The Tolkien Coming of Age Club 2

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

I have decided not to see the movies in order to avoid the confusion. Goodness knows the LoTR movies had the unfortunate effect of eclipsing my own mental images. Not worth having it happen again.

If that has happened already, you lose nothing by seeing it as the visual outlook of the Hobbit is more or less the same than with the LotR. The milk is spilled so you have nothing to save...

I myself belong to the club of those saying the LotR movies (and now the Hobbit) were and are a kind of an eye-candy - and as such quite great - but as telling of a story quite terrible (unlike the stories the prof. wrote decades ago which still can captivate peoples' imagination). The Hobbit -movie is a calculated project to the bone for maximum audiences (and thus Box Office cash-value), but that calculation also pays heed to Tolkien fans as we have a lot of nice little details from the book in there, only those knowing the book inside-out will appreciate.

But if you go to see it already with the presupposition that it is a Hollywood blockbuster movie meant to draw in teen audiences and offfering all sorts of cliffhangers for people who don't yet know the story - and then sit back and relax concentrating rather on how it looks (or which details you can spot from the original work), then you might even enjoy it.