"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Lord Dalek]

"My dear Frodo, you asked me once if I had told you everything there was to know about my adventures. Well, I can honestly say I've told you the truth, I may not have told you all of it..." - Bilbo Baggins

Release Date: December 14, 2012
Studio: New Line Cinema/MGM/Wingnut Films
Director: Peter Jackson
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (HDTV 48fps)
Starring: Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis

Plot Summary: Bilbo Baggins is swept into a quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever ... Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities ...

COMMENTS?

LD Talkback #213

[Spark Of Spirit]

As expected, it was great. Tolkien was such a great storyteller and that really shines through in this story when you see all the fantastical (yet still surprisingly grounded) events that happen.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree. I really like how Jackson goes out of his way to capture so much of the mythos of the word that Tolkien created, rather than just treat The Hobbit as a series of events. It gives the movie a really grand scale as you really believe in the entire world that these characters live in. Yes, it is a bit slow, and the people who haven't read the books and expect tons of big epic battles like the ones that were present in The Two Towers and Return of the King will likely be disappointed as The Hobbit is mostly more of an adventure story, which is personally the way that I like it. Of course, the battle of five armies will have tons of action to satisfy those cravings for large-scale fights, but that won't be until the last film in the trilogy.

Spoiler

I'm figuring that the 2nd film will lead up to right before Bilbo's confrontation with Smaug, and then he'll be slain by Bard in the first half of the 3rd film and the rest of the film will lead up to the final confrontation between the armies.

[close]

[Daikun]

I just saw it today with my parents as a sort of Christmas treat.

Personally, I found this to be better than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy combined for one simple reason: It's not a bunch of walking!

Even though I found enjoyment in the LotR trilogy, even I can admit that the movies felt very slow-paced and padded with walking montages and events that could have been trimmed way down or left on the cutting room floor (it's not just the extended editions; the shorter theatrical versions also had this problem). This movie mixed things up a great deal. There are actually things going on in this movie besides a bunch of traveling.

However, I had a big gaping problem with it: The entire first hour. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be silly or serious; the tone kept switching every 5 minutes and it was extremely jarring. After that first hour, though, it somehow fixes that problem and becomes consistently serious. I kept expecting goofy dialogue to rear its ugly head for the rest of the movie, and while I'm glad it didn't, I still felt on edge, waiting for the seriousness to drop again at any moment. It was a strange experience.

Also, the scene with the trolls... God, I hated that scene. They could have cut that out and lost nothing.

Now, I have to ask: How the hell are they going to make this a trilogy? In this first film, we've gotten past the ring and the orcs. Couldn't they just continue on to the dragon and end it at 2 movies? How could they possibly drag this out even further? That's what makes me worried for the remaining 2 sequels: I'm concerned the same problems from LotR will creep into here.

For a supposed "trilogy," it feels like they blew their load into the first film, and now we'll just have to wait while they go through the motions. This is why sticking with just two movies would have been a better idea.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As per adapting the book as faithfully as possible, the story wouldn't end with the encounter with Smaug. There's also a whole plot that comes up after that which comes to a climax in the form of a big battle (where the the last movie in this trilogy will likely go all-out to make it resemble those big-scale battles from ROTK).

That said, this movie still could've been done in 2 films without losing anything significant.

As for the only silly parts being in the first hour....I'm assuming that you were asleep during the parts involving Radagast and his sled carried by rabbits.

The real explanation for the goofy parts of this movie is that, quite honestly The Hobbit was always meant to be a children's fairy tale. This iteration of the story adapted into film was made darker in tone by Peter Jackson than the book ever was in order to appeal more to audiences who were used to the relatively dark material from The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Honestly, though, I didn't mind it at all. To me the goofy parts were played just as comic relief and nothing more. I didn't feel that the whole first hour was goofy, and the movie had a fairly serious tone from the get-go, so I never had a problem discerning whether the movie was trying to be serious or not, myself.

Also, I liked the scene with the trolls.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yep, it was always meant as a fairy tale for children which is why it has so much whimsy to it. I personally really enjoyed the light touch it had at times, as I thought it helped at weight to the more serious moments.

[Daikun]

As for the only silly parts being in the first hour....I'm assuming that you were asleep during the parts involving Radagast and his sled carried by rabbits.

I was awake through the whole movie.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, then, a sled carrying an old wizard who looked and acted weird as hell, pulled by rabbits....didn't strike you as goofy?

[Avaitor]

I've seen weirder.



Speaking of which, this needs to be on Krieger's next van.

[Daikun]

So, then, a sled carrying an old wizard who looked and acted weird as hell, pulled by rabbits....didn't strike you as goofy?

When did I say anything about the rabbit sled? You asked if I fell asleep during the movie. I didn't.

Anyway, I'm surprised Monty Python didn't use one of those.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I never asked if you were asleep. It was a joke in response to you implying that the movie only had goofy moments within the first hour when it didn't seem as serious.

[talonmalon333]

Tonight I got back from seeing The Hobbit. And despite the criticisms it has gotten, I too quite liked it. I know some people out there think they went a bit overboard with the silly parts. Eh, maybe they did. But I'm at least glad that Peter Jackson got the overall atmosphere down. It's a fairly light hearted journey, not much more. In fact, I thought this reflected very well in the opening theme, as in, the melody that played when the screen went black and the title "The Hobbit" was shown. They chose to use the hobbit theme during that part, whereas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy they always played the dark theme associated with the ring. And it's quite fitting cause The Lord of the Rings is a war for all of Middle Earth, the stakes are risen 10x's.

But that's enough ranting about the music. Hopefully you guys see what I was getting at with the atmospheric differences. But anyway, aside from the comedy, I imagine some of the negative reception this movie has gotten comes from the fact that it's following The Lord of the Rings, with people thinking that it's not on the same level as any of those three movies. And sure, it really isn't. But it was still good. And I couldn't help but appreciate seeing things come right from the old movies (you know what I'm referring to: Frodo, Saruman, Gollum, much of the music, etc.) as if no real time has passed. And it ultimately left me optimistic for the future of the trilogy.