Movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

[Thumpy]

Looks like I'm in the minority here but as a huge LOTR fanboy (Fellowship is my favourite film of all time) I thought it was ****ing awful.

I never truly felt engaged in the movie, there was no suspense, no emotion like there was in LOTR. Just look at the ending of FOTR with Boromir's death (and before that Gandalf's death) and compare that with The Hobbit where it just stops in the middle of nowhere. It never felt like there was any climax but I guess that was always gonna happen when you drag a 300 page book into a 9hr trilogy.

Apart from Bilbo and Gandalf (and even they didn't get the screentime they deserved), I didn't really connect with any of the characters. Radagast and all the paddle pop cliche jokes were just cringeworthy.

Then there were visuals which I thought were overdone and made the film look fake. Azog and the other Goblins looked like something out of a video game. The paler, simpler visuals in LOTR were far more aesthetically pleasing which just goes to show that visuals/3D don't neccessarily make a film better.

The 'Riddles in the dark' scene was probably the highlight of the film for me but it needed more of that. Maybe if it was all crammed into one or even two movies instead of three I would have enjoyed it more I don't know, but I definitely think PJ made a huge mistake by trying to make an epic LOTR esque trilogy out of a book which is not suited to it.

 

[Carbine Chaos]

The 'Riddles in the dark' scene was probably the highlight of the film for me but it needed more of that.

Personally reckon that scene was the perfect length. Not too short, not too long. The story shouldn't focus too much on the ring/Gollum so how they did it was apt.

 

[kaysee]

…

In the original you genuinely connected with a ridiculous number of characters. Each of the Fellowship was well developed and I cared about each of them. There were numerous other characters that left me feeling something, whatever that may be. The Hobbit lacks that. Beyond Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and of course Gollum, you don't really connect with anyone.

IMO the issue here is the sheer number of Dwarves to keep track of. Not only that, but they have few distinguishable characteristics… I mean they’re all Dwarves. LOTR had plenty of characters, but they were all unique: 2 serious hobbits, 2 fooling hobbits, 1 wizard, 1 wood elf, 1 dwarf, 2 human warriors etc as the main party. Then other main characters were clearly definable like Elrond, Galadrial, Saruman etc.

As for emotional scenes… The Hobbit lacks many of those scenes because it was a children’s adventure book. The Hobbit clearly nailed the key Riddles in the Dark scene (which was added later in the book after LOTR had been written). The Hobbit also established some good emotional scenes with Thorin (both his pain, anger, greed and honour)… but really there isn’t much else to work with. Unfortunately, in the book and in the movie… most of the dwarves are just there as “filler” to make an unlucky party of 13, so they have a reason to recruit Bilbo as the 14th member and hence central character of the story.

Every key character in LOTR had key moments where the story focused on them… so they had to create those emotional connections. It isn’t the same in TH.

 

[Igloo]

I never truly felt engaged in the movie, there was no suspense, no emotion like there was in LOTR. Just look at the ending of FOTR with Boromir's death (and before that Gandalf's death) and compare that with The Hobbit where it just stops in the middle of nowhere. It never felt like there was any climax but I guess that was always gonna happen when you drag a 300 page book into a 9hr trilogy.

This was something I was wondering about prior to the seeing the movie - where would they end it?
There isn't really an easy spot to finish The Hobbit, if it's broken into parts. With what they had to work with, I think they finished it at the right time.

They could have ended it when they escaped from the goblin kingdom, but then the start of the next film would have been pretty crappy, running from the wargs (although they were just evil wolves in the book, weren't they?).
With where they did end it, the next one can be set up with meeting Beorn, and then the start of their journey into Mirkwood.

 

[Thumpy]

Personally reckon that scene was the perfect length. Not too short, not too long. The story shouldn't focus too much on the ring/Gollum so how they did it was apt.

I thought it was the perfect length as well, what I meant was the film needed more quality scenes like that one.

That was probably the only part of the movie where I was truly engaged.

This was something I was wondering about prior to the seeing the movie - where would they end it?
There isn't really an easy spot to finish The Hobbit, if it's broken into parts. With what they had to work with, I think they finished it at the right time.

They could have ended it when they escaped from the goblin kingdom, but then the start of the next film would have been pretty crappy, running from the wargs (although they were just evil wolves in the book, weren't they?).
With where they did end it, the next one can be set up with meeting Beorn, and then the start of their journey into Mirkwood.

I agree it was the most logical place to end the film, my main issue was I thought the whole splitting into parts took away from the climatic feel of the movie.

