The Hobbit movies

[RandomTrivia]

Can't believe we don't have a thread for the Hobbit and LOTR movies, or if it's here, I couldn't find it.

 

Anyway, this video is on Peter Jackson's FB now, and I swear, the man is trying to break my heart. I love it and hate it, and I'm not ready for the ride to be over.

 

The Last Goodbye (with Entertainment Weekly article)

 

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I wish the timing were better - the kiddo gets out of school for the holidays the Friday after The Hobbit starts, so DH and I will have once chance to see the movie together without needing to line up a babysitter. At $10 an hour, it makes for an expensive movie, so we've been taking turns seeing movies separately.

[Coco]

Such beautiful movies. I hope you and your DH do get a chance to see it together. There's just something irreplaceable about sharing the experience.

[LadyCrow1313]

I've loved all of the LOTR movies, & have seen The Hobbit (but not the Desolation of Smaug yet). Peter Jackson does such an amazing job on those movies, doesn't he? :clap:

And speaking of sharing the experiences, that reminds me of when the last Harry Potter movie came out. I took my niece to the midnight show, & it was such fun. She looked @ me oddly when I bawled like a baby, of course. ;)

I can just imagine how fun it'd be to attend the Hobbit movies on opening night!

[happy atheist]

Warning: Contrary Opinion Ahead

I like the LOTR movies, but the Hobbit ones are terrible. I've only seen the first one, but it was such an uncomfortable mix of dopey rhyming dwarf names and goofy slapstick, and way-fucking-overwrought melodrama (I realize the rhyming names come straight from the book, but I still think they're dumb). And there's no legitimate reason for it to be 3 movies, except for greed of course.

In my perfect world this would be one movie, and there would be about 10 fewer dwarves. Can you tell I am not a Tolkien fanatic?

Okay, my fun-killing duties are complete. Continue enjoying yourselves.

[RandomTrivia]

I've loved all of the LOTR movies, & have seen The Hobbit (but not the Desolation of Smaug yet). Peter Jackson does such an amazing job on those movies, doesn't he? :clap:

And speaking of sharing the experiences, that reminds me of when the last Harry Potter movie came out. I took my niece to the midnight show, & it was such fun. She looked @ me oddly when I bawled like a baby, of course. ;)

I can just imagine how fun it'd be to attend the Hobbit movies on opening night!

PJ and Company have done (IMO) a kick-ass job on these. I saw the last one three times, and I'll admit the third time was mostly for the scenery (and not just the human scenery). New Zealand's travel industry must just freaking love him. :) I wish he would have done the movie version of The Dark is Rising, because at least then it wouldn't have sucked so badly.

I haven't seen any of them on opening night, or Harry Potter. Too many crowds, and well, there's the whole babysitter/school the next day issue. Some theaters are doing marathons of the first two movies, then showing the third; the same thing was done with the LOTR movies. I would love to go to one of those, although 9 hours might be a bit long at one time. But the closest theater last time was about an 8 hour drive, so I'll have to be happy with the DVDs. And hopefully someday the kiddo won't be scared of Gandalf. (Yes, he's 8, and even I would be scared speechless of Balrog-in-the-Mines Gandalf, but he's scared of benign, fireworks-for-Bilbo's-party Gandalf. Which is why the DVDs have been gathering dust for 6 years.)

And, after seeing Billy Boyd's video for that song, I'll be packing kleenex for the last one, because I will be a mess. Probably worse than the Serenity blindsiding, which just left me shocked, and honestly, I should have expected a Joss Whedon movie to have a higher body-count.

[Lady Grass Lake]

While the movies are very well done, my gripe is with the addition of Legolas to the storyline. He was NOT in the books and in my opinion was only added to draw in LOTR fans.

[browncoatslytherin]

i can't wait to see the final one, however i really wish he'd stuck to doing this in one movie...two movies, max. three is just unnecessary.

i also get the feeling that he's tired of doing lotr. i mean, he did the other three movies, which was a huge undertaking. and for these movies he actually just wanted to have a producer role, he didn't want to direct or have to do much else with it, but when guillermo del toro stepped down, he couldn't find anyone else to do it, so he took it on himself. i feel kind of bad for him in that way, as the more involved role was sort of thrust upon him. but still, making it one or two movies instead of three should have made it a much easier undertaking than three.

[Rescinded and Mended]

I'm enjoying the Hobbit movies. I think that some of the additional content is unnecessary, and the whole thing should probably have been two movies max. It's awesome that Jackson added a strong, female elven character, but did Tauriel really need a love story with one of the dwarves? And why is Radagast the Brown in the films at all, other than to showcase how much bird poop he has on him at all times?

