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Fantasy Book Club discussion
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The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
I'm very excited, can't wait to see it. I thought the first film was pretty close to the book.
Never read the book, but loved the last movie. Beautiful and spectacular:)
Personally I cannot wait....I was ok with some of the changes they made to the book. Peter Jackson has done an amazing job with the Lord of the Rings and now so far the Hobbit
I liked the 1st one and am excited for the 2nd one. I´ve read the book, too. Peter Jackson´s movies are the only ones I can watch after reading the books
me, too, so really looking forward to these and waiting for when he starts the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
The adaptation of the Lord of the Rings was excellent, by and large. The Hobbit (part I) was good, but not quite as successful - in large part because of what they did to Radagast. Radagast, the brown wizard, is one of my favorite characters (he's kind, loves animals - what's not to like?). In the film, they turned him into a slapstick figure. I couldn't stand the birdshit running down his face. In my view, the whole of the Radagast scene would have been better off cut (or, of course, substantially improved). It's a shame, because the rest of the movie is pretty good, but Radagast will get in my way every time I watch this.
I loved the Lord of the Rings films overall and the first Hobbit movie too. I can hardly wait for the second film after seeing the trailer! My only disappointment this time around was the orcs. They went full CGI with them and I didn't think they were as realistic looking as they were in LoTR. Azog in particular I thought looked a little "styrofoamy"... for want of a better word. Thanks for posting that Peter Jackson is doing the Temeraire series Martha. I had no idea. :)
liked the first movie, looking forward to see more of the dragon :P
Enjoyed the movie more on repeated viewing, so I'm anticipating an initial shock on first viewing but having it grow on me. Still dislike the video-game-reminiscent goblin chase scene in the Misty Mountains but love the elven hunting party, dwarvish singing, and out-of-his element Bilbo. Have to agree with others that Azog didn't quite look real but the wargs were pretty intimidating.
S.J. wrote: "I loved the Lord of the Rings films overall and the first Hobbit movie too. I can hardly wait for the second film after seeing the trailer! My only disappointment this time around was the orcs. The..."Soon, I hope. He's optioned the entire series (7 books, so far)
^^good to know! :)I'm also looking forward to seeing what Gandalf and the White Council do at Dol Guldur since Tolkein totally skipped that part in the book.
I loved the Lord of the Rings films and enjoyed the Hobbit. It was like coming home to an old friend. Not sure about making it three movies and all the extra material Peter Jackson will be adding, but I can't wait until December! I'm expecting awesome things from the dragon.
Chrissa wrote: "Still dislike the video-game-reminiscent goblin chase scene in the Misty ..."I have to agree on that part - very Indiana Jones - the bad movie. Seemed made for an amusement park ride. Actually, I didn't think the goblins were right at all. And I thought the fight with the wargs could have gone a lot better. But overall, still a good effort.
I was, all in all, pleased with the first movie, and I am looking forward to the second one.Oh yes, I agree about Radagast. I did not really like what they did there.
My only disappointment with the Hobbit was that they used CGI for the Orcs and Goblins. They did such a good job with costumes in LOTR; they were scary, while maintaining a certain amount of realism. It really makes me sad to think about it. But I do seem to be one of the few not taken aback concerning Radagast. :-/ Anyway, I did still like The Hobbit #1, and can't wait for DoS; I even have a countdown timer on my android home screen!!! =)
I think they may have sneaked in a bit of The Silmarillion. I am (hopefully) seeing the second part of the hobbit in the next couple of days. It would be great for a movie ofThe Silmarillion that would be a true epic:)
The Hobbit is my least favorite Tolkien book. That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading it. I'm just not fond of young adult fantasies and Tolkien wrote it for younger audiences. However, Peter Jackson has definitely made it more adult, more serious and darker than I would have thought reasonable. But I really loved the first Hobbit movie, even if it didn't follow the novel verbatim. I am looking forward to this weekend and The Desolation of Smaug.
I think Smaug is going to be extra exciting. We get to see Mirkwood and the elves (I am seriously looking forward to that!), Laketown and Smaug himself! The anticipation is killing me! ;)
I never read The Hobbit, but I liked the first film. I think that in LOTR (that I read, instead) Peter Jackson succeeds in recreate the book's atmosphere, the characters' personality, also with the necessary reductions. I don't know if The Hobbit film is accurate in comparison of the book, but it's a good film, maybe with too sequences made only to create more spectacular 3D effects. Now I don't know if is better for me to read the book now, or to wait to watch the three films, to avoid to ruin them with comparisons with the book. What do you think?
