The Hobbit: An Unexpected Disappointment

This movie was for the people who read the book. I constantly found myself thinking, "I remember this.. But -this- is so much better than I imagined at age 12."

The dwarves.. Freaking epic. Of course all I had to go on at 12 was the seven Disney eunuchs. The fights, (come a little late) are fracking outstanding. Each of the Company has a distinctive weapon and style and despite there being so many dwarves, you actually get to know almost all of them by sight (Dwalin is a bad-ass).

Bilbo is played by Martin Freeman (Watson: Sherlock Holmes) and comes across even more 'Hobbit' than Frodo ever did. Reticient, home-bound, and timidly-proper; it's a great moment when you begin to see in him the courage and strength only Gandalf could have guessed at.

And Gandalf? Were you disappointed by the minimal use of magic in the previous three movies? Heh. That's all I'm gonna say. The man is scary. There are moments when he appears to grow larger than the room he's in. Amazing cinematography and character direction.

As for the Dwarf singing.. They know the words and it's a point of contention, but Gandalf can talk to moths and it's accepted without issue?

All I can suggest for anyone who hasn't seen this yet is to go in thinking the way you did when you read it the first time. There were time when my jaw absolutely dropped and I slapped 12yo me in the face, "Why couldn't YOU imagine that?!"

PS: OMG! The Stone Giants.

 

The Stone Giants were way cooler than I ever imagined. Man they were

 

Possibly. My counter argument would be that he is based on the "tomtar" of Nordic folklore, sort of a gnomish character. I liked him, and it was nice to see him in the story somehow. Could have done without the hedgehog, but i dont really mind.

Its in the book. I liked it, and they probably have that song and just change its subject, i know several swedish drinking songs do that (so youll add the name of whoever you are talking about into the song)

Maybe. I found that the slapstick didnt get in the way of anything, and I love the songs (songs are such a huge part of Tolkiens world. They have a place in the movies, i would argue). I did have a slight gripe in that they used Azog instead of Bolg, his son, as in the book. In the end of the day that wasnt such a big deal.

I think i like this movie better then the lord of the rings films for several reasons. I liked the fact it took its time, i loved the dwarves, i adored the songs as they added alot of atmosphere and i always liked them in the book. Gollum was great too. I feel they added to the story, taking from the extended lore, (although modifing it alot, but i dont really mind since i always consider movie adaptations inspired by the source rather then a retelling of it) without really betraying the core of the book i love so much. I also prefered the actors in this movie, Bilbo felt right, The dwarves (or is that dwarfs?) were distinct. (that is not to say i dont love the lord of the rings, i do).

 

I am split.. It is a good movie, and a very pretty movie. But i can not help to feel like it was all over the place and disjointed.. I am sure it get a lot better once all the movies are done but i think it would have been good to trim the entire set down and maybe make two movies out of it and get a much less "spretig" movie as we would say in Sweden.

Also it was paced like the editor was a small rodent on speed.

All in all i am not satisfied but i see a good potential to build it in to a good trilogy.

Also the less that is said about Radagast the Brown the better, potentially the worst character design in 2012 (closely followed by Thorin)

Edit: Comment on the dorfs being distinct. 2/3 of them have no personality at all outside of a visual quirk or two. (ok i know this is the same in the book but if one is going to try and squeeze 9 hours out of the Hobbit it would not hurt to flesh out that part a bit... I think i can pin down four of the dwarf... and of those i can remember the name of one or two. No i do not think they did a very good job with them.

 

Boumber was the fat one
Fili and Kili were the two young dwarf brothers
Thorin is easy
Bifur was the one with an axe in his head
Oin was the one with the ear peice.

and that's all the names I can match to each dwarf

and that leaves Gloin, Bofur, and I can't remember the other five names.

Edit: Just looked it up and I can't believe I forgot Ori, Dori, Nori, and then Balin and Dwalin, also I accidently counted Oin twice the first time.

 

What about bofur? He was pretty memorable.

 

How can you not remember Gloin? He looks very much like Gimli in the LotR trilogy.

 

This was one of my favorite books as a kid, and I really enjoyed the movie. I don't know why people are hating on Radagast. He's a crazy old wizard who talks to animals and has a rabbit powered sled. How is that not fantastic? The movie overall meets up more with how I saw it as a kid, and not necessarily as a prequel for the LoTR movies. Before I started reading fantasy books that had more traditional dwarves I read the Hobbit. So here were these sing-songy dudes wearing strange gypsy clothes who just bust into this nice hobbit hole and take Bilbo away on a pretty sweet adventure. Sure, there's some solemnity to their task, but it was always a more light-hearted adventure than LoTR, and I think the movie reflects that. I'm still going to see it a few more times while it's in theaters though.

 

he has shit on his face.
on his FACE.
ew.

 

This pretty much... It was a pointless visual gag that did not add anything to the character and in my case ruined the whole thing... I have no problem with the "nuttier then a bag of peanuts" but why did they need to add the birdpoo... .. .

 

That was Bifur, not Bofur. Bofur is the one with the hat.

 

Having read this thread before seeing the movie I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Thank you for lowering my expectations enough to actually enjoy the movie!

Also if character make up ruins an entire film for you then you have some serious problems. Its not like he was Jar Jar..

 

oops!

 

You know those little things in life that make something completely unenjoyable despite that it's so ridiculously small detail? Like for me I stopped playing an otherwise great game because it had a small detail that I just couldn't get over it. That detail was the games database calling a weapon a "Plasma-railgun", I could understand it being a "plasma-gaussgun" but not a railgun.

Also, saying that if tidbit 'X' ruins someone's experience, then s/he has "serious problems". That is something I'd expect to see on a MWO/Reddit/etc. public forums but not here. Just because people disagree on something does not merit using such words.

/rant

 

Matter of taste, I guess.

I went to watch the Hobbit with my sister and cousin and we liked it. It could have been better, but it definitely could have been much worse too; I think it was very worth watching.

And Radagasts "makeup" didn't bother me. At all.
But, I kinda understand people finding it annoying/disturbing.

 

Thanks for posting your opinion, just like I did, on a forum that is open access to everyone anyway. Glad to hear I am as bad as reddit members. Maybe I should clarify my point more by stating that I would rather enjoy the larger picture than get caught up on one minor detail.

For the sake of this forum, and my respect of the people that run this guild I think ill leave it there. I did have a far longer and more "Reddit" like response, written but I'd rather keep things civil than breaking down to battle of the forum warriors.

Thanks for making me feel like a dickhead for expressing my opinion however.

 

I finally got to see it and for what it's worth I loved it. It managed to capture the same emotions I felt when I had it read to me for the first time as a 5 year old, the pacing was excellent, it managed the source material well and the characters/casting was brilliant.

I also believe that Radagast and his rabbit-sleigh was a phenomenal character, and the hedgehog (Sebastian) was adorable. The singing was also great, and as others have mentioned I took the song about bilbo to be a drinking song that can be adapted to fit anyone's name. I know my rugby teams have several drinking songs that do just that.

Anyway, it was one of my favorite movies of 2012 and anyone who disagrees with my aforementioned opinions is a cynical bastard, a bad person, and I hate you.

xoxo

 

I'm going to disagree with you on the pacing thing. I made this handy chart to illustrate my point.