The Hobbit

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It's been years since I have read the book. Personally, I will be waiting until all 3 movies are out before I read it again. I have a habit of picking apart a movie if I have ready the book and I'd like to enjoy the movies. Then I'll read the book again and remember all the things they left out or changed.
Was thinking the same thing. I did like the ripping of Rivendell straight from LOTRO, had a very oh shit I known where everything is in that town moment.
 

Felurian_sl

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Just watched this last weekend. While lurking on the old forums, someone said it'll take longer to watch the trilogy than finish the book. I think that's pretty apt.
 

McCheese

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Was thinking the same thing. I did like the ripping of Rivendell straight from LOTRO, had a very oh shit I known where everything is in that town moment.
I've wondered how closely connected the art direction between LOTRO and the LOTR (and now The Hobbit) movies was because, as you say, some parts of the game look EXACTLY like the movie. I'm curious if they had the same concept artists or something to purposely keep the game as similar to the movie as possible. There's a Warner Bros. logo when you start up LOTRO so it woudn't suprise me if they shared art assests with the game developers.
 

Mountain Man_sl

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Yeah, my friend read the book in 3 hours the other night while we were camping. Granted he is a fast reader but still pretty funny. I am interested to see how much extra stuff they put in the movies that wasn't in the book.
 

Siddar

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I've wondered how closely connected the art direction between LOTRO and the LOTR (and now The Hobbit) movies was because, as you say, some parts of the game look EXACTLY like the movie. I'm curious if they had the same concept artists or something to purposely keep the game as similar to the movie as possible. There's a Warner Bros. logo when you start up LOTRO so it woudn't suprise me if they shared art assests with the game developers.
My guess is the same behind the scene's people have been working together for the past decade though the LToR trilogy and then moved in mass to the Hobbit trilogy.
 

Nostrovia_sl

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Yeah, my friend read the book in 3 hours the other night while we were camping. Granted he is a fast reader but still pretty funny. I am interested to see how much extra stuff they put in the movies that wasn't in the book.
3 hours is about right. A decent reader can knock out 50-100 pages an hour, depending on the content. The book is only 300 pages long, give or take.
 

Rotanee_sl

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Personally, I liked the beginning. It was fine and worked OK. The troll scene didn't. Three long movies from a short book, and they missed out on really developing Bilbo's growth. It's one of the book's key elements. Bilbo's is a placid hobbit who is fat and eats 10 times a day, and grows to one who by trial and error, guts and fate, comes into his own. The scene didn't really convey how out of place Bilbo is at the start. It shows he's a little awkward and thrust into things, yet failed by giving him Gandolf's role thinking up a clever escape. The whole movie missed out on developing characters well, with a few exceptions (not including Gandalf's thing with Galadriel).

My least favorite scene is during the mine chase when the wooden bridge fell 30 stories and they ride it down. Lost a lot of interest. It went from magical, heroic characters and suspenseful danger down to completely not serious. I expected it based on some of Jackson's interviews, even still it came up short.
 

Gask

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Personally, I liked the beginning. It was fine and worked OK. The troll scene didn't. Three long movies from a short book, and they missed out on really developing Bilbo's growth. It's one of the book's key elements. Bilbo's is a placid hobbit who is fat and eats 10 times a day, and grows to one who by trial and error, guts and fate, comes into his own. The scene didn't really convey how out of place Bilbo is at the start. It shows he's a little awkward and thrust into things, yet failed by giving Bilbo Gandolf's role thinking up a cleaver escape. The whole movie missed out on developing characters well, with a few exceptions (not including Gandalf's thing with Galadriel).

My least favorite scene is during the mine chase when the wooden bridge fell 30 stories and they ride it down. Lost a lot of interest. It went from magical, heroic characters and suspenseful danger down to completely not serious. I expected it based on some of Jackson's interviews, even still it came up short.
I agree completely Rotanee, the beginning was okay and would have been even better IMO had Bilbo been played by a middle aged paunchy home owner type. They went much too far in turning every dwarf into an action hero when they were nothing of the sort until the battle of five armies, till then they were fairly adverse to fighting unless unavoidably pressed to do so. In fact they repeatedly delegate the more dangerous tasks to Bilbo without a second thought as they feel that he was hired to deal with the things that they don't want to do themselves (in the book they are more like businessmen on an adventure than warriors most of the time). I do not think that following the book more closely would have harmed the movie in the least and in fact having the more varied characters would have been nothing but a benefit.
 

