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Post by Finarvyn on Dec 17, 2014 16:18:48 GMT -6
Just got back from seeing the 3rd Hobbit movie. I enjoyed it and think it may be the best of the three. I particularly liked the way details from LOTR were tied in.
When you see it, tell me what you think!
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Hobbit III
Dec 18, 2014 10:39:55 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2014 10:39:55 GMT -6
Without spoiling too much (I hope):
Absolutely amazing and heart-rending at the same time. Loved the "cold opening", the Dol Guldur scenes, the finale and the ending.
Even shed some tears, during emotional or touching scenes. I watched it with the Dutch Tolkien Society and we spent the rest of the day discussing it.
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 19, 2014 15:26:08 GMT -6
I may watch it in the future sometime. I haven't even seen the second movie yet. Maybe when it's released on DVD, I'll get the entire set. *sigh* I can just hear the casual viewer complaining that the Hobbit/LOTR "novelizations" didn't do the films justice, and the writer didn't give Jackson any credit.
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Post by cooper on Dec 19, 2014 15:31:09 GMT -6
It was horrible in my opinion. Watching Saruman, Elrond and Galadriel kung-fu it up against the nine riders and Sauron was cringe inducing and nearly as bad as the melodramaitc love triangle between a dwarf, an elf and a pudgy legolas.
I kept expecting Conan and Dracula to team up with Gandalf at one point. So, so bad.
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Post by waysoftheearth on Dec 19, 2014 16:44:15 GMT -6
I don't think I can risk seeing it.
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Post by scalydemon on Dec 19, 2014 18:05:06 GMT -6
The 1st one I got via redbox for $1 and watched about an hour of it and couldn't take it anymore. The second one I skipped. The 3rd one I don't plan on watching either.
To each his own though, and I am glad some folks enjoy these renditions.
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Post by Falconer on Dec 19, 2014 18:52:26 GMT -6
Not planning on watching any of the three.
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Post by derv on Dec 19, 2014 19:29:04 GMT -6
Oh, I'm definately going to see this once it's out on DVD. You guys aren't at least interested in seeing the big battle scene?
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Post by Falconer on Dec 19, 2014 20:12:41 GMT -6
I can’t remember the last new movie that had a battle (or chase) scene that I liked. They’re so ridiculously over-the-top, these days. There’s too much going on for the eye to see. They’re a great opportunity to go to the bathroom, because you know they will last FOREVER and there will be zero plot advancement. And CGI is just lazy and lame and fake-looking, always, in every movie, I hate it. So, no, it’s not worth raping my own perfect childhood. ;-)
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Post by Stormcrow on Dec 19, 2014 20:53:15 GMT -6
It was so bad, I LITERALLY puked on the person sitting next to me! Then I dumped his beverage over his head and wailed, "HOW CAN IT BE SO BAD!" Then I ran, screaming, into the men's room and toilet papered every stall. I finally dove into the popcorn machine and swam in fluffy, buttery goodness, trying to scrub the horrible memories out of my brain.
Do I get to join the curmudgeon club now?
(Actually, I thought it was okay.)
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Post by Finarvyn on Dec 20, 2014 5:30:14 GMT -6
Do I get to join the curmudgeon club now? You get to be vice President.
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Post by Red Baron on Dec 20, 2014 13:35:45 GMT -6
Saruman, Elrond and Galadriel kung-fu it up Please tell me this doesn't actually take place. I can't stomach any more gravity defying elfs.
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Post by tkdco2 on Dec 20, 2014 14:51:11 GMT -6
I want to see Elrond and Galadriel throwing spin kicks at the Nazgul!
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Post by geoffrey on Dec 20, 2014 14:53:06 GMT -6
I'm not interested in any movie that doesn't have Galadriel doing some wing chun kung fu.
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Post by tetramorph on Dec 21, 2014 8:35:13 GMT -6
Many things upset me about the movie, but not the depiction of the white council driving out the dark lord and his nazgul. If anything, that redeemed it for me.
It was epic, in the real, good sense. Like a bit of the unbelievable fay power of the first age breaking through to save the third and start the fourth. It actually helped to make sense to me why they were so seemingly uninvolved in the LOTRs -- their final show down, old school style (as in first age powers coming back on line one last time) w Sauron was their power swan song. Drained of energy, the fate of middle earth passed on to men and, of course, hobbits.
