My Hobbit review (Spoilers)

[Oyeve]

Jackson should have his movie making card revoked.

 

[Saint Nick]

Yeah me too. Time to dust off the old paperback.

I really should do it before the next installment comes out I'm pretty bad about reading books, but the Hobbit was probably my favorite back in 8th grade or so. Next to the Redwall series of course

 

[HumblePie]

I really should do it before the next installment comes out I'm pretty bad about reading books, but the Hobbit was probably my favorite back in 8th grade or so. Next to the Redwall series of course

Actually my favorite at the time was Elfstones of Shanara by Terry Brooks. Actually it was the book that got me interested in reading.

I had originally tried to read the hobbit and lotr, but I got real bored real fast for some reason. I could barely make it past the first chapter of most books when I was younger. then I found that book, and it hooked me from the beginning. Then I went back to other books like the Hobbit and ended up loving them. Not as much as that first one I read. I've read a CRAP TON of books though, mostly fantasy/sci-fi, over the years since. I have over 100000 ebooks I've acquired with about 200+ titles I bought from Barnes/Nobles and Fictionwise. I also have a few hundred paper/hardcover books as well.

Yep, I'm a dork when it comes to reading and proud of it.

 

[Wag]

Actually my favorite at the time was Elfstones of Shanara by Terry Brooks. Actually it was the book that got me interested in reading.

I had originally tried to read the hobbit and lotr, but I got real bored real fast for some reason. I could barely make it past the first chapter of most books when I was younger. then I found that book, and it hooked me from the beginning. Then I went back to other books like the Hobbit and ended up loving them. Not as much as that first one I read. I've read a CRAP TON of books though, mostly fantasy/sci-fi, over the years since. I have over 100000 ebooks I've acquired with about 200+ titles I bought from Barnes/Nobles and Fictionwise. I also have a few hundred paper/hardcover books as well.

Yep, I'm a dork when it comes to reading and proud of it.

You do realize that the Shanara books started out as homage/rip-off of Tolkien? The first book was pretty bad, but they got much better. I read quite a few of them myself but after a while I tired of them and moved on to other series.

 

[HumblePie]

You do realize that the Shanara books started out as homage/rip-off of Tolkien? The first book was pretty bad, but they got much better. I read quite a few of them myself but after a while I tired of them and moved on to other series.

I read the first one long after I started with Elfstones.

But what you claim has been claimed about every fantasy book since Tolkien. Which I think is a crappy way to view things. That being said, one could say all fiction books are rip offs of the first fantasy story that involved a protagonist, antagonist, and magic. Yay!

To me the style of writing for the Shanara book I first read was easier, the intro a bit less dull, the intro was much easier to understand, and there was less presumptions upon the "fantasy" knowledge of the reader. Do I really care that the basis of the story is having some main "weakling" of a protagonist undertake a quest that invariably is based around some magic item that is used to defeat an otherwise undefeatable/impaccable magical foe that would destroy the world otherwise? Who really cares that they have a similar setup basis. It's HOW the story is told that makes the story interesting or not. The setup is just that, a setup. There are only so many viable setups to an interesting story when you think about it. It's the same thing as saying all music uses the same 4 chords and very few transitions. While that is true, that doesn't mean anything.

Might as well state that all stories in English use the same 24 letters of the alphabet. OMG they rip each other off! They all use the same letters!

 

[stag3]

been waiting on a shannara movie FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR god

 

[Red Storm]

I really should do it before the next installment comes out I'm pretty bad about reading books, but the Hobbit was probably my favorite back in 8th grade or so. Next to the Redwall series of course

I never got around to reading Redwall. I remember years ago my little brother would watch the cartoon series on TV and I found it interesting. You just reminded me to get around to finally reading it.

 

[Olikan]

And that was pretty much repeated for a very long time in different phrasings of the words for those two. But the Hobbit was none of that at all. It was all about base emotions. Greed and Revenge. Along with Courage and redemption.

hahaha... so true
The hobbit is indeed a way better read\narrative...
still... The Silmarillion is my favorite book of all time
no one can't deny that its a pure epic story

one thing that Tolkien showed how genius he is, was the fact that he made the story beeing told like "old tales", with "diferent writers" and their respective point of view....

that's why Gollum in the Hobbit sees no problem giving Bilbo the ring, but at LotR he would kill anyone

 

[KeithTalent]

So what's the verdict on the 3D and 48 FPS? Worth it?

KT

 

[mnewsham]

So what's the verdict on the 3D and 48 FPS? Worth it?

