tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post8878968811022522040..comments2024-03-29T06:16:21.012+08:00Comments on Monsters and Manuals: A Christmas Eve Review of The Hobbit For Your EdificationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-72946967668235694622013-01-14T03:32:20.928+08:002013-01-14T03:32:20.928+08:00I have other complaints - chief among them being t...<i>I have other complaints - chief among them being the total lack of understatement, but that is probably a matter of taste; for me, one of the great pleasures of Tolkien's writing is that he doesn't go for the grandiose very often - only when it matters. The Hobbit is a delightfully understated book. It is only when you meet Smaug that it turns into an epic, and that makes Smaug seem genuinely epic.</i><br /><br />Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The Jackson spectacle really doesn't fit this aspect of the book.<br /><br />That said, I think the parts of the Hobbit that were well done were very well done. The riddles in the dark scene and the prologue about the coming of Smaug I thought were both quite good. The piling of action on action really gets tiresome though.Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-86291000294190556232013-01-14T03:28:13.868+08:002013-01-14T03:28:13.868+08:00I think Alan Lee should get the credit for the loo...I think Alan Lee should get the credit for the look of Middle Earth in Jackson's films, given that he is the "conceptual designer" and that the bits that are good are the ones that look exactly like his paintings.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0496769/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0496769/</a>Necropraxishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716340801054739658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-76474765697919639632013-01-03T02:02:51.674+08:002013-01-03T02:02:51.674+08:00The same problem applies to the elves. Their port...The same problem applies to the elves. Their portrayal, especially in the Hobbit, is entirely too heavy. In the book, the elves are rather silly, light-hearted and constantly singing goofy songs. That attitude carries over, to some degree, into the LOTR books. <br /><br />There is a place for this other-worldly-mysterious-ultra-serious stuff, but a little goes a long way. Tolkein's elves were much too old to constantly take themselves that seriously.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14305578651940555592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-60492988410599246812012-12-28T14:20:15.613+08:002012-12-28T14:20:15.613+08:00Arg, thanks for the info, I was hoping against hop...Arg, thanks for the info, I was hoping against hope that Jackson, who appears to have peaked with Heavenly Creatures (and/or Dead/Alive, depending on how you feel about gore), hadn't made such a complete hash of the Hobbit as he had of LotR. That's three hours saved, then.<br /><br />Shit, make that nine.Thomas M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13248298143309606444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-78480089476583671952012-12-28T07:31:05.700+08:002012-12-28T07:31:05.700+08:00the movie aims at a very young audience, and from ...the movie aims at a very young audience, and from my 1 person sample i can say they hit their target quite well. my 12 year old nephew liked it a lot.<br /><br />i didn't. :(<br /><br />ps: i guess you don't know that a huge amount of the star wars "backstory" was retconned during the making of all the movies and george lucas had no idea who darth vader would turn out to be when doing star wars? <br /><br />http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/book.html<br /><br />great book, really recommended to everyone interested in star wars lore. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-17327410838723848122012-12-28T04:24:35.163+08:002012-12-28T04:24:35.163+08:00Me too. I feel like he would have "got it&quo...Me too. I feel like he would have "got it".<br /><br />Another complaint - which links to the "epic problem" - is the lack of humour or any sort of light touch. There are a few amusing moments, but the novel of <i>The Hobbit</i> is very comedic. The dwarves are idiots - dunderheaded, obstinate, incompetent, and foolish - and Bilbo is forever having to rescue them for no thanks or reward. The book is built on that, really; the whole point of the plot is that Bilbo is the only one out of the lot of them who has any common sense, which is why Gandalf picked him. <br /><br />I know why Peter Jackson went for the tone he did, but it seems a bit cowardly to me. I wish he'd been braver and stuck closer to the tone of the source material. noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-46389341718420864692012-12-28T04:16:30.346+08:002012-12-28T04:16:30.346+08:00Indeed. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings as an ...Indeed. Tolkien wrote <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> as an epic sequel to <i>The Hobbit</i>. Peter Jackson is filming <i>The Hobbit</i> as an epic prequel to <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>. The story wasn't written to support that.<br /><br />Ever since I saw it, I've been thinking about how much better Guillermo Del Toro's version would have been.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-36301252621403342872012-12-28T04:13:32.294+08:002012-12-28T04:13:32.294+08:00Oh that I'm not arguing with. I'm just say...Oh that I'm not arguing with. I'm just saying we blame the cgi guy for that rather than the make-up guy.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-38405669004346824412012-12-27T18:18:05.917+08:002012-12-27T18:18:05.917+08:00You're probably right, but seriously, if you w...You're probably right, but seriously, if you watch it again, look at the faces of the trolls, Azog, the Great Goblin and Gollum. Their facial expressions are near-identical.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-91622366024538478702012-12-27T18:16:02.230+08:002012-12-27T18:16:02.230+08:00That's a really good point, about Thorin. And ...That's a really good point, about Thorin. And it ties in with the need to be epic all the time. Thorin's story offers more opportunity for epic-ness, so that's who we focus on. It takes away Bilbo's role as the emotional heart of the tale (and reduces his transformation from zero to hero to a mere side-show he gets over before the story has even really begun).noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-358916052484524082012-12-27T18:10:53.634+08:002012-12-27T18:10:53.634+08:00Legolas is the most egregious example. He was tole...Legolas is the most egregious example. He was tolerable in Fellowship, but when the Two Towers came along he was vaulting onto a moving horse and skateboarding down a staircase while firing arrows like a submachinegun, and by Return he was singlehandedly killing a mammoth. Every action scene involved increasingly idiotic stunts.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-71501918043400623522012-12-26T23:48:41.493+08:002012-12-26T23:48:41.493+08:00Also, Tolkien's book was actually about the Ho...Also, Tolkien's book was actually about the Hobbit. Just as <i>Tron</i> (both versions) weren't about Tron, but rather about Flynn (which explains just about everything that's wrong with both movies, little as that may be), PJ is rewriting the story so that it is actually about Thorin.<br /><br />2 years hence this will explain just about everything that turns out to be wrong with the trilogy (and a great deal that will be).<br /><br />That, and the apparent fact that PJ wouldn't know how to portray an allusion or metaphor if the author tattooed the instructions on his ******* forehead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-74430313806539481102012-12-25T09:54:35.101+08:002012-12-25T09:54:35.101+08:00You pretty much nail it here. PJ was going for, a...You pretty much nail it here. PJ was going for, as you say, Epic turned up to 11. Hence the three three-hour movies and all the extraneous action scenes. <br /><br />Ever watch the commentary tracks on the Lord of the Rings DVDs? Jackson talked constantly about how this or that set-piece needed to, in his mind, "top what had come before." He was always trying to out-do himself with over the top action, and I think it continued into the Hobbit. By "There and Back Again" the action scenes will look like something from Tsui Hark.Dennis Laffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2513019539869706574.post-47133965550625005682012-12-25T08:41:15.989+08:002012-12-25T08:41:15.989+08:00I quite agree.
Aside from the bit about the make-...I quite agree.<br /><br />Aside from the bit about the make-up guy. I'm not sure they used traditional make-up this time around, as it all looked like cgi to me.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.com