I saw the Desolation of Smaug on Monday (with Ian McKellan in the audience :-)). It's better than the first movie. The action sequences were a lot of fun. I had reservations about Tauriel, a female elf that was not in the novel, but Evangeline Lily plays her brilliantly and I liked that there was a strong female character in this otherwise mostly male story. See it in Imax 3D with the double speed rate if possible. It removes all the blur from normal speed rate 3D. Great image.
@Leady While the major plot points between the movie and book line up, there is a lot of material added to The Hobbit movie that wasn't in the books (material from other Tolkien writings, artistic liscense from Jackson and co. etc), so I *personally* don't think reading the book now will diminish excitement for the rest of the installments or clue you in to everything that's going to happen in the movie. :)
But it might spoil if certain characters survive... or not.Your call. If you don't read it now, read it after the third movie. The book is great. In my opinion.
Er, yes, there is that...but I wonder how much the movie will make of that? Considering the deaths were added in as basically a footnote in the book. Call me crazy, but I actually wonder if the deaths will even happen at all, considering how little the book made of it; and none of the survivors, (view spoiler) aside, had any significant bearing on LOTR's events anyway, so I was wondering if Jackson had amended the ending during filming to make it happier. I doubt it, but I still wonder. I'm not saying I'm for or against that, just endlessly curious. He did create a whole new character for the movie after all!
I understand there is a storyboard from Peter Jackson's proposed sequel to LOTR....http://thevirilview.com/
S.J. wrote: "Only 3 more days! I can hardly wait...."YAY! Cant wait here either...I gotta work late on Friday so gotta wait til Saturday to see it.
JohnViril wrote: "I understand there is a storyboard from Peter Jackson's proposed sequel to LOTR....http://thevirilview.com/"
I believe proposed would be the key word, if that's real LOL. I've read on Huffington Post that Tolkien's estate is not authorizing any more movies after the next two movies are released. I can't find that article to link, so that doesn't make me reliable, but I did read it. Plus, I don't think PJ would want to potentally get roped into directing again! At least not from the interviews on the first Hobbit movie's extended edition. :)
Jeremy wrote: "S.J. wrote: "Only 3 more days! I can hardly wait...."YAY! Cant wait here either...I gotta work late on Friday so gotta wait til Saturday to see it."
I know...t'is torture! I might have to wait until Sunday :(
Michelle Greenleaf wrote: "JohnViril wrote: "I understand there is a storyboard from Peter Jackson's proposed sequel to LOTR....http://thevirilview.com/"
I believe proposed would be the key word, if that's real LOL. I'v..."
It's not. I did that. I thought that it was clearly a joke.
I didn't read it, just thought you were sharing real news...guess I should have read it, huh? :)
Michelle Greenleaf wrote: "I didn't read it, just thought you were sharing real news...guess I should have read it, huh? :)"Yeah. The link is a cartoon. Of course I think it's funny.
Well, give us simple people a little warning in future, huh? :-D
Michelle Greenleaf wrote: "Er, yes, there is that...but I wonder how much the movie will make of that? Considering the deaths were added in as basically a footnote in the book. Call me crazy, but I actually wonder if the dea..."I think Jackson kind of has to. I haven't watched the LotR in awhile but (view spoiler)
I loved the first movie. Can't wait to see the second. This Sunday... hopefully. Smaug!!!!!
My only counter-argument to that would be that people would hopfully be able to see the gap between the events of The Hobbit and LOTR (60+ years, based on Martin Freeman's age, who is close to Bilbo's age in the book, and Bilbo's party in LOTR where he is 111) and be able to mentally fill that gap with any number of ways they could have died over time. I'm not really arguing; I don't think the ending will change. I just think it COULD be changed based on this scenario.
Hmm, I like the Hobbit as a book, love the LotR books and movies, but I gave up on the first movie after about the first 45 min or however long it took for them to actually set out from the Shire. I was soooo bored by then, I just turned it off. I left it on the dvr for two weeks, realized I didn't care enough to finish watching, and deleted it.The actual feast scene was okay but the whole thing just seemed to be dragging.
I like the Hobbit as a more child-oriented story and I guess I feel Peter Jackson's take on it is killing off the overall flavor for me. Also I really don't think it needed all the additions that he's making to stretch the story out to three movies.