KT

If you hate 3D, I say give the 48FPS a shot, you might not like it, but there is a good chance you will as it makes 3D so much better, if you don't mind normal 3D or enjoy it, 48FPS will probably be very enjoyable for you. If you are debating on seeing the movie and you can catch it in 48FPS i would say do it, if only for seeing how much you enjoy the new frame rate.

 

[KeithTalent]

If you hate 3D, I say give the 48FPS a shot, you might not like it, but there is a good chance you will as it makes 3D so much better, if you don't mind normal 3D or enjoy it, 48FPS will probably be very enjoyable for you. If you are debating on seeing the movie and you can catch it in 48FPS i would say do it, if only for seeing how much you enjoy the new frame rate.

Cool, thanks. I swore off 3D completely after the last 3D film I watched, but I think I may need to give this a shot with the 48 FPS as I am intrigued by that.

I have a free ticket from my screwed up Prometheus screening, so at least I wouldn't actually be paying for it.

KT

 

[mnewsham]

Cool, thanks. I swore off 3D completely after the last 3D film I watched, but I think I may need to give this a shot with the 48 FPS as I am intrigued by that.

I have a free ticket from my screwed up Prometheus screening, so at least I wouldn't actually be paying for it.

KT

If it's free then I would say go ahead and do it, give yourself 45 minutes or so to get used to it, and try not to force perspective.

 

[z0mb13]

Guys I want o read the LOTR series and the hobbit. Should I start with the hobbit or vice versa?

 

[Kev]

ALL THEY DO IS ESCAPE FROM THINGS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE

Oh crap we're caught by trolls, gotta escape from the trolls

cut to scene of brown wizard escaping from spiders then escaping from ghosts

cut back to main characters

Ok we escaped the trolls, oh shit we're being attacked by orcs, gotta escape the orcs. Hey this brown wizard is going to distract them with his rabbit mobile so we can escape WHY DOES HE KEEP LEADING THEM DIRECTLY INTO OUR PATH.

Oh good we escaped and we're safe in rivendell, fuck this we need to escape from the elves let's go to the mountains OH FUCK THE MOUNTAINS ARE ATTACKING EACH OTHER ARE U EFFING SRS ESCAPE ESCAPE

Escape from the attacking mountains by going into the mountains, oh no now we've been caught by goblins TIME TO ESCAPE FROM THE GOBLINS.

cut to bilbo escaping from gollum

Whew wasn't that crazy, glad we're all made it ok OH SHIT TIME TO ESCAPE THE ORCS AGAIN. Yaaay the eagles ex machina showed up to save us HEY GANDALF WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST FUCKING CALL THE FUCKING EAGLES TO BEGIN WITH YOU USELESS SHIT.

 

[Kev]

So what's the verdict on the 3D and 48 FPS? Worth it?

KT

I didn't think the 3D added anything, and personally the 48fps annoyed the hell out of me.

 

[Kev]

Guys I want o read the LOTR series and the hobbit. Should I start with the hobbit or vice versa?

the hobbit, it's super quick.

 

[SheHateMe]

Just got back from seeing it in non-3D..all I have to say is...the movie was good, it was just a little tiring to watch them constantly run into enemies and have fight scene after fight scene. When the movie was finally over, everyone clapped....not because it was a good movie...but because it was finally over.

Even as people exited the theater, all you heard were comments about how the movie was too long or how there was too much fighting in it.

7/10

 

[HumblePie]

ALL THEY DO IS ESCAPE FROM THINGS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE

Oh crap we're caught by trolls, gotta escape from the trolls

cut to scene of brown wizard escaping from spiders then escaping from ghosts

cut back to main characters

Ok we escaped the trolls, oh shit we're being attacked by orcs, gotta escape the orcs. Hey this brown wizard is going to distract them with his rabbit mobile so we can escape WHY DOES HE KEEP LEADING THEM DIRECTLY INTO OUR PATH.

Oh good we escaped and we're safe in rivendell, fuck this we need to escape from the elves let's go to the mountains OH FUCK THE MOUNTAINS ARE ATTACKING EACH OTHER ARE U EFFING SRS ESCAPE ESCAPE

Escape from the attacking mountains by going into the mountains, oh no now we've been caught by goblins TIME TO ESCAPE FROM THE GOBLINS.

cut to bilbo escaping from gollum

Whew wasn't that crazy, glad we're all made it ok OH SHIT TIME TO ESCAPE THE ORCS AGAIN. Yaaay the eagles ex machina showed up to save us HEY GANDALF WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST FUCKING CALL THE FUCKING EAGLES TO BEGIN WITH YOU USELESS SHIT.