Taloo_sl

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Dwarfs are not ninjas. The troll scene was awful. I was pretty disappointed and ended up kind of pissy when the movie ended one scene from the most badass of badasses showing up.
 

etchazz

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I agree completely Rotanee, the beginning was okay and would have been even better IMO had Bilbo been played by a middle aged paunchy home owner type. They went much too far in turning every dwarf into an action hero when they were nothing of the sort until the battle of five armies, till then they were fairly adverse to fighting unless unavoidably pressed to do so. In fact they repeatedly delegate the more dangerous tasks to Bilbo without a second thought as they feel that he was hired to deal with the things that they don't want to do themselves (in the book they are more like businessmen on an adventure than warriors most of the time). I do not think that following the book more closely would have harmed the movie in the least and in fact having the more varied characters would have been nothing but a benefit.
i said it before, and i know he's old now, but i don't see any reason why ian holm couldn't have played bilbo in "the hobbit." ian's just a better actor and well, he is bilbo after all.
 

PosterOfStuff_sl

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I liked this overall so a 6 out of ten for me.

I didn't like the over the top action scenes, and some of the scenes needed to have a bit of a lighter hand for example the Trolls.

But, I knew before I saw this that Peter Jackson is always over the top.

I liked the extra elements they added, it really is such an awesome world anything done with even minor sympathy to the setting will work.

I saw this in HFR and I will not be doing that again. It looked like a home movie.
 

Northerner

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3 hours is about right. A decent reader can knock out 50-100 pages an hour, depending on the content. The book is only 300 pages long, give or take.
I thought you were crazy (thinking it was shorter than that even) but what the hell, I've got my old copy on the dusty bookshelf so I thought I'd check. 278 pages (of big font, small pages with some illustrations) for the 1966 paperback version.

Huh, it seemed even shorter than that as a kid I thought.
 

Ragnarok_sl

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Overall I enjoyed the movie, but it's no where near any of the three LOTRs. Tho I have to admit the tone of the movie is very different. this might change once we get to see the dragon.

But really, I was just happy to be back in that world.
 

chunhamt_sl

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I have to agree, I don't think the Hobbit series will be as epic as the three LOTR movies. Hopefully Mr. Jackson can surprise us. =)
 

Itlan

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Anyone who gets butthurt that it's not a direct port from book to the bigscreen, or the over the top action scenes... what the fuck did you think you were walking into? Honestly... what the fuck did you expect?
 

Gask

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Anyone who gets butthurt that it's not a direct port from book to the bigscreen, or the over the top action scenes... what the fuck did you think you were walking into? Honestly... what the fuck did you expect?
I didn't expect anything to be honest but I was disappointed with how they mucked up such a simple story. The nearly endless action sequences frequently crossed the line of the absurd and effectively banished any sense of tension or excitement that they might have otherwise produced. Also Bilbo's encounter with Golum being shot in a fully lit cave... WTF.
 

Aychamo BanBan

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Anyone who gets butthurt that it's not a direct port from book to the bigscreen, or the over the top action scenes... what the fuck did you think you were walking into? Honestly... what the fuck did you expect?
I was expecting a movie that captured my heart and brought me right back to middle earth. Instead I watched a soulless money grab that was barely interesting.
 

Mountain Man_sl

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Overall I liked the first Hobbit movie. My main complaints are the troll scene was dumb and a lot of the action/suspense was way over the top. The scene at the end where they are in the trees... Did they really have to make them all end up in one tree that is dangling over a 5000-foot cliff and be rescued by eagles just in the nick of time? I know the LOTR movies had some of this as well, moments that just make me cringe, but minus that stuff I really enjoy them.