Random Poll of Eleven Days Ago! (900)

[Shiku]

I'm hoping it's as good as the original trilogy.

[Stopwatch]

Exactly as I predicted: "It won't be as good as LOTR"
Still a decent film, but I felt some things were too forced and the first part did not need to be nearly 3 hours long

[mangaluva]

I dunno... I really enjoyed it. There were a number of elements that weren't in the book, like Azog and Radagast, but they didn't feel forced or out of place. I think they actually added a lot (it always felt anticlimactic to me that Azog really did just crawl off and die of his wounds in the book...) and it looks like some of the extended length will be Gandalf's fight against the Necromancer, to which I say YAAAAAAAASSSSSS because more Gandalf being awesome is always good.
Also, it really was a gorgeous movie. I saw it in 3D and it looked amazing, particularly in that the 3D often wasn't used to throw things out of the screen (aside from that one moment with Bilbo's buttons, WTF, it looked like something out of Beowulf :/) but to give depth, to make the rolling hills of the Shire or the vast mountains seem to go on forever. It was so well-done that I kept catching myself tipping or turning my head to try to see around corners XD

So I loved it, anyway. Why is it so long until The Desolation of Smaug now? ;_;

[Stopwatch]

It was generally stuff like...

Spoiler:

how Bilbo ended up rescuing the others so often. I can't remember if it was like that in the books but I think they really played it up too much in the film (tried not to reread in order to stop myself getting all nitpicky over how it compared). Also, I felt that Rule of Cool was used too often.
As well, I felt that they stretched out some stuff too much. Like, the songs in Bilbo's home I can remember there being at least one of them, but it seemed like they were just trying to put lots of unnecessary filler in by including two of them. And the flashbacks at the start didn't have the same kinda film filter or whatever it's called over the scenes so it looked more like a documentary or behind-the-scenes with lots of people in silly costumes running away rather than part of the film.
With that said, I agree that the 3D was amazing and definitely worth it and the riddles with Smeagle were awesome \o/. Lots of good humour in it too with the rabbit guy and Bilbo's expressions at times were brilliant (not surprising though given his actor).
I also like that some parts they stuck incredibly close to the book. When old!Bilbo started writing the book, he literally quoted the first paragraph from The Hobbit which was a good bonus.
Some of the special effects looked not-so-good, but with stuff like backgrounds and settings I was loving it :x.

[mangaluva]

It was generally stuff like...

Spoiler:

how Bilbo ended up rescuing the others so often. I can't remember if it was like that in the books but I think they really played it up too much in the film (tried not to reread in order to stop myself getting all nitpicky over how it compared). Also, I felt that Rule of Cool was used too often.
As well, I felt that they stretched out some stuff too much. Like, the songs in Bilbo's home I can remember there being at least one of them, but it seemed like they were just trying to put lots of unnecessary filler in by including two of them. And the flashbacks at the start didn't have the same kinda film filter or whatever it's called over the scenes so it looked more like a documentary or behind-the-scenes with lots of people in silly costumes running away rather than part of the film.
With that said, I agree that the 3D was amazing and definitely worth it and the riddles with Smeagle were awesome \o/. Lots of good humour in it too with the rabbit guy and Bilbo's expressions at times were brilliant (not surprising though given his actor).
I also like that some parts they stuck incredibly close to the book. When old!Bilbo started writing the book, he literally quoted the first paragraph from The Hobbit which was a good bonus.
Some of the special effects looked not-so-good, but with stuff like backgrounds and settings I was loving it :x.

Spoiler:

Bilbo did get heroic a lot earlier than he did in the book. The thing is, I don't mind that, because he could be downright unlikable in the early parts of the book... also, he wasn't really saving everyone all the time. That's Gandalf's job XD (Seriously, just change Deus Ex Machina to Gandalf Ex Machina already. I've always assumed that Gandalf existed more or less solely to turn up whenever Tolkien got his characters into a pickle that he couldn't figure out a way out of. "And then Gandalf showed up and was AWESOME.")
On the songs... did you read the same book as me? :x Half of the book and almost all of the exposition was songs XD They've actually removed a good few dwarf songs from the movie XD
I really, really loved Smeagol/Gollum in the riddles scene XD "Shut up!" "I... didn't say anything..." "Wasn't talking to you!" Also Smeagol trying to answer Gollum's riddle XD

[Stopwatch]

It was generally stuff like...

