"The Hobbit" Reviewed

[dawn_felagund]

Bobby and I went to see The Hobbit last night at a midnight show. Midnight shows aren't something we get to indulge in often, but we decided quite a while back to make an exception given someone's *ahem* Tolkien obsession. We bought our tickets as soon as they went on sale and took the next day off (today) from work. Admittedly, last night, I wasn'

Comments

[spiced_wine]

The pathos when Gollum realizes his precious has been stolen is one of the most human and hard-to-watch scenes and creates the all-important opportunity when Bilbo has the chance to kill Gollum, unseen, and stays his hand. This single moment of mercy sets off a cascade of events that will allow the defeat of Sauron.

I was choked up; Gollum's face, it was an amazing piece of film.

i.e. accepting that it is one creator's vision and that enjoyment requires acceptance of that as a precondition.

I went in to watch the Hobbit much less bothered at faithfulness to canon than when I watched FoTR. Since being involved in fanfic, I accept other people's visions. If they don't match mine, that does not matter, as I still have mine, and other people's can be terrific.

I enjoyed it hugely, but want the extended edition like right now, as I want to just sit back and watch it a few times at my own pace.

[dawn_felagund]

I loved Gollum in it. I think it is to Serkis's credit that he has managed to interpret and depict that character in such a way that, going into the fifth movie, Gollum still feels complicated, interesting, and not at all gimmicky. I felt in LotR and continue to feel in TH that in the epic clash of Good and Evil, Gollum represents the vast gray area in between and complicates the message of the story. I have to say that in a movie of excellent performances from the actors, Serkis impressed me most

[elfscribe5]

I agree with your assessment pretty much. Yours is much better phrased than mine. I just jotted out what I could still think about at 4 a.m. LOL And yes, that whole scene with Gollum, Andy Serkis is a genius and the CGI is incredible. I just wish that some of these scenes, like the one where Bilbo makes a decision whether or not to kill him, breathed a bit more. It was clear Bilbo was conflicted about it but since we don't get in his head (here is where literature is better) we can't really see it

[dawn_felagund]

I don't think I would have had what it takes to write a review at 4 AM at all! :D So hats off to you for that!

Do we movie-goers really require our movies to be all action all the time video game substitutes?I'm personally not fond of this at all; I tend to lose interest pretty quickly in prolonged battle scenes and the like. The sliding mountains in the Stone Giants' scene reminded me too much of the falling pathways in Moria in FotR. Which I loved then but now felt like I'd seen before, and I didn't feel a sense of investment since I knew all the Dwarves would survive. (When I saw the FotR movie, I'd not yet read FotR, so I had no idea how Moria would play out and was in greater suspense as a result.) That's not PJ's fault at all, of course, but I do think his storyline suffers because the source material makes it so there is no real loss until the end, giving us probably two whole movies where the peril feels decidedly ... unperilous. (Now I have visions of Monty Python

[elfscribe5]

I guess I would have preferred a bit more suspense before the goblins nabbed the dwarves. All that action was too much scrunched together. A bit more Hitchcock there would have increased the feeling of peril. As it was, it was just a matter of trying to keep up. And the Goblin King was just gross rather than scary.

I've changed my mind about Azog, because I looked up the references to it and discovered in The Hobbit it was his son Bolg who led the battle of Five Armies. So clearly Azog will lead it in the end, adding to the stakes there. I have a feeling I'm going to appreciate the next two movies more.

What did you think of Thranduil on the elk?

[thelauderdale]

I think that Azog is going to be killed - well, I guess that's the obvious fate of any bad guy in this kind of enterprise. What I mean is, I think he will die before the biggest action - possibly even during the second movie - making way for Bolg to step to the fore.

[indy1776]

I think part of the problem with the lack of cohesion (which I didn't notice as much as you did) in the plot is a fact of the book itself. We can't leave out the trolls because of the swords; we can't leave out the Goblin King without losing Gollum and the Ring. Azog is, I think, an attempt to give a continuous and open villain while the Necromancer lies hidden and on the edges. I'm betting things will draw together more in the next two movies.

But you are right about the lack of peril with Azog and the Goblin King. I felt it far more with Smaug and the Necromancer, even the little bit we had of them.

Gollum was fantastic.

[dawn_felagund]

Agreed. As I was thinking, "Which conflict would I cut, if it were my story?" I realized that that was not an easy question. I agree with you that I think everything will hang together better in the subsequent movies.

On many levels, I think TH, as a book, is the more difficult text to work with, its rather disjointed nature being something that felt glaringly obvious to me as I was watching the movie. But I think the movie rose to the challenge of the source material.

[just_jenni]

It sounds wonderful and I can't wait to see it. O_O :)

[dawn_felagund]

I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to see it again! :D

[dreamflower02]

I loved it! I think as an adaptation it succeeded far better than LotR. It was as I hoped: because of the simple and episodic nature of TH, PJ was able to leave in all the major iconic scenes and still embellish it with many of his action-packed AU gapfillers

[dawn_felagund]

I agree that a lot of what struck me as different from the LotR trilogy comes from PJ nodding to the source text. In that respect, as I said in my review, I think he did an admirable job of creating a movie that will be contiguous with the LotR trilogy without forgoing entirely the Hobbit source text itself. I think working with TH was, in many ways, probably more difficult than working with LotR, and I think he did a really good job of surmounting those obstacles. I also suspect that a lot of my "complaints" (which really aren't even complaints, as I enjoyed the movie! :) will find resolution in the subsequent movies.

What I found most interesting was the amount of character growth Bilbo has in this first movieYes, this caught my attention also. I suspect it might be to provide some measure of closure within the first movie. I always feel kinda sorry for directors that take on multi-part projects because too many people don't realize that there will be a sequel/sequels to the movie! I remember seeing the FotR movie, and the people

[dreamflower02]

It was for OPI nail polish, and it was brilliant and very cool. I remember how disgusted I was with the douche ad for the last Harry Potter movie!

And I agree for the reasoning behind the extra characterization for Bilbo--I think you are quite right, because if Bilbo had continued to act as he did in the book up until the spider episode, the non-book readers in the audience would be thinking "THAT'S the hero?" Because for the most part, even though we see the story through Bilbo's eyes in the book, except for a few parts (most notably the riddle game with Gollum) he is much more an observer than a participant in events. By that I mean that even though he does a few things that are brave for a hobbit, he is not particularly emotionally engaged with his own adventure and does not think of himself as truly part of the group. It's not until Gandalf basically goes away and leaves him the responsibility of taking care of the Dwarves that Bilbo begins to care about their quest

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, exactly. The individual movies have to hang together coherently, as well as the trilogy as a whole, which adds a new dimension of difficulty, imo. Many--maybe even most--people won't be familiar with the original story. Many of them will have no idea that the movie is to be a trilogy, if reactions I remember from FotR are anything to go by.

I'll look up the nail polish ad! :D (I'm fairly horrified that douche ads are still being made, much less shown before HP movies. O.O)