zombe on 18/1/2013 at 13:42
One of the weakest HISHE entries to date :/ - essentially a copy paste of the widely known LOTR one, nothing new added.
Dia on 27/1/2013 at 13:50
Just saw it yesterday and now am deliberating whether or not I should go back & re-read the Hobbit (haven't read it in about 15 yrs. or so) or go back & see the movie again. I have to admit that while I rather enjoyed this latest Jackson film, I had to remind myself that it wasn't a LOTR spin-off but a completely different movie. I had reservations more than a few times, the first being the dwarves arriving at Bilbo's, eating him out of house & home, then breaking into song which made me worry that Jackson might try to turn The Hobbit into a musical - not that there's anything wrong with musicals , they're just not my cup of tea. All the CG baddies were a bit of a disappointment as well. I know I shouldn't keep comparing TH to LOTR, but Jackson got it right the first time in using real people (for the most part) to play Orcs & Uruks, etc. At times the film seemed to bog down; especially at the beginning I felt that Jackson spent waaayy too much time getting the whole thing started. Imo giving the old-Bilbo and Frodo so much screen time seemed almost gratuitous. Basically a nice tie-in from LOTR, setting the time when Bilbo actually gets around to telling his tale, but for me there seemed to be a spark missing; the chemistry between Bilbo and Frodo seemed forced this time around - hard to explain - only that the beginning scenes with the two of them didn't flow quite as naturally as they did in LOTR. Plus: face it, Elijah's a lot older than he was during the filming of LOTR and it showed, but why in God's name did Jackson airbrush Ian Holm's face so drastically? It looked like Sir Ian had had bad Botox injections or like Jackson was trying to CG his whole face.
I absolutely did NOT like the CG Orc King (reminded me of some Star Wars characters for some odd reason) or the white goblin guy (reminded me of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named from the Potter movies). And I was unreasonably upset that Radagast was turned into some kind of poor joke; that whole 'Sebastian' scene had me grinding my teeth. And I LIKE cute little critters as a rule. The rock giants also seemed more than a bit too gratuitous for my liking. Not that I don't think that any and all of the above was awesomely beautiful cinematically mind you. Well, except for old-Bilbo's face that is.
Interesting movie overall even if it was a tad too long and yes, I can't wait for the next installment. Maybe I'd better go back and re-read the book first.
SubJeff on 27/1/2013 at 14:48
Well here's an interesting thing - Elijah being older can't have showed since they CGIed him back to babyhood.
And the dwarf song is awesome. Far superior to the credits track which is a pale imitation.
Beleg Cúthalion on 27/1/2013 at 19:43
Although I cannot help to use this credits song to foster a wave of romanticism that overcame me a few days ago. There is something about time and distant adventure about it. And after all that's what this kind of media was all made for.
Dia on 28/1/2013 at 02:48
I liked the sad song the dwarves sang, but guess I wasn't prepared for all the singing in the first place. Granted, there was singing in LOTR, but it was kept to a minimum and (imo) complimented the story/action that was taking place at the time. The whole score for LOTR was far and above beyond outstanding, but I was so busy focusing on TH that I barely heard the music in the background - except for the singing parts, of course. It also seemed to me that when the action began, it was so frenetic as to be over the top; when things slowed down, unfortunately the movie seemed to bog down a bit - those were the only times I really heard the music which I felt was in keeping with a story being told of happenings in Middle Earth.
And yeah, at the beginning when Frodo walks in on Bilbo writing, Elijah does look older. Maybe Jackson hoped no one would notice. But I still think there was something missing in the chemistry between Bilbo & Frodo this time around. Can't quite put my finger on it; maybe the dialogue seemed too stilted.
Don't misunderstand - I really liked TH and plan on going back & seeing it again on the big screen. Then I'll go back & reread the book.
Maybe I wasn't as objective as I was trying to be afterall.
:o
SubJeff on 28/1/2013 at 09:14
He didn't look older. There have been articles about the young making process used.
Mr.Duck on 29/1/2013 at 01:14
Pssst, Dia...
It's the GOBLIN King and the White ORC. ;)
*Hides*
gunsmoke on 29/1/2013 at 07:04
IIRC, there were quite a bit of songs in the book. And the Bakshi version had several as well. I don't tend to like singing in films, but it seems appropriate here.
zil on 29/1/2013 at 09:05
As far as I can remember, I didn't like it quite as much as I liked LotR. The characters weren't established enough, given the fact there were so many dwarves.. I liked almost all of the Fellowship in LotR, but here it was.. just a bunch of weird dwarves, everybody felt the same. Another dislike, and a huge one I might add, was the battle-flee-battle-flee-battle-flee repetition that was just so boring. Not enough emotional involvement or emotional scenes.. which were there for me in LotR. And the score.. well Howard did it better, again, in the other trilogy set in Middle Earth. Other than that, it was fairly ok. People will say, 'Why do you compare this to LotR so much?' Well, because it IS supposed to be a sort of prequel story to that, isnt't it? And the standards that Rings set was on a much higher level.
Dia on 29/1/2013 at 13:01
Quote Posted by MrDuck
Pssst, Dia...
It's the GOBLIN King and the White ORC. ;)*Hides*Awcrap. I just
KNEW I'd get 'em mixed up. Another reason to go see TH again.
:o
