An Unexpected Journey, or the morning after

[MCRmyGirl4eva]

I'm going on a double date tonight to see it. SO. FREAKING. EXCITED!!!!

I'm just hoping that it won't differ from the book too much, like LOTR did.

[Bêthberry]

Taking a nod from Boro, here's more chuckles about the film, courtesy of The Onion:

Hobbit to feature 53 minute long scene of Bilbo packing.

[Oddwen]

I was more pleased than anything with it. When it stuck to the book, it was lovely, and when it didn't, well, at least it was nothing we haven't seen before with LotR. Sometimes literally.

I did love Thorin and Company and hope there will be much, much more of them in the EE. Balin especially was awesome. I would follow him into Moria. Thorin was fantastic, and I'm soooo glad they didn't take the "Reluctant Hero" route as was done with Aragorn.

The weak spots for me were all of the goblins and orcs. Every word of their dialogue is stunted and far too "modern". And as for Azog...ugh. No. "He died of his wounds.......LONG AGO." I was half hoping that it would be Bolg following instead for revenge, and given an opportunity to show some orcish loyalty as a parallel to Thorin's followers, and also finally see some orcish angst...oh wait, it's PJ&co.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I've had enough of idiotic wannabe-creepy grins of PJ's orcs into the camera for half an age

Seconded. Thirded. Fifteenthed. Forever.

I'll definitely see it again though.

[Rikae]

Yes, Bofur was a good character, and one of the rare cases where embellishing on the book created something decent, in my opinion. I liked the dynamic he had with Bilbo, sort of big-brotherly teasing with an underlying protectiveness. Martin Freeman was wonderful, very sympathetic. One scene I found really moving was the moment he caught up with the dwarves carrying the signed contract (I was a little disappointed he didn't get the oversized green cloak and hood from the book afterward: for some reason those items always seemed important in my mind).
I didn't care for Barry Humphries as the goblin king. I suppose some might have found him entertaining, but to me he just seemed very out of place (a friend of mine called him the film's "Jar Jar Binks" and I agree). I shouldn't entirely blame the actor: his lines were dreadful. As for the battle that followed, it looked like something out of a roadrunner cartoon. The goblin scenes actually made it difficult to for me to fully enjoy the neighboring "Riddles in the Dark" scene. The latter was on a set that wasn't nearly dark, or large, enough, but Freeman and Serkis could have probably managed to be convincing in the produce department at Wegmans. The writing still wasn't great, with too many dual-personality jokes for my taste. I'm just not a fan of Boyans and Walsh, and never will be.

I really loved the dwarves' song* and wish there had been more new music. I'm actually sad that neither the elves nor the orcs sang. Tra-la-la-lally's are optional, but, well, you know what they say about elvish singing, in June, under the stars.

One really minor thing that that annoyed me far too much: why does Galadriel need to strike a dramatic pose at all times while having a conversation? Surely they could have come up with slightly less corny way to make her look impressive. Yes, I know she does a bit of that in LoTR, but it isn't as extreme.
I'll just stand on this ledge here with my back to you all so everyone knows I'm special.

I wasn't really happy with the Necromancer (who looked like something out of a sci-fi movie), but mostly liked Radagast, though his costume was over-the-top. The embellishments to the plot surrounding Azog weren't really objectionable: of course PJ wanted to create more continuity and at least Azog doesn't do too much that the generic goblins didn't in the book.

I suppose I sound too critical. I certainly found more to dislike here than in FoTR, probably because more was invented/padded, and several scenes seem to have been there because PJ was going down some kind of "successful movie formula" checklist. I'm still looking forward to the next one. A friend I went with, though, said that she felt like she didn't need to read the book after watching this, which just... *sigh*
What do you say to that?

*Edit: the version in the movie, not the one at the end.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Rikae

One really minor thing that that annoyed me far too much: why does Galadriel need to strike a dramatic pose at all times while having a conversation? Surely they could have come up with slightly less corny way to make her look impressive. Yes, I know she does a bit of that in LoTR, but it isn't as extreme.
I'll just stand on this ledge here with my back to you all so everyone knows I'm special.

Ew, yes. It's a long, long way from being a deal breaker, but there's always been something I didn't like in Galadriel's posing thing. She stands there, like a Collector's Model speaking through an autotune machine. I always pushed the thought away thinking I was being a bit of a cow, but I have to admit it always annoys me a wee bit. They should have got her on a whopping great stag like Thranduil and then I would be impressed - you can tell I do not like Princessy stuff much, can't you....

Another thing - I surprised myself and found I liked Barry Humphries as the Goblin King. And normally I hate Barry Humphries - Dame Edna is one of the least funny things in the whole world. And I've just remembered that creepy little Goblin scribe - I liked him, he was a bit horrible.

