Peter Jackson directs "The Hobbit"

Saw this the other day. Wasn't quite as good as I hoped. I didn't like the exposition at the beginning, but thinking about it I'm not sure there is a better way to get the information across clearly to viewers without wrecking the pacing which was otherwise very good.

I saw it with the daughter on Christmas Eve. Basically enjoyed it, which is better than expected.

I agree with my other half (who saw it earlier at her work xmas outing) that in every place they diverged from the book, the film version was inferior.

Additionally TOO MUCH DWARFS SLIDING DOWN STUFF.

MikeSands wrote:

I agree with my other half (who saw it earlier at her work xmas outing) that in every place they diverged from the book, the film version was inferior.

Considering LotR, this was to be expected.

Loved it! Lot's of charm and great sets. The beginning with the visits to Bilbo put a smile on my face.

Ok.

I'm a dirty filthy skimmer and if this has been covered elsewhere sorry.

I 'liked' it but.... After seeing what can be done by HBO ala Game of Thrones wouldn't The Hobbit, LOTR and so on been much better served as a TV series?

1 season of 'The Hobbit' HBO style still done by Jackson could of been delivered to us in 11-12 episodes at a total of 11-12 hours. All nicely in digestible 1 hour segments.

Instead we will get 3 3hour movies at 9 hours over the course of 3 years... That worked for LOTR (kinda). For Hobbit? not feeling the spacing. Thing is theres to much goodwill of loving the book as a child I cant honestly rip into it.

edit: and I already know the answer to my question. Money. Still doesn't mean I have to like that answer.

Game of Thrones is a series built much more on political intrigue. It's expensive enough just to do all those sets and the costumes without looking cheap, but notice in season one how rarely you see the direwolves compared to how much they're in the books. Same goes with how they handled some of the major battles from the first book off-screen in order to save money.

Martin's idea of fantasy is very much grounded in reality with more subtle fantasy elements. That makes it work a lot more with television and its limited budget. Tolkien, on the other hand, likes to have big epic battles and unfathomable monsters harkening back to the tales of Beowulf, The Iliad and The Odyssey.

If Tolkien's work is developed for TV, it would have to be The Silmarillion and it would not have the special effects that you get with a film.

I'd love to see The Silmarilion as an anime or anime style.

Grenn wrote:

I'd love to see The Silmarilion as an anime or anime style.

This. This is a brilliant idea. In fact, pretty much anything besides reading the book is what I want for the Silmarillion. Listening to the audio book is the best way to consume it that I've found so far.

ccesarano wrote:

Game of Thrones is a series built much more on political intrigue. It's expensive enough just to do all those sets and the costumes without looking cheap, but notice in season one how rarely you see the direwolves compared to how much they're in the books. Same goes with how they handled some of the major battles from the first book off-screen in order to save money.

Martin's idea of fantasy is very much grounded in reality with more subtle fantasy elements. That makes it work a lot more with television and its limited budget. Tolkien, on the other hand, likes to have big epic battles and unfathomable monsters harkening back to the tales of Beowulf, The Iliad and The Odyssey.

If Tolkien's work is developed for TV, it would have to be The Silmarillion and it would not have the special effects that you get with a film.

I wish there was an alternative way to present it. Even say 5 movies 2 hours each that came out every 6 months....

Not sure how that would shake out for profits or if people would be turned off but I'm sure the end result would be a higher quality total package. Just glaring fact that sticks in my head that there is no middle ground here to get the actual best product out.

I saw The Hobbit for the second time yesterday with my brother-in-law. Last time I saw it in 2D, but this time we went to an IMAX 3D HFR showing. I was really interested in seeing the high frame rate, and overall I was very impressed. It was so clear! As the camera moved there usually wasn't any blurring. Even though it was my second showing, it didn't look "fake" at all. Highly recommended!

Grenn wrote:

I'd love to see The Silmarilion as an anime or anime style.

I would only like that if the producers don't butcher the story to insert tropes and characters normally created in cheap anime series sell outs to pander to the lowest common denominator.

I enjoyed it, but I felt the film was lacking personal conversations. About the only character building that was done from a dialogue perspective was Thorin, and it was mostly exposition. I would've loved to see more scenes like the initial Gandalf meeting and the dinner, because after that there was a heavy emphasis on world and situation building, not personal moments. I guess the action scenes filled in some progression for the talky talky?

