My Hobbit review (Spoilers)

[HumblePie]

Hah, I thought about deus ex machina during the movie...in every tight scene you start waiting for Gandalf to show up and magically save the day. I think this is part of what made a lot of the scenes lack impact - you never felt like the characters were in any real danger because Gandalf could show up at any point and easily save them. So you're not really holding your breath in suspense because you start to figure out what's coming. It reminded me of the later seasons of House - oh no, the episode character is going to die! Almost dead! Oh wait, Dr. House figured it out in the nick of time, whew! Oh wait, we were expecting that, no real suspense! Hehe.

* MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW *

That is part of the plot. There is a reason why early on Gandalf keeps showing up to save the day. Because at the end he doesn't anymore. Dwarves die. Humans die. Many, many characters at the end just die. It's supposed to be jarring at the end of the story when all that happens. When you read the book, and I read the hobbit first like you should story wise so you never know if Bilbo will survive the story (we all know from LotR that he does) and when characters start dying off in the end of the book it really gets suspenseful.

There is one last Deus Ex machina at the very end of the book that I still didn't like. They gave a bit of a teaser to what it is at the end of this movie. When you see the thrush (the little bird) banging on a snail shell on the door to the entrance to Smaug's domain and waking him up. That thrush is what "saves the day" sort of with a deus ex machina it in the end. Basically the story is that the weakness to any dragon is their slightly softer underbelly. They lack the intensely hard scales there that would thwart dangerous attacks. Smaug makes up for that weakness by completely coating his underbelly with diamonds and other hard jewels found from the dwarven treasure. How he attaches these jewels aren't exactly explained in the book, but think super glue I guess. Anyhow, he missed a spot and a thrush notices this. The thrush tells the best human archer there is where that spot is on Smaug.

It's a bit of Deus Ex machina when you read the story. Also the other reason is that by showing you a bird is capable of such intelligence, one finds out how magical middle earth is.

 

[crownjules]

* MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW *

There is one last Deus Ex machina at the very end of the book that I still didn't like. They gave a bit of a teaser to what it is at the end of this movie. When you see the thrush (the little bird) banging on a snail shell on the door to the entrance to Smaug's domain and waking him up. That thrush is what "saves the day" sort of with a deus ex machina it in the end. Basically the story is that the weakness to any dragon is their slightly softer underbelly. They lack the intensely hard scales there that would thwart dangerous attacks. Smaug makes up for that weakness by completely coating his underbelly with diamonds and other hard jewels found from the dwarven treasure. How he attaches these jewels aren't exactly explained in the book, but think super glue I guess. Anyhow, he missed a spot and a thrush notices this. The thrush tells the best human archer there is where that spot is on Smaug.

Not exactly....

Spoiler

Smaug has impenetrable armor even on his underbelly. In his attack on Dale, volleys of arrows just bounce off him. But his weaknesses is a single beloved patriot of his scale missing, conveniently over his heart. Bilbo spots this when he sneaks into his lair and before Smaug let's fly his wrath on Dale. He tells the thrush who goes down and tells Bard, the captain of Dale's guard. He then kills Smaug with a well placed arrow.

This is what then leads him to wanting a claim on Erebor's treasure and the ensuing Battle of the Five Armies. He killed Smaug and Smaug devastated Dale.

 

[HumblePie]

Not exactly....

Spoiler

Smaug has impenetrable armor even on his underbelly. In his attack on Dale, volleys of arrows just bounce off him. But his weaknesses is a single beloved patriot of his scale missing, conveniently over his heart. Bilbo spots this when he sneaks into his lair and before Smaug let's fly his wrath on Dale. He tells the thrush who goes down and tells Bard, the captain of Dale's guard. He then kills Smaug with a well placed arrow.

This is what then leads him to wanting a claim on Erebor's treasure and the ensuing Battle of the Five Armies. He killed Smaug and Smaug devastated Dale.

Spoiler

That's right, but Bilbo has the thrush tell Bard. Been awhile since I read the book. Picked up the collectors edition and going through it again. And I could have sworn that whole conversation about Bilbo finding out about the missing scale was when he was talking with Smaug. Cause Bilbo sneaks in with the ring. Smaug can smell him but can't exactly tell where Bilbo is to eat him. However, Smaug gloats and shows Bilbo how impenetrable he is and he isn't scared of anything in the conversation. But I could have sworn his underbelly was protected by the jewels.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Smaug

Yep, according to the wiki about it that is how it is described in the books.

Smaug was armored, as all of his race, with scales of impenetrable iron, but, in wariness, he protected his soft underbelly from assault: as he lay sprawled upon the wealth of his hoard he allowed diamonds and hard gemstones to imbed in his belly, armoring his only weakness.

So I was right, you just added clarifications to what I wrote

 

[BladeVenom]

When you read the book, and I read the hobbit first like you should story wise so you never know if Bilbo will survive the story (we all know from LotR that he does) and when characters start dying off in the end of the book it really gets suspenseful.

It's been a long time since I read the book, but I don't remember ever thinking that there was any chance Bilbo was going to die. Isn't he suppose to be the author/narrator of the story? Rarely does the narrator die in his own story.

 

[purbeast0]

i just read the OP after watching the movie for the first time last night, and in 3D, and wow the OP sounds like a big whiny bitch.

the cgi is incredible in this movie and the 3d was done very well to add some depth to scenes.

i thought the movie was awesome and was a nice setup for the next one. felt a lot like fellowship of the ring in that sense, that it set the groundwork to the next few but also had a lot of good story going on. i thought the pacing was great and the action scenes were awesome.