Thanks everybody for your advices! I don't know if I want to watch a sequel of LOTR, I'm already scared by the new Star Wars...
Yeah, me too Leady.
Aww that's too bad Michele. Ah well, not everybody is going to like it... such is the nature of life and individual tastes. Personally, I loved the first Hobbit film and I can hardly wait for the second one. I can see it in 2 more days....
I love the book but I love the movie too. I think of them as two different things. It was always going to be a difficult movie to film. The Hobbit, as you said, is a kids book, and LotR is not. In my opinion that's part of the trouble with the Hobbit movies. They've tried to film them like LotR while staying true (ish) to the book and there's a big difference between the two.I enjoyed most of the extended scenes. To be honest, as much as I do like the book, I never got a feel for the dwarves as characters. I adore Bilbo. But the dwarves fade in the background for me. Some never even speak. And some only have one or two lines. In the movie though I fell in love with most of them. There were still a few that got little screen time. But I thought Jackson did a wonderful job on the dwarves. And he gave them a honorable quest, when in the book they come across as rather unlikable to me.
As for the three movie thing... Well, truthfully that had me nervous. There's enough for two movies easily. But three?! I had doubts. Still do. But the way I look at it is, the first movie's climax was Bilbo and Gollum. Which, by the way, was awesome and you should watch that scene if no other. The second movie will be all about Smaug, I'm guessing anyway haven't seen it yet. And the third will be the battle. The last makes me nervous still. I'm just not sure if there's enough from that point to make another three hour movie. But I'm probably going to be proven wrong.
I loved LotR and I personally love seeing the old characters again. Including Legolas. I don't care he isn't in the book. He could have been.
Three more days for me. I see it on Sunday. Happy Dance!!!
Saw it last night at midnight...the Legolas/Taurine fight scenes were AMAZING!!!
I'm going to see it tomorrow! =D
I managed to get out and see it with my son last night. Smaug was every bit as amazing as I was hoping he was going to be and the ending was a real cliffhanger. It seems so unfair to have to wait a year to see the third one now! I agree with Nienna that I love what was done with the dwarves but I felt Legolas got short shrift in the second film. The fight scenes with him and Tauriel were amazing but they did hardly anything with his character. In LoTR they showed him developing the friendship with Gimli and he obviously adored Aragorn too, but in this movie he was barely more than a killer of Orcs. If they were going to include him in the Hobbit movie I think they should have done more with him than that.
Having said that: it was an amazing film overall and I loved it! :)
Overall I loved the movie and Smaug exceeded my expectations...he was awesome.My only complaint is how the elves can kill so many orcs without even a scratch...not one little scratch...I get the fact that they are hundreds of years old and amazingly fast....but just a scratch is all I ask for...
There was one scratch (and one only...lol): Legolas almost got his butt kicked in Laketown by that big nasty buddy of Azog's. He seemed quite annoyed by that. I think we didn't see too many elves getting banged up because the ones we saw were mostly main characters and they're so awesome that they're never supposed to get hurt. (I agree, by the way, it stretches the suspension of disbelief a little.) In LoTR there were a lot of extras; like all the elves we saw in the battle of Helm's deep. They can bang those up pretty good without affecting the main characters too much. When there were elven extras in The Hobbit, there weren't many and we really only got glimpses of them here and there. If one had fallen in a fight, I don't know that I would have even noticed because the action was moving so fast.
I saw it last night. I liked it a lot, but I thought there were a few hangups: Legolas's moves seemed to flashy and acrobatic, even for an elf; I felt that the spider and Mirkwood scenes were rushed, ironic for a movie near 3 hrs(!); and I thought this movie would have show us the death of Smaug and the next movie the battle. You know, have a climax. But really, Tauriel wasn't so bad. Legolas was just a little jealous, not out and out in love with her.
I read somewhere that the Legolas/Tauriel thing is supposed to be more of a brother/sister thing. Which does make sense. If a brother thinks his sister is falling for the "wrong" guy he is going to get super protective of her. And maybe even a little jealous.
Perhaps, but Thranduil certainly makes more if it than that; but as I said, I didn't really see such an immense attraction :-/
You are right S.J...Legolas did get a little hurt in that last fight...I didn't want to give away any spoilers. I was happy about that part. I just don't like when main characters are untouchable super heroes...I like it a little more realistic. Well....as realistic as a fight between and elf and an orc can be! ha ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLgnkR...