as Hobbit Farmer foil's pig).  And I've never even liked Billy Connolly.  Thranduil was good, too.  Very elven and I'm still not sure if I like him or not.

Legolas on the stones was there for the 3D, and I hope will be removed from the DVD, but that is unlikely.  For unrealistic special effects, I prefer Bombur in the barrel scene.  The first 2 films were at least aimed at the younger audience, just like the book, so I don't think it was out of place.

One more thing: where was the cool score in the second and third films?  LotR had some great tunes, and the dwarven theme from the first was quite catchy, too.  Why was it never replayed (or even replaced) in the other films?  That must be my biggest gripe with number 2, which otherwise was my favourite of the three.

[thetimewarptrio]

Dol Guldur could've been fantastic if it was presented as it actually was in the books. Gandalf discovering the true identity of the Necromancer, and obtaining the map and key from Thrain after sneaking in. They could've even bumped up the razing of the Dol Guldur in the actual LotR timeline and I would've been okay with that. I was so amped in the first movie when they showed the flashback to the Battle of Azanulbizar, because I figured it'd show Dain slaying Azog and the whole bag of coins and beggar scene..........but nope.

Totally agree about Dain and the score. It seems like for the score all they did was copy music from LotR, and add a bit of a Dale theme whilst dropping the Dwarven theme for the most part, which I loved. It was good, but could've been better. I'll need to buy the soundtrack to actually think about it. Doesn't touch Return of the King soundtrack, which I used to play on my CD walkman over and over and over again.

[idleninja]

When Legolas went Super Mario I had the same feeling I did when I saw Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when Shia swings around in the jungle with monkeys.

The Hobbit was a great Disney movie, but it wasn't LotR.

[BigRedMF]

I was just thinking again yesterday about how they screwed up the dragon shooting scene. Why was there no windlass in the city? Why did they feel the need to make Bard create a huge bow? And to top it off, he had to aim it off his son's shoulder! And how in the world did the bow not slap his son straight off the tower when it was released? So many things were just unnecessary.

[sgtdraino]

Finally got to see it!

For the most part, I have to admit, I enjoyed it. It's not a particularly serious film, but for me it was a fun film. It's definitely closer to popcorn than serious art, though. I liked it more than the previous two, though (obviously) not as much as the LOTR trilogy. Yes, there were some pretty ridiculous parts that me and my buddy were laughing at.

In particular I found the Wargoats funny. Not because of what they were, but because they literally came out of nowhere! It would have been so easy to establish those Wargoats, show some of the Dwarfs riding in on them, but no. They don't exist, until they are suddenly needed by our Dwarf heroes. Deus ex Wargoats!

Seriously, does anyone know where the Wargoats came from? did the Eagles drop them in, or something?

I liked Dol Guldur, but I agree about the Nazgul. In this trilogy it seemed like they were literally ghosts or wraiths zipping around, not (basically) invisible zombies. I prefer invisible zombies!

The big take away from the prequels for Star Wars for me was that Lucas had created this monster that was beyond his ability to control. Greed, of both the personal and corporate kind reigned supreme, and the heart and soul of the project was thrown out for cash grabs.

I have to disagree about this. IMO the prequels sucked not because they were beyond Lucas's ability to control, but because he had TOO MUCH control over them. Nobody said "no" to Lucas for those movies, and just about all the stuff in them that fans hate, are things that Lucas thought were cool.