The Hobbit (2012/2013)

[eldaec]

The third one is just 18 false endings back to back.

[Khaldun]

This was my guess: that Gandalf has a perilous infiltration of Dol Guldur in 2nd movie but the big closer is Smaug attacking Laketown and getting shot down, and 3rd movie opens with the storming of DG by the White Council., then Gandalf hears that every orc in the world is heading for Lonely Mountain and decides to go try to help out. Cue all the maneuverings pre-Battle of Five Armies. Then big Five Armies semi-closer. Then fake-ending #1 w/ Bilbo returning to Shire, fake-ending #2 w/Balin going to Moria, fake-ending #3 with Gollum making his way to Mordor pursued by Legolas and/or Aragorn. Movie almost finally fake-ends with Mount Doom blowing up and the pursuers realizing that Sauron wasn't defeated at DG. Then back to Shire w/Bilbo visiting with a dwarf and Gandalf and the Ring gleaming in his pocket or some such.

[naum]

Gary Busey Talks About Hobbits (and It's Exactly What You'd Hope)

[WayAbvPar]

In more 'this fucking movie was way too long' news- I picked up the Kindle version of The Hobbit and started reading it to my family last night. Got up through the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves. Total elapsed time? about 20 minutes. Movie was AT LEAST that long (at least it felt like it). I thought showing was faster than telling?

[RhyssaFireheart]

In more 'this fucking movie was way too long' news- I picked up the Kindle version of The Hobbit and started reading it to my family last night. Got up through the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves. Total elapsed time? about 20 minutes. Movie was AT LEAST that long (at least it felt like it). I thought showing was faster than telling?

Well, usually.  But especially for this book, Tolkein was pretty darn light on the details and there isn't much there.  In fact, the book doesn't even give much of a description for the dwarves outside of their names and maybe hair color.  Nothing.  The entire movie covers the first 111 pages of the book (at least the version I have) which means a lot happened in a short amount of pages meaning (IMO) the description was pretty thin.

[Samwise]

Well, that and a sizable amount of the stuff in the movie never happened in the book you were reading.  

[WayAbvPar]

In more 'this fucking movie was way too long' news- I picked up the Kindle version of The Hobbit and started reading it to my family last night. Got up through the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves. Total elapsed time? about 20 minutes. Movie was AT LEAST that long (at least it felt like it). I thought showing was faster than telling?

Well, usually.  But especially for this book, Tolkein was pretty darn light on the details and there isn't much there.  In fact, the book doesn't even give much of a description for the dwarves outside of their names and maybe hair color.  Nothing.  The entire movie covers the first 111 pages of the book (at least the version I have) which means a lot happened in a short amount of pages meaning (IMO) the description was pretty thin.

He gives beard color, hood color, belt color, and food and drink orders. What else is there? 

[Khaldun]

Yeah, you also have to read some of the appendices to LOTR to read all of the "original" source material that the movie incorporates. Not that those are particularly thrilling in the way they're written--they're essentially extremely lengthy, digressive footnotes.

[Musashi]

Donno if this has been covered, but my only real gripe is that they somehow turned Gandalf into the offspring of Galadriel and Bruce Lee.  I knew they were going to have to invent stuff that wasn't in the book to make it three movies.  But common.  Gandalf might as well be a Mortal Kombat character.  And please explain to me why though in one scene he can blast a hundred goblins with magic, he somehow needs to Braveheart the rest of them?  He's a fucking wizard!  More magic missile, less UFC, plz.

[Khaldun]

He pretty much does fucking kill the shit out of a hundred goblins with Glamdring in the Misty Mountains caverns. And we don't get the details but also he pretty much chops up a bunch of orcs and goblins in the Battle of Five Armies.

Gandalf's magic has always been a tougher nut to crack for the nerdsquad. You have the escape clause in LOTR that he can't use his power too obviously without giving away his location to Sauron, the Nazgul, Saruman and anything else with the power to see his signature. He says so quite explicitly at one point. Since he's travelling with or near the One Ring for Fellowship and then moving around in situations where he wants to keep his location secret right up to the point he's stuck in Minas Tirith, that makes sense. Plus we also discover at the end of LOTR that he needs to hide the fact that he has one of the three Elven Rings. It also becomes clearer in time that his power is like Sauron's--at least somewhat a kind of invisible force or will. When he's up against the Balrog, he doesn't shoot magic missiles at him--it's a contest of wills. When it gets down to action, it's physical rather than conventionally "magical".

