The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Grading & Discussion (Spoilers)

[marillion]

Saw it yesterday with the fam... Loved it.. It was as I expected it to be - while more kid friendly, it was a lot of fun and didn't seem to be almost 3 hours in length.. Very excited for part II..

A

On edit: So since it's been so long since I've read the books, I couldn't answer my son's question about Moria.... So after the battle of Moria, the Dwarves re-established a settlment there, only to have it overrun again in the years prior to the LotR trilogy? My son was wondering why Gimli didn't know that his kin had been killed off by the goblins/orcs... So I told him that I was assuming that after the battle where Azog was injuried the Dwarves took it over for a while, but were killed off sometime after that... No clue as to how or why Gimli didn't know about it..

[Klaus]

The War of the Dwarves and the Orcs started over Thror being killed by Azog when he tried to enter Moria, and though most of the Orc strongholds in the mountains were taken and the Dwarves won the war with the costly victory at the Battle of Azanulbizar before the gates of Moria, it was decided that they were not strong enough to attempt the recapture of Moria and left it alone. Balin's mission was some time later.

Btw Dain Ironfoot killed Azog at that battle in the books, and Beorn killed Bolg at the Battle of Five Armies. Thorin wasn't involved.

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, I suspect Azog is there so Thorin can kill him while Beorn can kill his son.

[Neroon]

Here's a bit of fun to start Christmas day (here in the US at least)

[Emh]

It's so hypnotic...I can't stop watching it!

[Mr Light]

So I'm reading the Hobbit and it describes Smaug as being red. Then I read the ROTK appendix and it called him Smaug the Golden. And in the movie, I think he looks black.

I keep forgetting to mention one of my favorite new parts in the movie, showing the dwarves hanging on ropes in a crack in the earth, mining gems. I've never actually seen a visual representation of what they do before and that was really cool.

[Emh]

Mr Light wrote:

---

So I'm reading the Hobbit and it describes Smaug as being red. Then I read the ROTK appendix and it called him Smaug the Golden. And in the movie, I think he looks black.

Take a closer look at that image Neroon posted. Smaug is a deep red with contrasting gold. With the exception of the final shot, Smaug looks black because he's silhouetted to tease the audience of his full appearance.

[Mr Light]

Oh, good. I could've sworn in the fleeting shots of him in the movie prelude that he was black!

[Set Harth]

He's only black from the waist down.

[Silvercrest]

Is that politically correct?

[Maurice]

Dull, dull movie. Wretchedly paced, and padded beyond belief. The action sequences went so over the top that they plunged into the valley of the ridiculous on the far side. Peter Jackson just doesn't know when he's hit the peak or when to stop. D+

[CommanderRaytas]

I loved it. They made at least 2 of the dwarves way prettier than they were in the book (and now, the 14-year-old girls on tumblr are going insane ).

Seriously though, I think it was beyond awesome. I love Martin Freeman to bits, and I think he was perfect as Bilbo. Also, I am looking forward a lot to Benedict Cumberbatch's voice in the sequel....

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Finally saw this bloated film last night.

My friend wanted to watch the 3-D version. I wanted to watch just a regular projection, non 3-D. But because that version started after 10 PM, we decided to see the 3-D HFR version. that way I can saw that I tried it.

They might have just stuck a power drill to temple to bore the images out. Ten minutes in, I started rubbing my eyes.

The story didn't help. They start with this huge rambling, superfluous progue, then, eight minutes later, they throw in the actual book's opening line "in a whole in the ground there lived a hobbit." That shows that these people have lost their ability to write a coherent screenplay. They forgot that some stories should be simple and whimsical.


It made me think that 2012 sucked for movies.

Also, in the trailer there were scenes where Gandalf is walking up stairs, with his staff lit...

What happened to them? They could be in the next film, but, even more puzzling was the omission of the scene where Bilbo sees "the Sword that was Broken." That never happened in the scene in Rivendell.

[Wereghost]

^ I imagine that the Rivendell shot will be in the extended version, which has already been cut. The Gandalf one could be too, or maybe has been pushed to part 2.

[sidious618]

Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote:

---

It made me think that 2012 sucked for movies.

What? 2012 has been widely considered as one of the best years for movies in quite some time.