Brilliant, really. Watching The Lady Galadriel drive Darkness away allowed me to imagine The Mighty Feanor defeating a blalrog in the height of his own power in single combat -- Feanor himself perishing gloriously leaving nothing behind but a jet of blue flame.
Rad.
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Post by Porphyre on Dec 21, 2014 17:31:42 GMT -6
I prefer to preserve McBride's rendition ...
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Post by xerxez on Dec 29, 2014 18:05:44 GMT -6
Amusing bit of fan-fiction.
I'll say no more about the film, except that Martin Freeman IS Bilbo!
The Rankin Bass animated film remains the best film depiction of JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit", or so I feel.
But I am glad you enjoyed it Fin!
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Post by kingofelfland on Dec 30, 2014 19:53:59 GMT -6
I prefer the Rankin Bass version too (except for those wood elves) but having seen it recently I was struck how different the theme of home is in that movie. In that, at least, Jackson did better.
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Post by xerxez on Dec 31, 2014 12:43:13 GMT -6
You don't dig those woodelves, kingofelfland!!?
I can see that. I kind of liked them. I really dig that film, can't say as much for the animated Return of the King. I own both, as well as the animated Lord of the Rings which I also enjoy once in awhile. But I'm kind of a Bakshi nut. But in the seventies this was like magic. Everyone today is pretty spoiled.
I would have to agree with your point about home. Obviously the animated Hobbit was so short, it was inevitable the cuts it had, but it didn't invent much.
I have a friend whose boys and him have made this a tradition since the first Peter Jackson films and for them these movies are beloved.
I think they portrayed the dwarves well enough, and one thing I liked about this film was some distance shots that showed the scale of Bilbo and the dwarves with their human and elven counterparts. Wish there had been more of that in the other films.
Sort of wish they would have used real little people for the films.
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Post by Stormcrow on Dec 31, 2014 13:43:41 GMT -6
I think they portrayed the dwarves well enough I hated the Scottish accents and lack of long beards. I quite liked the unique personalities of the dwarves.
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Post by geoffrey on Dec 31, 2014 14:18:12 GMT -6
I hated the Scottish accents... I thoroughly despise "Scottish" dwarves.
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Post by Red Baron on Dec 31, 2014 18:02:45 GMT -6
I think they portrayed the dwarves well enough I hated the Scottish accents and lack of long beards. I quite liked the unique personalities of the dwarves. I don't like Peter Jackson's grungy, burping, barbarian dwarfs at all. In the book they are little old men with colorful hoods and beards. Much like the dwarfs from Snow White, but all smoking pipes.
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Post by cooper on Dec 31, 2014 18:26:58 GMT -6
I just found out; If you look online. There are pictures of live-action bolg and Azog. They were originally going to be played by actors in costumes, but at the last moment they went CGI.
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Post by Porphyre on Jan 13, 2015 7:01:38 GMT -6
Lately, on another forum, someone directed me towards different fan-made films like The hunt for Gollum or Born from Hope. These are clearly pastiches of the Lord of the Rings films so its no wonder that Peter Jackson's imagery is pervasive in both, but that made me feel that you actually could trace the aesthetics of Tolkien's works imagery to different éditions:
-Ralph Bashki's LotR is clearly OD&D, like Frazettas illustrations (see my chosen avatar): it's Tolkien but with strong Sword&Sorcery sensibilities (Boromir as an Horned-helmet wearing barbarian for instance), weird monsters (the rotoscoped orcs and balrog) ...
-Rankin Bass animations (Hobbit, Return of the King) are Basic D&D : same material but advertised as a more "kiddie" version .
-Brothers Hildebrandt's calendars are 1ed AD&D: great sense of detail, but with a little bit of "Ren-fair" aesthetics.
-Ted Nashmith is to the former ones what 2nd edsition AD&D was to AD&D: more "exact", but a little more static.
-Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies are 3rd edition D&D: even more slick and professionnal than 2nd édition, wanting to be true to the source material, but with too many concessions to "modern" sensibilities.
-The PJ Hobbit movies are 4th edition: kewl powers and badassery for everyone !