But he does more explicit conventional sorcery here and there in The Hobbit--something like the blast we see in the goblin lair, but much more modest--he basically shoots a bunch of little napalm bombs at the goblins and a lot of them get fire on them. He doesn't split the stone to turn the trolls to stone, but he does some kick-ass ventriloquism. He does the fire-bomb trick again in the trees as per the film. We're left completely to imagine whatever it is that he, Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond do to attack Sauron/the Necromancer in Dol Guldur but it doesn't sound like they just brandished some swords at him. He's said to be preparing a dramatic "blast" as a kamikaze attack as the Battle of Five Armies turns grim. A lot of that you can write up to stuff that Tolkien pretty much tried to write out of his mythology later on. And also it's pretty clear that Gandalf would just as soon fly under the radar under any circumstance--to be able to hang out with hobbits and rangers and innkeepers in Bree and not be seen as some otherworldly being who could blow everything to smithereens if he felt like it. But also you could just say that he's able to be a bit freer with the pyrotechnics before the re-emergence of the One Ring.

But the sword-fighting, ass-kicking Gandalf is pretty much straight out of the books, no matter how butthurt Christopher Tolkien wants to get about it.

[croaker69]

My impression once I finished reading the LoTR was that all the fire magic was due to the elven ring and not his innate abilities. The wizards' mandate was to inspire and rally not oppose Sauron directly.

[Ironwood]

Um, No.

No, I really don't think so.

[Yegolev]

Contest of wills!

YOU SHALL NOT POST

[Khaldun]

a thing of slime, stronger than any strangling snake

[Sjofn]

Didn't find it too long, it was a bit goofy at some parts (not really a fan of any of the parts with Radagast, for example), but other parts I really, really enjoyed (the riddle sequence was probably my favorite). I did find the SUPER FPS MODE a bit distracting.

Also, hot dwarf is hot. 

[Ingmar]

Finally got to see this.

48 fps is really weird looking and I am going to have a hard time getting used to it if it catches on. The 3D was neither obtrusive nor necessary.

The silly parts are one notch too far at times (contrary to this thread hating on Radagast, I think Dame Edna Great Goblin's death scene is probably the most irritating) but it mostly fits the source material fine, what with the Hobbit being a very silly book at times, and the complaining about it in this thread is way overblown. Radagast didn't really fit my mental image of him, but I kind of like him as a strange Russian-folklore-seeming sort of guy.

I didn't mind the existence of the stone giant scene, but I didn't like the way they were designed or the way it played out. In particular I missed the idea that the giants were just out having a bit of fun in the storm from the way they did it; I think laughing fleshy giants throwing rocks at each other and causing havoc would have been the way to go.

I never felt like the movie was dragging, particularly; if the pace stays like this through the trilogy I will have no complaints in that respect. It wasn't long enough to need an intermission, IMO. I didn't even remember to pee before I went into the theater.  

[Sheepherder]

Gandalf's magic has always been a tougher nut to crack for the nerdsquad. You have the escape clause in LOTR that he can't use his power too obviously without giving away his location to Sauron, the Nazgul, Saruman and anything else with the power to see his signature. He says so quite explicitly at one point. Since he's travelling with or near the One Ring for Fellowship and then moving around in situations where he wants to keep his location secret right up to the point he's stuck in Minas Tirith, that makes sense. Plus we also discover at the end of LOTR that he needs to hide the fact that he has one of the three Elven Rings. It also becomes clearer in time that his power is like Sauron's--at least somewhat a kind of invisible force or will. When he's up against the Balrog, he doesn't shoot magic missiles at him--it's a contest of wills. When it gets down to action, it's physical rather than conventionally "magical".