But I think there's also something to be said for the fact that The Hobbit as a book would have a hard time getting published by today's standards. I mean, a company of dwarves picks up a hobbit to be their burglar so they can go on a quest to reclaim their mountain home and gold from an Eldritch abomination, and the only real plan the dwarves have is to...send in their burglar to steal something so that they risk waking the dragon and pissing it off. There's absolutely no plan in place for incapacitating or killing the beast.

I mean, really?

I know supplemental materials to The Hobbit were published later on, which Jackson works from and adds to the film, but at least in the second film, the dwarves look and act a bit more like they've got it together when dealing with Smaug.

[Aurora rising]

Count me to the "i don´t like it"-Team. I LOVE LOTR, I´m watching all movies at least once per year. But the Hobbit was boring (well, apart from a very nice looking dwarf-prince :drool: ) and I skipped the second movie.

However, I saw a trailer from the third movie. Well, I might give it a try.... :whistle:

[browncoatslytherin]

Count me to the "i don´t like it"-Team. I LOVE LOTR, I´m watching all movies at least once per year. But the Hobbit was boring (well, apart from a very nice looking dwarf-prince :drool: ) and I skipped the second movie.

However, I saw a trailer from the third movie. Well, I might give it a try.... :whistle:

the second movie had a better pace to it than the first one. if you thought the first was too boring, give the second a try. a lot more happens a lot quicker. ;)

[Rescinded and Mended]

Boy R and M cracks me up whenever we watch the first Hobbit film. He has no patience with Peter Jackson's slow pacing of certain sequences. I always get to hear, "Mom, I hate the first one. It takes Bilbo and the dwarves 48 minutes to leave his house. 48 MINUTES."

:lol:

[DaffyDill]

I loved the LOTR and Hobbit books and adored the LOTR movies.

But with The Hobbit movies...I just can't. I haven't seen any of them, so can't really say they are bad, but the thought of watching them just leaves me cold. As in absolutely not interested. I don't really know why, either.

(Although, if there is no Aragorn, that could be a reason ;) )

[Rescinded and Mended]

I was reading something yesterday where Jackson supposedly had a hard time talking certain actors that were in LOTR into appearing in the Hobbit films. My question is, who? The only character that comes to mind is Arwen. Most of the pertinent dwarves, elves, and other ancients made it in. Aragorn wouldn't have been born yet, since the story is set 60 years before LOTR.

So who's missing?

[Aurora rising]

I finally watched the third part yesterday. Well.... it was not as boring as the first one, Smaug was terrific and a few scenes were quite cool and amazing. But I´m still disappointed about all this family-love-war-stories that Peter Jackson brought in the movie. :penguin-no:

Nope, I stand to my word: LOTR always and forever, the Hobbit never ever.

[browncoatslytherin]

I was reading something yesterday where Jackson supposedly had a hard time talking certain actors that were in LOTR into appearing in the Hobbit films. My question is, who? The only character that comes to mind is Arwen. Most of the pertinent dwarves, elves, and other ancients made it in. Aragorn wouldn't have been born yet, since the story is set 60 years before LOTR.

So who's missing?

i haven't seen the third one yet (on my to do list) but it's been mentioned that he was incorporating stuff from the appendices...so i wonder if he wanted to set a little something up, just a few scenes maybe, and didn't get to do it because he couldn't get who he needed to come back and he didn't want to recast. *shrug* just a thought.

in other news, i really really need to see the third one. i missed it in theatres. :( too broke at the time to go.

[nellautumngirl]

I finally watched the third part yesterday. Well.... it was not as boring as the first one, Smaug was terrific and a few scenes were quite cool and amazing. But I´m still disappointed about all this family-love-war-stories that Peter Jackson brought in the movie. :penguin-no:

Nope, I stand to my word: LOTR always and forever, the Hobbit never ever.

I liked the third one the best too. I felt the first one just had weird mood whiplashs and went on for way too long, the second one was a little bit better and I really enjoyed this one. I loved Thorin's arc (my favorite character), I liked the comic relief, the pacing and the battles.

Do you mean Bard with the "family-love-war"? :D I didn't mind that in the movie his main motivation was his family, he still cared about the city and made a good hero imo.

[Aurora rising]

Do you mean Bard with the "family-love-war"? :D I didn't mind that in the movie his main motivation was his family, he still cared about the city and made a good hero imo.

No, this was a little bit juicy, but okay. I meant the Kili-Elf-Lovestory, the Legolas-Elf-Lovestory and the Legolas-and-his-father-family story. For me it was way too much and completely illogic.