 

[Fritzo]

Hey look! It's "I wait until major movies show up on TV and then I give a late opinion" guy!

 

[aking2879]

It's been a long time since I read the book, but I don't remember ever thinking that there was any chance Bilbo was going to die. Isn't he suppose to be the author/narrator of the story? Rarely does the narrator die in his own story.

^this

 

[darkewaffle]

I want to get the blu-ray but I also want to wait for at least the extended edition to be available.

 

[Anubis]

I want to get the blu-ray but I also want to wait for at least the extended edition to be available.

did we get EE versions of LOTR before the boxset? i cant remember
might be waiting for a while

 

[phucheneh]

I came into this thread expecting a review of 'My Hobbit,' an extremely long, boring, and unfunny collaboration between Peter Jackson and Billy Crystal.

 

[darkewaffle]

did we get EE versions of LOTR before the boxset? i cant remember
might be waiting for a while

I think so, I'm pretty sure I had EE versions of the first two on DVD well before a box set was released.

Though with that being said I might just wait it out and get the EE box set for Hobbit in 2024

 

[OutHouse]

I watched it on blu-ray over the weekend and liked it. I did not notice all the cgi shit like all the other refined movie critics in this thread did. honestly i don't care, it looked good and i liked the story of the adventure.

 

[darkewaffle]

Hm, the general consensus seems to be that blu-ray doesn't support 48FPS (at 1080P at least) and that the blu-ray is most likely going to be 30 or 24. Bummer.

 

[purbeast0]

Hey look! It's "I wait until major movies show up on TV and then I give a late opinion" guy!

the bluray came out a week ago. i am very sorry that i didn't see it in the theater or pirate it. my apologies!

 

[Fritzo]

I watched it on blu-ray over the weekend and liked it. I did not notice all the cgi shit like all the other refined movie critics in this thread did. honestly i don't care, it looked good and i liked the story of the adventure.

Can you imagine what internet critics would be like today if they had to grow up with movies featuring puppets and strings?

 

[SagaLore]

I thought it was disappointing how Bilbo was brought into this. He doesn't even remember Gandalf at first and just gets dragged into it. Besides that, I was bored with the score. All they did was reuse everything from LOTR. It would have been nice to add a little uniqueness to it.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I thought it was disappointing how Bilbo was brought into this. He doesn't even remember Gandalf at first and just gets dragged into it. Besides that, I was bored with the score. All they did was reuse everything from LOTR. It would have been nice to add a little uniqueness to it.

The point of the opening scenes was that he wasn't dragged into it. He made an active decision to go along and wasn't coerced into it.

Also the music was very different. LOTR had an epic feel to it while the hobbit was more lighthearted adventure style.

 

[AMDZen]

I thought it was disappointing how Bilbo was brought into this. He doesn't even remember Gandalf at first and just gets dragged into it. Besides that, I was bored with the score. All they did was reuse everything from LOTR. It would have been nice to add a little uniqueness to it.

The music was very different and very "Hobbit"

Perhaps you are tone deaf or just deaf entirely

 

[OutHouse]

I thought it was disappointing how Bilbo was brought into this. He doesn't even remember Gandalf at first and just gets dragged into it. Besides that, I was bored with the score. All they did was reuse everything from LOTR. It would have been nice to add a little uniqueness to it.

how was bilbo dragged into it? he gladly ran down the party and volunteered. Everything was a reuse of LOTR? what are you talking about? the only two characters from LOTR was bilbo and gandalf, on and the elves. so im not sure what you are talking about.

 

[purbeast0]

how was bilbo dragged into it? he gladly ran down the party and volunteered. Everything was a reuse of LOTR? what are you talking about? the only two characters from LOTR was bilbo and gandalf, on and the elves. so im not sure what you are talking about.

im confused too. especially about the music, it wasn't the same music from LOTR at all.

and golum was in it as well. and froto (for a very brief part).

the golum part i really enjoyed seeing the origin of him and how he lost the ring in the first place, although i felt that scene dragged on quite a bit.

 

[dainthomas]

im confused too. especially about the music, it wasn't the same music from LOTR at all.

and golum was in it as well. and froto (for a very brief part).

the golum part i really enjoyed seeing the origin of him and how he lost the ring in the first place, although i felt that scene dragged on quite a bit.

It was the best scene in the movie. I wish it had been longer.

 

[purbeast0]

It was the best scene in the movie. I wish it had been longer.

i think my favorite scene in the movie was either the thunder fight or the eagles in general. i also thought the dogs were pretty badass in general.

 

[gorcorps]

It was the best scene in the movie. I wish it had been longer.

Well, you can't really trust the opinion of somebody who thinks there's a "froto" in the movie.

 

[SagaLore]

how was bilbo dragged into it? he gladly ran down the party and volunteered. Everything was a reuse of LOTR? what are you talking about? the only two characters from LOTR was bilbo and gandalf, on and the elves. so im not sure what you are talking about.

He was dragged into it when Gandalf invited a group of dwarves into his house without permission. Obviously he still could have backed out completely but Gandalf knew he could manipulate his feelings to get him to join the cause. Not cool.

I'm talking about the score, the soundtrack, the music.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

He was dragged into it when Gandalf invited a group of dwarves into his house without permission. Obviously he still could have backed out completely but Gandalf knew he could manipulate his feelings to get him to join the cause. Not cool.

I'm talking about the score, the soundtrack, the music.

That's not the definition of getting dragged into something at all.

Also the music is very different from LOTR. Extremely different.