Official 'The Hobbit' Thread - Part 15

[AnneFan]

I have absolutely no anticipation for this movie. As a fan of the book, that breaks my heart.

Sadly, I agree. I'm not even really bothered if I see this or not. I'm expecting more of the same.

 

[Marvolo]

Im getting more excited as it draws near. And Im very very excited about the Extended Edition of Desolation of Smaug on November 4.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I care. I can't help but care, the same way I cared about the prequels. I love Middle-earth too much not to care.

 

[Marvolo]

I care. I can't help but care, the same way I cared about the prequels. I love Middle-earth too much not to care.

You sound like a parent whose kid has went down a bad road and become a *****ey *******.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

You sound like a parent whose kid has went down a bad road and become a *****ey *******.

More like the parent of a layabout who can't stop smoking pot and stuffing their face. They have become slow and lethargic.

 

[Brother Jack]

It's kind of remarkable how the hype has died down with each film. I remember the lead up to the first one being feverish, with many of my friends going crazy over the trailers and everything. Now I've almost forgotten the last one is even coming out. It's unfortunate but I can say I'm at least a little anticipated for how it'll wrap up. The movies have been very frustrating but I've still found things to like about them. At this point the chance for these films to turn out great has passed so I'll have to try to enjoy the high points come December.

 

[Micromind]

I can't wait to see the final installment of Hobbit.

The lack of hype is mainly due to two reasons (IMO.) the gaps between the part 2 and part 3 and the fact that this is more kiddified version of LOTR mythology.

Then the bad editing (that made first two Hobbit movie look bloated) turned off some fans.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It is the exact same gap between every Jackson Middle-earth film...

 

[CGHulk]

Is the problem that these films have to much CG or that Weta's work isn't very good this time around? Is the production of these films so big that the work involved isn't getting the polished treatment for the effects work to be done in time? Is it the 4K cameras, that CG looks more fake at such high resolution? Is the action so over the top in the CG action sequences that it is pulling us right out of the films in terms of realism? Or is it that when we see something that is not real it pulls us right out of a film, as in something CG? In Tintin, Weta's work seemed more real to me than the work in these films, maybe it's because of the 4K resolution in these films? Is Peter continually changing things up to the last minute hurting the quality of CG locations, animals and characters? Has Weta's quality dropped because they can't keep up with the quality and cost of work that has been outsourced by other visual effects studios to Singapore, India and China? Or are these films to big, that quality control is a factor, that one visual effects studio can't handle it all, maybe outsourcing to other visual effects studios would help out? Usually big effects films have many effects studios onboard. On Avatar there were a few effects houses on that film.

 

[Marvolo]

I haven't watched the Rock Giant fight since the night I saw AUJ in theaters. I hated that scene then and I hate it now. I fast forward through it every time I watch that film. It's not ugly or bad cgi or anything like that, it's just that Jackson got that whole bit so entirely wrong imo. Tolkien wasn't talking about actual Rock Giants. When I read the book, it seemed to me to be a metaphor for the storm that Bilbo hears raging outside. He's in a strange part of the world, missing home, and his mind is running. Yet Jackson took a simple metaphor and brought it to ludicrous life. The scene is a perfect representation of Jackson's biggest issue with this new trilogy. An issue I can most of the time tolerate and accept, but that scene makes me wanna hit the fast forward button every single time.

 

[Ajendo]

Over 9,000

 

[sueb1863]

I like these movies, and I still like Peter Jackson...but this trilogy will never surpass the LOTR films. I enjoy these movies and look forward to the third film, but I wouldn't be upset to miss it in theaters. These films seem to have lost focus on what they are supposed to be about, the Hobbit.

The problem as I see it is, these films never *had* to surpass the LotR films, but PJ somehow came to the belief that they had to match the LotR movies in scope and grandeur or else he'd somehow failed. So he took a nice simple story about a little guy finding his courage and going on a grand adventure and turned it into a huge, lumbering, noisy, flashy LotR prequel that Tolkien never intended it to be, all the while completely losing poor Bilbo in the narrative. I think the film would have been just as big a hit, if not bigger, if he'd just kept it to two movies and stuck to what was in the book.

 

[regwec]

I haven't watched the Rock Giant fight since the night I saw AUJ in theaters. I hated that scene then and I hate it now. I fast forward through it every time I watch that film. It's not ugly or bad cgi or anything like that, it's just that Jackson got that whole bit so entirely wrong imo. Tolkien wasn't talking about actual Rock Giants. When I read the book, it seemed to me to be a metaphor for the storm that Bilbo hears raging outside. He's in a strange part of the world, missing home, and his mind is running. Yet Jackson took a simple metaphor and brought it to ludicrous life. The scene is a perfect representation of Jackson's biggest issue with this new trilogy. An issue I can most of the time tolerate and accept, but that scene makes me wanna hit the fast forward button every single time.