And besides: where was the 5th army? I counted only for: elves, dwarves, men and orks. :think:

[browncoatslytherin]

And besides: where was the 5th army? I counted only for: elves, dwarves, men and orks. :think:

maybe bilbo counts as one? :D

lol sorry, couldn't resist ;)

[nellautumngirl]

:D Haha, my friend asked about that too, so I looked it up. Apparently the eagles count.

Hm yeah, I wasn't wild about the Kili-Elf-story, obviously they were expies of Aragorn/Arwen, and that just made me think about how much more I liked that love story.

Did Legolas have a love story? I thought he saw Tauriel as a sister/friend he wanted to protect, but it's been I while since I watched it.

[Aurora rising]

:D Haha, my friend asked about that too, so I looked it up. Apparently the eagles count.

But this murder bats didn´t count then....?? Strange, really.

Hm yeah, I wasn't wild about the Kili-Elf-story, obviously they were expies of Aragorn/Arwen, and that just made me think about how much more I liked that love story.

I even disliked the Aragorn-Arwen-scenes in the movies (way to flowerly IMHO)

Did Legolas have a love story? I thought he saw Tauriel as a sister/friend he wanted to protect, but it's been I while since I watched it.

I thought he was quite jealous for a brother.... 8-)

[RandomTrivia]

I was reading something yesterday where Jackson supposedly had a hard time talking certain actors that were in LOTR into appearing in the Hobbit films. My question is, who? The only character that comes to mind is Arwen. Most of the pertinent dwarves, elves, and other ancients made it in. Aragorn wouldn't have been born yet, since the story is set 60 years before LOTR.

So who's missing?

Aragorn was around already. I think he's part elf, hence longer life-span, but it's been way too long since I read the books so I could be wrong on that. Anyway, at the end of the 3rd movie, Thranduil sends Legolas north to meet a Ranger called Strider, aka Aragorn. I'm not up on who else he wanted to return - he had Gandalf, Saruman, Cate Blanchett, Legolas, Gollum, and Elrond. Gimli wasn't around yet, ditto for the Hobbits, Boromir, and probably anyone from Rohan (pretty sure they're Men with normal lifespans). Unless he wanted Aragorn to pop up somehow. Or an Ent, maybe?

I finally got to see the 3rd Hobbit, but only once (I saw #2 three times in the theater - didn't feel like doing that with this one, for some reason.) It was pretty good, but I think I like the LOTR series the best. We'll see if I change my mind later. Now, the Billy Connolly dwarf - really BC in costume, or total CGI? I haven't Googled it yet, but when I was watching, something about it just felt like that character was just total CGI and I'm not sure why.

[Rescinded and Mended]

I think Billy Connolly was supposed to have been sick during filming, but Jackson still wanted him for the role, so they basically had him act and voice Thorin's cousin, then transposed his face and voice onto another actor's body. What they can't do these days with CGI. :)

Something that was driving me crazy: the fact that Luke Evans (Bard) looks like an aged-up Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribean. I kept feeling like they wanted someone who looked like Orlando Bloom (Legolas, and the same actor who played Turner in POTC) out of costume, but old enough to have three kids the same ages that Bard's kids were. :lol:

[RandomTrivia]

I think Billy Connolly was supposed to have been sick during filming, but Jackson still wanted him for the role, so they basically had him act and voice Thorin's cousin, then transposed his face and voice onto another actor's body. What they can't do these days with CGI. :)

Well, that would explain why the character/actor looked a bit off. I kept having the feeling that I was watching something overdubbed, where the voice was ever-so-slightly out of sync with the mouth movements. I'll have to Google it later.

I have to say, too, the motion-capture work that they did for Gollum and the other characters was pretty impressive (and Andy Serkis is amazing). Ditto for the Hulk in Avengers. It makes the CGI characters seem more real.

[Lady Grass Lake]

I have read the LOTR trilogy several times, and dug out the Hobbit and went through it again before the movies came out.

There was so much in the books both, LOTR and Hobbit that the movies left out. The Eagles played a very big part in the Hobbit but just showed up out nowhere at the end of Return of the King. Because I had read the books I knew they were from the Hobbit. The Journey back at the end of the Hobbit was just glossed over and the movie made it seem like just a couple of days. I think that they left out an important part of the story when the 4 travelers return to the Shire and find out that Wormtoungue has taken it over.

As for Aragorn, I got the impression that he and Legolas were childhood friends, because Aragorn was raised by Elrond. Also, I believe he was 110 when he was crowned king.

[morri]

meh i have only ever read the books. (ok I watched a part of the 1st film on dvd at a dvd night but thats it)