Kevin's Watch

Yea - I saw this the other night. I didn't have great expectations from the start; I was not taken by the first installment last year and always struggled to see how jackson would spin nine hours of film out of the slim volume of JRT's. 'Padding' was of course the answer - fight scene after interminable fight scene.

But in fairness, taken as Murrin say's above, just as a piece of adolescent entertainment it's probably ok [just forget that it's the story of JFT's Hobbit coz it's not]. But even saying that - why does it/they have to be so godamn long? You could have upped the score of that film by 20% just by chopping out forty minutes of it. The film looks great; it alows [as u. I think said above] you to wander the halls and towers of Middle-Earth as well depicted as ever your own imagination could have come up with - and this should be enough. It's good - but not nearly three hours good!

The Extended Edition is out. I hadn't even heard any advertising for it, I just happened to see it at Target.

I think it improved the movie quite a bit. Many of my gripes were addressed by the additional scenes. I even thought the Laketown parts (the worst of the movie) made more sense and told a better story. Many of the additions were subtle, with bits of dialog added all throughout. And then there were obvious additions in Beorn's home and in Mirkwood, helping the movie to match the book.

Zarathustra wrote:And then there were obvious additions in Beorn's home and in Mirkwood, helping the movie to match the book.

Ohhh...

As a huge fan of the character of Beorn (after all, I named my only child after him), this alone would cause me to wish to see these scenes.

Yeah, I saw the Extended Edition recently. I started with the extras, which, certainly in the case of the first Hobbit movie, were more entertaining than the actual movie. And is fairly true this time too. But after seeing the Extended Edition, I am pretty impressed by the extra scenes, although they would be lost on people who wouldn't know who the King of Angmar is. Although it does seem that they refer to the Witch-king himself as "Angmar," but I might have missed a word here or there. But it certainly builds up the tension of the Dol Guldur scenes. Last night I was in Target and saw a Lego Hobbit playset that included the Witch-King, and at first thought it was from Lord of the Rings, but then realized it said The Hobbit and included Galadriel and someone else like Elrond and Gandalf, and I realized I was seeing something from the next movie, so hurray.

What, was I first? Just back from watching The Hobbit 3.

It's not as bad as the last one, which was without doubt the worst of all of the Tolkein movies.

That said, considering they were only working with about 2 or 3 chapters of the book, there wasn't a much for them to get wrong.

As is my wont, I watched the first two yesterday before going to this, so I was freshly smarting from DoS, which also helped. They got the basic story right at least, even if a lot of the details were wrong.

Well, that's the last time I go to the movies until the next Star Wars flick is out.

--A

C'mon Avatar - No I mean 'Avatar' - Avatar 2; HFR, half-naked feline woman with tails, dragony things that fly about a world of Dubai-level gaudy brightness. Whats not to like?

Hobbit 3 opens in a few days in the US. It opened in lots of other countries earlier. I think the 'premiere' premiere was in NZ on Dec. 1.

But I really came here to post this. It is too good!

Stephen Colbert interviewing Smaug (YouTube)


(Colbert has always been a Tolkien Scholar and die-hard fan. He once famously battled James Franco in a Tolkien Showdown, and has weilded Anduril on his show. He was given a cameo in Hobbit 3.)

Avatar wrote: It's not as bad as the last one, which was without doubt the worst of all of the Tolkein movies.

Really? I thought the first one was the worst because Scrotumchin the Goblin King completely ruined the entire rest of the movie. Seriously, how can you not be horrified by his Ballchinian cosplay (there, a MIB reference)?

Now Peter Jackson can begin working on filming The Silmarillion. It will take only 4 installments of 3.5 hours each just to get to the Doom of the Noldor after the Kinslaying at Helcaraxe...but at least we will get to see the Silmarils.

I'd actually like to see a Silmarillion movie. I watched the 3 Lord of the Rings movies and thought they were all middling. I saw the first Hobbit movie and thought it was God-awful. I didn't see the second one and am not going to see the third.

...but I'd be there opening day to watch Morgoth battle Ungoliant, witness Gothmog leading his army of balrogs, and see Sauron adopt his vampire form.

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:

Avatar wrote: It's not as bad as the last one, which was without doubt the worst of all of the Tolkein movies.

Really? I thought the first one was the worst because Scrotumchin the Goblin King completely ruined the entire rest of the movie. Seriously, how can you not be horrified by his Ballchinian cosplay (there, a MIB reference)?

That part was a heck of a lot closer to the book than many scenes. Tolkien did have singing goblins.

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:Now Peter Jackson can begin working on filming The Silmarillion. It will take only 4 installments of 3.5 hours each just to get to the Doom of the Noldor after the Kinslaying at Helcaraxe...but at least we will get to see the Silmarils.

It will never happen. The Tolkien Estate (especially Christopher) abhors the movies and what Jackson has done to Tolkien's work. In addition, the studios have tried to screw the Tolkien estate out of the money owed to them, claiming they didn't make a profit on the movies after expenses, and therefore don't owe any share of the profits. The rights to the Hobbit and LOTR were sold by JRR himself. The rights to the Silmarillion will not be sold.

Oh, didn't realise it hadn't released there yet. That's an unusual turn of events hey?

Hashi Lebwohl wrote: Really? I thought the first one was the worst...

Nah, I think in both trilogies, the first movie was the best. Hobbit 1 was at least relatively faithful to the plot. 2 threw in a whole bunch of invented action sequences that killed it for me. (And damn it looked fake.)

This one returns to the book overall, even if the details, (like the death of Fili and Kili) were altered. (God I hate that damn love triangle..why does there always have to be a love story?)

They handled Thorin's descent into greed and madness pretty well, (although I don't remember the book going on about "dragon sickness") and Billy Connolly as Dain was amusing, even though you barely saw him. (And he rode a giant boar...c'mon...)

(The arrival of Dain and the Dwarfs of the Iron Hills was better in the book though...I loved how they ran day and night to reach the Lonely Mountain, going straight into battle as they arrived...didn't happen in the movie.)

--A

The other "army" was the Eagles.

--A

Saw it today. Not at all bad, but nothing spectacular. Yeah, Av, I was waiting for the Dwarves' day & night run, too.

My son had a good line, regarding Legolas. "It took six movies for him to run out of arrows!"

In a way, it was a sad weekend. Not only the final Tolkein movie, but also the final episode of The Legend of Korra.

Hahaha, I spotted that about Legolas too. Good one.

--A

Very disappointed.

I watched all 3 LOTR movies at the movie theater and in general liked them (probably liked the second one least as it was the one that screwed with the story most).

The Hobbit movies I'd like to see, but will probably rent them or wait until they are shown on TV.

It would be good to see the Silmarillion made into movies, and I think there's much more of a case for that spanning 3 movies than there ever was for doing it to The Hobbit. However, I think it would be the one that is easiest to spoil by making it into a movie.

I thought it was a solid end to the "trilogy." [LOTR was not supposed to be a trilogy, either, but a single book.] I still like the first Hobbit movie the best, but this was action-packed fun. For the few chapters that it dramatized, it did them well. It managed to follow the book fairly well. I think the Extended Edition will be better. It felt rushed at the end. But this was truly epic.

Yeah, I mostly agree with Z there. I went in with low expectations. I do wish that Fili and Kili died the way they had in the book, protecting the fallen body of Thorin.

But on the whole, and considering the last movie, it was an acceptable ending to the three, 2 hour+ movies they made for a 275 page book.

(I can read the whole book in about the time it takes to watch the first movie. )

--A