But he does more explicit conventional sorcery here and there in The Hobbit--something like the blast we see in the goblin lair, but much more modest--he basically shoots a bunch of little napalm bombs at the goblins and a lot of them get fire on them. He doesn't split the stone to turn the trolls to stone, but he does some kick-ass ventriloquism. He does the fire-bomb trick again in the trees as per the film. We're left completely to imagine whatever it is that he, Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond do to attack Sauron/the Necromancer in Dol Guldur but it doesn't sound like they just brandished some swords at him. He's said to be preparing a dramatic "blast" as a kamikaze attack as the Battle of Five Armies turns grim. A lot of that you can write up to stuff that Tolkien pretty much tried to write out of his mythology later on. And also it's pretty clear that Gandalf would just as soon fly under the radar under any circumstance--to be able to hang out with hobbits and rangers and innkeepers in Bree and not be seen as some otherworldly being who could blow everything to smithereens if he felt like it. But also you could just say that he's able to be a bit freer with the pyrotechnics before the re-emergence of the One Ring.

Umm, he's not trying to keep his powers secret there.  He's trying to keep secret that he's alive at all, having recently fallen into the depths of the world.

He also incinerates an entire pack of wolves before they enter Moria; Tolkien wasn't writing anything out of his mythology.

Also, you're confusing his innate powers and his ring granted powers.  His innate magical power is detonating shit, he's perfectly free to detonate shit without exposing his possession of a ring.  He doesn't do that because he's been directed to avoid becoming a ruler, or having mortals becoming dependent upon him to solve their problems; because that would make him no better than Saruman, if not Sauron.

[Khaldun]

"At last reluctantly Gandalf himself took a hand. Picking up a faggot he held it aloft for a moment, and then with a word of command, naur an edraith ammen! he thrust the end of his staff into the midst of it. At once a great sprout of green and blue flame sprang out, and the wood flared and spluttered. 'If there is any to see, then I at least am revealed to them,' he said. 'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.'" 

Scene takes place before they go into Moria.

[WayAbvPar]

No wonder the goblins in Moria were pissed- Gandalf committed a hate crime right outside their front door!

[Sir T]

Well, it didn't say he burned the faggot, only held him up. Obviously needed him as a spell component. Or was robbing him

[Cyrrex]

Well, it didn't say he burned the faggot, only held him up. Obviously needed him as a spell component. Or was robbing him

Uh, read again.  It says " thrust the end of his staff into the midst of it".  No word as to whether it was consensual.

[Ironwood]

WHAT ARE WE DOING ? ? ?

[Merusk]

Raping you childhood, I presume.

[Lantyssa]

I know plenty of guys who'd be all for it from Sir Ian.

[Ingmar]

Holm or McKellen? 

(can't it be both)

[Lakov_Sanite]

I don't see it as far as McKellen is concerned. Nice enough gent but sex appeal? If we are talking older men giive me Patrick Stewart any day.

[Sheepherder]

"At last reluctantly Gandalf himself took a hand. Picking up a faggot he held it aloft for a moment, and then with a word of command, naur an edraith ammen! he thrust the end of his staff into the midst of it. At once a great sprout of green and blue flame sprang out, and the wood flared and spluttered. 'If there is any to see, then I at least am revealed to them,' he said. 'I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.'" 

Scene takes place before they go into Moria.

Fair enough.

[UnSub]

I know plenty of guys who'd be all for it from Sir Ian.

... and a number of young New Zealand men were, if you believe movie crew stories.

[Sir T]

Probably because his staff had a flaming end around faggots.

[Samwise]

I feel like we've already done that joke.

[eldaec]

All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

[Lantyssa]

Tomorrow is St. Bloodsworth Day...

[Lakov_Sanite]

Tomorrow is St. Bloodsworth Day...

The was yesterday.

[Sir T]

St Bloodworth's Day comes n+1 times a year.

[ghost]

The first time I saw this I literally got out a hammer and was going to smash the blu ray.  My wife stopped me and I've seen it a couple of times since, and I've come full circle on it.  It's only real flaws come from trying to tie in with LOTR, but that's understandable, I suppose.  And the Eagles, which Tolkein fucked up in the first place.