Movies

[xptrinity]

Saw the third instalment of the Hobbit thing.
I wasn't disappointed because I wasn't expecting much. I am glad it's over and I am looking forward to seeing the Honest Trailer for this part.
Yes, visually the movie was stunning (looks much better on "Real 3D" or whatever it was, rather than on IMAX and the goggles are comfier) and it certainly has its merits, but the Hollywood-ised plot was dreadful as usual, especially the totally needless side plots. I found the Alfrid character particularly annoying and absolutely needless.
Also, I wish they could do away with the lines stating the absolutely obvious. - After all, the viewers are not blind imbeciles.
I wish someone makes a director's cut in which the entire trilogy is condensed to the basic book plot, but this is just wishful thinking on my part.
The battle was too long and quite illogical at some points - why, for example, did Thorin take off the plate armour he was wearing inside the mountain, just before going into battle? Same goes for the other dwarves. Seems absolutely illogical to me.
What, the hell, were doing the sandworms from "Dune" in this movie?
The special "Newton" prize goes to Legolas for his innovative approach to the laws of physics. What a superelf!

The good things about the movie were Smaug (too bad he had only a few lines in this one), Bilbo (acting was not very convincing, but that's just Martin Freeman and I have grown to expect exactly this of him), the dwarves (especially Dain with his thick Scottish accent and the hog), Gandalf and, of course, Thorin and his madness - this was probably the best part of the entire trilogy. Maybe because we saw some proper good old fashioned acting, amid the tonnes of CGI.
Oh, yes, Christopher Lee was also cool, but he gets extra points for recording Christmas metal albums. Even though he's from another book, too...

*SPOILER ALERT*

I wish there was a scene with Thorin's burial - Arkenstone and all, instead of some of the pointless bullshit.

 

[papajohnny]

What, the hell, were doing the sandworms from "Dune" in this movie?

I've never seen the single installment of the trilogy, and after reading this, I certainly won't.

 

[xptrinity]

I've never seen the single installment of the trilogy, and after reading this, I certainly won't.

If you haven't read the book as a kid or if it's simply not one of your most favourite childhood books, you might actually like the films. - People who have never read the book quite like the movie adaptation and don't understand my continuing aggravation with it.
For me "The Hobbit" is one of the most magical books from my childhood, so I take the movie version as somewhat of a personal insult. I remember how I was dreaming that they make a movie when I was reading it. (Same goes for Lord of the Rings. But I totally loved the movie adaptation of it.)
On one hand - purely visually the Hobbit movie fully coincides with my idea of how it should look like - it's absolutely stunning, like I already said, and the characters are full and true. The parts that are in the book are great. Even the parts that are from other Tolkien stories are great.
But the filler (and there's plenty of it) I just can't accept and it completely ruined it for me.

 

[papajohnny]

Oh, I love Tolkien's books. The Hobbit is actually the first book that I have read - in fact, it is the book with which I learned how to read. My mother read me the first half of the book, and I read the rest, with her help in the beginning and later on my own. Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion followed some time later. Suffice to say that all of those are big parts of my upbringing.
Since that time I've re-read them several times, along with some additional stuff (Children of Hurin etc.). However, I've always read the translations and I am planning on buying the books in English some time soon.

Regarding the Jackson's take on the books - as far as the LOTR trilogy goes, I'd be a liar if I'd say those films don't mean anything to me. I was a kid when the first one got released and it blew my mind. I loved the films, and I loved the books and I basically loved anything Tolkien related. My childhood is right there, really.
However, I've recently went back to those three films and I have to say...nostalgia aside, I don't like them all that much. The scenery is amazing, the cast is great, music is fabulous and so on, but something is missing... There is magic within the books that I don't find on the screen. There were some parts I absolutely hated too, the way Jackson handled some sections and characters, but for the sake of all the good memories, I give them a pause.

That didn't work with The Hobbit though. I was somewhat hyped for the films until they announced it would be a trilogy. My expectations hit the rock bottom at that moment.
I couldn't watch more than the first 30 minutes of that film. Maybe 45. I just couldn't take it. You said it perfectly - I found it insulting. And I still do. Yes, it's unfair to say, since I haven't seen the films, but I've seen the trailers, I know how Jackson operates - I don't want to have a magical speckles childhood memory, a vision of grandeur within by little mind, ruined by some mediocre Hollywood director. So I decided to avoid the new trilogy completely for the time being.




As far as the whole Dune thing goes, I just found it humorous - incidentally, I love Herbert's books, they're among my favorites too, and imagining Jackson ruining not one, but two of my beloved book series (okay, ruining one and formally insulting the other) is just too much to take.

 

[tuonelan]

Liked the first Hobbit installment and saw some promise. I hated how Jackson had turned Gimli into comic relief in the LotR trilogy and thought that maybe he'd be giving his dwarfs their due in the new films. Then he squandered all the work he had done in the first film with the stupidity of the second, padding out the story with fluff to stretch it to a trilogy.

I swear that Peter Jackson just takes the books and adds in all the horrible crap that people throw into their amateurish fanfic to satisfy whatever personal fetish they have. Legolas is Jackson's Mary Sue and he has an elf fetish. Kili is the most elvish of the dwarfs, so he invents a half-ass side story just to get him hurt so he can write some hurt/comfort fic to make the ladies swoon.

Jackson has a great eye, but is a total hack when it comes to story.

We'll see it on video or in the discount theater. We loved the book too much to pay top dollar for disappointment and bad fanfic.