So far, around 95% of comments I have seen outside sniffy media film reviews have been positive and some are rating it above FotR.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

So far, around 95% of comments I have seen outside sniffy media film reviews have been positive and some are rating it above FotR.

I have't seen this film yet– it hasn't been released here, in fact– but I intend to, and when I do I'll of course make up my own mind regardless of what any critic says. However, Lal– well, I hope I'm not sounding like too much of a cynic by pointing out that early audience reactions to a heavily-promoted, long-awaited entry in a popular franchise are almost guaranteed to be positive? I'm not saying they're wrong– I mean, nobody can be "right" or "wrong" about a subjective opinion– I just mean I don't think it really works as an argument for the film's quality.

[The Barrow-Wight]

I don’t know why, but I can believe in dwarves, orcs, wizards, magic, trolls, Hobbits, elves, glowing swords, dragons, wargs, Gollum, and the Necromancer, but I get angry when I’m forced to watch 13 dwarves and a wizard fall 300 feet on a disintegrating wooden platform and never get hurt. Come on, Jackson! That’s impossible!

P.S. I really liked the movie but wonder why it was in 3D.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

I have't seen this film yet– it hasn't been released here, in fact– but I intend to, and when I do I'll of course make up my own mind regardless of what any critic says. However, Lal– well, I hope I'm not sounding like too much of a cynic by pointing out that early audience reactions to a heavily-promoted, long-awaited entry in a popular franchise are almost guaranteed to be positive? I'm not saying they're wrong– I mean, nobody can be "right" or "wrong" about a subjective opinion– I just mean I don't think it really works as an argument for the film's quality.

Subjective opinions are certainly what it comes down to. That's why I do not care much about the film reviews. Not even from other random individual people, but e.g. in this case from 'Downers, with whom I at least have some idea of how they might judge the stuff.

As for heavily-promoted, long-awaited entry in a popular franchise, I, for one, have not been awaiting it, nor following any film-news at all (only seen the trailers, and even they made me confirm my "bad PJ once again" expectations), and my expectations were of the phlegmatic kind at most. I would not have probably even gone to the cinema if not for my friends who wanted to see it. But I was overall pleased with the way the film was handled.

Maybe we should start a more "anonymous" and spoiler-free thread of general review ratings of the movie for 'Downers who have not seen the movie yet and would be interested to know about the fellow 'Downers' opinion...

[TheMisfortuneTeller]

Speaking only for myself, I cannot see a film adaptation of The Hobbit through the perspective of someone else who has never read the book and/or seen the Lord of the Rings movies. I've read the books and seen the movies several times over the last fifty years, so they have now become part of my particular life experience. I cannot cleanse my mind of them, nor would I ever wish to do so, just so I could succumb to an obvious commercial campaign like other innocent consumers. I had a few dollars that I could spare to see this film once, more out of curiosity than hope, especially since I attended a Friday matinee and got my first senior-citizen discount. Even at that reduced rate, I still felt swindled, but I knew the likelihood of that going in. Still, as the dyslexic dwarf chimpanzee of a recent American president once said: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice -- You can't get fooled again." Once: OK. Twice: No Way.

As I said, I attended the first showing of the day here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Not many people showed up at that early hour and so I saw the film in the company of probably no more than a dozen other Taiwanese persons. Normally, I don't pay any attention to the Chinese subtitles of English-language movies, but in this case I found them both interesting and educational during the many times when my attention wandered from the fan-fiction, video-game dreck on the big screen. I did, however, experience a few -- although fleeting -- encounters with creativity. For example:

In the scene with the trolls, the book had Gandalf coming to the rescue of Bilbo and the dwarves by confusing the trolls (from off in the dark somewhere) and getting them to argue among themselves until the sun came up and turned them to stone. In the film, Bilbo conceives the idea of stalling for time by various suggestions to the trolls about possible seasonings, filleting options, and possible dangers of eating infected dwarf meat, et cetera. Here the film-makers almost improved upon the book because Tolkien had Gandalf disappear at times precisely so that Bilbo could prove his own worth to Thorin and Company instead of having the magician predictably wave his magic staff and take care of everything himself. Yet instead of just letting the sun come up and turn the trolls to stone due to Bilbo's ingenuity at stalling for time, Gandalf steps into the picture right at the last minute, waves his magic staff, and spits a big rock in half, allowing the sunrise to ossify the trolls. Tolkien had good reason for wanting less Gandalf and more Bilbo Baggins -- but do you think these film-makers could understand this and let Bilbo have his little victory? Nooooooooooooooooo. They have just got to do the Deus Ex Machina thing, even when they could easily have avoided it. I would have just let the sun come up and do the job and then had Gandalf wander in from the surrounding woods saying: "Well what do you know? I see that Mr Baggins has taken care of things quite nicely, just as I thought he would." Something like that. Sometimes one can deviate from the book if one understands the author's purpose and can effectively find a novel way to advance it. A close call with almost a creative departure from the book there, but not quite.