I have always read it literally, perhaps because I read the edition illustrated by Michael Hague which had a beautiful painting of these mythical beasts.

All the same, the crucial element that allows the text to work is a notion of distance. The stone giants inhabit the great wilderness just beyond Bilbo's sight or understanding. Their presence, whether real or imagined, tell us that there is so much more to this world than the narrow path that Bilbo will tread.

PJ, as a director, simply cannot deliver that. He has to fill the screen with a noisy CGI manifestation of every half-imagined, half-hinted mystery in Tolkien's texts. It ruins everything.

Oh well.

 

[DarkKnight88]

When I read the book, it seemed to me to be a metaphor for the storm that Bilbo hears raging outside. He's in a strange part of the world, missing home, and his mind is running. Yet Jackson took a simple metaphor and brought it to ludicrous life. The scene is a perfect representation of Jackson's biggest issue with this new trilogy. An issue I can most of the time tolerate and accept, but that scene makes me wanna hit the fast forward button every single time.

Reading it as a kid, I always imagined it as a rock fight. As an adult, I can see that it was a metaphor but since this story was created for children, it is clear Tolkien wanted you to use your imagination as you would a child. I think Jackson did the right thing here. I would actually be disappointed if we simply got a rain storm in the film (as it was with the animated film). It lacks the creative imagination Tolkien implied in the text.

 

[Broseph44]

Im getting more excited as it draws near. And Im very very excited about the Extended Edition of Desolation of Smaug on November 4.

Same here t: not worried about everyone else that's down on it or doesn't care anymore. I'm pumped. That's all that matters to me.

 

[C. Lee]

I'm looking forward to the next installment as I have looked forward to all of Jackson's Middle Earth movies. I feel the modern audience is too jaded to feel excitement for these movies. Having spent most of my long life watching hundreds of movies that had no or terrible special FX....to see the books brought to life is fantastic. Most of today's audiences are now in the I'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE attitude that comes from being reared on special effects laden extravoganzes....they are sensory overwhelmed.

 

[Vartha]

Yeah, I told MY kids who've seen and loved the LotR films these are a "must see" if you loved the LotR Trilogy.
My son can't wait to play the games lol I tell him it HELPS to read the books and watch the films to get through some of them.

 

[Vartha]

I can't wait to play Shadow of Mordor. THAT is looking awesome

 

[mclay18]

I'm looking forward to the next installment as I have looked forward to all of Jackson's Middle Earth movies. I feel the modern audience is too jaded to feel excitement for these movies.

For me, it's not that. The Peter Jackson of The Hobbit trilogy isn't the same PJ who did the LOTR trilogy. There was a heightened sense of drama and sense of weight in terms of the action and set-pieces in the LOTR trilogy.

Jackson is much too reliant on CGI now, and he and his co-writers pack in extra characters and scenes that don't add anything to the plot or characters themselves. (It's fine that Jackson likes inhabiting Middle-earth again, just don't make it boring!) It began with King Kong and got worse with AUJ (it did get a tad better with DOS). AUJ was the victim of sky-high expectations, but the episodic nature didn't help either.

There are huge chunks of AUJ and DOS that are great, but this would've been better off as a ROTK-style single film. Two films were pushing it, but a third is overkill. I'll see the final film, but I'm not going opening day.

 

[Persona]

even as an apologist for these Hobbit films, I can admit that the films are quite bloated. i do think it would have worked better as 2 2 1/2 hour films or 3 2 hour films. i enjoy a lot of the bloat and even find some of it very poignant additions to the themes, narratives, and characters...but yeah, there is so much editing that could have been done to make this a more effective experience with more forward narrative momentum. i can't even wrap my head around the fact that there are EEs for this. the theatricals feel like EEs.

the CGI is flawed but also excellent in certain sections, so it's not a major detraction for me. this ain't up to LotR standards (and never could be, really, that's just a more inherently cinematic story) but i do think The Hobbit films are better than a lot of modern adventure films.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Fear the beard.

 

[mclay18]

i enjoy a lot of the bloat and even find some of it very poignant additions to the themes, narratives, and characters...but yeah, there is so much editing that could have been done to make this a more effective experience with more forward narrative momentum. i can't even wrap my head around the fact that there are EEs for this. the theatricals feel like EEs.

Yeah, the fact that Jackson didn't bring on his usual editors -- John Gilbert, Michael Horton, and Jamie Selkirk -- shows in the Hobbit trilogy. Sure, Jabez Olssen worked on The Two Towers with Horton, but his credit reads... "Edited by Michael Horton with Jabez Olssen."

I would love to see Guillermo del Toro's Hobbit films, as they wouldn't be as bloated and feature more practical effects.

 

[DCW]

Fear the beard.

Oh yeah.

 

[CGHulk]