Spoiler:

how Bilbo ended up rescuing the others so often. I can't remember if it was like that in the books but I think they really played it up too much in the film (tried not to reread in order to stop myself getting all nitpicky over how it compared). Also, I felt that Rule of Cool was used too often.
As well, I felt that they stretched out some stuff too much. Like, the songs in Bilbo's home I can remember there being at least one of them, but it seemed like they were just trying to put lots of unnecessary filler in by including two of them. And the flashbacks at the start didn't have the same kinda film filter or whatever it's called over the scenes so it looked more like a documentary or behind-the-scenes with lots of people in silly costumes running away rather than part of the film.
With that said, I agree that the 3D was amazing and definitely worth it and the riddles with Smeagle were awesome \o/. Lots of good humour in it too with the rabbit guy and Bilbo's expressions at times were brilliant (not surprising though given his actor).
I also like that some parts they stuck incredibly close to the book. When old!Bilbo started writing the book, he literally quoted the first paragraph from The Hobbit which was a good bonus.
Some of the special effects looked not-so-good, but with stuff like backgrounds and settings I was loving it :x.

Spoiler:

Bilbo did get heroic a lot earlier than he did in the book. The thing is, I don't mind that, because he could be downright unlikable in the early parts of the book... also, he wasn't really saving everyone all the time. That's Gandalf's job XD (Seriously, just change Deus Ex Machina to Gandalf Ex Machina already. I've always assumed that Gandalf existed more or less solely to turn up whenever Tolkien got his characters into a pickle that he couldn't figure out a way out of. "And then Gandalf showed up and was AWESOME.")
On the songs... did you read the same book as me? :x Half of the book and almost all of the exposition was songs XD They've actually removed a good few dwarf songs from the movie XD
I really, really loved Smeagol/Gollum in the riddles scene XD "Shut up!" "I... didn't say anything..." "Wasn't talking to you!" Also Smeagol trying to answer Gollum's riddle XD

Spoiler:

I'm just thinking that with two more films to go, having him get heroic this much will mean that the impact won't be anywhere near as good as having him with his unlikable moments and having him gradually getting better over all the films. I agree with Gandalf saving everyone, but that actually happened in the books whereas the Bilbo thing is something added in by the films. Btw with Gandalf saving everyone in the scene where they were in the trees being knocked down I was waiting for about ten minutes wondering why the eagle-things-I-can't-remember-the-names-of hadn't appeared yet .
Eh, like I said, I purposefully didn't reread the book. Last time I read it I was in year 7 or 8 so that'd be three or four years ago during which time I've read a lot more books (this also explains why I mispelt Smeagol's name ). Still, I have no idea how after all that time I was able to remember the exact words of the first paragraph of the book o.O. Meh, I guess I just find the songs can pull you out of it then? I still think having two songs at the start was kinda distracting :x. In books, you can get it, but for some reason I think that having it in the film wrecks it a bit. Double standard perhaps, but idk .
Also, given how they've rearranged some parts I wouldn't be surprised if they put some songs in later on maybe.
And yeah, agreed XD.

[Kaito Lady]

hopefully 1st option, don't disappoint us Peter Jackson!

[sstimson]

No option yet but I find this funny

in The Lord of the Rings Books, between the three of them, there is about 561,792 words but The hobbit is only one book and has only 95,674 words Yet both stories will be a series of three films

in Lord of the Rings, they cut out some major parts of the book. In order to make what IMO is only worth one film, they will need to add / stretch scenes from/to the Hobbit to make it reach the three films. And that means changing the story. As I always prefer the movie being as close to the book as possible, that seems to me to be a red flag. But as they say time will tell.

[mangaluva]

However, the Hobbit movies are going to contain several segments from the appendices which are important to the later/earlier made movies. (The appendices are 12 books long. They're just cherrypicking important bits from them, but to do the full history and story of Middle-Earth would probably take at least six more movies. There's The Silmarillon to consider as well.)