In all fairness to this bloated mercenary assault on a simple story, I did experience a few moments like this when I could see Bilbo's character and understanding deepen. Unfortunately, I can count those instances on fewer than five fingers. If time and energy permit, I'll detail a few other examples in subsequent comments.

Mostly, though, the film-makers here just don't seem to have many interesting new ideas, as I believe several others have mentioned above, and so they mostly keep recycling old scenes from the LOTR films. Each time they did this, I found myself thinking: "Oh, look. Another recycled scene from the LOTR movies." Then I would start reading the Chinese subtitles again.

And so it went ...

[davem]

The new Guardian/Observer review is one of the most positive I've yet come across http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/...journey-review while the Independent seems to have gone for the 'Offensive Snob' approach http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...t-8420225.html

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by TheMisfortuneTeller

I would have just let the sun come up and do the job and then had Gandalf wander in from the surrounding woods saying: "Well what do you know? I see that Mr Baggins has taken care of things quite nicely, just as I thought he would."

Oh dear. That would have Bilbo playing the hero from the beginning, instead of slowly developing into one from a timid hobbit. I already thought they went too far in that direction in this film: he jumps between Thorin and Azog, for crying out loud! There's not far for him to develop from there.

[TheMisfortuneTeller]

Many thanks to Boromir88 and Bethberry for the humorous links. After suffering through two-hours and forty five minutes of this bloated turkey -- not to mention two days of intestinal flu -- I really needed the laughs.

My Chinese wife tried to read The Hobbit in English once, and never managed to get past Chapter Six: "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire." After viewing this miserable excuse for a movie, I told her: "See? You don't have to feel so bad now. Peter Jackson reportedly speaks and writes English and has been over all these stories innumerable times, and even with a half-a-billion-dollar budget to squander, he couldn't get past Chapter Six either!" My wife liked getting out of the routine of daily life for a few hours, though, and so appreciated the escapism of the film, even though the guy eating popcorn in the seat behind her reminded her of mice raiding the pantry. When I told her that Ian Holm (as the 111-year-old Bilbo the Older, with nothing meaningful to do or say) looked to me like a 50-year-old with either a face-lift or a post-production Photoshop version of one, she told me that, from her female point of view, she thought Cate Blanchett looked like Sharon Stone in Basic Instict 2. "And she didn't even cross her legs, either!" I added.

And Elijah Wood as Frodo going to the mailbox? Why?

Even I could do the arithmetic and divide The Hobbit's 19 slim chapters by three movies and get 6+ chapters per movie, so I knew going in that the eagles would again do their ornithological interpretation of Deus Ex Machina and swoop down to save the day -- again -- just in the nick of time. I didn't, however, count on Peter Jackson taking the "hanging over the edge of the abyss" cliché to the point where not just Bilbo Baggins (in one scene) but the entire company found themselves literally hanging over the edge of yet another cliff clinging to the branches of a single tree. Naturally, no one really fell to their deaths; yet even if they had, Gandalf would have just passed his hand over their closed eyes -- like he did with Thorin Oakenshield after a warg chewed him up and spit him out -- and their lovely bones would magically rejoin the living in a heartbeat.

What unadulterated crap. Not just the unnecessary and pointless Radaghast the Brown, but practically everyone in this film wound up with bird-droppings in their beards -- even the ones who didn't have beards. In their defense, though, Bilbo (the younger) and Gollum did have a few moments together towards the end where something approaching characterization with dialogue happened. Even there, however, Peter Jackson couldn't help having Gollum look -- again -- at his own reflection in the water (Return of the King scene rip-off! Check!) and Gollum's truly gratuitous bludgeoning of an injured goblin (who actually had suffered from a dizzying fall) seemed excessively tasteless to me even for Peter Jackson.

I could go on for hours deconstructing this farce, but the film just doesn't hold enough interest for me to bother. A few barely passable lines of dialogue here and there do not rescue or redeem this over-extended spoiler prologue to -- wait for it! -- a glimpse of the entire dragon (not just his foot or tail or eyeball) -- which might occur either one or two years from now. Really: a two-hour-and-forty-minute teaser trailer which basically boils down to this: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey never has any adventure or does anything unexpected.

As the stomach turns ...