It's a small book so it wouldn't have been overly difficult to make a single movie out of it.

 

[The_Reaper]

If they ever make "the Children of Hurin" into a movie it better be 1 movie.

The hobbit felt to expanded with the orcs though obviously Azog will play a part in the battle of 5 armies.

 

[yakka man]

Has anyone listened to the Song of the Lonely Mountain by Neil Finn from the soundtrack? It's really good and could be a chance for an Academy award.

 

[tek87]

dissappointing movie. it's pacing was terrible and lacked any tension. the dwarfs were not likable. can't believe it has made so much money. more hype than substance.

 

[tek87]

agree that the comedy was immature at best. nothing witty at all and agree it was difficult to care or connect to the characters. this is so beneath the previous trilogy. close to the worst movie i have seen this year

 

[Igloo]

agree that the comedy was immature at best. nothing witty at all and agree it was difficult to care or connect to the characters. this is so beneath the previous trilogy. close to the worst movie i have seen this year

How many movies have you watched in 2 days?

 

[Flameboy]

Really enjoyed it. More so than the LOTR trilogy.

Can't wait for the second one later this year. Having only seen the movies and not read the books I'm particularly curious to find out what the Necromancer is all about.

 

[Catfish Alley]

It's a small book so it wouldn't have been overly difficult to make a single movie out of it.

But then they would have missed out on about $100 million.

 

[Sterge]

But then they would have missed out on about $100 million.

Yeah no, the first one has already made 700 million and it's not done yet expect it to end closer to the billion mark. So by making 3 movies instead of 1 they will pocket roughly an extra 2 billion for only slightly higher costs

 

[Norm De Guerre]

I reckon that the apparent lack of suspense is a legacy of the original trilogy formula of knowing when our heroes are in peril somebody (usually Gandalf) appears out of nowhere to save the day. Geez I'm beginning to find this tiresome.

Its classic Deus ex machina, and if these devices are drawn from Tolkiens original text I have a little less respect for him than I did when I read the LotR's as a 16 year old.

 

[Catfish Alley]

Yeah no, the first one has already made 700 million and it's not done yet expect it to end closer to the billion mark. So by making 3 movies instead of 1 they will pocket roughly an extra 2 billion for only slightly higher costs

Yep, my bad. Just heard the what the first movie has made so far. Crazy stuff!

 

[Sunny_]

Haven't seen it yet, but I'm curious to know what people thought of the OST?

One of the main driving forces being LOTR in my opinion was its phenomenal soundtrack. I know Howard Shore has returned, but has he backed it up well?

 

[stewie griffen]

Saw it last night in 3D 48fps.

The first section with old Bilbo seemed to be at 1.5x speed with th high frame rate, but it came into its own after that sputtering start. Visually it was stunning. There were a couple of spots where it cheapened the look, particularly in one or two scenes in Rivendell. The Radagast section was a bit meh. I was a little distracted by the comic appearance of the dwarves tho, especially Nesbitts character.

It was a solid effort, but not spectacular, and suffered from being a little bloated in parts, especially early on

 

[DIG]

Is it a must to see it in 3D or would normal be fine?

 

[stewie griffen]

Is it a must to see it in 3D or would normal be fine?

I dont normally enjoy 3D and do my best to avoid it, that said it was the by far the best 3D rendition I have seen, admittedly thats a small sample size (Captain America, Harry Potter DH2 and something else).

Without having seen the 2D rendition tho... i dunno

 

[DIG]

I dont normally enjoy 3D and do my best to avoid it, that said it was the by far the best 3D rendition I have seen, admittedly thats a small sample size (Captain America, Harry Potter DH2 and something else).

Without having seen the 2D rendition tho... i dunno

Thanks for that, trying to book gold class but there's no upcoming decent session times free for me, will try for 3D but might end up just taking what I can get.

 

[stewie griffen]

Thanks for that, trying to book gold class but there's no upcoming decent session times free for me, will try for 3D but might end up just taking what I can get.

Yeah i wanted to go last night and the best times were for 3d high frame so decided to go for that

 

[pantskyle]

What's good about the extended editions for LOTR?

*Sorry for going of topic.

It's longer.

 

[stewie griffen]

And it concludes a couple of things not touched in the theatrical cuts, most notably what happens to Saruman

 

[pantskyle]

I saw it yesterday in 3D and boy oh boy this movie is beautiful and marvelous maybe even beauvelous.

I left wanting more. Everything about this movie was good to great, all haters can suck my ass.

 

[TheGhostOfJohnBelushi]

Looks like the Academy is getting copies for perusal... if you know what I mean.