so I went to see The Hobbit
[NOTES generally come from researching The Unfinished Tales, as Dad went “oh, hey, I got this copy for you” and so I read it.]
Some background:
I first heard The Hobbit through the uterine wall--my dad read the book to my mother's stomach and my mom, young and pregnant and newly married, "thought it was cute." He read it to me again when I was ( Read more... )
Some background:
I first heard The Hobbit through the uterine wall--my dad read the book to my mother's stomach and my mom, young and pregnant and newly married, "thought it was cute." He read it to me again when I was ( Read more... )
Comments 20
Short comment, I know, but there it is.
My main problem with the movie was their trying to make it too epic. I also thought the editing was lax. It was like watching an extended version, rather than a theatrical release.
Riddles in the Dark, which is my favourite chapter in The Hobbit, was perfect, and that is an accomplishment. To set one of my very favourite chapters ever into film, and show it all, and do it so well. It was the quintessential Riddles in the Dark.
Did you see it in 3D? I abhor 3D, but I enjoyed the higher frame rate per second they employed. At first it struck me as watching somehow "the shire in real life".
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I saw it in 2D--I wear glasses and 3D stuff has always given me a headache. Also, rather like with HD TV, I'm not entirely sure I want that level of clarity in my movies. But I'm glad to know that the frame rate looked good!
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The high frame rate seems to be different to individual watchers thanks to the variation in how our eyes and brains process things. Beloved saw it in 3D with the high frame rate, and he came out complaining that it looked like Benny Hill.
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2.) I'm glad you enjoyed at least parts of it, but as far as I'm concerned you're confirming that I made the right decision in refusing to watch the movies. I was disappointed enough with the thematic letdown of replacing the Scourging of the Shire with Happy Hobbits Jumping on Beds, and The Hobbit has a much firmer place in my heart than the Lord of the Rings cycle. And one of the things I love most about The Hobbit is how charming, optimistic, and full of humour it is. With things like trolls named Tom, Bert, and William. I do not want to see Peter Jackson trying to make a smegging Epic out of it even if New Zealand is really really pretty. (Speaking of New Zealand, even having Anders from The Almighty Johnsons as one of the dwarfs doesn't tempt me enough. And BTW, if you haven't watched that TV series, try to find it. It's hilarious ( ... )
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2) For us it was the moment Sam turned his back on Frodo and started down the mountain that ROTK lost us completely. I haven't even been able to watch ROTK since the first time I saw it, no matter how much the ending made me cry. Aaaaaaaaaaaand your feelings about The Hobbit appear to be my feelings and so yes, you are right to stay away. And I am going looking for that series ASAP.
3) I loved Chalice too! And I used her as an example mostly because other people do, not because I necessarily agree. I loved Sunshine and Dragonhaven, the two main cited offenders--her stream-of-consciousness style works very well for me, but I could (I suppose) see someone who doesn't love the characters getting impatient with it. Chalice was more of a return to her older stuff--and I'm waiting to read Pegasus until its sequel comes out. I will concede that her later stuff is somewhat more rambly than her earlier stuff (but her later stuff is also more 1st ( ... )
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There were so many points in the LOTR movies that I went . . . "but . . . but . . . but . . . okay, well they could still bring it together with the Scourging of the Shire." And then, they didn't and that just broke the camel's back. I don't think I've been able to watch any of them since, even if the visualization of the Balrog was perfect.
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yeaaaaaaaaaaaah...I had forgotten what happens to Saruman in the movies. I am going to go back to forgetting it. :-/
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This is only slightly relevant to your post, but I still haven't read LOTR yet, or watched the movies - though I've tried to read LOTR, and didn't get past page 80. SO. I have been thinking for a while that I need to correct this. Do you think I should start with watching the movies, or that I should try to read the books again?
Incidentally, I read The Hobbit in eighth grade (didn't like it, sorry) and when I first heard they were making three movies, my first thought was man, this is going to be a Breaking Dawn Part II thing, where they make more movies because previous movie series had more, and then they have to create plot to fill space. It... doesn't sound like they were too successful.
Also: DID YOU SEE LES MIS YET? I want to, sometime this week!
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well my vote would probably be watch FOTR (not the extended cut) first, and then go and try reading it? Because FOTR is the best of the movies and captures the spirit and has basically no additions, just small changes. And the farther down the movie road you go the farther you get away from the source material and some of the changes (i.e. FARAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR for which I will not forgive them) are grievous enough to give a false portrayal of the story. So, watch FOTR, and then read it, and keep in mind that LOTR was basically written as one giant book and then split up.
...yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah basically that. I mean I don't doubt that also they did want to do a lot of extra things, but the fact that they made it into three movies is inexcusable.
NO I HAVE NOT HOPEFULLY TUESDAY MAYBE? CANNOT WAIT.
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Okay, that is what I will do. (What is a Faramir?)
ME TOO.
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STILL HAVE NOT SEEN LES MIZ AUGH.
ALSO I have been wanting to tell you this for a while but I had to wait but I GOT QUARK CODE NAME VERITY FOR CHRISTMAS, and I had to order it off Amazon because literally every bookstore was out of it. I went to local shops and Books-a-Million and Barnes and Nobles in TWO DIFFERENT CITIES, and everywhere I went there was this gap on the shelf where the one copy they had had been sold like three or two weeks earlier. Or, in the case of the last BAM I went to, hours earlier that day. The girl I talked to there (who called two others stores in town but nope, they were all out) said it looked like they hadn't done enough printings of it--Amazon only had like twelve more in stock--and so when it left the shelves it was impossible to get more copies, and I said well, it's been on a lot of end-of-the-year best-books lists, so that means people have been ( ... )
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I still haven't seen The Hobbit and don't know that I will. My husband is the die hard Tolkien fan in this house and he went opening night. Bit wants to see it because he read it to her this year and bought her a copy for Christmas. (A hardcover with the green/blue/white cover.) They are going to go on a daddy/daughter date together because this is their thing. I may wait until it comes out on DVD.
And I second Beth's question. HAVE YOU SEEN LES MIS YET??? (I've seen twice.)
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I APPROVE OF YOUR HUSBAND AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH Y'ALL'S DAUGHTER SO HARD. :D :D :D :D :D I'm just waiting to inherit Dad's green-blue-white cover (and Mom's copy of the Little House books). But I would definitely wait.
NO HOPEFULLY THIS WEEK we were only like two weeks behind on The Hobbit (though as with most movies we either see them within a couple of weeks, or never) so hopefully we'll be on top of it with this one too I REALLY WANT TO SEE IT.
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I approve of their relationship too. :)
I can't wait to hear your thoughts when you do.
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YES ABSOLUTELY YES TO MOST OF THIS POST.
Like, you know what a Tolkien nerd I am. Wrote my frickin undergrad thesis on frickin Tolkien.
And I haven't even been able to make a post about this movie. I just...can't.
I just didn't really like it.
There were things I enjoyed. The Riddles scene was, yes, just about perfect, but so much else..wasn't. Not at all.
I think I would rant for days if allowed to. About everything. Pretty dwarves. Galadriel's sloooooooooooow talking. Like, the Elves had that weird talking slow thing going in the LOTR movies, and it always bothered me, but this was waaaaay more exaggerated. I wanted to stab someone with a letter opener. ;) And Radagst. Hm....mixed feelings. And action dwarves. And more action. And more action. And twelve million endings. And not feeling any wonder or sense of Middle-earth AT.ALL. Ugh.
Such a disappointment.
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♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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