The Hobbit 2012,2013,2014

[mrkramer]

Originally Posted by Huntn

We can't have them crossing the mountains and hiding in a cave to get out of the rain. We need this humongous fight between towering rock giants.

That was one that I couldn't remember if it was in the book or not, but it is referenced at the beginning of chapter 4.

Originally Posted by The Hobbit

When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing themdown into the darkness where they smashed among the trees down below, or splintered into little bits with a bang...
..."This won't do at all!" said Thorin. "If we don't get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football."

There are some changes to the book, but a lot of the filler material that you are complaining about was added by Tolkien in the LOTR appendices.

[maflynn]

Originally Posted by mrkramer

That was one that I couldn't remember if it was in the book or not, but it is referenced at the beginning of chapter 4

It was more of a side reference and another reason for them to seek shelter in the book, though the rain was the primary reason for them entering the cave.

[Huntn]

Originally Posted by mrkramer

That was one that I couldn't remember if it was in the book or not, but it is referenced at the beginning of chapter 4.

There are some changes to the book, but a lot of the filler material that you are complaining about was added by Tolkien in the LOTR appendices.

Having read the book, along with LOTR many times, I don't mind LOTR lore, however I'll remind you we are enjoying a story, not an encyclopedia. And your quote is music to my ears, but it only serves to reinforce the notion that all most every event in the book has been exaggerated to make an exciting movie while destroying the tone of the original story. I find myself holding The Hobbit to a different artistic standard than I did for LOTR. I consider it more of a jewel, than an epic adventure, although it does have an epic nature. I'll be renting the next two parts of The Hobbit and rereading the book to refresh the pleasure that's been temporarily lost.

[bobob]

Originally Posted by charlieegan3

I will end up going to see all three, and I like the idea of a longer + more true to the book story.

It's true that the story is longer, but it is definitely false that it is more true to the book story.

Granted, I am a huge fan of the book and have read it many times, so I may be deemed a purist, but I didn't like this film adaptation at all.

Originally Posted by Grey Beard

Should Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have dipped into the trove of Hobbit lore that was contained in The Silmarillion then I can see more than just a three episode Hobbit The Sillmarillion was compiled by Christopher Tolkien from the mountain of annotated pre history of the fables.

Christopher Tolkien, who rescued his father's hand scrawled notes from disorganized boxes and made his life's work to decode, edit, and get the source material published in the form of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the twelve volume History of Middle-earth, is no fan of Peter Jackson's film adaptations:

Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? "They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25," Tolkien says regretfully.

"Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time," Christopher Tolkien observes sadly. "The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. - via Le Monde

[Huntn]

Originally Posted by bobob

Christopher Tolkien, who rescued his father's hand scrawled notes from disorganized boxes and made his life's work to decode, edit, and get the source material published in the form of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the twelve volume History of Middle-earth, is no fan of Peter Jackson's film adaptations:

"They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25," Tolkien says regretfully.

No surprise that I agree with this evaluation. Honestly I am surprised that someone with artistic sensibilities like Peter Jackson could be so spot on, so true to LOTR and get it so wrong with The Hobbit. For someone who is just watching the movies, it's a fine distinction, but if you are a Hobbit book fan, it's not.

My exposure to these books started with The Hobbit and I was bowled over. I knew I wanted more and when I started the LOTR, I immediately recognized I was on to something much darker. This is the kind of distinction that either did not register with Jackson or it was a calculated decision to minimize it and turn The Hobbit into the LOTR prequel which in reality it is not. Yes the story happens in the same universe, but it's about dwarves attempting to take their home back from a dragon, not the battle for Middle Earth.

A side note, at the end of the movie when the troupe was trapped in the tree tops, I don't recall there being any orcs there at all....just evil wolves in the book, which are referred to as "wargs", who got pelted with fiery pine cones before their prey was whisked away by Eagles.

I don't like how they imaged the goblins, just a variation on orcs imo. Based on Tolkien's description I picture them as tall and lank. Something more like from the World of Warcraft (although these are trolls). Maybe I've been unduly influenced. :

LOTR Wikia:Goblins

Tolkien described them as big, ugly creatures, "cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted." Tolkien explained in a note at the start of The Hobbit that he was using English to represent the languages used by the characters, and that goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kind) was the English translation he was using for the word Orc, which (he wrote) is the hobbits' form of the name for them. Tolkien used the term goblin extensively in The Hobbit, and also occasionally in The Lord of the Rings, as when the Uruk-hai of Isengard are first described: "four goblin-soldiers of greater stature".

Closer to this:



Not this: