The Hobbit movie thread

Published on December 18, 2012 By Frogboy In Movies & TV & Books

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.

Comments (Page 3)

Timmaigh

on Jan 02, 2013

BoXXi

reply 26

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

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

Solam

on Jan 04, 2013

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...

tetleytea

on Jan 04, 2013

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.

morvegil

on Jan 07, 2013

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.

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

go_Anna

on Jan 17, 2013

Totally recommend! I've seen it twice at cinema - great experience.

DeborahC

on Mar 28, 2013

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...

Liquid Sky

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

mastroego

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

Uvah

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

TheChronicToast

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

MartialDoc

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

starkers

on Apr 04, 2013

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.

Jafo

on Apr 05, 2013

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.

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

Zeta1127

on Apr 05, 2013

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.

harrystefanou

on Apr 17, 2013

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

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