And yeah, +1 for Gollum being amazing.

WE HATES IT FOREVERRRR!

BadKen wrote:

WE HATES IT FOREVERRRR!

That's Gollum talking, Smeagol.

cyrax wrote:

I enjoyed it, but I felt the film was lacking personal conversations. About the only character building that was done from a dialogue perspective was Thorin, and it was mostly exposition. I would've loved to see more scenes like the initial Gandalf meeting and the dinner, because after that there was a heavy emphasis on world and situation building, not personal moments.

So it was accurate to Tolkien's writing then, you'd say?

LarryC wrote:
Grenn wrote:

I'd love to see The Silmarilion as an anime or anime style.

I would only like that if the producers don't butcher the story to insert tropes and characters normally created in cheap anime series sell outs to pander to the lowest common denominator.

Well it's either that or HBO decides it needs some Elf-on-Elf action every episode.

Well it's either that or HBO decides it needs some Elf-on-Elf action every episode.

...

Hmmmmm... are we saying this is a bad thing?

ccesarano wrote:

Well it's either that or HBO decides it needs some Elf-on-Elf Liv Tyler-on-Evangeline Lilly action every episode.

What's that, you say?!

Demosthenes wrote:

...

Hmmmmm... are we saying this is a bad thing? :D

Depends on your perspective.

ccesarano wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

...

Hmmmmm... are we saying this is a bad thing? :D

Depends on your perspective. :P

My dwarf detector is tingling!

Grenn wrote:

I'd love to see The Silmarilion as an anime or anime style.

I strongly disagree.

I think Guillermo Del Toro directing it on HBO would be the way to go.

Farscry wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Well it's either that or HBO decides it needs some Elf-on-Elf Liv Tyler-on-Evangeline Lilly action every episode.

What's that, you say?! ;)

While this is non canon I would be willing to make some allowances.

NathanialG:

The Silmarillion contains a LOT of very bombastic, very large-scale stuff that would not look good on a cheap budget usually afforded TV series. I don't think even HBO can do it justice. It's better off, IMO, as a animated series. I prefer anime traditions because they focus on detail in clothing, equipment, environment, and character development, all of which are central to the book's themes. I'd love to see how a mangaka might draw a Silmaril (and it better not be some disappointing gem-thing!).

At some point in the narrative, we're going to be dealing with giant guys battling other giant guys (and smaller guys with improbable speed, personal strength, and agility). Sounds like anime to me.

For that matter, I also wouldn't mind an anime treatment of The Hobbit.

Just as long as they don't make all the dwarves female and make a harem romcom with Bilbo as the lead, I'm hopeful about the possibilities.

Just as long as they don't make all the dwarves female and make a harem romcom with Bilbo as the lead, I'm hopeful about the possibilities.

Willing to bet this probably already exists.

Truth told, I would love to see an HBO series, fantasy or sci-fi, written by HBO writers and animated by a Japanese studio. I imagine you'd have a higher-than-average animation budget, which I imagine might end up being lower than a live-action budget, which means you don't have as much riding on its success.

Spoiler:

I lost track of which page it was one, but there was discussion about whether sting was visible when Bilbo wore the ring in the books. In the version I am currently reading at least, when he is fighting the spiders, it does indeed mention that sting is visible. It isn't explained why that would be the case.

I just saw the movie. I couldn't have been happier with it!

Also, you can really see the influence of Del Toro on the sets and creatures. The Goblin King is classic Del Toro.

Dear Hollywood,

Please use the cliff hang; saved by the last fingertip, never again. And certainly not twice in the same half of a single movie.

So I barely started The Hobbit. I've tried several times over the years, and I had read everything that was in the move. Is planned to be a trilogy as well? It was all within the first third of the book.

Yup, three movies.

They really should label the movies 'Part 1' etc or something. It amazes me that people didn't know it was initially announced as 2 then was adjusted to 3, but it is a very common complaint so I guess is shouldn't be surprised.

I wouldn't consider this a cliffhanger though, it ended at a very logical point and gave a nice little hook for the next chapter.

I think Ghostship means the actual literal cliff hangs in the movie—especially when there's no tension since they involve major characters in the first part of a planned series, who obviously aren't going to die already.

Yeah, I actually had a laugh thinking that if PJ wanted to end on a cliffhanger he could have done so in a very literal manner by ending a couple of minutes earlier.