I let apart , of course , MacBride and Liz Danforth who, in my eyes, are undissociable with I.C.E. ppducts. John Howe and Allan lee I cannot classify. I suppose they just belong to Tolkien...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2015 12:55:11 GMT -6
1) The White Council kicking ass was terrible. Totally lame. You could see that Saruman wasn't really into it and was just playing a part. "Leave Sauron to me" when it just took all three of them to repel him? Yeah, right. . .
2) I really, really, really disliked the portrayal of Thorin's "dragon sickness". There's a huge battle of 5 armies going on outside and Thorin is having a bit of an existential crisis and has to go wandering around wallowing in self-pity until he finally dwarfs-up. I mean, really? Really? "I am not my grandfather" are the magic words?
3) "Why does it hurt so much?" "Because is was real!"
Umm....no thank you, Mr. Jackson. . .
4) Best part of the whole movie was the cold opening and Smaug.
5) 2nd best part was Billy Connolly on the war pig. WAR PIG!
6) 3rd best part - the dwarves on war rams. WAR RAMS!
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Post by tkdco2 on Jan 13, 2015 15:09:40 GMT -6
That war pig idea killed it for me. Rams, I don't mind so much.
I've often wondered what Bakshi's LOTR would have been like if he had done the entire story.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2015 22:07:28 GMT -6
That war pig idea killed it for me. Rams, I don't mind so much. I thought it was nice they used fantasy mounts instead of just horses and war ponies. I thought the ram was especially cool but the pig didn't bother me. In my opinion? If Bakshi had more time to develop his idea for the his LotR cartoon we'd have gotten a great product. I thought what we got was great but a friend of mine, and he was a really intelligent and deep thinking fellow, saw it with me at the cinema and had trouble following the action. He had not read the books and was lost several times, whereas I'd read them multiple times and had no issues. I feel the lack of time led to the trimming of critical elements of the story. If Bakshi had 2 or 3 ~120 minute films to flesh out the book's plots a bit more, it would have resulted in a better film. All that said? Bakshi's signature roto-scoping was a natural for the way many fans of that era envisioned the LotR. I think with more time and a better budget a complete Bakshi LotR (with the Rankin-Bass telling of "The Hobbit" as an adjunct, or a Bakshi treatment of same) would have been perfect.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2015 22:13:41 GMT -6
4) Best part of the whole movie was the cold opening and Smaug. Smaug was well done and IMO one of the better portrayals of dragons I've seen on the big screen.
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Post by Porphyre on Jan 14, 2015 1:51:18 GMT -6
On that subject, I'm going to agree with your friend, I was 11 years old when I saw it, and -for instance- I had a very hard time trying to figure out why these people were always fearing for killer-whales attacks on land (the french word for "orcas" is "orque" that you pronounce like "orc")!The Balrog in Moria was a big "Huh? What's that?" moment, I had trouble several times figuring who the characters were, etc.
However, I'm in great debt to Mr Bashki, because afterwards, my reaction was: "d**n! I did not understand what it all was about , but I must know! ", prompting me to go to the public library and borrow the Fellowship of the Ring and starting a 30+ years long love story with Fantasy.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2015 15:47:29 GMT -6
If we can get detached from the eternal discussion whether any non-literal text-to-movie translation was already an harmful act to the tale, or not, then I can go on and say, the Hobbit trilogy bears ALL the signs of a botched production. - As in, the one thing one can say about the LotR movies is, they have a clear and focused narrative structure. One might not agree with Jackson's adaptive approach, but from a craftsman's POV, they are good movies.
In contrast, the Hobbit movies are freakishly inconsistent - not just because of the CGI orgy, but even if within the movie continuity, one has to wonder why, say, the Angmar subplot was treated in such a haphazard way. Or, why, between us Tolkien connoisseurs, the brilliant, brilliant line about "the elves desiring stones inside the mountains" was worked into that rather unnecessary Legolas origin story, instead of remaining a beautiful hint at Maedhros.
Looked to me, especially with part three, more like the director at some point lost out to the producer, and so, the story got reworked with all the textbook marketing 101, from references to LotR Online, to the emphasis on creating likeable teenage or female characters. Not bad, just outright uninspired.
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