Umm, that's the Hobbit. They start on a journey and didn't realize how much opposition was arrayed against them from the start.

The deus ex machina with the Rocs was in the books as well. However, WHY he was able to call them there and not before was explained a bit better.

 

[Oyeve]

the hobbit, it's super quick.

Word. Unlike the 9 hours if crap Jackson is gonna make.

 

[SandEagle]

....

Escape from the attacking mountains by going into the mountains, oh no now we've been caught by goblins TIME
Whew wasn't that crazy, glad we're all made it ok OH SHIT TIME TO ESCAPE THE ORCS AGAIN. Yaaay the eagles ex machina showed up to save us HEY GANDALF WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST FUCKING CALL THE FUCKING EAGLES TO BEGIN WITH YOU USELESS SHIT.

lol. i always wondered why Gandalf didn't just use those eagles that saved Frodo to take the ring directly to Mordor from the start

 

[Kev]

Umm, that's the Hobbit. They start on a journey and didn't realize how much opposition was arrayed against them from the start.

The deus ex machina with the Rocs was in the books as well. However, WHY he was able to call them there and not before was explained a bit better.

Were they hunted by orcs this much? Plus I don't seem to recall the rock giants at all, or the goblin escape scene being so ridiculous and long (that scene was dizzying).

I feel like PJ was bent on making the craziest CGI action scenes possible and the actual story gets lost in it.

 

[crashtestdummy]

So I saw it last Friday in 2D/24fps. I had decided that I was going to treat this movie as a cartoon before going in, and that's more or less what I got. The cartoonish nature still bothered me a bit, especially the CGI-ing of the faces. If you compare LotR with the Hobbit, Gimli and the orcs look a lot more real in LotR. I'd be able to tolerate that, though, if the rest of the movie were well written and paced. That was unfortunately not the case.

I feel like everything could have been solved if they had done everything in two short (1 1/2 hour) movies, rather than three long ones. One of the things that made the LotR movies so great is that they had an enormous amount of material to work from, and had to trim it down to the absolute best of the best. With the Hobbit, they were left inserting tons of filler, and the filler they put in was horrible. The whole azog plot was terrible and useless, the fight sequences felt like a video game, and the end scene with the wogs was unbelievably awful. The script writing was painful, with Bilbo waxing on about how modest he is, and Thrain getting weepy.

Much of the stuff that was actually in the book was great. The Gollum scene in particular was wonderful, and could have actually been made longer if they wished.

In the end, this movie felt like the Julie and Julia version of Tolkein. You have the original story, which was well done and memorable, and then you have the attempt at a modern take on it, which is depressingly insignificant by comparison.

 

[BD2003]

lol. i always wondered why Gandalf didn't just use those eagles that saved Frodo to take the ring directly to Mordor from the start

Flying ring wraiths would have seen and probably eaten them.

 

[HumblePie]

Were they hunted by orcs this much? Plus I don't seem to recall the rock giants at all, or the goblin escape scene being so ridiculous and long (that scene was dizzying).

I feel like PJ was bent on making the craziest CGI action scenes possible and the actual story gets lost in it.

Everything was taken straight from the book. Everything you saw in the movie was lifted right out of the book this time. Not much embellishment.

This was the reason not many liked Tolkien as much. Why it's a bit harder reading for it's intended audience which is children. Speaking of which, he wrote quite a few children books before the Hobbit. Before the Hobbit and LotR series, he was not a fantasy writer. He was an English Lit Professor and wrote a bunch of non fantasy stuff until he got introduced to Beowulf. He loved it so much and the fantasy about it he decided to try his hand at writing a fantasy book and a full novel. He drew on lots of high fantasy elements from gaelic/celtic origins and other stories like Beowulf.

The reason Tolkien did so well as a fantasy writer, was while he did use a lot of assumed knowledge, several areas he did explain things a bit. He also wrote in a better writing style that was easier to follow than previous fantasy writers. Have you ever tried to read Beowulf? It's really hard to read and follow. The Hobbit was much simpler to follow and had a simpler story to tell than what was out there. It is true that a reader of the Hobbit that didn't know the details of the Warg in "fantasy" still wouldn't after reading the Hobbit, but at least he can figure a bit out from the context in the story. Unlike previous fantasy stories that were much harder to understand concepts from the context.

Basically, The Hobbit is not the most well written book, but it was the most well written fantasy book of it's time. Since 1936, authors have gotten a little bit better in terms of what elements make for a good story telling and what don't when it comes to fantasy.

 

[Olikan]

Flying ring wraiths would have seen and probably eaten them.

why not a catapult?